The team that could never get past the second round has punched their ticket into the final four after defeating their arch rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

It’s been a long road for Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals to get here, and there is a sense of relief now that they’ve done it. It will be an interesting match-up against the Tampa Bay Lightning that could ultimately end with the Capitals not advancing any further, but getting this far will still calm some of the discourse about the Capitals choking in the playoffs.

Despite their lack of post-season success over the last decade, there is little to argue about their success in the regular season. The Capitals have a been a force in those 82 games. So, there are some things we can learn from the Capitals and now that they are finally over the hump, there are some things out of their control to remember.

In case you missed it, you can read about the things we can learn from Tampa Bay here, and the expansion Vegas Golden Knights here.

Find a good team and you’ll find a good goalie.

The Capitals have had Braden Holtby as their number one goalie for quite a few years and every single year, he has given them above average goaltending during the regular season, and aside from last year’s playoffs, he’s been really good in the post-season. He faltered this season and Philip Grubauer had to take the reigns during the second half of the regular season.

Falling behind 2-0 in the opening round, they went back to Holtby. The Capitals rolled off four wins and then slayed their dragon by defeating the Penguins in six to get them here.

There is some luck in getting your goalie to get hot at the right moment but the takeaway is the importance of having a good backup goaltender and having the willingness to trust your starter. Too many times we see a team falter due to their backup not being able to handle a workload or help the starter get out of their funk.

Obviously, the best backups that hit the free agent market want a chance where they will be able to challenge for a starting position. So, it may not be the wisest venture but you can control your draft pipeline. The Caps have drafted a goaltender in 2008 (Holtby), 2010 (Grubauer), 2011 (Steffan Soberg), 2012 (Sergey Kostensko), 2014 (Vitek Vanecek), and 2015 (Ilya Samsonov). They’ve also added Pheonix Copley via free agency.

Not every goalie has worked out for them and not everyone will. But they have depth in the position throughout the NHL and AHL. Next season will likely see Holtby and Samsonov as their two netminders and should be one of the better duos in the league.

Don’t be afraid to add goalies in the later rounds, there are still some serious gaps in goaltending evaluation and if you feel that you can excel in the later rounds with those selections, you can create a very good pipeline.

Due to the unpredictability of hockey, there is the luck factor. A bounce here or there can dictate a series of events. Sidney Crosby had a very astute point about the match up against the Capitals:

Sometimes the over-riding storyline is the easy one and in this case, it was that the Capitals just couldn’t get it done when it matters. When in reality they just didn’t get that bounce here or there or failed to win that final game in the series and thus fed into the pre-conceived notion that they couldn’t get it done. A couple of Game 7 losses, meeting the Penguins for three straight years and just some bad luck played into it.

This isn’t to say that Washington is completely void of criticism. They haven’t been able to get over the hump in the past but they are here now and it allows us to reflect on some of those mishaps.

From a managerial outlook, sometimes you can load up to make a run and just don’t quite get there. The Capitals added Kevin Shattenkirk last year with hopes of making a run for the cup — it didn’t work out. This year, they took a more conservative approach by adding a couple of depth defenders leading up the trade deadline and what do you know — they make the Conference Finals.

Sometimes those big trades work out, as we saw with Tampa Bay, and sometimes they don’t. Trust the process.

Looking at the back-end of the Washington Capitals — aside from Brooks Orpik — there is quite a common theme of puck-moving defencemen who get the puck out of their zone well. It’s an overriding theme with all of the four teams that are left.

Looking deeper at some of the players that have moved on in recent years, like Nate Schmidt and Connor Carrick, that theme continues.

With forwards like Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, you can understand why getting the puck up to them quickly is the right way to go. The NHL is about speed and skill and having players like this on your backend isn’t a crazy observation but clearly something the organization targets on the draft floor.

Lucas Johansson and Madison Bowey are some high picks for the Caps in recent years and will be joining that group sooner rather than later.

Taking that further, if you feel the need to get more defensive defenders then target them via trade or free agency as their cost will be lower. Targetting these guys in the draft and then building the core around them is a good way to ensure that you develop them from within and then move them for other aspects (if needed)

It’s clear that the Capitals trust the scouts that cover these regions.

The USHL has seen a rise in popularity and success rates recently but the Capitals have been taking players out of there for years.

Another thing that stood out to me is the amount of WHL players that they have taken. Three players in 2016 and two more (in four picks) in 2015.

Everything with draft classes is cyclical and depend on who is available where but the Capitals have done very well in both of those regions. They also been able to get these players into their system and been able to develop them into players. Both of those aspects are interesting to follow as they have been extract some talent from those areas.

With all four of the teams left (well, five at this moment), there are overriding themes which include their drafting and good goaltending. Washington has both of those areas covered well and have drafted their top players at the top of the draft.

They’ve overcome their hurdles thus far and are playing with house money. We may never see a goalscorer like Ovechkin again and he may never win a Stanley Cup. It could still happen but at 32 and some inevitable roster turnover coming for the Capitals.

To close out the series, we will look at whoever wins Game 7 between Nashville and Winnipeg.