Thanks to everyone for their submissions – joking or deadly serious. Please vote below.
| Option | Votes |
|---|---|
| “They took a lot of shots from supposed “high scoring” areas, but they were all easy for Halak to save. So he saved them.” | 19 |
| “Halak stepped up, maybe he is the next big game goalie” | 37 |
| “Washington was too tall and clumsy, Montreal has bigger hearts.” | 13 |
| “They don’t know what it takes to win” | 18 |
| “You make your own luck.” | 11 |
| “They weren’t willing to pay the price (Eric Belanger notwithstanding…)” | 8 |
| “They have no “experience”, meaning that Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semi, Green and Varlamov have never won the Stanley Cup, and therefore never will” | 20 |
| “all of their key players are European” | 29 |
| “They lost for the simple fact of being selfish. When I say selfish I mean selfish shots. They took hardly any meaningful shots and when they did Halak came up big and made the saves.” | 36 |
| “Washington needs a Captain. A true Captain.” | 27 |
| “WSH had lots of shots and even lots of ‘scoring chances’ but as you watch, how many of them do you really think ’that’s likely to be a goal’.” | 21 |
| “The lack of breakaways” | 8 |
| “Washington just wasn’t getting to the crease.” | 18 |
| “All these numbers fail to take into account the position of the defense.” | 27 |
