The Washington Capitals’ path to repeating as NHL Stanley Cup champions got easier on Tuesday. Both the Tampa Bay Lightning and arch-rival Pittsburgh Penguins were swept out of the playoffs.
The Lightning finished the regular season with an NHL-record 62 wins. The team the Capitals beat in seven games in the Eastern Conference Final last year en route to their Stanley Cup title, were the odds-on favored to reach the Eastern Conference Final this year out of the Atlantic Division.
However, the wild card, Columbus Blue Jackets from the Metropolitan Division had other thoughts. The Blue Jackets closed out the season with an impressive 7-3 route at home.
If the Capitals are to get past the Carolina Hurricanes they’ll face the upstart New York Islanders, who swept the Penguins. With Pittsburgh’s elimination this will be the first year since 2015 that the Capitals and Penguins will not meet in the postseason.
With the league’s current playoff format, the Capitals and Penguins faced off in each of the past three postseasons in the Eastern Conference second-round, the defacto Metro Division Championship.
The Capitals and Islanders split the regular season series this season. Keep in mind, the Islanders head coach is Barry Trotz, the guy that guided the Capitals to their first-ever Stanley Cup title last year.
With two of their biggest thorns in Washington’s side out of the way, their chances of advancing through the Eastern Conference greatly increased.
However, they have to take care of business with Carolina first. They have a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series, but were blanked 5-0 in Game 3. The Capitals can’t look ahead, but if the Capitals do advance it will be somewhat of a sigh of relief not having to face the Penguins and having the league’s best regular season team, Tampa Bay, looking for revenge waiting in a potential Eastern Conference Final.
