DC - we saw what Cup winners must do. The goalie standing on his head. The stars playing up to their abilities. Shaking off adversity time and again (I swear, the suits in Toronto and the refs on the ice did NOT want a Soviet Captain to hoist the Cup - Lol!), the secondary scoring was stout (see DSP, Eller, Willy, and Conno), and youngsters brought speed (Vrana) and no fear (Stephenson and Djoos and Walker especially). Of all those factors, Holtby was the difference maker for me. Finally, we were the team with the postseason goalie that stood on his head in every series - all the way through. Can we replicate that in '18-'19? Hard as hell, as you point out. But it will be grand pulling for them and knowing in my heart they finally did something I waited 44 years for - most of it feeling like death in postseason disappointments dating back to '83. And that's now all gone. Let's Go Caps!
We saw what WE needed to do to win a Cup, . . . and even for Cups winners it was A LOT. It sure made for great drama and a "monumental", pun intended, event. . .but remember, this was a" throw away", rebuilding year.
This was not the result of a precise,deliberate and systematic strategy to build a long term dominating dynasty like Chicago, LA, and Detroit did in recent history, as the zealots who worship the ground GMBetaMale walks on wants you to believe.
The coaches and players won this IN SPITE of Monumentals half-assed "have a chance in the playoffs" bullshit marketing scheme, not as the result of the "brilliance of the greatest front office in the history of sports" that will be sold 'door-to-door' by Patricks Witnesses from The Church of Ted Christ and Latter Day Saints.
Which brings me to the point of, should we now just say "Holtby and Ovie will take us through each playoffs, and doesn't matter who else is there, we 'have faith in the front office' ", or say 'we finally did it, we can die happy, its worth waiting another 10 years to do it again", "or this team is SO GOOD, every team in the league fears them and always have so they will just roll over us now the we won a Cup".
The mission is not over, it's just started, "a" Cup isnt good enough. Betting on what got us here to keep us in the Conf finals at minimum for years to come, is only an emotional leap of faith for entertainment, not a logical or analytical conclusion.