The power of context

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In sports, there's nothing more prevalent than history. One of my journalism professors at Rowan always said that sports boiled down to two things; context and voice. You need the context to place the game into its historical relevance, and the voice to anchor it in place to the time that it happened.

In a vacuum, last night's win by the Washington Capitals would be nothing spectacular to write home about. One team won, another lost. But with the reintroduction of context into the equation, a bigger picture emerges.

The game suddenly became something more. The Capitals, who for years had struggled under the burden of unmet expectations finally making it to the top of the mountain. The team leader Alex Ovechkin, a face of the league since the lockout more than a decade ago who had spent all this time chasing a prize that would cement him as one of the greats. The team's regular season success followed almost inevitably by crushing playoff failure being washed away.

That failure had been particularly raw for the past two years. Washington had watched from the other side of the glass while Pittsburgh, led by Sidney Crosby captured back to back Stanley Cup championships. It was particularly painful for the Capitals because Pittsburgh went through Washington both times to get it, as well as the fact that Crosby and Ovechkin have always been intertwined and probably always will be. These types of things tend to happen when two marquee players get drafted so close together.

But this year, the Capitals slayed multiple boogeymen. They overcame a 2-0 series deficit in the opening round against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Then they made it past the second round for the first time in a long time, dispatching Crosby and the Penguins to do so. In the conference final, they kept rolling past a Tampa Bay Lightning squad that was one of the best in the regular season. And finally, they captured the championship over the Vegas Golden Knights, another team that surpassed expectations this season. That's the what context does. At the moment Ovechkin lifted the cup over his head, all the abject failure from before was forgotten, if only for a moment.

And as for voice, look no further than T.J. Oshie. A player perhaps most famous for his shootout heroics at the 2014 Olympics who like Ovechkin and many others on the team had just won their first cup. In the postgame interview on the ice, the topic turned to his father Tim, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. Oshie, visibly happy and exhausted and all the other emotions that come with this type of victory stated for the world just how happy he was to win the championship, and do it with his father in attendance.

"My dad, he doesn't remember a lot of stuff these days," Oshie said, holding back tears. "He remembers enough. But I'll tell you what, he's here tonight...this one'll stick with him forever. You can guarantee that."

Oshie's voice, like many others on the team will be preserved for posterity. And in just about four months, a new NHL season will begin. But this time when it does, the context surrounding these Capitals will be a new one. Stanley Cup champions.

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