5 best things you can watch from the NHL’s Pause Binge collection
By Mary Clarke
2. 2018 Stanley Cup Film
The Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin‘s first Stanley Cup win in their history is a hockey moment the world will remember. Not just because of the trials and tribulations it took for both the Capitals and Ovechkin to get to their highest point, but also because the league’s newest expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights, made the Stanley Cup Final in their first season of operations.
Though the Golden Knights lost the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, there were really no losers that summer. Vegas got their first taste of sports heartbreak, which happens to us all, after a season that blew everyone away with a roster cobbled together from the other 30 NHL team’s scraps. Sure, the Golden Knights would have loved to come away with a Cinderella upset in their inaugural season, but the heights they reached that year will forever be celebrated.
Alongside that, Ovechkin finally got his Stanley Cup! The Capitals defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins during their playoff run after so many years of falling short to them, marking the emotional apex of their postseason run and getting past the second round of the playoffs for the first time in nearly 20 years in the process.
Though the Capitals’ Stanley Cup run wasn’t too long ago, it’s another one of those feel-good hockey stories that’s ripe for a rewatch. Unless you were a fan of one of the Capitals opponents during their run, it felt like most of the hockey world was rooting for them to win it all. Ovechkin cemented his place in the hockey pantheon and all felt right in the world when he was finally able to lift the Stanley Cup.
Plus, the Capitals’ months-long party after winning the Stanley Cup made it all worth it, in the end.