Signs, Miracles, and One Final Push

And so it’s come to this.

The Flyers did the Caps no favors whatsoever in losing at Wells Fargo Center the other night.  The Panthers are now 5 points up on the Caps, with a game in hand that will be taken care of later tonight when the Panthers visit Carolina.  While anything can happen in a division game, let’s imagine a doomsday scenario where Florida wins the game and comes out 7 points ahead of the Capitals, with only 9 games left for both teams.

If you look at the breakdown of games remaining for both teams, you’d have every reason in the world to think the Caps have no shot at the division title in a situation like that.  The Caps have games against all three division leaders in the East (Rangers, Bruins, Panthers); a visit to Philadelphia (no easy barn, that); games against Winnipeg and Buffalo (both fighting for their playoff lives at this point); and one more dance with the Bolts, who have given the Caps fits all season.  They have one game against Montreal, the current last-place team in the East; but remind me how they did back in 2010 when Montreal was the lowest-seeded team in the Eastern Conference Playoffs?  The Caps have one home game against the so-so Minnesota Wild, but other than that, if you really wanted to be a fatalist, you could find reasons why the Capitals could lose 8 of their last nine games, but don’t go there just yet.

The Panthers, meanwhile, have a game against the Caps and another one against Detroit.  Detroit is the current 5 out West as this is being written, and the Caps are the current 8 in the East.  Other than that, the Panthers are going to be playing the rest of the season against teams that are either just plain low-ranked (Hurricanes, Islanders, Canadiens); or on life support (Minnesota); or who are already out of playoff contention (Columbus is, and Edmonton may as well be, as they’re only alive by virtue of 2 Max ROW’s on the tie break.)  Not exactly the most strenuous road for the men from Miami, is it?

The Panthers are on a 5-game win streak, and are 6-3-1 in their last ten; the Caps have been inconsistent of late, and are 5-4-1 in their last ten.

But if you think I’m here to pile on and say “Get that fat lady onstage,” then you must have missed the title of this post.

Granted, given the current state of play, I do think it’s fair to say that the Capitals are going to need a miracle to win the division.

And my response to that is, So what?  Miracles do happen in hockey, and I’m not being hyperbolic, either.  I’ve got two words:  BEMIDJI.  STATE.  ‘Nuff said?

What do you mean, No?  Well, how about Kings over the Wings back in ’01?  How about Denmark in 2003?  How about Edmonton’s entire postseason in 2006?  And what about Belarus at the Salt Lake City Olympics?

And that’s just the RECENT stuff.

MIRACLES HAPPEN.  Re-read those two words several times, internalize them, and get ready to live them for the next two and a half weeks.  Because THAT, Caps Nation, is what we owe our team.

A while ago, I opted to change my blog’s subtitle to an open-ended question: Do You Believe?  This is the point where that question is paramount.  Because at this point, Caps fans, we HAVE to.  We have GOT to Believe our men can find their way home.  We have GOT to Believe that Florida can stumble.  We have GOT to Believe, even if that means believing something that seems impossible.

I must humbly submit that we, as fans, have been trying this whole Doubt thing for almost five months now, and that has included me at times.  How’s it working out for us?

If we want to be the spiritual support our team needs us to be, then we’re going to have to Believe.  Because it would be much better for our Belief to be assailed, than for our Doubt to have prevailed.

I Believe in miracles.  While it’s not a good thing to be forced into needing one, that doesn’t mean they can’t happen.  They don’t JUST happen–sometimes, you have to make your own miracles–but they can happen, under the right circumstances.  And they have to start from within; and that within must be from the hearts of players, coaches, staff, and fans alike.  We’re all in this together now.  All of us.  This is the time to Believe.

I’m reminded of a scene from the movie “Signs.”  This was back in the days when M. Night Shyamalan still knew how to tell a good story (“The Village” had perhaps the most obvious tell since the Oreo cookie in “Rounders,” but don’t get me started on that.)

Take a look here, and pay particular attention from 1:18:18 to 1:26:00.  (If you haven’t seen the whole thing, settle in and watch from the beginning:  this movie’s a treat, even though it’s spookier than I tend to like my cinema.)

There are two key moments in that sequence, and yes, this IS Capitals-related, keep reading!

The first thing I want to point out is Graham saying, “I’m not ready.”  Look at what’s happening there:  the monster is right on the other side of the door, turning the knob to try to get in, and Graham suddenly realizes that if this were indeed The End for him, that he’s not ready to go.  And while that can make for a very effective self-evaluation away from the rink–if the monster were knocking on your door, would YOU be ready?–I want to confine this to the Capitals.

From where I’m sitting, the monster on the other side of the door from us, is Doubt.  Doubt can very easily kill our season, and make our summer a lot longer than it needs to be this year.  Belief is the pickax that will keep that door shut, and that monster of Doubt safely at bay.  And while suddenly grabbing that Belief may be a destabilizing moment–look at how Merrill accidentally knocks out the light when he grabs it too quickly–once it’s safely in place, it keeps everyone safe throughout the night.

From a spiritual/metaphysical standpoint, we have GOT to Believe, and not let that Doubt overcome us.  Seriously:  are we REALLY ready to concede our season?  Are we REALLY ready to disappoint our players, who look to us for support just as we look to them for success?

I’m not ready.  And I don’t think any Caps fan should be right now.  We’re GOING to make it through this night.

The second thing I want to point out in that scene is Morgan’s asthma attack, and how Graham gets him through it.  Notice how Graham first has to fight off his own personal Doubt–a Doubt so deep that he’s at the point of telling God that he hates Him–before he can finally coax Morgan through the asthma attack.  What I would hope Caps fans take away from that, is that we all need to confront our own personal misgivings, before we commit emotionally and spiritually to the last two and a half weeks of the season.  In that scene, note well, Graham has to understand how much he’s Doubting FIRST, before he can convince Morgan to Believe.

Look, I’m not perfect here–I’m a long way from it, in fact–and I’ve had moments this season when I’ve had to question some assumptions I’ve had; be that about certain players, the team as a whole, this blog, my standing with the organization, on and on and on.  This has been a rough season for me personally, and not just because the Caps haven’t exactly been playing like the team I believe them to be.  Doubts?  Yeah, I’ve had more than just a few of them this year.

But I have to put that behind me; and we all have to put it behind ourselves, every single one of us.  The number of games remaining for the Caps is in single digits at this point.  So, okay, maybe an entire season of ups and downs may be too much to say we should all Believe, all the way through; but I’d like to think we can all manage it for two and a half weeks at least.  Right?

And let us suppose–dreaming big–that the Caps manage to come all the way back and win the division.  Let us suppose–dreaming big–that the team discovers its identity, and every man in the room finally figures out what it ultimately means to be a Washington Capital.  Let us suppose–dreaming big–that we see a miracle in these final seventeen days.

If that happens–and needless to say, I hope it does–then maybe that’s just what we, as fans, need to see, in order for us to finally Believe.  And maybe, just maybe, it will be what keeps us believing in miracles, all the way to ultimate victory.

This is the time for us to do our part.  This is the time for us to let go of the past.  This is the time for us to be that seventh man.

This is the time for us to Believe.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
MIRACLES HAPPEN