Washington Capitals

It took 7 games but the Capitals survived Tampa Bay and earned their right to go to the finals after controlling most of the series. This team was expected to regress due an aging captain in Alexander Ovechkin, but they found a way to get it done. The pressure was off of them this year since they did not finish top of the league in points and because of that they’ve become somewhat of a underdog story themselves.

Keys to success

Don't miss your shot

So far Marc-Andre Fleury has been unbelievable in net for the Golden Knights. The combination of the Vegas defense and a MVP caliber goalie has limited teams to very little quality scoring chances. If Washington gets an open net chance or catch Fleury a step behind at any point they are going to need to capitalize if they want any shot at winning this series. Fleury is making saves at an incredible 94.7% save percentage which is propelled him to the odds on favorite to win playoff MVP. Not all the goals will be pretty, but the Capitals will take them any way they can get them because beating this goalie will be their toughest challenge.

Feed Ovechkin

There is probably not one player in this series who wants this more than Ovechkin. This is the final piece he needs to complete his legacy and he is a runaway freight train barreling down towards it. Nobody can stop this guy so far whether it be 5v5 or on the power play. Washington needs to keep feeding him the puck and let him do his thing. Give him his classic one-timer on the left side and let him snipe the corners of the net. He contributed 4 goals for his team in the conference finals against another stellar goalie. He just has to find a way to get the puck past Fleury which nobody has been able to do consistently so far.

Continue to get depth production.

In the Tampa series Washington managed to get a total of 9 goals from their 3rd and 4th line players. That’s a respectable total considering how their opponent had better 3rd and 4th line guys. Vegas is another team with better depth guys so Washington is going to need to find a way to have similar success. The top two lines will do their thing as they always do and win the team some games. How much depth scoring you get can decide a series though.