It's very odd to read this after four decades of futility but yeah, I think you're right.
The Caps have been the biggest or near biggest team in the league for while now. It was a McPhee thing. Either all the pieces or the commitment needed to properly use that size advantage wasn't there or the choking rep was a disadvantage of equal or greater value. In the regular season under Trotz you could see that they were used to winning and that they knew how to do it. That adversity didn't beat them. My question always was what would happen if they were able to clean off the choker label and apply that regular season confidence to the playoffs, what would happen.
Well, now we will know. Again this season they had struggles and adversity in the regular season but seemed to expect to win and were confident that they would find a way. Niskanen and Orlov and Holtby struggled but they found a way. Now Niskanen and Orlov and Holtby are no longer struggling. They win the division again. They have shown again their mental strength and commitment to winning in the RS that they have had. To me they seem like a team that fully expects to win another cup. If true, winning last season has carried over their regular season mental outlook to their playoff outlook.
I say, hold on, we got another ride coming