Something remarkable happened before Game 5 of last year’s playoff series between the Penguins and the Washington Capitals.
Then-Washington defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk admitted what most rational thinkers had long suspected: The Capitals’ horrifying postseason history carried significant psychological weight in their locker room and impacted the team in tangible ways on the ice.
Instead of dishing some silly cliche like, “The past has nothing to do with us,” Shattenkirk spoke the truth as he saw it, with his team trailing the series three games to one.
“With the history in this locker room, [with] what’s happened in the past,” he said, “it can cause you to grip your stick a little bit tighter, cause you to just not make the normal plays that we’re capable of making.