| The end. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) | There was no particular reason to start thinking about last June's Stanley Cup celebration just before midnight last night, but there I was, sitting on my couch, drinking kosher for Passover Riesling and reminiscing. About walking through the madness at 7th and G streets, gawking. About standing in my kitchen, staring at the TV as the Capitals turned Nationals Park into Seacrets. About staring at my phone the rest of that day, as the Capitals sprayed their giddy bliss into Georgetown, and Adams Morgan, and anywhere else they stumbled. I wasn't the only one. Tom Boswell led his Game 7 column with the fountains. My pal Bryan, in his very last Post Sports night shift, tweeted about the fountains. So did a whole bunch of my friends, and my weird online pseudo-friends, and the rest of the bizarrely insular crew of D.C. sports fans who went through the past 15 months together. |  | | Why do that, after a loss? It's because the Stanley Cup sprint never really ended. We went from the euphoria of last June straight into the parade, and then the weeks of Stanley Cup visits, and then the talk of a title defense. Before you even noticed we crashed right into the first week of October, and Washington was routing the Bruins, and a banner was going into the rafters, and Gallery Place was packed with happiness again, and this very weird season was underway. The Caps were never great in this very weird season, but they were never really disappointing, either. They looked like a very slightly worn out version of their late 2018 selves. In their peak, they absolutely had you thinking about a repeat. In their valleys, they were still creditable. In the main, they were everything you could have hoped for: a veteran team with a first-year coach, fighting through fatigue and expectations and the normal vagaries of an NHL season and emerging with a division title and home-ice advantage and a perfectly fine chance to defend their championship. But the whole thing felt connected to the last thing, and so when these thrilling Carolina Hurricanes dominated overtime, and then double overtime late Wednesday night, and then when they won, and then when Alex Ovechkin and his teammates applauded the departing crowd and blew a kiss and skated away, that felt, finally, like the end. The fountains weren't the end. The beer wasn't the end. The caviar and babies weren't the end.The end was that salute. |  | | | I know some people felt pretty sour by then. The Capitals had a 2-0 series lead, and a 3-2 series lead, and 2-0 and 3-1 leads in Game 7, and the path to the finals felt relatively open, and it isn't fun to lose. Heck, I asked you all yesterday whether you'd be crushed by a loss, because it seemed like maybe you would be. But right now, as I type, sometime between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m., that whole question feels almost disrespectful. This season was last season, part of a 12- or 13-month trip to some weird place I had never been before, and it had an arc, and that arc ended with the gas meter on empty but the happiness meter somewhere above that. This wasn't 2009 or 2010, 2016 or 2017. It's all different now. Anyhow, that's how I felt at the end, and I went on and on in that spirit, and we published it to the site here. If you aren't bored yet, feel free to read more. We'll wrap this all up rather quickly now, but if you want to weigh in, feel free to tell me how you felt. And by this time tomorrow, we'll all be on to the Redskins draft. Maybe. — Dan Steinberg - Boz: "Every Capitals fan, from the newest to the "Suffering Since 1974" crowd, will have those massive, citywide bonding moments, gazing last June at a mall jammed into the distance with rejoicing fans, with the Stanley Cup shining What Washington will not have is back-to-back titles." (Read)
- Brew: "Over the course of seven tough games that concluded with a double-overtime test of wills in Game 7, the Hurricanes played better hockey for longer stretches. They outplayed the champs, and Carolina Coach Rod Brind'Amour out-coached Todd Reirden." (Read)
- Here's Izzy's last Caps gamer of the season. She is a boss. (Read)
- The power play came up empty at a pivotal moment in overtime. Let's be honest, all of overtime was pretty close to empy. (Read)
- Here's a Redskins draft guide. (Read)
- Checking in on Charley Casserly, whose career has taken him from NFL GM to controversial on-air analyst, and sometimes reporter? (Read)
- The Redskins re-signed Tony Bergstrom. (Read)
- The Nats lost again in Colorado, and none of it seems too groovy. (Read)
- Trevor Rosenthal can't pitch, and the Nats don't have too many good options here. (Read)
- MASN's hidden camera captured Nats closer Sean Doolittle on a nature walk at Coors Field. (Read)
- On the strength of a Wayne Rooney free kick, D.C. United scored a rare road win in Columbus. (Read)
- A Virginia Tech football player transferred to be nearer his ailing mom. The NCAA denied his waiver to play now. (Read)
- Maryland football is installing the Alabama offense, but Saturday's spring scrimmage likely won't be a showcase for it. (Read)
Tonight on TV: The draft is on WJLA, ESPN and NFL Network at 8. The NHL playoffs march on, with Game 1s at 7 (Boston-Columbus) and 9:30 (Dallas-St. Louis) on NBC Sports Network. Game 6 of Denver San Antonio is at 8 on TNT. | | | Recommended for you | | Get Best of Post Sports | | Hand-picked sports features, profiles and columns — and the stories behind them — delivered every Saturday. | | | | | | | | | | |
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