Last night the Washington Capitals took the ice for their first postseason game in two years... and promptly laid an egg. There's no other way to say it.

Well, no other polite way.

Nothing was working for the Caps as they opened their highly-anticipated first-round series. They couldn't pass, they couldn't score, they couldn't generate any sort of momentum or energy, and they got outworked by a team they should be able to beat (or at least a team they should be able to skate with). No amount of line-juggling by Barry Trotz could get what was needed out of the Caps, and it just wasn't a good look on them.

Also not a good look? The singular, persistent whine of so many Caps fans who all but folded after one goal, one period, one game of misery.

We've had a rough ride in DC over the years, no doubt - whether you've been a fan of the Caps from the beginning or hopped on board in recent years or found them anywhere in between, this team and the love of this team has pummeled us time and time again. Having our hearts broken is almost an annual rite of spring around here, and no postseason run starts without a sense of impending doom. So it's certainly understandable that a little setback draws a reaction from us. After all, we've seen this movie before, right? We know how it ends: badly.

But even with all of that, even with the painful history we all share, there is a fragility that exists within this fanbase which simply defies explanation, which goes beyond expectation. It absolutely boggles the mind how quickly and easily we fall apart. Considering how often we've criticized our own team for doing the same over the years, we certainly don't set a very good example for them. It's as if we expect them to be perfect, even as we've seen time and time again that they're not - that no team is. And then the second they show that imperfection, we curl up in the fetal position and ask meekly "is it October yet?"

It's enough already. Suck it up, Caps fans. Regroup, move on.

If all it takes is a little adversity to send everyone running for their blankies, why be a fan at all? Where's the faith, the willingness to believe that a seven-game series isn't over after just one loss? Hell, for that matter, what in the Caps' speckled history makes us think that a strong start is the key to a series win, that they aren't better suited to face some adversity along the way?

Yes, the Caps looked awful last night; that much can't and shouldn't be sugar-coated. They stunk. And it's entirely possible that it will be like that the rest of the way. It's possible that Barry Trotz and Alex Ovechkin and Braden Holtby and everyone on and behind the Caps' bench last night will just have no answer for their counterparts from Long Island, and that we're headed for a short and painful series.

Or maybe, just maybe, the team simply had one bad night from top to bottom and nothing more. And maybe they can bounce back from this, take Game 2, and see what happens from there.

Will they win the series? Maybe, maybe not.

Can they? Of course they can.

Because while we don't know how this series will end, we have seen how resilient this team can be, how Trotz is able to make adjustments, how Ovechkin can carry the team on his shoulders and Holtby can be otherworldly. We've seen this team's ability to control the flow of the game with a vicious forecheck, or to steamroll opponents with a dominant power play. In short, we've seen them play much better than they did last night - and there's no reason to think they can't play much better tomorrow.

This isn't Adam Oates's Caps, or Dale Hunter's, or Bruce Boudreau's. This is a team that's been playing a playoff-style of hockey for most of the season, and we don't know what this team is or isn't capable of until the series plays out in its entirety - until the final game is played. But that final game wasn't last night.

So it's time to climb out from under the covers, take a deep breath, and stop acting like it's over.