Looking at it now, maybe the 2018 Stanley Cup Final was just meant to be.
The expansion Vegas Golden Knights face off against the perennially underachieving Washington Capitals in Game 1 of the National Hockey League final Monday night.
Not many, if any, predicted a Vegas-Washington matchup for all the marbles.
The Knights have been the NHL’s most incredible underdog story, maybe ever, when you consider the team was assembled just 11 months ago from players that were basically tossed onto the scrap heap.
The Capitals are in the final after years of being expected to go all the way. This season, when very few thought the dudes from D.C. would conquer their nemesis — Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins — the Caps did not capitulate.
Vegas has obviously never made it to a Stanley Cup Final, while the Capitals are making just their second appearance ever — and their first since 1998, when they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings.
Want a little more intrigue? Vegas general manager George McPhee was the GM of the Caps from 1997 to 2014 and drafted many of Washington’s star players, including Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, Braden Holtby and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
The Golden Knights will win the series if they continue to push the pace like they have all season; score early, tone-setting goals; and get more dazzling displays of net-minding from Conn Smythe Trophy favourite Marc-Andre Fleury.
The Capitals will win if Alex Ovechkin dominates like he can; Washington shuts down Vegas’ top line (easier said than done); and goalie Braden Holtby carries his red-hot streak of stopping pucks into the final series of the season.
My pick?
I think it would be incredible if the Golden Knights were to win the Stanley Cup. I really do. But something in the back of my mind tells me that as much as the 2017-18 NHL season has been about Vegas’ Cinderella story, I think the Capitals are the more dangerous, and hungrier team. Washington is the team of destiny.
Ovechkin will earn the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP and the Caps will be cup champs, beating the Golden Knights in six games.
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