There is no real way to convey the anguish a professional athlete feels after a loss like the one the Capitals’ suffered on Wednesday night in Game 7 of their Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series. Fans will vent in their own way after a 2-1 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens — boos of frustration, seething message-board posts, calls to sportstalk radio about who should be traded — or fired — and why.

After the final horn sounded the upstart Canadiens, at times brilliant defensively and always resilient, piled on top of goalie Jaroslav Halak, who stopped 131 of Washington’s final 134 shots in this series. The team with the NHL’s best offense — by far — had seen its strength turned into an unimaginable weakness in this best-of-seven series. As the Canadiens celebrated, Washington’s players skated in circles, some hunched over, the moment too much for them. This wasn’t like last season, when the Caps challenged the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Pittsburgh Penguins and fell just short in the deciding game. That was hard to swallow. This was unacceptable.