When
the Capitals played its first season in 1974-1975, the team
set an NHL record for futility, losing 67 of 80 games, and
only winning one on the road. The team did not fare much better
through the 1970s, and it was not until 1983 that the Caps
made the playoffs for the first time behind the explosive
goal scoring of Denis Maruk, Mike Gartner and Bobby Carpenter.
The team was swept in its first ever playoff appearance by
the eventual Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders.
The Caps
would make the playoffs for each of the next 14 years in a
row, but every time it ended in heartbreak. In the late 1980s,
the Capitals, always a contender in the regular season, could
never shake off its reputation for being "chokers".
Despite a continuous march of stars like Gartner, Carpenter,
Mike Ridley, Dave Christian, Dino Ciccarelli, Rod Langway
or Kevin Hatcher, only once in that time period did the team
ever get past the second round of the playoffs, a 4-game sweep
at the hands of the Boston Bruins in the 1990 Wales Conference
Finals.
The Capitals finally took a step to getting rid of their choker
image in 1998. Peter Bondra's 52 goals led the team, veterans
Juneau and Adam Oates returned to old form, and Olaf Kölzig
had a solid .920 save percentage as the Caps got past the
Bruins, Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres (the latter on
a dramatic double-overtime win in game 6) en route to the
team's first (and to date, only) Stanley Cup finals appearance.
However, the team was no match for the juggernaut Detroit
Red Wings, who won in an easy four-game sweep.
The Caps
returned to form in 1999, losing their spark from the previous
year and missing the playoffs. After two more lackluster years
(both ending in first-round playoff defeats to the Pittsburgh
Penguins), the Caps scored a major coup in the summer of 2001,
landing Jaromir Jagr, one of the best players in the NHL in
the 1990s, for a song from a near-bankrupt Pittsburgh team.
Despite the new power, the Caps failed to make the playoffs
in 2002. In the summer of 2002, the Caps, made even more roster
changes, including the signing the highly regarded Robert
Lang as a free agent.
The Caps
were back in the playoffs in 2003, but disappointed fans again
by losing in six games to the Tampa Bay Lightning after starting
off with a two-game lead in the best-of-seven first-round
series.
In
the early part of 2004 the Caps unloaded a lot of their high-priced
talent in order to save money. Jaromir Jagr was traded to
the Rangers, which was quickly followed by Peter Bondra going
to the Ottawa Senators. Not long after Robert Lang was sent
to Detroit and Gonchar to the Bruins. The Robert Lang trade
marked the first time in the history of the NHL that the league's
leading scorer was traded in the middle of the season.
Founded:
1974
Arena: MCI Center
Uniform colors: Blue and gold
Logo design: Two logos: 1) The United States
capitol dome, crossed hockey sticks, a puck, and the words
"WASHINGTON CAPITALS", and 2) A stylized eagle's
body with bronze stars and the word "CAPITALS" underneath
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