These past two days we’ve had two sports seasons officially come to an end. Last night the NBA season ended and then the day before that the NHL season came to an end. So who won?
The Washington Capitals won their first Stanley Cup title in team history on Thursday night when they beat the Las Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The Capitals came into existence as an expansion team in 1974 and this is only the second time in team history that they’ve made it to the Stanley Cup finals. The other time was the 1997-98 season where they were swept out of the finals by the Detroit Red Wings.
It’s not that the Capitals haven’t been a successful franchise; they’ve just had their issues in the playoffs. The Capitals are in the NHL’s Metropolitan division of the Eastern Conference. Washington ha won that division 11 times. They also been awarded the President’s Trophy three times. The President’s Trophy is awarded to the team that finishes with the most points during the NHL regular season. Washington has also made it into the playoffs in 10 of the last 11 seasons.
The Capitals have had a bit of an issue getting out of the 2nd round of the playoffs though. I the 2014-15 season the New York Rangers knocked the Capitals out in the 2nd round and then in both the 2015-16 season and the 2016-17 season it was the Pittsburgh Penguins who beat the Capital in the 2nd round. Pittsburgh did go on to win the Stanley Cup in both of those seasons.
You had to wonder if this season would be the same. After Washington got by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 1st round they where again matched up with the Penguins in the 2nd round. This time it was the Capitals that came out on top winning a six game series against Pittsburgh. Washington them beat the Tampa Bay Lighting in a seven game Eastern Conference finals series to get to the Stanley Cup finals.
Las Vegas was the home team for this series and they took advantage of it winning Game 1 6-4. With the season the Golden Knights have had as an expansion team I think there where a lot of people rooting for them to win the Stanley Cup, but the Capitals turn the series completely around winning four straight games to take the Stanley Cup. Game 2 was a tight 3-2 win while Game 3 went ended up a 3-1 win. Game 4 may was the only real laugher in the series as the Capitals ended up with an easy 6-2 win, but it took a Lars Eller goal at the 12:23 mark of the 3rd period to put Washington ahead 4-3. The goal held up and the Capitals where Stanley Cup champions.
Alex Ovechkin was named the Conn Smythe trophy winner. Ovechkin scored 15 goals and assisted on 12 other goals during the playoffs. Six of Ovechkin’s 15 goals came on the power play.
The Conn Smythe trophy is awarded to the most valuable player during the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Unlike the awards presented in the NFL,NBA or MLB the Conn Smythe trophy is based on a player’s performance during the entire NHL postseason instead of just the championship game or series.
With the NHL season all wrapped up it was the NBA’s turn to see if their season would come to an end on Friday night in Cleveland.
The Golden State Warriors led the Cleveland Cavaliers in the series three games to none; so they just needed one more win to end it. Now is you’ve read this blog before or have listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast you know I had Golden State winning this series in five games, but I really thought that the Cavaliers would win Game 3. I didn’t think that a team led by LeBron James would get swept in the NBA finals, but that’s exactly what happened.
It doesn’t appear as though the Cavaliers showed up last night as Golden State jumped out to a 34-25 lead after the 1st quarter and that was pretty much. The Cavaliers where unable to outscore the Warriors in any quarter of the game. Golden Sate really pulled away in the 3rd quarter when the Cavaliers only managed to score 13 points in the entire quarter. In the end the Warriors cruised to an easy 108-85 victory.
This was the third time in the last four seasons that the Warriors have won the NBA title. Not only did Golden State win back to back finals, but Kevin Durant won the NBA finals MVP award for the second time in as many years. Durant is the first player to win that award back to back since James himself did it as a member of the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013. It’s the 7th time in NBA finals history a player has won back to back MVP awards. The only players to win three NBA finals MVP awards in a row are Shaquille O’Neal who did it with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000, 200 and 2002. Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls did it twice. The first time was in 1991, 1992 and 1993 and he repeated the three-peat in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Could we see Durant join this group next season?
While this is the Warriors third title in four seasons it’s actually the fourth overall for the team itself. I’m sure not many people remember that Golden State won the NBA title back in 1975 when the swept the at the time Washington Bullets; now Wizards in the NBA finals.
Of course when you win three titles in four seasons there has to be talk of a dynasty and there is a good possibility that Golden State will be back here next season. The only major free agent they have is Durant and he has stated publicly that he’d like to return to the Warriors. Golden State does have six other free agents; Nick Young, Zaza Pachulia, David West, JaVale McGee, Kevon Looney and Patrick McCaw. You’d think if the Warriors are interested in bringing any of these players back they’d return willingly for another shot at an NBA title.
I’ll throw the question out to you. With three championships in four seasons and with them looking like they’ll be the favorite coming into next season. Are the Golden State Warriors a dynasty?
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