Capitals have connections on both sides of Stanley Cup Final

At this time last year, Washington Capitals fans sent the team off from its Arlington, Virginia practice facility to board a plane to Las Vegas and approach the final step of their destiny. Hockey fever was the city’s diagnosis until the Capitals came home from Game 5 with their first-ever Stanley Cup.

Now, Alex Ovechkin and crew must prepare to bid farewell to their prized possession, as the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues kick off the 2019 Stanley Cup Final Monday night in Boston.

While the Capitals can’t keep the Cup after this series, both teams have enough connections with Washington that you could say they’ll still hold it in spirit — although the Blues, a long-snakebitten franchise…