And on the eighth day ... an expansion team competed for the Stanley Cup.
Oh, wait, that's just how long the layoff will be for the Golden Knights between reaching the Final and actually commencing it Monday night against the Capitals at T-Mobile Arena. And Washington will have been idle nearly as long, for five whole days, because ... you know, NHL.
But once the storyline does resume, it'll do so unlike any other:
• Alexander Ovechkin, living life beyond the second round, free of the Penguins and most -- that's most -- related demons, has performed through these playoffs like a pit bull pumped with 5-Hour Energy. He's described himself as "hungry" for the Cup, but losing three times to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, only to watch them later raise it, that makes the term seem pitifully insufficient.
• Brooks Orpik, the only member of these Capitals with a ring, with the Penguins in 2009, will go for a likely last gasp at age 37. When Washington signed Orpik for five years and Matt Niskanen for seven years, both out of free agency, it was broadly seen as a sad case of Pittsburgh envy. Now, those two can contribute to the ultimate outcome for any player acquisition.
• Braden Holtby, having already beaten the only team he could never beat, could bolster his longstanding Vezina status with one that lasts a lifetime.
• The Capitals could claim their first Cup, a concept only recently -- and rightly -- seen as inconceivable, given their starcrossed history of epic failures on the greatest stages.
• Oh, and this: DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN, AN EXPANSION TEAM IS FAVORED.
This, to be honest, is the part that hasn't stopped blowing me away since Vegas five-gamed Winnipeg in the Western Conference final, a series in which the Jets, despite the superior roster and all their own requisite mojo, lost four games in a row.
It's not just that the Golden Knights made the playoffs. Or that they reached the Final. It's that, by all reasoning, they really should win this thing.
That's partly because George McPhee assembled a forward corps so deep and so similarly set -- fast, skilled, smart, responsible -- that it's almost like Vegas is rolling four No. 2 lines, if you will. Except that, sometimes, when those second-liners get a chance, they'll shine all the more, which is what William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith have done.
That's also partly because Gerard Gallant, from the opening of the inaugural training camp, instilled a system that stressed attacking at all points on the rink. Don't call it defensive. The pursuit has to happen all over, as it did for the Penguins in their first Cup run. In fact, Mike Sullivan himself has told me he loves the way the Golden Knights get after it. They're relentless. They're determined to make every 50/50 battle at least a 60/40 and confident enough -- after having applied it for seven months -- to fulfill that ratio.
That's also partly because Gallant stuck by a no-name defense that was supposed to be led by awesome-dude-but-journeyman Deryk Engelland and soon uncovered a bona fide ace in Nate Schmidt. So fast, so tough, so aggressive. He's reminding of a left-handed Drew Doughty at times.
But every Cinderella tale is told through a singularly heroic prism, right?
I've told Marc-Andre Fleury countless times over the years that I could tell in the first five minutes of a game if he'd be unbeatable. He'd stay economical in his motion, get large to the shooter, be active with the stick, and he'd make it all look ... boring, for lack of a better term. And within that, he'd put those outrageous reflexes to their best use.
Well, those five minutes have now lasted seven weeks, from what I've watched from afar. He's been that version, that mint-condition Flower we appreciated for so long and so lovingly here in Pittsburgh ... pretty much from the drop of the playoff puck. And I've never seen that from him before this. Not for this long.
Remember, not all of the Capitals' demons have been exorcised.
Prediction: Golden Knights in six.
CHRIS BRADFORD
The path has never been clearer for Ovechkin and Co. to finally win the Stanley Cup:
A series against ... an expansion team?
Pffffffft.
Yep, the Capitals will do something they have never done before in franchise history: They will win a game(s) in the Stanley Cup Final. The question, for me, is can they win four of seven against the Golden Knights? The eight-day layoff is a concern from the Vegas standpoint, but I can't get past that 12-3 record in these playoffs, still can't believe the way they shredded Winnipeg in just five games, still can't process that relentless puck pursuit and ability to counterpunch, still can't fathom the way Fleury has stonewalled all comers.
With four games at T-Mobile Arena ...
Prediction: Golden Knights in seven.
MATT SUNDAY
When Taylor Haase put together our site's ‘Stanley Cup bracket challenge’ before the playoffs, the first decision I made was pushing Vegas through to the Finals and hoisting a banner.
Spoiler alert: My prediction hasn’t changed.
Ovechkin and his Capitals finally overcame their playoff nemesis, and it’s been really good for hockey. Sorry, Pittsburgh, but ’The Great Eight’ beating ’The Kid’ for once is good for hockey.
Ovechkin raising a Cup banner to overshadow all those division champion banners would be even better for hockey, but there is one problem: Ovechkin still won’t beat Fleury, who will finally hoist the Cup without being accused of riding any coattails.
And Ryan Reaves? He'll defend Karlsson and Marchessault instead of Crosby and Malkin from the elevated ‘hockey play’ of Tom Wilson in this Final.
Just a couple of guys with a chip and something to prove. Like their whole team.
Prediction: Golden Knights in six.
TAYLOR HAASE
The Stanley Cup will be coming to Washington -- when the Golden Knights take it to the White House in the fall.
The Capitals make it back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years just to run into Fleury? Too good. Unlike 1998, I think the Capitals will get at least one win this time around.
There are a number of former members of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins with the Golden Knights now. Fleury, of course. Engelland played three seasons in Wilkes-Barre before making it to Pittsburgh. Golden Knights assistant coach Ryan Craig captained Wilkes-Barre for two seasons. Strength coach Doug Davidson and trainer Kyle Moore also got their starts there.
Wheeling defenseman and Vegas native Ross McMullan has been telling me since December that his hometown team would win the Cup and, by February, he was already talking about what he was going to do after the win. I laughed at his prediction then, but he's probably the one laughing now. I hope he has a great time at the parade.
Prediction: Golden Knights in six.