The Washington Capitals’ summer has commenced much, much earlier than it did a year ago. Brooks Orpik couldn’t quite explain how weird that felt to him.
“That’s probably a better question for a couple of days from now,” he said after Wednesday’s Game 7 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Since the last time the franchise missed the playoffs in the 2013-14 season, the Capitals have won at least one postseason series each year. The second round, not the first, was always their bugaboo until they finally claimed their first Stanley Cup last June.