Today is May 30, two years to the day since Game Two of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, a.k.a the one where Braden Holtby made The Save, a.k.a. that time when two-time Stanley Cup Champion Brooks Orpik scored the first game-winning goal in a Stanley Cup Final in Washington Capitals franchise history.
But I prefer to think of it as the day of the Imagine Dragons Curse.
Maxing out on improbability, the Vegas Golden Knights had made it all the way to the Cup Final in their first year as a team, earning home ice and even winning Game One (despite Ryan Reaves’ obvious cross-check on the game-winner). But then Game Two began with this Historic Blunder:
GO KNIGHTS GO
— Imagine Dragons (@Imaginedragons) May 30, 2018
The Vegas-based arena-pop act Imagine Dragons opened the game by playing their song, “Whatever It Takes.”
We were not fans.
think about birds do not imagine dragons
— RMNB (@russianmachine) May 31, 2018
contemplate dinosaurs
— RMNB (@russianmachine) May 31, 2018
dimetrodon was not a dinosaur but ruminate on dimetrodon anyway
— RMNB (@russianmachine) May 31, 2018
And besides, you might remember that song from, uh, before every Caps 2018 playoffs game.
The song’s familiarity to the Caps must have neutralized its competitive advantage as a pump-up, and what happened next will not shock you,
The Capitals won the next four games to earn their first Stanley Cup Championship.
I’m duty bound to state that is exactly what ya boi Dave Lozo called.
if you’re not rooting for the Caps to win four straight so we can forever reference the “Imagine Dragons Curse” then we are not friends https://t.co/gvDqll3nuP
— DL (@davelozo) May 30, 2018
Lessons learned: Don’t hire the Imagine Dragons to do anything, let alone open up Game Two of the Cup Final. Definitely don’t let them play your opponent’s psyche-up song. And also don’t sleep on Brooks Orpik; dude had a cannon, just one rarely fired.
Final note as a palate cleanser: gimme the bridge, y’all.
All-time banger.
