The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are an ice hockey professional team with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as part of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, and is owned by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and led by Ted Leonsis. The Capitals initially played their home games at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, before moving to the arena now called Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. in 1997.
The Capitals were founded in 1974 with the intention of expanding the franchise, alongside Kansas City Scouts. Kansas City Scouts, and was a struggle for the first eight years of existence. When it was established in 1982 David Poile was hired as general manager, and was able to turn the franchise’s fortunes around. With a core of players like Mike Gartner, Rod Langway, Larry Murphy, and Scott Stevens, the Capitals began to be a regular playoff contender for the next 14 seasons. After the team was bought by Leonsis during 1999 Leonsis revived the team by drafting superstar players such as Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, and Braden Holtby. The 2009-10 Capitals took home the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy for being one of the teams with the most points at the close in the season. They took it home a twice in 2015-16 and for a third time the following year in 2016-17. Alongside 12 division titles , and three Presidents’ Awards, the Capitals have made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998 and 2018, winning in the second.
The Capitals have retired the use of four numbers, in honor to four player. The team also holds an association with a variety of players that were inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame. The Capitals are currently affiliated in two leagues of minor leagues: the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League and the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL.
History
The beginning of the year (1974-1982)
The NHL gave the expansion franchise of the city Washington in June of 1972, and the Capitals were added to the NHL for an addition team for the 1974-75 season along alongside the Kansas City Scouts. They were owned by Capitals had been owned by Abe Pollin (also owner of the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards and Washington Bullets). Pollin had built the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Maryland, to house both the Bullets (who previously played in Baltimore) as well as the Capitals. His first act as owner was to appoint Hall of Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt to be the general manager.
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With 30 teams across both the NHL as well as the World Hockey Association (WHA) The talent available was stretched thin. The Capitals did not have many players with experience in professional sports and were disadvantaged against the teams with longevity that were stocked with veteran players. The Capitals were like the other three teams who joined the league during the WHA time period–the Scouts (later to become the Colorado Rockies and now the New Jersey Devils), Atlanta Flames (now playing in Calgary), and New York Islanders — the Capitals did not factor the existence of the other league in their planning.
Two hockey players wearing fully-protected helmets and pads on the ice, both in motion with two other players behind .
The Capitals’ first season was horrendous, even when you consider expectations of expansion. They had the most disastrous score in the league at 8-67-5. Their 21 points were less than that of their fellow expansionists, the Scouts. Their eight wins are the lowest of an NHL team that played at least 70 or more games while the .131 winning percentage is still the worst of all time in NHL history. Also, they set new records for most Road losses (39 for 40) and most consecutive road losses (37) and also the highest number of lost games in a row (17). The head Coach Jim Anderson said, “I’d rather find out my wife was cheating on me than keep losing like this. At least I could tell my wife to cut it out.” Schmidt himself was forced to assume the coaching duties later in the season.
The 1975 and 76 seasons, Washington continued to play 25 matches without a win, and let 394 goals score en route to another horrendous record 11-59-10 (32 points). At the end of the year, Schmidt was replaced as general manager by Max McNab and as head coach by Tom McVie. In the 1970s as well as the early 1980s the Capitals were a mess, alternating between terrible seasons that saw them only finish a few points out of the Stanley Cup playoffs; in the year 1980 and 1981 for instance, they were still in contention for the playoffs until the very end to play. One bright spot in those years of insanity was that several of McNab’s draft selections (e.g., Rick Green, Ryan Walter, Mike Gartner, Bengt Gustafsson, Gaetan Duchesne, along with Bobby Carpenter) would impact the team for a long time to come in a variety of ways, whether as key players of the roster or as important pieces of the trade.
Pollin stuck it out through the Capitals for the first decade of their existence despite the fact that they barely competitive. This was in stark contrast to the Scouts; they were forced to move to Denver within the first two years, because their initial owners did not have the ability or resources to stand up to the struggles of an expansion team. In the summer of 1982 there was talk about the team’s departure to the U.S. capital, and an “Save the Caps” campaign was in the works. Then, two important incidents took place that helped revive the franchise.
Gartner-Langway era (1982-1993)
In the beginning, the team was hired David Poile as general manager. Second, as his first act, Poile pulled off one of the biggest deals in franchise history in the 9th of September, 1982 when he sold long-time team members Ryan Walter and Rick Green to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Rod Langway (named captain only two weeks later) and Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis and Craig Laughlin. The move turned the franchise around, as Langway’s solid defense allowed the team drastically reduce its goals-against. The incredible goal scoring of Dennis Maruk, Mike Gartner and Bobby Carpenter fueled the offensive attack. Another noteworthy move was selection of defenseman Scott Stevens during the 1982 NHL Entry Draft (the pick was made by interim director of operations Roger Crozier, prior to Poile’s hire). The result was a leap of 29 points and a third-place finish in the highly competitive Patrick Division, and the team’s first ever playoff appearance in 1983. Though they were eliminated by the three-time defending (and eventually) Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders (three games to one), the Caps remarkable turnaround put an end to any talk of the club to leave Washington.
14 consecutive playoff appearances (1983-1996)
The Capitals would qualify for playoffs for each of the following 14 years consecutively, and would become well-known for their slow start prior to going on fire in January or February. However, their success in the regular season did not translate into playoffs. Despite an ongoing parade of superstars like Gartner, Carpenter, Langway, Gustafsson, Stevens, Mike Ridley, Dave Christian, Dino Ciccarelli, Larry Murphy, and Kevin Hatcher, Washington was lost in either the second or first round seven times in consecutively. In 1985-86 for instance, the Caps had 107 points and scored 50 games for the first time in the history of the team, good enough for the third-best record in the NHL. They beat Islanders in the first round. Islanders during the opening round, but they were knocked out in round two by the New York Rangers.
The 1986-87 season was filled with more heartache, including losing against the Islanders to reach the Patrick Division Semifinals. This game was followed by the classic Easter Epic game, which began at 1:56 am on Easter Sunday, 1987. The Capitals have dominated the majority games, shooting the Islanders 75-52, but lost during overtime when goalie Bob Mason was beaten on an Pat LaFontaine shot from the blue line. To make the 1989 playoffs, Gartner and Murphy were swapped for the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for Ciccarelli and defenseman Bob Rouse. But the goalie once again faltered and they were eliminated in the opening round by the Philadelphia Flyers. The Capitals did make it to their way to the Wales Conference Finals in 1990 but fell in four games at the Bruins, who were in first place. Boston Bruins.
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