The Washington Capitals are eliminated from postseason contention. They were swept by the New York Rangers on Sunday night thanks to an Artemi Panarin power-play goal.
It was a good season for Washington. They proved a lot of people wrong. More people thought that they'd be in lottery contention than people who thought they could make the playoffs.
Washington fought all season for their spot in the postseason. Nothing came easy for them but they were one of the teams standing when the regular season ended.
Once they started to play against the New York Rangers in round one, however, it was clear that they had no chance to beat them.
In the end, they couldn't even win a game. They will not be the Stanley Cup champions this season and these are the three biggest reasons why:
Captain Alex Ovechkin isn't a game-breaker in the playoffs anymore
Alexander Ovechkin is one of the greatest hockey players of all time. He is 43 goals away from being the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer. He will certainly break the record sometime within the next two years.
He broke 30 goals for the 18th time this season which is an NHL record as well. He put every ounce of effort into scoring as many goals as he could down the stretch. Reaching 30 is amazing considering he had 8 on Christmas.
All of that effort ended up wearing on Ovechkin and he was a non-factor in the playoffs. For the first time in his NHL career, he had 0 points in a postseason series. The Capitals can't win the Cup if he isn't going.
Ovechkin still has some good hockey left in him and he is motivated to break this record. However, he isn't a game-breaker in the playoffs the way he once was and they are out as a result.