Orlov named the factors that helped "Washington" win the Stanley Cup
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"Carolina" defenseman Dmitry Orlov spoke about why the "Capitals" managed to win the NHL's top trophy in 2018.
- Remembering that Cup, I want to understand why only Barry Trotz managed to get to the top out of many "Washington" coaches you worked with.
- It was just the right year. Trotz had also been a coach for how many years - and I don't think he'd ever gotten past the second round before, either, like "Washington". And that season, so it was destined to happen. And he had a contract year, he wanted to make the most of it. And the team tried, everyone realized that we're not getting any younger and we don't have many chances left. And there were no serious injuries.
Besides, we couldn't get past "Pittsburgh" in the second round two years in a row - and here, on the third round, we managed to do it. I think it gave us a morale boost. The two main players on the team for many years, Sasha Ovechkin and Nicklas Bäckström, were very excited about it, Kuzya had a great playoff run, Brayden Holtby played unreal in goal.