Alexander Ovechkin’s Capitals have never managed to make it past the second round of the NHL playoffs. Sidney Crosby is largely to blame.
The playoff futility of the Ovechkin-era Capitals has reached almost comic proportions as the team has made it nearly an annual tradition to squander a great regular season with a first- or second-round exit each April. And the Penguins are the team that’s most responsible for that history of failure: In their nine playoff appearances from 2008 to 2017, Ovechkin’s Capitals have been eliminated in the second round by the Penguins on three occasions. And each time, Crosby’s Penguins have gone on to lift the Stanley Cup — including both of the last two years.