Caps vs Canes Game 7 Has A Battle of Mr. Game 7's, Home Ice History, And A Ton On The Line

Well, it’s come down to Game 7. I didn’t think it would take more than 5. After we beat Carolina handily twice in the last week of the regular season, I thought it’d be a cake walk. Let me say this- I was wrong. It hasn’t been a cake walk. It’s been a gutter war. A battle of home ice. Carolina’s fans have shown up and willed their squad to 3 wins. It’s been quite impressive. And on the Caps home ice, it’s been the opposite, especially game 5 where the Caps dominated in every way possible en route to a 6-0 win.

And now, it’ll come down to tomorrow, game 7, in DC.

Historically, as you see above,  the home team has an advantage and wins 58% of the time. I like that. That’s church bells to my ears. This is not church bells:

Look, everyone knows I’m not a narrative guy. Narratives are fake facts made up by people pushing an agenda. For example “Ovi will never make it out of the 2nd round” became a rallying call narrative for Caps haters. It didn’t make sense to make a blanket statement like that, but it obviously caught on and then Ovi shut everyone up. I absolutely do not think Carolina being 4-0 in game 7’s matters, considering they haven’t even made the playoffs in 10 years. What happened a decade ago does not effect what happens now. Let’s remember that.

Let’s also remember the Caps went into Tampa last year for a game 7 and won, and almost the exact same team is back. Plus, we have our own Mr. Game 7, Carl Hagelin.

Here they are when they were just babies

I don’t believe in karma. I don’t believe in jinxes. I don’t believe in narratives. But I think I do believe in Justin Williams. Guy just crushes game 7’s. I’m pretty sure he has like 100 goals in those 7 game 7 wins. So thank god we have our own Mr. Game 7 in Hags to balance that out.

There’s no nerves. It’s home ice. It’s do or die. And they seem ready.

This has been a gutter war of a series and tomorrow’s game won’t be easy. Let’s just get a win for the love of gosh and get on to round 2.

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PS: I’ve made the decision not to go to DC for the game. I thought about it, but the second I start traveling for first round games is when I lose faith in the team. We are the Stanley Cup champions. Am I supposed to party in the street after a round 1 win? No. I will not celebrate a win we are supposed to get. And if the Caps lose, I’ll be glad I didn’t make the trip. So I win either way.