“Well-deserved loss. They are the Detroit Red Wings 2.0”- NHL fans react as Washington Capitals get eliminated by Hurricanes in Game 5 

The Washington Capitals were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Thursday night, losing 3-1 at Capital One Arena. With the loss, the Capitals fell 4-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Washington came into the second round after defeating the Montreal Canadiens in five games in the first round.

Fans reacted strongly to the Capitals' defeat on social media. One fan said on X/Twitter:

"Well deserved loss. They are the Detroit Red Wings 2.0. Playoffs every year just to be bounced first or second round."

Another fan wrote:

"Another year wasted. This wasn’t a conference champion team in the playoffs."

Here are some more reactions from fans on X:

"Was it worth celebrating an individual goal record like it was a Stanley Cup win, just to show up like this in the playoffs? Ovechkin is a bad playoff player. Washington is not a serious franchise. Pathetic," one fan wrote.

"Team didn’t show up at all this series and still kept every game close," another fan said.

"What a disappointing end to the season! This series loss is actually worse than all those Penguins series. Showed some fight after winning Game 2, no heart and no fight afterwards," one fan commented.

"After such an amazing season with Ovi’s record to come out and play this series like this is just the saddest I’ve been," another fan said.

The victory propelled the upstart Hurricanes to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they await the winner of the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs series. Florida currently leads 3-2 with Game 6 happening on Friday.

Game Recap: Hurricanes 3-1 win against Capitals

Jordan Staal got Carolina on the board in the first period by taking the puck from Jakob Chychrun and scoring with a wrister after an assist from Jordan Martinook.

Washington leveled the game at 13:41 after when a clearing attempt by Jaccob Slavin bounced off the boards and landed in front of the net and Anthony Beauvillier knocked it in between Andersen’s pads.

Late in the third, Andrei Svechnikov scored the game-winner for the Hurricanes and a 2-1 lead.

Seth Jarvis added an empty-netter goal in the final seconds to finish up the 3-1 win for Carolina.