They had no choice, over the past two days, but to think the thoughts they thought and say the things they said, because their deeds put them in this situation and their words can’t change it. The Washington Capitals crawled off the ice late Wednesday night in Pittsburgh staring at one thing they must confront and one they must ignore: their three-games-to-one deficit to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and their own history of spring failures, respectively.

“Sometimes the road to where you want to go is not always the way you envision it in your mind,” Capitals Coach Barry Trotz said Friday after a loose practice at Kettler Capitals IcePlex. “That’s okay. That’s the blessing of it. Embrace it.

“This group is not afraid of where we’re at. We know where we’re at. We’re realists. But at the same time, we know that we won a lot of games this year, and that didn’t happen by accident.”

[If you are emotionally invested in a playoff hockey team, you’re a masochist]

The stark reality, prior to Saturday night’s Game 5 at Verizon Center: The Alex Ovechkin-era Capitals, an evolving group that first made the playoffs in 2007-08, have never advanced beyond the Eastern Conference semifinals, the round in which they now must take three straight games to win. They understand that a bad game or a bad period or a bad shift no longer means a point in the standings or an early-series deficit. It means summer will be here, far too early.

1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Capitals face off against Penguins in second round View Photos After winning the opener, Washington drops three straight games. Caption Another early exit for Washington, four games to two. Game 6 | Penguins 4, Capitals 3 (OT) Capitals goalie Braden Holtby skates off the ice as the Penguins celebrate their overtime win in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

So in a mostly desolate dressing room Wednesday night, the Capitals searched between wads of tape and sweaty socks for some sort of hope. They flew home that night “upset,” according to forward Justin Williams, and then moved forward. As forward Jay Beagle said, without a trace of hyperbole in his voice: “The most important game of our lives is coming up.”

Most important, that is, until the next one. If they can create a next one.

Though NHL teams with a 3-1 series lead advance nine out of 10 times, the Capitals and Penguins have experience in this exact situation.

“You look at history, a lot of people came back from 3-1,” veteran forward Jason Chimera said. “Three-oh’s a little different story. … It’s not a mountain you can’t climb.”

The view from that mountain in previous years: The Young Guns Capitals of 2007-08, Bruce Boudreau’s flying and fearless squad of kids who played with their hair on fire, won 11 of their last 12 regular-season games to take the old Southeast Division title and set up a matchup against Philadelphia in the opening round, Ovechkin’s first NHL playoff series. The Capitals lost Game 4 in double overtime to fall behind three games to one, but then took the fifth game at home and the sixth game on the road — exactly what they’ll have to do this year — before losing Game 7 at Verizon Center in overtime. It now seems like a more innocent time for this team and this fan base.

The following year, the New York Rangers took a 3-1 series lead in the first round over Washington. But the Capitals were dominant in a 4-0 victory in the fifth game, took a 5-1 lead before holding off the Rangers in the sixth, and then advanced on Sergey Fedorov’s third-period game winner in the seventh — arguably the high-water mark for the franchise over the last decade.

[Mike Richards misses practice with flu bug; Karl Alzner takes a day off]

1 of 25 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Capitals eliminate Flyers in first round of Stanley Cup View Photos After squandering a 3-0 lead, Washington fights back to win the chippy series in six games. Caption After squandering a 3-0 lead, Washington fights back to win the chippy series in six games. Game 6 | Capitals 1, Flyers 0 Former teammates Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth shake hands after a tough series. Holtby finished with a 0.84 goals-against average; Neuvirth's was 0.67, in three starts. Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

In all, Ovechkin’s Capitals have played in 15 games in which their season would end with a loss. They are 8-7. And, in a perverse way, they can even draw from last spring, when they took a 3-1 series lead over the Rangers in the second round, then lost three straight one-goal games, two in overtime.

“I think this team have lots of character,” Ovechkin said immediately after Wednesday’s loss. “Obviously, last year, we were winning 3-1 and we lose the series, so we have to take that experience and turn it around in our way.”

Sidney Crosby’s Penguins, too, are plenty familiar with the scenario they now face — an advantage, sure, but one that could seem a bit uneasy given not-so-ancient history. Two years ago, the Penguins took a 3-1 series lead on the Rangers in the second round, then were blown out 5-1 in Game 5 at home en route to coughing up the lead and blowing the series. In 2011, they had the same advantage over Tampa Bay in the opening round, got destroyed 8-2 in Game 5 and lost the series in seven.

Now, Pittsburgh must avoid that fate against what the Capitals believe is their best team, a team that posted the NHL’s best regular-season record but, as Beagle said, General Manager Brian MacLellan “put together for the playoffs.” Each of the four games thus far has been decided by one goal. A comeback is implausible. It’s not impossible.

“I think the focus is going to be on us,” said defenseman Matt Niskanen, who played on both Pittsburgh teams that blew those leads as well as last year’s Capitals. “And we’re going to have to play well to win Game 5, and that’s what we’re thinking about. Having said that, if we have a good effort and we find a way to win Game 5, it puts a lot of pressure on them in Game 6 to win at home.”

Getting to that sixth game, too, would change not only the deficit the Capitals face, but also their personnel. Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang, suspended for the fourth game for an unsafe hit to the head of Washington’s Marcus Johansson, will return Saturday night for the Penguins. Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik, suspended for three games for an illegal hit on Pittsburgh’s Olli Maatta in Game 2, would return in Game 6, should there be one.

[Big changes were needed for Caps to get back in this series]

To a man, the Capitals professed belief that there will, indeed, be one.

“You got to err on the side of enthusiasm,” Williams said, “not apprehension.”

Such enthusiasm will be placed in one game — the only game the Capitals are assured of playing. They understand the reality of their situation.

“The only thing you can do is deal with the game [Saturday] night,” Trotz said, “and we’ll see where that takes us after the game.”

That will be one of two places: back to Pittsburgh for a another game, or into summer, where they would be joined by the annual questions about whether these Capitals will ever survive deep into the playoffs.