100 Things Capitals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die: Stanley Cup Edition

By Ben Raby and Craig Laughlin

Washington Capitals fans will forever remember the moment the Caps clinched the 2018 Stanley Cup. But only real fans know the full history of the "Save the Caps" campaign or have rocked the red in enemy territory. 100 Things Capitals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the ultimate resource for true fans. Whether you were loyal through the early dark days of the franchise, or whether you're a more recent supporter of Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, these are the 100 things fans need to know and do in their lifetime. Experienced sportswriter Ben Raby has collected every essential piece of Caps knowledge and trivia, as well as must-do activities, and ranks them all from 1 to 100, providing an entertaining and easy-to-follow checklist as you progress on your way to fan superstardom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Mar 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781641252140

Book preview

Contents

Foreword by Craig Laughlin

Acknowledgments

1. Save the Caps

2. Ovechkin Debuts

3. NHL Comes to Washington

4. All Champs

5. Poile’s Bold Move

6. That Was Classic

7. Dale Hunter’s OT Winner vs. Flyers

8. Alexander the Greatest

9. Capitals Move to MCI Center

10. Capitals Win 2008 Southeast Division

11. Retired Jerseys: Labre, Langway, Hunter, Gartner

12. Capitals Discover Bondra

13. Kuznetsov, Capitals Slay Penguins

14. Holtby Ties Brodeur

15. The Canadiens Challenge

16. First Playoff Appearance

17. The King Is Dead

18. Growing Pains for Early Prospects

19. Saint Nick

20. Nicklas Backstrom Time Line

21. Natural-Born Leader

22. The Captaincy

23. Workaholic Caps Break on Through

24. Maryland Native Makes the Capitals

25. Druce on the Loose

26. A Brouwer-Play Goal

27. The Swedish Embassy

28. See the Capitals on the Road

29. Tommy McVie

30. Could Pat Quinn Have Coached the Capitals?

31. Juneau Sends Capitals to 1998 Stanley Cup

32. Dale Hunter Trade

33. Holtby Emerges as Fourth-Round Gem

34. Veterans Bellows and Tikkanen Join ’98 Capitals

35. The Tiger Pounces

36. The Goal

37. Olie the Goalie

38. The Stanley Can

39. Easter Epic

40. Deadline Blockbuster

41. Attend Practice at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex

42. Joel Ward’s Unlikely Journey

43. Stevens Checks In

44. Ace Bailey

45. Caps Deal Can’t-Miss Kid

46. The Feisty George McPhee

47. King of Capitals Broadcasts

48. Early Trips to Philadelphia

49. Snowvechkin

50. Ovechkin’s 50-Goal Seasons

51. See the Hershey Bears

52. Game Over Green

53. Bedeviled: Caps Let One Slip Away in ’88

54. The Save

55. Mike Marson’s On- and Off-Ice Battles

56. After Olie: The Kid Goalies

57. Attend Capitals Prospect Development Camp

58. The Original Voice

59. A Comeback 13 Years in the Making

60. The Forgotten 60-Goal Scorer

61. Niskanen and Orpik Come to Town

62. The Wild Thing

63. That’s a Stretch

64. Tim Taylor’s Skate in the Crease

65. Play Poker with the Capitals

66. Ovechkin Nose Goal Scoring

67. Best Men

68. Jagr Bombs

69. To Russia with Love

70. Holtby’s Coming-Out Party

71. Barry Trotz First Meets the Capitals

72. Mr. Outdoors

73. Japan Trip

74. Comeback Kids Go Streaking

75. Fan Favorites Move On

76. Brian MacLellan’s Long-Awaited Promotion

77. Capitals Deal Bondra for Laich

78. The Capitals’ Miracle on 33rd Street

79. Island Time for the Big Cheese

80. Winning the Lottery

81. McVie’s Weight Scale and the Capital Mile

82. A Mystery Fit for a Net Detective

83. Jay Beagle and the Vegas Strip

84. Capitals Go 3-D

85. Holtby Pays the Price of Success

86. 20/20/20 Vision

87. See the Capitals Play Outdoors

88. Capitals Host 1982 All-Star Game

89. Halak, Canadiens Upset 2010 Capitals

90. Hunter’s Cheap Shot

91. Fedorov Joins Capitals in 2008

92. The Loch Ness Monster Arrives

93. Baltimore’s Bid for the NHL

94. The Dueling Hat Tricks

95. Five Alive for Gusty and Bonzai

96. Esa Tikkanen’s Game 2 Miss

97. Visit the Capitals’ Hat Trick Display

98. 20 Minutes of Fame

99. The Chimeracle on 34th Street

100. Celebrate Capitals Winning the Stanley Cup

Sources

Foreword by Craig Laughlin

It was September 10, 1982. A day that I remember like it was yesterday….

It was a beautiful, sunny, brisk morning in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and I was preparing for my third NHL camp with the Montreal Canadiens. I was heading to the Montreal Forum, one of the greatest and most iconic hockey arenas in the world. It was the first day of training camp, and I was nervous and had butterflies swirling in my stomach as I stepped into the ice rink. This, I thought, was my chance to prove that I belonged here—in the NHL and with the Canadiens. I wanted to make the team right out of training camp.

Before practice I was told to go upstairs to meet with general manager Irving Grundman. This was unusual. So many thoughts ran through my head. Was I getting a new deal? Was I being sent to Halifax before our first day of camp even started? Why was I meeting with the GM?

As I stepped into the office, my mind was swirling. And little did I know that this next conversation would change my life forever. Craig, Mr. Grundman said, we have traded you to the Washington Capitals, and wish you well there! This ended up being one of the biggest blockbuster trades in NHL and Washington Capitals history—and a trade that changed my life forever.

It’s now been 35 years since that day, and here I am still residing in Washington, D.C. I spent the majority of my NHL playing career with the Capitals, and stayed on with them even after I retired, becoming the color analyst in the broadcast booth, where I have been ever since. Since my time here in D.C., I have been around to witness the Save the Caps campaign back in the early ’80s, the tear-down-and-rebuild era, the Jaromir Jagr experiment, numerous coaches, the first pick of Alex Ovechkin the Great 8, the Rock the Red campaign, and the change of ownership and new buildings.

Having been around this organization for more than 30 years, I’d like to think that I have seen and heard it all when it comes to the Washington Capitals. But boy, am I wrong! Ben Raby has been able to capture not only my stories and the stories of other former players, but also the evolution of this organization and then some in this book.

There are a ton of die-hard Caps and hockey fans alike out there, and in this book Ben delves into the stories, the players, and the fans of this ’70s-era expansion franchise to the present day. There have been good times and there have been some bad, all of which are captured throughout this book. It’s an adventure you will not want to miss!

—Craig Laughlin

Craig Laughlin’s NHL career spanned 13 seasons, including playing right wing for the Capitals from 1982 to ’88. He is currently the Capitals’ color analyst for NBCSports Washington.

Acknowledgments

The writing of this book would not have been possible without the support of many colleagues, friends, and family members.

Longtime NHL reporter Chuck Gormley introduced me to the folks at Triumph Books in July 2016, and within days I was signing paperwork to author 100 Things Capitals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. I spent five seasons working alongside Chuck on the Capitals beat and always appreciated his insight and friendship. He is among the best in the business.

Throughout the writing process, I worked closely with Triumph Books editor Michelle Bruton. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Michelle for her encouragement and patience with a first-time author. Her flexibility made for a smooth and rewarding experience.

Among the highlights in producing this book were the interviews of more than 60 former players. This book was somewhat reliant on their stories and memories, and I’m appreciative that so many Capitals alums were happy to accommodate. Additional interviews were conducted with current Capitals players, as well as past and present coaches, broadcasters, and team executives.

Special thanks to former Washington general managers David Poile and George McPhee and to Capitals team president and minority owner Dick Patrick for their generosity and candidness.

Thank you to Sergey Kocharov, Pace Sagester, and Megan Eichenberg from the Capitals’ media relations department for assisting with interviews and photographs.

Capitals.com senior writer and the team’s unofficial historian, Mike Vogel, was a great resource for perspective and research. Ditto for members of the CSN Mid-Atlantic broadcast crew, including Joe Beninati, Al Koken, and Alan May. Few former players are as passionate about Capitals history as CSNMA color analyst Craig Laughlin, who did an outstanding job writing the book’s foreword. Thank you, Locker!

I’m fortunate to have worked with such talented writers in Washington, D.C., as Zac Boyer, Brian McNally, and Stephen Whyno and am lucky to call them all great friends. I appreciate the proofreading and the feedback they all provided as I navigated through 100 Things.

A stick-tap as well to Dan Steinberg and Scott Allen with the Washington Post’s D.C. Sports Bog. They are two terrific storytellers and many of their articles came up during the research process. Someday they should write a book. On anything. I’ll buy a copy, fellas.

Thanks to a great group of teammates I get to work with on the Capitals Radio Network, including John Walton, Ken Sabourin, and Mike Callow. Between them, I must have been asked 100 times during the writing process if I was finished. They knew I wasn’t, but they’d ask. It became a bit of an ongoing joke. On some long days I spent both writing and broadcasting, they made coming to work a blast.

And seeing as this is my first book, I’d like to acknowledge Mitch Melnick and Montreal’s TSN 690 (formerly the Team 990), who gave me my first job in sports media when I was 19 and helped me grow.

Finally, thank you to my family. They recognized my passion for sports journalism at an early age and encouraged me to chase my childhood dream. I couldn’t have asked for better role models growing up. Thank you to my parents, Alice and Joel, and to my sister, Stephanie.

And a special thank you to my wife, Allyssa, for all her support and patience (and coffee runs!) during the writing process. Writing a book can be a lonely endeavor, with many nights and weekends sacrificed, but Allyssa’s support never wavered. Thank you, Allyssa. You’re the best!

1. Save the Caps

It’s hard to blame some Capitals fans for taking the whole experience for granted. They have been spoiled for much of the last decade by a perennial Stanley Cup contender that is led by one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history (Alex Ovechkin) and one of the best playmakers of his generation (Nicklas Backstrom).

Their favorite hockey team has built a home sellout streak north of 400 consecutive games. All but two of those home games have been played at a privately funded arena in a once desolate but now vibrant part of downtown Washington, D.C. One of the other home games over that stretch was staged before a capacity crowd of 42,832 at Nationals Park, where the Capitals—during their 40th-anniversary season—hosted one of the NHL’s marquee events at the 2015 Bridgestone Winter Classic. Three years later, they hosted another outdoor game as the 2018 Coors Light Stadium Series descended on the Naval Academy from Annapolis.

Washington has become a desirable destination for free agents and one of the NHL’s most successful U.S. markets. For the modern-day Capitals fan, this is normal. In some cases, it’s all they know.

But during the early 1980s, the whole thing would have seemed like a pipe dream.

In fact, if not for a series of events in the summer of 1982, none of it would have been possible. Back then, the Capitals were essentially on life support, a miserable team on the ice with eight consecutive losing seasons since its inception and a struggling club off the ice, with more than $20 million in losses, according to owner Abe Pollin.

In their first eight years, the Capitals went through eight coaches, three general managers, and five captains. They missed the playoffs in each of those eight seasons, the last three of which saw 16 of 21 teams qualify.

Attendance was also thin at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, where the Capitals averaged 10,726 fans during their first eight years (59 percent capacity). Of their first 320 home games, only 19 were sellouts.

The Capitals to date have been the major disappointment and the major failure of my business career, Pollin told the Washington Post in November 1981.

According to Pollin, the team couldn’t survive for much longer. So, in conjunction with the NHL, he looked at his long-term options during the 1981–82 season. Relocating and folding the franchise were real possibilities, as was merging (and relocating) with an existing club.

Perhaps following the lead of the Atlanta Flames, who moved to Calgary in 1980, Pollin scheduled a meeting with government officials in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in June 1982. The meeting was cancelled at the last minute, though, and never rescheduled.

"I take full responsibility for the sorry state of the Washington Capitals to date, and I underline to date, Pollin said. It has not been for lack of commitment, lack of effort, or lack of pouring bucks into the team, many millions of bucks."

On July 20, 1982, Pollin revealed four conditions that had to be met to ensure the club’s viability in Washington.

The criteria included the sale of at least 7,500 season tickets for the 1982–83 season, complete sellouts for the first 10 home games, a reduction in the Capitals’ rent to the Capital Centre from 15 percent to 10 percent, and a reduction of the Prince George’s County entertainment tax.

Pollin wanted the PG County amusement tax reduced from 10 percent to one-half of one percent over the next three years.

If the conditions could be met within 30 days, Pollin had a group of investors on standby that would purchase a share of the team and help keep it in Washington. Dick Patrick, who has remained with the organization for more than three decades, was among those investors.

The challenge is laid down to all segments of the community, Pollin said.

Spearheaded by a small group of season-ticket holders, a Save the Caps campaign grew into a tremendous monthlong endeavor as local fans, businesses, and media did their part to ensure that the team would stay.

Save the Caps telethons were held from the Capital Centre and broadcast on WRC-TV with legendary sportscaster George Michael emceeing the events. Local celebrities, including Washington Redskins head coach George Allen, stopped by the makeshift set and urged fans to support the ticket drive.

The goal of selling out the first 10 games was reached when a group of businesses stepped up and agreed to buy any unsold tickets for each of first 10 games of the season.

A rent reduction of 33 percent was granted at the Capital Centre and although the season-ticket drive fell about 1,900 tickets short, Pollin let that slide when two other businesses stepped up and ensured two more home sellouts.

The only question mark remained the necessary entertainment tax break from PG County.

If the Capitals did not receive the tax relief, plans had already been put in place by August 1982 for the team to merge with the New Jersey Devils for the 1982–83 season.

We will definitely make the deal if Abe Pollin doesn’t get what he needs, Devils owner John McMullen told the New York Times. Negotiations for such a move had been ongoing for weeks.

But on August 24, 1982, Pollin made one final push before the PG County Council.

At this time, Prince George’s County is effectively without a hockey franchise, Pollin said. My new investors and I are trying to, in effect, bring a new hockey team to Prince George’s County…. With passage today of CB-143-1982, my investors and I will consider all four conditions as having been met. A favorable vote today will result in the Washington Capitals taking the ice against the Philadelphia Flyers on October 9 at our regularly scheduled home game.

The council soon voted 10-to-1 in favor of the tax break. The Capitals were staying put.

I’m pleased, very pleased, Pollin said. This has been my most difficult month as a sports franchise owner.

A difficult chapter in Capitals history had passed, but nobody could have predicted at that time the sudden turn the franchise would soon take on the ice.

Patrick came on board as an investor, but, by design given his hockey background, he was soon involved in the Capitals’ hockey operations. Patrick’s grandfather, Lester Patrick, was the longtime head coach and general manager of the New York Rangers, and his father, Muzz, played for the 1940 Stanley Cup champion Rangers.

Looking back, it’s amazing that it ever happened, Dick Patrick said in 2017. "I wasn’t involved with the Caps previously. I didn’t know Abe Pollin, really. I knew that they had played eight years and I knew that they had never made the playoffs.

I think Abe had just enough with hockey and the people he was working with. So, he asked me to be executive vice president and have the hockey people report to me. I thought that was great. Today, I don’t think that would ever happen. He barely knew me. His franchises were so valuable, and it took so many people to run them. So, he said, ‘Why don’t you get a new general manager?’ So, I was basically given the green light.

Within a week, Patrick hired Calgary Flames assistant general manager David Poile as the Capitals’ new GM. Ten days later, Poile completed the biggest trade in franchise history, acquiring Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis, and Craig Laughlin from the Montreal Canadiens for Rick Green and Ryan Walter.

The deal went a long way in changing the identity of a team that would reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the next 14 seasons.

There was a regular-season Patrick Division title in 1989 and a maiden trip to the Wales Conference Final one year later. In 1998, months after an in-season move to the MCI Center in downtown Washington, D.C., the Capitals reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in team history.

By the start of the 2005–06 season, the player who would emerge as the greatest in franchise history was on board in the form of Alex Ovechkin. And with Ovechkin leading the way and a supporting cast that included Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, and Braden Holtby, the Capitals, at long last, were crowned Stanley Cup champions in 2018.

As the memories and success stories, many of which you will read about in this book, continue to pile, it is worth remembering that if not for a successful Save the Caps campaign in 1982, it’s possible that they might not have happened at all.

2. Ovechkin Debuts

There’s a scene in the movie Slap Shot where Charlestown Chiefs captain Johnny Upton is introduced to his new teammates, the Hanson brothers.

They’re f----ing horrible looking! Upton says of the goofy-looking trio with their thick glasses and long hair.

The scene played out in Jeff Halpern’s head when he first met prospect Alex Ovechkin in August 2005. Halpern was one of several Capitals players skating in Laurel, Maryland, that summer in the weeks leading up to training camp.

I remember the first time he shows up, he was wearing cut-off Daisy Duke jean shorts that would have been too short on a girl, Halpern said. "And he had these monstrous, Incredible Hulk legs sticking out of them. His shirt was too tight, he was wearing flip flops, and it didn’t look like he fit into his clothes.

And with all the billing of this guy being the savior of our franchise, I’m looking at him thinking, ‘Seriously? This is the guy? He’s going to carry us?’

His English was raw and his fashion sense limited, but Ovechkin quickly showed that he could play. He impressed at training camp and capped off the preseason with five goals in the final two games.

It wasn’t just that he was scoring in the preseason games, said general manager George McPhee, but the goals were coming easily for him. We just thought, even in the preseason, he was scoring some big goals—like real goal-scorer’s goals. We thought, ‘Boy, this guy sure looks like a special player.’

After netting a hat trick in the preseason finale against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Capitals fans eagerly anticipated Ovechkin’s regular season debut.

The Capitals returned to the MCI Center on October 5, 2005, for their first regular season game in 550 days after a lockout wiped out the entire 2004–05 campaign. There was a curiosity factor coming into the season with the NHL implementing a series of rule changes to help boost scoring, plus so many fresh faces with new teams.

Nine players were making their Capitals debuts on opening night, but with no offense to incoming veterans Matt Bradley, Andrew Cassels, or Chris Clark, the 16,325 fans in attendance were mostly there to witness the most-talked-about NHL debut in team history.

Capitals fans were buzzing about Alex Ovechkin on their way to the rink that night, said NBC Sports Washington play-by-play voice Joe Beninati. Hockey fans were thinking about it because they had drafted Ovechkin in the summer of 2004 and the whole time, you had this great new toy that you wanted to try, but that you’d been told you had to wait to play [with].

But once the puck dropped on the 2005–06 season, fans didn’t have to wait long to see what all the fuss was about. Skating on a line with Halpern and Dainius Zubrus, Ovechkin was in the starting lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets and created a lasting memory on his first career shift.

As Columbus defenseman Radoslav Suchy went into his own zone to retrieve the puck, Ovechkin skated past veteran Adam Foote, who was playing in his 800th career game, and crushed an unsuspecting Suchy into the end boards. Forty seconds into his NHL career, Ovechkin delivered a thunderous hit that was so hard it dislodged the stanchion between two pieces of Plexiglas. The game was delayed for a few minutes as repairs were applied, but the crowd helped pass the time with a standing ovation.

That first game stands out, Zubrus said. I remember, here we are all thinking that he’s a goal-scoring guy who can put up a lot of points, and obviously, he was, but then on that first shift he runs the guy through the glass and we just looked at each other, like, ‘Oh wow. What do we have here?’

Halpern admits that he had his concerns going into opening night, not only because of the off-ice culture shock Ovechkin was dealing with but also because of how he carried himself on the ice. The opener against Columbus was less than a week after Ovechkin scored twice in a preseason game against the Philadelphia Flyers and riled them up in the process.

He scored a goal and he skated by their bench and winked, Halpern said. And Philly had a really tough team at the time. So, we felt he was clueless. I guess he didn’t realize how excited he was to score goals at the time, but we were just hoping not to get killed after that. So, going into opening night, I thought he was a good player, but you wanted to know that he could [fend for himself].

The first hit of his career, which came at the end of a hard 40-second shift, quieted some of those initial concerns.

He just exploded from that first shift, Halpern said. Physically, you don’t expect a rookie to come in like that. And not only did he steamroll everyone he faced that year, but anyone that tried to hit him would get knocked down. Real strong, sturdy guys would try to run him, and he’d just knock them down. That first game, he laid out the Columbus defenseman right off the bat and just how easily the goals came to him was impressive. It was like, ‘Wow, this guy can do everything.’

In the second period, Ovechkin opened his personal scoring account, netting the Capitals’ first goal of the season. Twenty-three seconds after Columbus took a 1–0 lead, Ovechkin was parked in the high slot when he blasted a one-timer from Zubrus and beat Columbus rookie Pascal Leclaire for his first career NHL goal.

Less than five minutes later, Ovechkin scored on the power play with Halpern feeding him from in close for the quick finish. Ovechkin became the first player in Capitals history to score twice in his NHL debut. He was also the first No. 1 pick with two goals in his first career game.

That’s how the whole season was, said Zubrus, who scored the game-winning goal in an eventual 3–2 Capitals win. He surprised everybody. We knew that he was good, but I don’t know that we all knew how much of a game-changer he was going to be.

Forward Brian Willsie, who played all 82 games during the 2005–06 season and was Ovechkin’s first roommate, also remembers the first game against Columbus setting the tone for Ovechkin’s memorable rookie year.

He was ultra-competitive all the time, said Willsie, and he was always going 100 miles per hour. And then during the first game, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow.’ He’s finishing every check, putting guys through the wall, and you’re asking, ‘Can he really keep this up all year? Can he score goals at this rate? Can he hit guys at this rate?’ And he did. He had no trouble keeping up at that pace, and it was amazing to be a part of it and watch him grow.

While Ovechkin emerged as must-watch during his rookie campaign, the 2005–06 Capitals finished in last place in the Southeast Division.

More than a decade later, most of Ovechkin’s teams have been Stanley Cup contenders, yet he still ranks that 2005–06 club among his favorites. Back then, we don’t have lots of success as a team, but we have one of the best locker rooms I’ve ever been in, Ovechkin recalled in 2018.

Dainius Zubrus was the guy who helped me out, basically find the area, find a home. He teach me little things. Brian Willsie was my roomie—he handled me pretty well. I didn’t speak English very much, but he helped me a lot with that stuff. Of course, Olie Kolzig was the head guy in the locker room, head guy outside the locker room. He was our main guy. Everybody listened to him because he was a legend. Jeff Halpern too, Brads [Matt Bradley], Sudsy [Brian Sutherby]…It was probably one of the best teams I played with in the locker room because everything that we do, we did together.

3. NHL Comes to Washington

Abe Pollin had never seen an NHL game before. And yet, here was the Washington businessman drumming up support from U.S. Senators and House representatives in the early 1970s to bring an NHL franchise to the nation’s capital.

Pollin already owned the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets and wanted to move the team closer to Washington. Having made his fortune in construction, Pollin planned to build a new arena in Landover, Maryland, about 10 miles from D.C.

The Bullets would fill some dates, but the owner needed another tenant. Bringing pro hockey to an area that hadn’t even housed a minor league team in more than a decade was suddenly very appealing.

Enter the expansion-happy NHL, which ballooned from six teams in 1967 to 16 by 1972.

On June 9, 1972, the NHL added two more clubs with expansion bids from Washington and Kansas City beating out such markets as Cleveland, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and San Juan.

The Washington team was later nicknamed the Capitals, a decision made by Pollin after he vetoed the original results from a name-the-team contest. The most popular choice among more than 12,000 votes was Comets, but Pollin preferred Capitals. Other names under consideration included Cyclones, Domes, and Pandas. Imagine for a moment if the Capitals-Penguins rivalry had instead been a battle of Pandas and Penguins.

Pollin paid the $6 million expansion fee, saw the Capital Centre go up in 15 months, and watched from afar as the Capitals took shape before their inaugural season in 1974–75. Perhaps he would have been better off not watching them at all.

To put it mildly, the expansion Capitals had a rough time. More than 40 years later, their 1974–75 season remains the worst in NHL history.

Washington won eight times in 80 tries. Their 8–67–5 record produced 21 points—the fewest by a team that played at least 70 games.

They lost four games by double digits and allowed 10 or more goals seven times.

The losing just snowballed, said defenseman Yvon Labre, who the Capitals selected from Pittsburgh in the 1974 expansion draft. It was very difficult.

The Capitals set futility records across the board. No team has had a lower points percentage (.131), allowed more goals (446), or had a worse goal differential (-265). Along the way, they set new league benchmarks with a 17-game losing streak and a 37-game road losing streak.

They are the only NHL team to have been shut out (12 times) more often than they won (8 times). They’re also the only team to have had more coaches (3) than road wins (1).

That first year was something else, forward Mike Marson said in 2016. Some nights you wondered, ‘Do we even have a chance to keep the game competitive?’ Every game was a tremendous challenge.

The Capitals’ original lineup was a collection of castoffs, minor league journeymen, and not-yet-ready-for-prime-time prospects.

Pollin hired Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt as the Capitals’ first general manager. Schmidt came recommended from Pollin’s longtime friend Red Auerbach, the architect of the Boston Celtics’ NBA dynasty in the 1960s. Schmidt spent 38 years with the Boston Bruins as a player, coach, and GM.

Why inherit someone else’s problems when I can start something for myself? Schmidt told reporters at his introductory press conference.

In due time, Schmidt had plenty of his own problems, starting with the roster he built through the expansion draft.

Mr. Pollin paid $6 million for the franchise and there wasn’t one major league player made available, he told the Washington Post in 1983.

Schmidt was tasked with building a team that could contend within three years. Given the available lot of players, it was like asking an interior decorator to furnish a chic home with materials from a yard sale.

There wasn’t any kind of nucleus, he said. If you had four or five guys as a nucleus, it wouldn’t be so bad, but the players we got originally, nobody wanted them.

Expansion drafts were held in 1970 for Buffalo and Vancouver and in 1972 for Atlanta and Long Island. Established clubs complained that they were losing too many talented players to the new teams. So the rules were changed ahead of the 1974 expansion draft for Washington and Kansas City.

Teams were now allowed to protect up to 16 players, leaving the Capitals and Scouts to choose from the scraps of the talent pool. Throw in the rival World Hockey Association trying to fill rosters and the challenge for Washington’s thin scouting department was made even tougher.

On June 12, 1974, Schmidt tried his best. He chose 24 players from the 16 existing NHL clubs, including goaltenders Ron Low of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Michel Belhumeur of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Belhumeur went 0–24–3 in 35 appearances with the first-year Capitals, setting an NHL record for most games played without a win.

The 22 skaters the Capitals selected had combined for 40 career NHL goals.

We just told ourselves we’re in the NHL, said forward Gordie Smith, a former Rangers prospect, who spent four years in the minors before making his NHL debut with the expansion Capitals.

A lot of us were just happy that we had a chance to play. Was everyone good enough to be there? Probably not.

The Capitals survived the preseason, highlighted by a 4–4 tie with the Montreal Canadiens and a pair of wins over Kansas City.

I remember my awareness of everything being so brand-new, said Marson, Washington’s 19-year-old rookie forward. There was a feeling of excitement, everyone was looking forward to a great campaign and to a team that could be a winner. It was very exciting.

After opening with back-to-back losses in New York and Minnesota, the Capitals made their home debut on October 15, 1974. A crowd of 8,093 gathered at the Capital Centre, where the Capitals tied the Los Angeles Kings 1–1. Labre beat future Hall of Famer Rogie Vachon for Washington’s first goal at home.

Two nights later, the Capitals earned their first win, beating the Chicago Black Hawks 4–3 before 9,471 fans in Landover. Denis Dupere scored twice, Jack Eagers scored the first game-winning goal, and Low made 33 saves.

I remember thinking to myself, ‘You know, maybe we’re not so bad,’ Marson said.

Think again. Over the next 26 games, the Capitals won once. As many pundits had predicted, the expansion Capitals were a miserable bunch.

I started the year in Pittsburgh, recalled forward Ron Lalonde, and I remember, maybe 20 games into the season, we were at the Caps Centre and I’m sitting on the bench on the Pittsburgh side and I’m looking over and seeing my good friend Yvon Labre. We beat them 6–0, and I remember looking over and thinking ‘Geez, I feel sorry for Yvon. It’s going to be a long year.’ Then two weeks later, the Penguins traded me to Washington, so I got to experience it firsthand!

By mid-February, Washington’s first head coach, Jimmy Anderson, was fired with a 4–45–5 record. Head scout Red Sullivan took over behind the bench, which longtime Capitals beat reporter Robert Fachet of the Washington Post found appropriate.

It is perhaps fitting that the weight fell on Sullivan, Fachet wrote. As chief scout, his recommendations weighed heavily in the draft selections. This can be interpreted as his punishment.

Sullivan went 2–16–0 as head coach and lasted just 40 days before Schmidt took over.

My stomach just couldn’t stand it, Sullivan said at the time. The old stomach was all buggered up. I wasn’t eating and sleeping properly, and at my age, that isn’t good.

The Capitals lost 5–0 to Atlanta in Schmidt’s coaching debut, after which he called the season the biggest embarrassment of my life.

I have been sitting upstairs cursing all year, he said. And since I’m the reason things are the way they are, I had to go down to the bench and try to do something about it.

Schmidt was behind the bench for Washington’s first and only road win of the season—a 5–3 triumph over the California Seals in Oakland. The Capitals celebrated by parading a trash can around the ice as if it was the Stanley Cup. For many of the players, it’s as close as they’d get.

Veteran Tommy Williams led the original team in scoring with 22 goals and 58 points. He also had a minus-69 rating, the second worst in NHL history behind Capitals teammate Bill Mikkelson. Mikkelson, a defenseman, had a minus-82 rating in 59 games.

They were tough times, Labre said. I always thought we could have won more games. But the same way winning builds confidence, once you lose so many games, the guys get down and it was impossible to recover.

4. All Champs

The celebration was barely a minute old when Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom embraced behind the Capitals net. The Capitals had just defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4–3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. The longest tenured players in the organization and the faces of the franchise for a decade-plus were—at long last—Stanley Cup champions. The work was complete, but Ovechkin was still game planning. I’m going to get the Cup, he told Backstrom, and I’m going to give it to you first.

For all the times Backstrom has passed to Ovechkin, this may have been the most meaningful assist of Ovechkin’s career. Soon after Ovechkin accepted the Stanley Cup from Commissioner Gary Bettman, he skated with the trophy raised above his head, saluting the thousands of red-clad Capitals fans filling the lower bowl at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He then called on Backstrom to do the same, handing him the most coveted trophy in the game.

F---ing right! Backstrom yelled.

And so began a procession decades in the making. Brooks Orpik, Matt Niskanen, and T.J. Oshie all took their turns skating with the Cup. Organizational stalwarts Jay Beagle, John Carlson, and Braden Holtby soon followed. It didn’t come easy, said Holtby. It took years. Years of heartbreak. Years of breaking things down and trying again. This group never gave up and we finally did it.

In their 43rd season, the Capitals had finally won it all. We honestly did this for our fans, said Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis. This Stanley Cup was for our fans—for the love, for the patience, for the support they showed.

For much of the Capitals’ existence, being a fan of theirs truly was an exercise in patience. From missing the playoffs in each of their first eight seasons to losing an NHL-high 11 Game 7s in the expansion era, the Capitals had developed a notorious reputation as