That’s right. Caps are in the finals! Admittedly, the Capitals are not in this year’s Stanley Cup Finals. That honor is shared by the Anaheim No-Longer-Mighty Ducks and the Ottawa Senators. However, many Capitals are still in the finals. No, we’re not talking about Ottawa’s Antoine Vermette, who was only a Capital for one beautiful summer day, when the Caps claimed him off waivers and then traded him right back to Ottawa. We’re not even talking about Lawrence Nycholat, who is ready to fill in for any injured Senators defenseman. In fact, we’re not even talking about the Stanley Cup finals.

But Caps are in the finals. Those finals are for the Calder Cup, a “tallest midget” award given to the mightiest team in the American Hockey League. Tonight the Caps’ AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, begins a best of seven series against the Hamilton Bulldogs. It’s not such a big deal for the Bears. As the oldest franchise in the AHL, they’ve already won the thing nine times. In fact, they won it last year

Still, the cup is important for the players, as it can go a long way towards determining their future in the NHL. Why, just last year Tomas Fleischmann and Kris Beech were highly regarded, but relatively unknown players on the cusp of making the NHL. Beech had a couple years of NHL experience, but his future was uncertain. Then the two scored 32 and 24 playoff points, respectively, and led the Bears to a championship. Look where they are today! Beech has played another season in the NHL and been jostled in and out of the lineup so much that he never got to know his teammates’ names. Now he’s got no contract and no clear future. Fleischmann is in more familiar territory, though: leading the Hershey Bears in scoring.

To see the game on television, please move to Pennsylvania.