I don't watch hockey, so please enlighten me. Last season they had the best Regular season record....and then were bounced in the first round of the playoffs. First time that ever happened.
No, actually that's the Capitals standard operating procedure.
A typical Capitals' season goes like this:
1) Come running out of the gate like wild-men! Destroy everything in their path, and get all the hockey fans excited as hell.
2) Slump for the interquartile range of the season. Alienate 75% of the fanbase who tunes out completely until playoff time.
3) Suddenly wake up, destroy all in their path, work their way up to 1st or 2nd place in their Conference impressing the heck out of everyone because of their amazing come-back, and land a playoff berth.
4) Totally choke and get bumped from the playoffs in round 1.
Last season, they only deviation from this template was that they skipped Step 2.
The most I've ever seen Washington motivate their "fanbase", (which means, all the fairweather fans and bandwagoneers) was the one year they went to the Stanley Cup, and last year.... everyone wearing Ovechkin jerseys, and blacking out their front-tooth.
If the Capitals come out of the gate shooting this year expect to see a lot of Capitals pride in the streets of Maryland and DC.
If they get off to a slow start, watch Hockey sink into oblivion until playoffs in the streets of Maryland and DC.