WASHINGTON 鈥� How superstitious are you as a sports fan?
Are you the type that won鈥檛 sit until your team makes its first basket, or won鈥檛 leave your seat with a no-hitter intact, no matter how much you have to pee? Sure, maybe I still pound my mitt exactly three times while the 草莓传媒 softball team is on defense (you know, for strikes/outs) and clap exactly four times while we鈥檙e batting (for balls/runs), so maybe I鈥檓 a bit superstitious. But I don鈥檛 believe in curses anymore, and after what鈥檚 happened recently in the sports world, neither should Caps fans.
There have been articles written, despite the losses and 3-1 deficit to the Penguins, about how the Caps are generating more shots, about how their . Like The Washington Post鈥檚 Dan Steinberg, . Unlike Steinberg, though, I see no reason the results have to be the same moving forward.
The Caps have done plenty of good things in this series, but they鈥檝e done plenty of dumb things, too. The own goal and offensive zone penalties from Game 4 stand out, in particular.
But they were the better team in the regular season. They鈥檙e healthier than the Penguins (with or without Sidney Crosby) and they have, in theory, the better goalie. Braden Holtby has not performed as well as Marc-Andre Fleury thus far, but he has saved a higher percentage of shots and allowed fewer goals throughout his career, especially this year.
To keep their season alive, they now need to win three straight games. They鈥檝e had winning streaks of three or more games nine times this year, including a nine-game streak during which they handled Pittsburgh, 5-2. This may be unfamiliar playoff territory, but it鈥檚 something this team is certainly capable of doing.
Sure, of course they can pack it in. They can get blown out Saturday, or put their blinders on as they trudge to another moral victory. They can even lose in spectacular fashion, maybe in overtime again. For a long, long time, that鈥檚 what other seemingly cursed teams did, from the Boston Red Sox, to the Chicago Cubs, to every team from Cleveland.
But then a funny thing happened. Actually, a funny thing happened to each and every one of these teams. Through whatever combination of luck, pride and players stepping up in the big moments, they lifted themselves from the idea of a curse and prevailed.
It took the Red Sox being pushed past a point that they and any other team before them had ever recovered from, down three-games-to-none to the franchise that had tormented them for the better part of a century. Then the clock struck midnight. It took Dave Roberts (barely) stealing second, and Boston forcing extra innings against the best closer in the history of the sport.
It took a walk-off win, then another in extras the next night. And then, suddenly, it all came together.
The Cavs and Cubs each faced 3-1 deficits last season in their respective championships, the same uphill climb the Caps are staring at right now. Both teams actually had to win a pair of road games, something Washington won鈥檛 have to do, with two of the final three possible games coming at Verizon Center.
In so doing, they have only refocused the attention of Washington sports fans on their own title drought, and on Caps fans in particular on their lack of a championship, despite several President鈥檚 Trophies in the Ovechkin era. As the Nats have come up short in their own postseason runs, with a couple particularly brutal exits the past five seasons, the narrative has thickened. But that鈥檚 all it is 鈥� a narrative.
This isn鈥檛 some rah-rah, 鈥淵ou can do it,鈥� 鈥淲in one for the Gipper鈥� kind of rant. I鈥檓 not a Caps fan, or even a huge hockey fan. But I know from my fandom in other sports that sometimes you can get too wrapped up in the details, the history, the numbers, and the psychology. Really, there are just three games left, three potential wins to rewrite the story and make it all go away.
The rest of this series can bring more of the same for the Caps. But it doesn鈥檛 have to. They鈥檝e got nothing to lose that they haven鈥檛 already lost before. But they鈥檝e got the road map to success from the Red Sox, the Cavs and the Cubs.
