Keys to the Cup: 3 things the Capitals need to do to win it all

Well, here we are: days away from a scenario that sounds too unbelievable to be real. Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals will take the ice in a Stanley Cup Final game, and that game - and potentially three more - will be hosted by Las freakin' Vegas.

This year's playoff finale, while completely unexpected, sets up to be a memorable one.

In one corner, a misfit team of destiny, hell-bent on proving droves of naysayers wrong. In the other, a veteran roster that has finally reached the mountaintop in a year when expectations were lower than in years past.

Here are three things those veteran Capitals need to do to thwart the Golden Knights and win their first Stanley Cup.

Split in Vegas

With the luxury of home-ice advantage in the hands of the Golden Knights, it's imperative the Capitals win at least one of the first two games at T-Mobile Arena.

Of course, Washington would love to win both, as it did in Tampa Bay, but Vegas was 29-10-2 at home in its inaugural campaign and has followed that up with a 6-1 playoff record in Sin City, so the Caps winning on the road is much easier said than done.

The good news for the Capitals is they're 8-2 on the road in the postseason and are scoring 3.6 goals per game in those contests. That trend will need to continue if they hope to hit the jackpot in Vegas.

Exploit Vegas' roster for what it is

The mighty Golden Knights were simply too good for the playoff-tested Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks, and took care of the league's second-best team, the Winnipeg Jets, in a tidy five-game series. So how can their roster still leave so much to be desired?

The top-line trio of William Karlsson, Reilly Smith, and Jonathan Marchessault has been one of the best in hockey since the season started, and is the driving force behind Vegas reaching this point. But how much of an advantage do they have over the Capitals' top unit?

Line	TOI	CF%	Goals For-Against	Scoring Chances For-Against (%)
Karlsson-Smith-Marchessault	202:03	54.28%	10-4	98-87 (52.97%)
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson	192:01	54.59%	13-8	111-75 (59.68%)

It's a fairly even fight, so if the Caps' top line can neutralize the Golden Knights', the focus shifts to the depth of both teams, in which Washington should hold a considerable advantage.

With Nicklas Backstrom (fully healthy or not) and the surprising Lars Eller anchoring lines two and three, Washington wins the battle down the middle of the ice and needs to utilize its advantage. The Caps have done just that through three rounds, as forwards outside the top line have combined for 74 points.

For Vegas, numbers quite clearly don't tell the entire story. The Golden Knights reached this point by playing in a relentless up-tempo style and making the most of their offensive opportunities. It remains to be seen whether they can maintain such efficiency under the NHL's brightest lights.

Win the goaltending battle

Remember when Philipp Grubauer started the playoffs between the pipes for the Capitals? That now feels like forever ago.

Since taking over the crease in a rescue effort, Braden Holtby has effectively erased what was an uncharacteristically poor season, posting a .924 save percentage across 17 starts, and cementing a berth in the Stanley Cup Final with back-to-back shutouts over the Lightning with his team on the brink of elimination.

Holtby will need to continue that stellar play, as his competition on the other end of the ice, a familiar adversary in Marc-Andre Fleury, has been lights out since the playoffs kicked off. An overwhelming favorite to capture the Conn Smythe, Fleury has gone 12-3 with an absurd .947 save percentage despite Vegas surrendering nearly 34 shots per game.

Above all else, the Capitals, who lead the postseason with 66 goals, need to find a way to knock Fleury off his game the way the Kings, Sharks, and Jets failed to do, and hope Holtby can out-duel him along the way. At this point, it seems a near-impossible task, but if they can find an answer, they just might be Stanley Cup champions.

(Stats Courtesy: Natural Stat Trick)
(Photos Courtesy: Getty Images)

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