They couldn't do it last year, can't see why they'd do it this year.
Caps.
The Caps deserve
all the credit in the world for beating the Bolts in last season's ECF. And I will give it to them: They are perhaps one of five teams in the league with a real chance of winning the Stanley Cup. The Caps or Bolts will likely represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. But, in my opinion, to point to last season's result as a dispositive indicator of what will happen this upcoming postseason is defective logic. Such reasoning would have failed if applied to the Caps/Pens series last postseason.
In any event, the Caps and Bolts series was closer than what some trumpet around here. And I say that fully acknowledging the Caps (1) defeated the Bolts, and (2) took it right to them and controlled large parts of the series. That said, yes, the Caps blew out the Bolts in Games 1 and 2. The Bolts, however, rattled off three straight victories. The Caps then thoroughly dominated the Bolts in game 6 and 7. Yet if Holtby did not come up with a great performance in Game 6 (which was tied about halfway through the game), the result
could have been different. I am not trying to recast history in any way. Instead, I simply raise these points to highlight that the series was closer than what some around here say - and it in no way should be a predicator of what will happen in Summer 2019.
Thus, the series was decided at the margins. And no one can account for a number of unknown variables that may be enough to affect the end result: (1) whether the Caps will play as hungry and determined as last year, (2) whether Holtby will be able to come up with another magical stretch of performances, (3) whether Kuzy will again play like a top 10 player in the world for a fleeting moment, (4) whether Vasy will again, uncharacteristically, hand the Caps a game or two, (5) whether Kucherov will perform another disappearing act, and (6) whether Tampa's young roster, which has shown significant signs of growth in only a mere few months, will have a materially different impact on the dynamics of the series, including whether it will be able to better cope with the Caps' rare combination of speed and physicality (the Bolts, for instance, are a bit more dynamic this year with the addition of Joseph and Cernak, and the incremental growth of Cirelli, Erne, Point and others).
The Eastern Conference's road to the Stanley Cup runs through these two teams. I cannot wait to watch another epic battle - my apologies TML fans, it is not yet your time.