It wasn’t that long ago that the Washington Capitals were considered the choke artists of the league. Perpetual regular season juggernauts, it took the Capitals a long, long time to put things together in the playoffs and actually win a Stanley Cup.
But then they did, so no longer choke artists.
Now who would you consider to be the choke artists of recent years? The Tampa Bay Lightning may fall into that category, but it’s hard not to think of the San Jose Sharks as well.
For a number of years, the Sharks have iced a competitive team that always seems ready to make a run at Lord Stanley’s mug. Unfortunately, they’ve never quite been able to cap it off. They made the Stanley Cup Final once, but lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and otherwise they’ve bowed out in every which way possible. In fact, in the past four years they’ve dipped from playoffs in four different rounds.
In fact, in their 27 seasons, they’ve only missed playoffs six times.
All that aside, we’re here to talk about their most recent choke. A historical choke. When it comes to a simple regular season game, this is just about as depressing as it gets.
An empty net goal is usually seen as the dagger in a hockey game. It means the losing team pulled out all their stops, and still they were unable to get it done.
Logan Couture scored an empty netter with one minute to go, seemingly sealing the victory, but then the Caps came back to score two goals to send it to overtime. They would go on to win.
It may seem specific, but it’s surprising to think it’s the 1st time it’s EVER happened considering how many empty netters there have been to put a team up by two.
Either way, mark another choke for the Sharks!
(H/T NHL PR)
