The Capitals of Washington are a professional frankness from Hockey of the National league of hockey.

History

Entered the LNH : 1974-75

Arena : Verizon Center
Colors of the uniform : Red, white and blue
Logo :
# the name Capitals with the T taking again a stick of hockey handling a disc and decorated of three red stars to the top of the Washington
# a eagle stylized with the colors of the team
Participations in the finales of the Cut Stanley : 1998 (losers)

History of the frankness

See also: Seasons of Capitals of Washington

Vexations of the expansion

In company of the Scouts of Kansas City, Capitals unite with the LNH in 1974. With a total of thirty franknesses for the LNH for which it is necessary to add those of the Worldwide association of hockey as well as the quantity of players of adequate level limited, one had to expect that certain disasters occur. Thus the first season of Capitals was quite simply a waste of time, the club losing 67 from its 80 matches and gaining only once apart from Washington. Scouts only made hardly better, and the expansion was described as error by the experts.

The team could not much better do for the remainder of the years 1970 and the beginning of the year 1980. Before the summer 1982, very serious discussions took place already to leave Capitals the capital states-unienne, and a campaign “Save the Capes” (“Save the Capes”) was set in motion. Then the miracle occurred.

In series!

Initially, the Capes engage David Poile, 33 years only, as managing director. Its first gesture as DG was to carry out the largest exchange of the history of the frankness the September 9th, exchange which sent regular long time Ryan Walter and Rick Green to the Canadian of Montreal in return of Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis and Craig Laughlin. Not only this exchange brought a major change within the team, but it helped to solidify a team which needed some well, which gave access to them the eliminatory series for the first time at the end of the Saison LNH 1982-83. Moreover, the club attended an offensive explosion of the Dennis Maruk, Mike Gartner and Bobby Carpenter. And, although they were swept by the champions defendants of the Coupe Stanley, the Islanders of New York, this glimmer of hope helped the Capes to preserve their hearth at Washington.

Capitals improved largely thereafter, reaching the series during the 14 following seasons, but each time, they passed like shooting stars. Towards the end of the year 1980, the Capes had become powerful at the point to be serious candidates for a Coupe Stanley, making devastations in regular season, but they never managed to demolish this reputation of “deflated” which stuck to them with the skin. In spite of a continuous procession of high-speed motorboats like Gartner, Carpenter, Bengt Gustafsson, Mike Ridley, Dave Christian, Dino Ciccarelli, Rod Langway, or Kevin Hatcher, the Capes could only once pass to the second turn series… to be made finally sweep into four matches by the Bruins of Boston of the Conference Prince de Galles at the end of the Saison LNH 1989-90.

Missed occasions

In the middle of the years 1990, Capitals seemed almost to do everything to let pass all the chances which passed to raise the Stanley Cut. In spite of the brilliance of the rising high-speed motorboat Peter Bondra and of Joe Juneau, the core of the team got old. One of the darkest days of the team occurred during the series of the Saison LNH 1992-93, whereas Dale Hunter was suspended for 21 parts to have struck Pierre Turgeon of the Islanders of New York after it marked the goal which eliminated the Capes.

A gold chance arised during the series of the Saison LNH 1997-98. Bondra had dominated the club with 52 goals in regular season, the veterans Joe Juneau and Adam Oates found their form of antan and Olaf Kölzig had a solid percentage of stop of 92% whereas the Capes of the new DG George McPhee came to end from Boston, of the Senators of Ottawa and the Sabers of Buffalo for finally reaching the finale of the Coupe Stanley. They did not make however the weight vis-a-vis the champions defendants, the Red Wings de Détroit, which swept them four victories with zero.

Capitals fall down hard on ground the following season, missing the series. They are begun again by gaining two consecutive titles of South-western Division, to be only made catch up with by their old woman guigne who made them lose each time with the first turn with the hands of the Penguins de Pittsburgh. In an ultimate effort to put an end to this eternal state things by carrying out a master stroke at the summer 2001 by acquiring the super-high-speed motorboat Jaromir Jagr, one of the best players of the decade 1990, Penguins. But even in spite of reinforcements of such a quality, the Capes miss the series by 2002. They carry out additional changes by putting the hand on very coveted Robert Lang of Penguins, free agent at the summer 2002.

This acquisition marked the return in series of the Capes in Saison LNH 2002-03. That did not mark however the end of their incapacity to obtain success in series, being made eliminate with the first turn by the Lightning de Tampa Bay, after to have however taken an advance of 2-0 in the series, which was marked by the sixth and last match finished in third period of prolongation to the Verizon Center, the longest match of the history of the building, match which ended in a goal in numerical advantage, counted after Jason Doig had made the error to jump too quickly on the ice during a change of trio brought by the Capes, error which caused a punishment with the latter to have had too many players on the ice.

The Capes also admire that their effort to build a candidate team with most honor by acquiring of veterans was an error, separated their large talented names to reduce their wage bill. Jagr was exchanged with the Rangers of New York, then a little later it was Bondra which took the way of the Canadian national capital to join Senators. It was then the turn of Robert Lang to leave for Detroit and of Sergei Gonchar to be dispatched in Bruins. The exchange of Lang marked the first time of the history of the league which a player was exchanged whereas it carried out the markers of the LNH in the middle of the season. The Capes finished with a card of 23-46-10, good for thin 53 points, their worst season in 26 years.

This poor performance helped them to obtain the first choice with the Repêchage of entry in the LNH 2004, choice which was phenomenal Russian Alexander Ovechkin. He and Alexander Semin, which made its beginnings at 19 years at the Capes in 2004, played together in Russia during the Saison LNH 2004-05, lost because of the lockout. Some other players of the Capes crossed the Atlantique to go to play on the Old continent; of this number, one counts Olaf Kolzig, Brendan Witt, and Jeff Halpern. The dead season leading to the Saison LNH 2005-06 consisted in making of Halpern the new captain of the club, and acquiring of the Andrew Cassels, Ben Clymer, Ivan Majesky, Mathieu Biron and Jamie Heward, agents free, and of the Chris Clark and Jeff Friesen via exchanges.

The Capitals poor finished again in the hollows of South-western Division, with nevertheless a thin improvement compared to their abysmale season 2003-04, finishing with a card of 29-41-12 and 70 points, the better 27e of the league (on 30). But the team presented itself to each match and made efforts to gain, playing in 42 matches which showed a difference in only one goal, although they lost two thirds of these matches. The season recruit of Ovetchkine exceeded waitings, its 52 goals and 106 points classifying it with the third rank of the history of the LNH for the most points by a recruit - it carried out all the recruits of 2005-06 in term of goals, points, goals in numerical advantage and throws with the goal. It finished 3rd league for the points, 3rd ex-aequo for the goals, and its 425 shootings with the goal were not only the most total of the season and a record for the recruits, it was also the 4th greater number of shootings in one season of all the history of the league. The 106 points of Ovechkin were the higher second of the history of the frankness, and its 52 goals classify it 3rd history of the Capes. Several Capes of long time knew their best seasons in career; Dainius Zubrus finishes with 57 points, Jeff Halpern obtained its best total of master keys with 33, Matt Pettinger finishes with 20 goals and 38 points, and seven another players among young people passed the bar of the 20 points for the first time. Olaf Kölzig, which spent more time in the organization than all the other players of the history of the Capes, obtained its 250e victory in career, while Andrew Cassels became the 204e player to dispute 1000 matches in the league, although it did not finish the season with the team.

Brendan Witt was yielded to the Predators of Nashville the March 8th, with the deadline of the transactions of 2006.

Players

With the temple of famous the

Current alignment of Capitals

On October 23rd 2007

Captains

Trainer-chief

  • Jimmy Anderson (1974-75)
  • Red Berenson (1974-75)
  • Milt Schmidt (1974-75 to 75-76)
  • Tom McVie (1975-76 to 77-78)
  • Danny Belisle (1978-79 to 79-80)
  • Gary Green (1979-80 to 81-82)
  • Roger Crozier (1981-82) Interim
  • Bryan Murray (1981-82 to 89-90)
  • Terry Murray (1989-90 to 93-94)
  • Jim Schoenfeld (1993-94 to 96-97)
  • Ron Wilson (1997-98 to 2001-02)
  • Bruce Cassidy (2002-03 to 03-04)
  • Glen Hanlon (2003-04 to 07-08)
  • Bruce Boudreau (2007-08 with…)

Director-general

Not to forget

Withdrawn numbers

Statistics

Better markers

Here the list of the ten better pointer of the frankness, the legend is read as follows: PJ = left played, B = goals, has = assistances, Pts = points and Pun = minutes of punishments.

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • Official site of Capitals of Washington

Be-X-old: ВашынгтонКэпіталз Simple: Washington Capitals

Random links:Agricultural cooperative | Joaquín Sabina | Auguste Beernaert | Molini di Triora | Perimeter of waiting of project of total installation | "_;_Manos"_;_Les_mains_du_destin

© 2007-2008 speedlook.com; article text available under the terms of GFDL, from fr.wikipedia.org