Stanley Cup 2018: Washington Capitals, Columbus Blue Jackets Live Stream, Odds, and More
The Columbus Blue Jackets has just pulled off not one, but two lead chases that toppled the Capitals in overtime this postseason, and it's just the Game 2 of the series. Meanwhile, Game 3 had the Capitals visiting the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, Apr. 17, when something familiar yet shocking happened.
It's already a great show for the opening round, well except perhaps for the Capitals fans. A post-season curse seems to have settled down on the Capitals, and Game 3 will show if Washington will have it in them to exorcise their playoffs demons.
The Capitals, if they actually manage to overcome this jinx and make it to the second round, will have made it for the first time since 2005, as CBS Sports noted. It's still an uphill slog for Alexander Ovechkin and crew, though, since even if they were somehow able to shake off the Blue Jackets, there's still the Pittsburgh Penguins probably waiting for them in the next round.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Game 4 is on Thursday, Apr. 19, at 7:30 p.m. on USA SN and TVA sports, and fans can watch it with a free trial on fuboTV or via the CBS Sports App. It might not look like that now, but the Capitals are still favored to win this series over the Blue Jackets.
For now, Washington will have to buckle down to make it out of the first round and get past this wild-card team from Columbus. The Blue Jackets are just as hungry for it, if not even more so than the Capitals — if they manage to wrap up this first round to move on to second, it will be the first time ever in their franchise history for them to do that.
With two wins stolen and hard-won on the Capital's rink, it's time to move the series to Columbus and capitalize on a bit of home advantage.
Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets, Washington found itself in a familiar situation and actually produced a win out of it. To no one's surprise, the Blue Jackets and the Capitals once again found themselves in overtime, in the postseason of all places. This time, Washington flips the script and fought to climb back out of deficit, to win Game 3, 3 to 2, in a double OT thriller.
It's not for the faint of heart for sure, as The Washington Post observed. This time, a clunky goal by Braden Holtby and Lars Eller was just enough to save the Capitals' postseason. By now, eight of the past nine games of the Capitals' first-round series matches have gone to overtime, and Coach Barry Trotz is sort of used to that by now.
"We're mature in that area, if you will," Trotz remarked. "They're exciting games. There's two good teams here. There's very little separation," he added.
Both teams have been running a lot of overtime minutes for the series, and it showed in some of Game 3's last few plays. The game-winning goal for Washington was the puck careening from Columbus' Zach Werenski's leg, to be deflected by Eller's skate past goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
A goal is a goal, though, and that was enough to put the Capitals over. "It was a real ugly OT-winner goal," Eller admitted. "I had a feeling it was going be one of those. It doesn't make the win less sweet."
