This year was supposed to be different for the Washington Capitals, but for Alex Ovechkin and his President Trophy-winning teammates, it followed an all too familiar theme.
Head coach Barry Trotz sported the deepest Capitals team in recent memory and it was a well-oiled machine in the regular season, finishing with a 56-18-6 overall record and 121 points as the NHL's best team.
Washington seemed ready to overcome its playoff demons this season, but it lived through a nightmarish spring once again.
Nick Bonino scored in overtime of Game 6 to lift the Penguins into the Eastern Conference Final and give the Capitals another offseason to stew over what could have been. Ovechkin, much like his head coach, has never made it to the third round and has suffered heartbreak after heartbreak in his attempts to get there.
"Every year, lots of expectations, lots of great players, but something missing," Ovechkin said after another disappointing season came to an end, according to CBS Sports. "This group of guys can do better and bigger than just the second round."
The problem is, over and over again they haven't proven that to be true.
The last time Washington advanced past Round 2 was in 1998 when they were eventually swept by the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final. The Capitals have endured first and second round exits in eight of the last nine seasons, the lone exception being a playoff absence in 2013-14.
Six of those eliminations came in do-or-die Game 7s. This year, they couldn't even push the Penguins to that point.
For his part, Ovechkin did what he could to try and lift his club this postseason, finishing with 12 points in 12 playoff games, including seven against the Penguins. Armed with offseason imports in T.J. Oshie and "Mr. Game 7" Justin Williams, who wasn't provided a Game 7 to shine in, Washington seemed ready to take the next step.
It didn't. There's plenty of blame to go around.
Evgeny Kuznetsov (1-1--2) was a complete no-show after having a tremendous postseason last spring. Brooks Orpik took a double-minor that led to two Penguins goals in Game 6 and his nasty hit on Olli Maatta caused one of Washington's top defenseman to sit out Games 3-5 with a suspension.
Perhaps given the Capitals' sordid history, we should have seen this coming.
Maybe when the Capitals jumped out to a 3-0 series lead against the Flyers in Round 1 and then struggled to eliminate them until Game 6, the alarm bells should have rang louder. Perhaps the fact that they were playing a red-hot Penguins team that is 22-5 since March 11 should have been a sign that this wasn't the year.
Washington made it look like it was set to stop mighty Pittsburgh by taking Game 1 of this series in overtime. It then lost three straight contests before winning Game 5 to stave off elimination for one more game.
Despite what the Kings and Blackhawks may make everyone believe, the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports. Perhaps no team realizes that more than the Capitals.
Ovechkin, 30, won the Rocket Richard Trophy for the sixth time in his career with 50 goals this season and his 525 career tallies are the most by any Russian-born player, but the NHL's richest prize still eludes him.
The Capitals captain will always be compared to Sidney Crosby, but the one thing the Penguins captain has over his counterpart is a Stanley Cup.
Crosby is now 2-0 against Ovechkin in playoff meetings, the last coming in 2009 when the Capitals blew a 2-0 series lead and lost in seven games. Crosby hoisted the Cup that year, his only one to date, but could be well on his way to another one.
In this series, Ovechkin had two goals, seven points and was a plus-2, while Crosby had no goals, two points and ranked a minus-2. Yet, it's Sid the Kid who is moving on.
The Penguins tried their hardest to give Game 6 away and gift the Capitals a chance to win Game 7 back in their own building. Pittsburgh jumped out to a three-goal lead before blowing it on home-ice and took three straight delay of game penalties, allowing Washington to tie it late at 3-3 and force overtime.
Jay Beagle almost became a hero with his game-saving play in overtime, but mere moments later he became just a footnote after Bonino beat Holtby, who tied a regular season record with 48 wins this season, to ice the series. Holtby did all he could this postseason, ranking first among second-round goalies with a 1.72 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage.
The Capitals were world-beaters all regular season long, but fell when the lights burned brightest.
Once again, summer has come early in Washington, D.C.
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