Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals, commonly referred to as the Caps, are a professional hockey club playing in the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Washington Capitals began playing in the 1974–1975 season as an expansion team in the NHL and have since gone on to win nine division titles, the Eastern Conference championships, and their first Stanley Cup championship in 2018. The Capitals initially played their home games at the Capital Center in Landover, Maryland, before moving to the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., where they began playing in 1997. Monumental Sports & Entertainment, headed by Ted Leonsis, owns the Washington Capitals.

Washington Capitals playing at their home Capital One Arena.

Team photo of the expansion year Washington Capitals.

The Washington, D.C. area and Abe Pollin were awarded an NHL expansion team in 1972 as part of the NHL's expansion plans, in which the league expanded from six teams in 1967, to eighteen teams in 1974, to twenty-four teams by the end of the decade. The same year, Washington entered the league with their expansion cousins, the Kansas City Scouts; both teams entered the league at a cost of $6 million. Washington and Kansas City won out over bids from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and San Diego. However, expansion rules were not kind to new teams in the league at the time, and the expansion of the 1960s doubled the league, and the talent of players in and around the league was diluted.

Abe Pollin pictured during the awarding of an NHL franchise.

Unlike other franchises, the ownership situation of the Washington Capitals has been relatively steady. The first owner of the Washington Capitals was Abe Pollin, who paid the $6 million franchise fee and shepherded the franchise through its relatively barren (in terms of on-ice performance) first near-decade before fighting to keep the franchise in Washington, D.C. during the 1982 "Save the Caps" campaign. By the 1998–1999 season, the team went up for sale. In this case, the team was purchased by Ted Leonsis and his ownership group for $85 million. Since that time, Leonsis and Monumental Sports & Entertainment have been the owners of the Washington Capitals, although the ownership group has brought on other ownerships—or sold shares in Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

Washington Capitals inaugural season jersey.

The Capitals debuted a new jersey with red, white, and blue—fittingly enough—as their color base. The jerseys featured tri-colored stripes at the bottom, with stars down the sleeves and along the top of the jersey, below the differently-colored shoulders. The teams wore different colored pants depending on whether they were at home or away. The logo for the team was a stylized "Washington Capitals" wordmark, in which case the "t" in Capitals is a hockey stick. After the inaugural season, the pants settled as blue pants for away and home games. These early jerseys and gear would go through minor iterations during their time, largely with changes in the striping, the namebars, the accessories, the stars across the top, and the overall look of the crest. It would remain largely unchanged until 1997.

The jersey unveiled in 1997 was a big design change.

In 1997, the Washington Capitals underwent a dramatic uniform change. The design moved away from the bright tri-colors of the previous uniforms in favor of a darker blue, with black diagonal stripes (with "Capitals" embedded in a chest stripe), and a dark copper accent color. The crest was also changed, moving away from the wordmark to a diving bald eagle with copper stars in its plumage. Described as a moodier, darker, and more aggressive jersey, the new design walked away from what many considered to be a classic uniform in favor of something more "modern" (at the time) and more aggressive.

As part of the Reebok partnership, the Capitals redesigned their jersey, reflecting the team's history.

The Capitals continued to tweak the design, introducing a third jersey with a black background and the Capitol Building as the main crest. In 2007, Reebok took over as the NHL's jersey supplier, and the Capitals underwent another redesign. This new jersey brought back elements from the original jersey, from the red, white, and blue tri-color pattern (although the red and blue were darker shades than the original jersey), and they brought back the "Capitals" wordmark, complete with hockey stick. The stars of the original jersey were limited to three stars above the wordmark, intended to represent the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia areas.

The Capitals jersey changed little under Adidas.

The new design also involved small piping down the sleeves, along with a new alternate logo of a bald eagle with spread wings with negative space that formed the top of the Capitol building. The thin striping and alternate colors under the sleeves were common in the Reebok redesign of the league, and the Capitals' new jersey has been criticized for being boring; or, more specifically, trying to do so much it does nothing, or not bad enough to be interesting. The team would bring back throwback jerseys, which brought their original jersey back as a third jersey for limited times. When the NHL's jersey deal with Adidas was announced, there was hope that the Capitals would redesign their jersey; the Capitals tweaked the design, leading to disappointment for some.

As noted above, the expansion rules for the Washington Capitals and their expansion cousin, Kansas City Scouts, were not kind to the new franchises. Many of the expansions were planned in order to counter the competitor league World Hockey Association, which led to a shortage of skilled players. Previous expansion had seen the Atlanta Flames (which would be moved to Calgary) and New York Islanders deal with the shortage of skill only a few seasons before. By the time the Capitals arrived, the situation was worse.

The expansion Capitals.

The 1974 Expansion Draft exempted teams that had lost a goaltender in the 1972 Expansion Draft from losing another, and teams were allowed to protect fifteen skaters and two goaltenders. Also, first-year pros were exempt from selection, and when a player was selected from a team, the team could protect an additional player. The existing teams (sixteen prior to the new franchises) each lost three players in expansion. Most players available to the new franchises were the sixteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth-best players on their team. Expansion drafts took place in 1970 and 1972 to construct four new teams and left the depth of talent on these teams wanting.

What came next felt inevitable. The team was composed largely of players who either had too little or too much professional experience, including players other teams did not want and in some cases, players who had been out of the league at least once. The team was managed by Milt Schmidt, a Hall of Fame player, who, in turn, hired Jim Anderson to be his head coach. The Capitals had won the first overall pick in the NHL Amateur Draft, which they used to select Greg Joly. The expectation was the new draft pick would be a franchise cornerstone for years to come. He joined the team's training camp roster, which assembled in London, Ontario. The roster included fifty-four players, none of which scored more than ten goals in the NHL in the previous season, which did not project to have success in the coming season.

Washington Capitals' during their first NHL regular season game, against the New York Rangers.

Doug Mohns was named captain. At forty years old, he was a veteran of 1,315 NHL games going into the season, which was almost as many as the rest of the roster combined. The team began the preseason in Buffalo and got their first preseason win against Detroit Red Wings on October 3, a 6–4 victory. They continued the momentum against their expansion cousin Kansas City Scouts, and rode the momentum of three straight preseason wins into the regular season. Their first game was up against the New York Rangers, and the Capitals lost 6–3, in a game that included a third period of the Rangers out-shooting the Capitals 19–1. They did not earn a point in the standings until the second week of the season after tying the Los Angeles Kings.

Capitals pictured during their first NHL win over the Blackhawks.

The team's first win came on October 17, 1974. The Chicago Blackhawks came to Washington on a back-to-back, bleary-eyed after only arriving in town at 4 a.m. The team's fatigue carried onto the ice. Twice, the Caps scored goals deflected off of Chicago players, but, despite the fatigue of those Blackhawks players, the Capitals could not be choosy in the goals they scored. By the end of the night, they celebrate the franchise's first-ever win, beating the Blackhawks 4–3.

That first franchise win was likely the last landmark the team made that year they wished to celebrate. By New Year's Eve, the Capitals had won once in October, once in November, and once in December. They ended the first half of the season with a twentieth straight road win, five shy of the league record (which they would match on February 1st against the Vancouver Canucks). The rest of their season would not go much better, with the Capitals setting the record for what, by many measures, was the worst NHL season ever. The season saw the team post a season with 8 wins, 67 losses, and 5 ties, good for a .131 winning percentage, the lowest recorded in NHL history for a team that played more than 70 games. Further, the team won only a single game on the road (no team has repeated that feat), allowed 446 total goals against, and lost 17 consecutive games. Most of the records for futility set by that team remain NHL records.

However, the fans had something to celebrate. They had an NHL team they showed their support for, showing up to games with supportive signs. And the Capitals gave them some small glimmers of hope. The team, despite its records, recorded their first-ever shutout victory in a 3–0 win against the Kansas City Scouts. And in their last home game of the season, the Capitals showed their fans some love and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 8–4. When the Capitals clinched their first playoff berth in 1982–1983, none of the players from the inaugural season were with the Capitals.

After the disastrous first season, the team worked toward building a team that would be capable of competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs and eventually for the Stanley Cup itself. This saw several roster and personnel changes, with the team changing general managers through the remainder of the 1970s before David Poile was hired as general manager in 1982. In the same season, there were concerns over the potential of the Capitals moving from Washington, which led to a "Save the Caps" campaign, especially after their expansion cousin Kansas City Scouts had been moved in 1976 to Colorado, where they were renamed the Rockies, and in 1982, the Rockies were moved to New Jersey where they have since been known as the New Jersey Devils.

Rod Langway would be traded to the Capitals in 1982.

The team Caps team did not move and was largely saved by the players who were brought in. This included Poile's September 9, 1982 trade, considered by some to be the biggest in Capitals' history, including Rick Green and Ryan Walter being traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis, and Craig Laughlin. The trade turned the Caps into a completely different team, transforming them into a better defensive team, which would be bolstered by drafting Scott Stevens in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, while Dennis Maruk, Mike Gartner, and Bobby Carpenter led the offense for the team. This catapulted the Capitals into third place in what was then known as the Patrick division. They made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history before being defeated by the three-time-defending Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders.

Capitals star forward of the 1980's Dino Ciccarelli.

Moreover, this led to an era of consistency, seeing the Capitals participate in the playoffs for the next fourteen seasons. Unfortunately, the Capitals teams, which were filled with star players such as Gartner, Carpenter, Langway, Gustafsson, Mike Ridley, Dave Christian, Dino Ciccarelli, Larry Murphy, or Kevin Hatcher but failed to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs for eight years in the row. This led to some heartbreak for the franchise, such as in 1985–1986, when the team notched 50 wins and 107 points—both franchise records—only to lose to the New York Rangers in the second game. Or in 1986–1987, when the Capitals faced the Islanders, which culminated in the Easter Epic game and ended at 1:56 a.m. on Easter Sunday 1987, and which, despite the Capitals outshooting the Islanders 75–52, with the Islanders winning off a shot from the blue line by Pat Lafontaine. Heartbreak would strike again in 1989, due in part to poor goaltending, and in 1990 when the Capitals reached the then-named Wales Conference finals only to be swept in four games by the Boston Bruins.

Capital's star forward Peter Bondra would set scoring records for the franchise.

The team entered the 1990s on a high note, with young players such as Peter Bondra, Joe Juneau, and Sergei Gonchar bolstering the aging core of players, and looking to bring the Capitals to the Stanley Cup. By 1993, the Capitals were a favorite to win their first-round series against the Islanders, and they were upset in six games. During game six included an infamous late-hit, which injured the Islanders' Pierre Turgeon and earned Dale Hunter a 21-game suspension.

By 1998, led by Peter Bondra, Adam Oates, and young goalie Olaf Kölzig (who maintained a solid .920 save percentage), the team managed to make it to the Stanley Cup finals. They were able to defeat the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, and Buffalo Sabres to reach their first Stanley Cup finals appearance. Unfortunately, the Capitals came up against a juggernaut in the Detroit Red Wings, who swept them in four games en route to their second straight Stanley Cup win.

Olaf Kölzig would backstop the Capitals through several seasons and playoff campaigns.

The loss in the Stanley Cup finals saw the Capitals miss the playoffs in the next season. The team rebounded in 2000 and 2001, but in both years, the team lost in the first round to the Pittsburgh Penguins. This led the Capitals to drastic action, trading away three young prospects to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Jaromir Jagr, who, at the time, was a five-time Art Ross Trophy winner who signed the most lucrative contract in the NHL with the Capitals, earning $77 million over seven years. However, Jagr would fail to live up to expectations, failing to make the playoffs. Through the summer of 2002, they made further roster changes and reached the playoffs again in 2003, where they met the Tampa Bay Lightning but collapsed after taking a 2–0 series lead.

The Jagr and Capitals relationship would end a disaster.

This led to the 2003–2004 season, in which the Capitals unloaded a lot of their costly players, and led to an acknowledgement that they failed to build a Stanley Cup-contending team due to signing high-priced veterans, including Jagr, who continued to disappoint during his time in Washington. The contract Jagr carried made him difficult to trade, but he was eventually picked up by the New York Rangers, with Washington continuing to pay part of Jagr's salary to the continuance of the contract. The Capitals ended their tear-down with a record of 24 wins, 46 losses, 10 overtime losses, and 6 ties, tying for the second-worst record in the league.

Capitals on the NHL Entry Draft floor with their 1st overall pick Alex Ovechkin.

That record would set the team up. Despite the disappointment, the Capitals won the 2004 NHL Entry Draft Lottery, giving them the first overall selection, and they used that to select Alexander Ovechkin. The 2004–2005 NHL season was completely lost due to labor disputes, and Capitals fans would have to wait a year to see Ovechkin play. They entered the 2005–2006 season with promise. The team went on to finish twenty-seventh in the thirty-team league, but Ovechkin shined in his rookie season, scoring 52 goals and collecting 106 points, good enough for the Calder Memorial Trophy, beating out Sidney Crosby and Dion Phaneuf for the prize.

With their new superstar, the Capitals needed to build a team around the player, which they worked to do, through trades and through drafting players. The 2007–2008 season started with a disappointing 6-14-1 record, which led to head-coach Glen Hanlon being replaced by Bruce Boudreau, who quickly turned the team around to win the then-called Southeast Division as the team was led by Alex Ovechkin's 65-goal campaign. The year ended with a 4–3 series loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Alex Ovechkin pictured during his rookie season.

The following two years, the Capitals produced franchise records in points. In 2008–2009, the team earned 108 points for their play. This led the team to another Southeast Division title, but their season ended in the playoffs at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games. The Capitals continued their success in the 2009–2010 season, putting up 121 points, winning the franchise's first Presidents' Trophy, winning the Southeast division title again, and earning Stanley Cup contender nods, only to be stunned in the playoff quarterfinals at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens. In the 2010–2011 season, the Capitals won a fourth straight division title with 107 points. The team made it to the second round of the playoffs, where they were swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Ovechkin awarded Captaincy of the Capitals in 2010.

The Capitals began the 2011–2012 season with a promising seven straight wins, but in the next fifteen games, the team only won five. Bruce Boudreau was replaced by Dale Hunter as head coach, who focused the team on a more defensive style of play and settling for a 92-point campaign. They made it into the playoffs, where they beat the Boston Bruins in the first round, only to fall to the New York Rangers in the next round. Dale Hunter resigned from his position after the playoffs, and former Capitals player Adam Oates took over as head coach.

The 2012–2013 season saw a labor dispute, which shortened the season. Once it started, the Capitals got off to a difficult start, managing only two wins in their first ten games. However, the team rebounded and won their division, only to fall to the New York Rangers in the playoffs once again. The following season, the Capitals struggled, and they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006–2007. This led to changes. George McPhee, who had been the general manager for a while, did not have his contract renewed, and Brian McLellan took over as general manager. And head coach Adam Oates was fired and replaced by Barry Trotz.

In the 2014–2015 season, the Capitals returned to the playoffs. The season included the NHL Winter Classic at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., where the Capitals defeated the Chicago Blackhawks. The Capitals tied the Islanders in the season, and the teams faced each other in the first round of the playoffs. Capitals won the series in seven games before heading to play the Rangers in the second round for the third time in four years. The series went to seven games, with all seven games decided by a single goal, but the Rangers received the deciding goal in Game 7.

Penguins player celebrating overtime, series winning goal, stymying the Capitals playoff aspirations.

The 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 seasons saw the Capitals reach new levels in the regular season. During the first season, the Capitals reached 120 points and won the Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the regular season. The Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round, before meeting the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. The Capitals lost the series in six games. In the 2016–2017 season, the team reached 118 points, good enough for the Presidents' Trophy for a second year in a row. And, for the second season in a row, the Capitals won in the first round to face the Penguins, and then lost in the second round.

There was disappointment around the team, with questions asked about whether a team could win with Alex Ovechkin, especially as he was getting older. He continued to be a top-scoring player in the league, but the team had failed to get beyond the second round during his time on the team. However, they went into the 2017–2018 season with a similar roster. They remained a top team in the league, although they did not win the Presidents' Trophy.

Capitals players celebrating as the win the Stanley Cup.

The playoffs, the Capitals' tenth in eleven years, began against the Columbus Blue Jackets, to whom they would lose the first two games before rattling off four straight to win the series. The dreaded second round came against the rival Penguins, leading many to figure the Capitals would end their campaign there. However, they beat the Penguins in Game 6, leading to the Eastern Conference Finals, the first time the Capitals were in a Conference final in twenty seasons, and the first time the Capitals defeated the Penguins in a playoff series.

Ovechkin lifting the Stanley Cup.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Capitals faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The two teams went to seven games, where the Capitals beat the Lightning in a 4–0 rout at Tampa. Then came the Stanley Cup Finals against the upstart expansion Vegas Golden Knights. However, the Capitals overcame the first game loss and took the next four games to defeat the Golden Knights and win the Capitals' first Stanley Cup.

Washington Capitals in their first round series against the Carolina Hurricanes in the COVID-19 bubble.

Almost immediately after their Stanley Cup win, head coach Barry Trotz resigned as head coach of the team after negotiations for a new contract fell through. Todd Rierden was named as Trotz's replacement. In the 2018–2019 season, the Capitals won the Metropolitan Division title, becoming the second organization in NHL history to win four consecutive division titles twice in their history (joining the Boston Bruins). In the 2019 playoffs, the Capitals attempted to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, but they were eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes.

The 2019–2020 season saw the Capitals repeat as division champions and repeat a first-round loss, although this time against the New York Islanders. This led to the firing of Todd Rierden as the head coach, and the Capitals hired Peter Laviolette as their new head coach. In the 2020–2021 season, the Capitals finished second in the division and lost again in the first round of the playoffs against the Boston Bruins.

Capitals captain Ovechkin battling for a puck during the 2022 playoff series.

Starting the 2021–2022 season, questions emerged about the longevity of the team's success, especially following three straight first-round exits after winning their Stanley Cup. The season saw the team finish fourth in their division, good enough for the second Wildcard spot, and they were matched against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Florida Panthers, who beat them in six games. The team went through roster tweaks, but the 2022–2023 season only brought more disappointment, as the team would miss the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Peter Laviolette, at the conclusion of the season, left as the head coach, replaced by Spencer Carbery. And the team continued to tweak, finding younger roster players to compliment some of their older players, to support aging superstar Alex Ovechkin.