OPINION:
Capitals fans — you need to value and protect the prefrontal cortex of your brain. It’s where your short-term memories are stored. It’s also known as working memory, which, according to the Cleveland Clinic website, is critical for the temporary storage of information.
Protect that part of your brain at all costs. It’s where you’ll be able to process the Carolina Hurricanes’ 4-1 steamrolling of your team in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The prefrontal cortex is where you’ll conclude that this was a rewarding season for the Capitals, despite the second-round exit. There is certainly enough information available to process.
No one knew what to expect from Washington on the ice when the season began in October. The front office made some bold moves in July — trading for center Pierre-Luc Dubois, goaltender Logan Thompson and defenseman Jakob Chychrun and signing forwards Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh and defenseman Matt Roy — and the playoff window that team President Brian MacLellan spoke of as closing several seasons ago was flung wide open again.
There were murky expectations about Alex Ovechkin’s march on Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record of 894. He was 39 and looked every bit his age, coming off a sluggish 31-goal season.
Then there was Spencer Carbery, the rookie coach — the third coach since Stanley Cup championship coach Barry Trotz left.
Well, the deals the Capitals’ front office made to put this team together have become part of franchise lore, coming together to make Washington one of the best teams in the NHL during the regular season.
Ovechkin turned in a magical season with a throwback 44 goals, despite missing 16 games with a broken leg, and giving everyone a front-row seat to history when he broke Gretzky’s record.
And Carbery led this team with its new parts to a 51-win season — the third most in the league, followed by a series win in the first round over the Montreal Canadiens.
If you’re operating on short-term memory, that opening series win over the eight-seeded Canadiens was some sort of accomplishment.
Carbery said after that, “Hopefully, we can take a little breath now that we got over that hump.”
It was a hump only compared to last season, Carbery’s first in Washington, when they were swept by the New York Rangers in the first round.
Yeah, losing to the Hurricanes was deflating, but short-term memory-wise, it was a fine year.
“When the wounds heal and we have some time to reflect, this 50th anniversary Caps team will go down in history,” Carbery told reporters. “I’ll never forget this group. Really, really memorable year.”
That’s a lot of short-term memory talking there.
His prefrontal cortex is working just fine.
What you don’t particularly embrace if you’re a Capitals fan is long-term memory. Those are stored in the cerebral cortex. Long-term memory is a nearly permanent storage space to hold experiences and information you’ve learned, according to the Cleveland Clinic. There isn’t a limit on how much information you can store in your long-term memory. It can stay in this storage space for years.
I’m sure some fans have probably drunk enough to try to lose the brain cells that store most of those long-term memories.
Because if you have your cerebral cortex intact, you have concluded that with the greatest goal scorer in the history of the league, the Washington Capitals have only made it past the second round of the playoffs once.
Once – in 2018, the year they won the Stanley Cup.
Combine that with the long list of playoff failures before Ovechkin arrived, and I’m not sure there is enough space in your prefrontal cortex to store the short-term memories you would need to not realize — and live with the memory — of another year of missed Ovechkin opportunity.
Now, the end of the Ovechkin era is in clear sight. Earlier this season, Ovechkin told reporters that after next season — his last contract year — he is unlikely to sign an extension.
In the season-ending media wrap-up, though, Ovechkin was less definitive. “I haven’t thought about it yet, but we’ll see what’s going to happen,” Ovechkin said. “I’m going to try to do my best to be able to do well next year, and we’ll see.”
Hope and the future? That would be the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain. Given the fact that Capital One Arena is packed year after year with a devoted fan base, that part of the brain seems healthy.
• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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