WASHINGTON -- The Washington Capitals are facing elimination, and the Tampa Bay Lightning are one win away from the Stanley Cup Final, yet the talk leading up to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals was about a team thousands of miles away in a different conference.
"They're a wonderful story," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, who are four wins away from winning the Stanley Cup in their inaugural season after dispatching the Winnipeg Jets in five games Sunday.
Although a first-year team making this kind of playoff run is the stuff of underdog legend, Cooper said the Knights' success is easy to comprehend, if not exactly predictable. It starts with owner Bill Foley, GM George McPhee and coach Gerard Gallant.
"It's a success story is what it is. It's not a Cinderella story," he said. "There's been talk of 'how could that happen' or whatever. I'll tell you how it happened: They got an owner that hired an unreal GM, and they got an unreal GM that hired an unreal coach. They were all left to do their jobs. They were given a framework to work with. They could've screwed it up, or they could've done really well, and they chose to do really well. They played within the rules that were given to them, and this is what you get.
"I know the gentlemen well that are involved, the GM and coach, and I couldn't be prouder of the guys of the job they've done. They deserved to get there, and I only hope we're the team they get to play."
Players on the Lightning and Capitals expressed amazement at the Knights' run.
"Crazy storyline," Lightning winger Chris Kunitz said. "If you're on the other side of it, it's bad. You want to beat them. You want to win. But they did a great job of putting their game plan together and executing it."
Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik said "everyone is impressed" by the Knights' playoff success.
"It's obviously a lot different than what expansion used to be, with a better selection of guys," he said. "Back in the day, teams like Minnesota and San Jose were getting guys that teams didn't want."
Capitals coach Barry Trotz reiterated that players selected in the expansion draft were not cast-offs in the traditional sense.
"They got a lot of players from other hockey teams that we didn't want to lose," he said. "I know they always say we didn't want those players. Well, we all did. The rules were the rules. They did a great job."
"There's nothing tighter than that first-year group. There's no preconceived notion. There's no leadership in place. Nobody knows where to live. It's galvanizing." Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz
Trotz was the head coach of the Nashville Predators when they joined the league in 1998 with less favorable draft rules. But he sees similarities between how his team bonded and how the Knights jelled -- with one significant difference.
"I've been a part of that process. There's nothing tighter than that first-year group. There's no preconceived notion. There's no leadership in place. Nobody knows where to live. It's galvanizing. Unfortunately, there was also tragedy in Vegas, which galvanized them even more," Trotz said in reference to the mass shooting on Oct. 1, 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd on the Las Vegas Strip, leaving 58 people dead and 851 injured. The Golden Knights played their first home game 10 days later.
Orpik said that the city's bond with the Golden Knights, and the players' commitment to winning for those fans, supersedes any ill will about the process that built the roster.
"I don't know how anyone can't be happy about that, especially after the concert shooting at the start of the season," he said. "It's a true team effort when they play, and everyone has bought in. If people are angry or jealous about that, that's their own issues."