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| Photo Credit: Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library |
By Zane Miller
On Wednesday, November 26th, 1997, the Montreal Canadiens were able to hold off the Washington Capitals 6-5, sending the local fans in attendance at US Airways Arena into the Thanksgiving Day festivities on a less than festive note. However, they could still take solace in the fact that they were able to witness the final National Hockey League game played at the Landover, Maryland, facility.
Opened near the end of 1973, the then-named Capital Centre was built as a new home venue for the National Basketball Association’s Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards), who relocated to the DC area after spending over 10 seasons playing in nearby Baltimore. Consequently, with the NHL still looking to expand further after doubling the number of teams in the 1967-68 season and adding four more teams over the next five years, the brand-new building provided the ideal opportunity to bring the league to America’s capital city.
The Washington Capitals began play in the 1974-75 season, along with a fellow expansion franchise in the Kansas City Scouts. While the Scouts wouldn’t remain in Kansas City for long, relocating to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies before finally finding a permanent residence in New Jersey as the Devils, the Capitals managed to stay in Washington long-term in spite of some truly tough seasons to start out their tenure in the NHL. With expansion draft eligibility being far more limited in 1974 than in recent years, Washington struggled to an eight-win season in 1974-75, followed by another dead last finish in the standings in 1975-76. While the Capitals were unable to post a winning record in their first eight seasons, the ‘80s would see them not just find their footing, but thrive as one of the most consistently strong teams in the league.
A major facet of the turnaround was the team’s acquisition of former Montreal defenseman Rod Langway. Immediately upon joining the Capitals, Langway earned back-to-back Norris Trophies in 1983 and 1984 and remained one of the best at his position throughout the rest of the decade. The defensive unit also benefitted greatly from the presence of Scott Stevens and Larry Murphy in the lineup, both of whom would become future Hall of Famers along with Langway. At the same time, the Capitals had exceptional offensive output from forward Mike Gartner, who burst onto the scene with 36 goals as a 20-year-old in 1979-80 (he already played a season in the World Hockey Association and was ineligible for rookie of the year). Gartner maintained incredible consistency, never scoring below 35 goals in any of his nine full seasons in Washington.
Even with the clear talent at their disposal, the Capitals of the 1980s were unable to get over the hump in the playoffs, failing to reach the conference finals, let alone the Stanley Cup Finals, in any of their seven postseason appearances. Infamously, the team was on the losing end of 1987’s “Easter Epic” opening round game seven matchup against the New York Islanders, which happened to be hosted at Capital Centre. With the score tied 2-2, the game ended up going into four overtime periods, but Washington was knocked out after a goal from New York’s Pat LaFontaine. This isn’t to say the Capitals didn’t have any good playoff memories from this time, as they picked up first-round sweeps against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1984 and the Islanders in 1986. Due to the playoff format, both of these sweeps were finished off away from Capital Centre, but the arena would be host to another first-round game seven in 1988. Matching up once again with the Flyers, Philadelphia held a 3-1 series lead as the two teams returned to Capital Centre. Washington harnessed the home ice advantage with a 5-2 victory, before blowing out the Flyers in Philadelphia 7-2 and forcing a game seven. Back in Landover, the Flyers ran away early with a 3-0 lead. Undeterred, the Capitals fought back to even it up with a pair of goals just over a minute apart and a tying goal from defenseman Kevin Hatcher. The teams traded goals to set up an overtime, but the newly acquired Dale Hunter needed only six minutes to find the back of the net for the biggest goal in the history of the Capital Centre for the home team.
The biggest hindrance for the Capitals in the 80s was the lack of reliable goaltending, as the team ended up using a revolving door of goalies for the better part of the decade. That came to an end in the 1989-90 season, as the team named Don Beaupre as the main starter going forward. While not generally a Vezina Trophy contender, Beaupre provided the Capitals with some much-needed stability between the pipes. While Gartner was out of Washington by the 1990s and Langway was nearing the end of his playing career, the team put together their strongest postseason run of the Capital Centre era during the 1990 playoffs. Ironically, this came on the heels of the team’s first losing season since 1981-82, but would nonetheless pick up a first round triumph over the Devils before pulling off the second round upset against the New York Rangers in five games to reach the conference finals for the first time in franchise history. Unfortunately for Washington, this is where the run would end as the Boston Bruins took the four-game sweep to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, the Capitals still had high hopes for the rest of the decade, getting a strong playoff showing from forward Dino Ciccarelli as well as John Druce, who despite scoring just eight goals in 45 regular season games went off for 14 goals during the 1990 playoffs.
The first half of the ‘90s played out similarly to the majority of the ‘80s for the Capitals, as they continued to make the playoffs on a regular basis but were unable to threaten for a championship. By late 1993, the owner of both the Bullets and Capitals, Abe Pollin, was already looking to obtain funding for a new arena in the DC area. After reaching a deal with the city, construction began in October 1995 in Washington’s Chinatown area on what would become MCI Center, now Capital One Arena, which continues to host the Capitals to this day. In the meantime, the team unveiled a new logo and uniform set in 1995-96, swapping the familiar red, white and blue for a blue, white and black pattern and using a soaring eagle with talons drawn as the primary logo. It was under this new identity that the team had its first Vezina Trophy winner in franchise history, with an out-of-nowhere performance from second-year goaltender Jim Carey seeing him collect a league-leading nine shutouts along with 35 wins. Despite this, the Capitals were again knocked out in the first round in 1996 and missed the playoffs in 1997, ending a 14-year streak. Before the 1997-98 season, it was known that the Capitals would be moving into MCI Center before the end of the year, but while the finishing touches were made on the new arena, they would play out a good portion of the first half at the now-named US Airways Arena.
As the Canadiens and Capitals faced off on November 26th, 1997, the Capitals were in the midst of a solid bounce back from the disappointing 1996-97 season, starting out with a 13-8-3 record. Montreal, on the other hand, had beaten the Capitals for the last playoff spot the year before and were just ahead of them in the standings once again, holding a 14-7-3 record . Before the game, Langway would have his #5 jersey officially retired by the Washington Capitals, appropriately having his number raised to the rafters at the same arena he called home for much of his career as one of the greatest defensive defensemen in league history.
In net for the Capitals would be longtime backup Olaf Kolzig, who in 1997-98 was getting his first chance as the primary starter following the departure of Beaupre and later Carey. Kolzig started off the year strong with six straight wins, and still had an impressive 12-4-2 showing coming into the November 26th matchup. Meanwhile, the Canadiens sent out starter Jocelyn Thibault, a goalie who was no stranger to last hurrahs as he also played the final game at Quebec Colisee, home of the Quebec Nordiques (now Colorado Avalanche) on May 14th, 1995. As for how his year in Montreal was going, Thibault recorded an 8-4-1 start with a .913 save percentage.
Canadiens forward Shayne Corson was clearly not impressed by Kolzig’s immaculate .922 save percentage, scoring on him twice in the first period. The first was an even strength marker, while the second tally was on the power play, taking advantage of an interference penalty by veteran defenseman Sylvain Cote. On both goals, Corson received an assist from third-year forward Saku Koivu. The hits kept coming for Washington as they also lost forward Jaroslav Svejkovsky for the remainder of the game in the opening frame, reinjuring a sprained left ankle. However, they would be able to gather some positive momentum before the end of the first, as rookie forward Richard Zednik found his way past Thibault to cut the Canadiens’ lead in half at the 15:29 mark.
Reinvigorated by the late period goal, the Capitals wasted little time in eliminating the Canadiens lead once the second period rolled around. As a matter of fact, it was Zednik who would even the game up at two apiece less than three minutes in, getting assists from veterans Phil Housley and Steve Konowalchuk. The excitement would be short-lived for Washington, though, as Montreal jumped back out in front courtesy of forward Valeri Bure. The Canadiens were able to stay out in front through the contest’s halfway mark, but another Capitals franchise legend would make his presence felt.
Forward Peter Bondra had spent the entirety of his career with the Capitals since joining the NHL in the 1990-91 campaign and already had significant accolades to his credit, such as leading the league in goals with 34 during the strike-shortened 1994-95 season and crossing the 50-goal mark the next year. With his team needing a goal to close the game, Bondra delivered with his 17th score in just the 25th game of the season. The goal also gave Housley his second helper of the evening. Montreal wouldn’t take this lying down, however, as future Hall of Famer Mark Recchi scored to reclaim the lead before defenseman Stephane Quintal (not normally known for his goal-scoring prowess) followed with a marker of his own just two minutes later. After the latter goal, Kolzig was pulled in favor of backup Bill Ranford, best known for leading the Edmonton Oilers to their most recent Stanley Cup in 1990.
Of course, the Capitals were hoping that a new goalie would mean a fresh start in the third period, which they started trailing 5-3. At first, this seemed to be just the spark they needed as forward Jeff Toms, who was claimed off of waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning just a week earlier, brought it to a one-goal game again just over two and a half minutes into the third for his first of five goals in a Capitals uniform. Just as they had done throughout the night, though, the Canadiens spoiled the jovial atmosphere as Recchi shot one past Ranford for his second of the game, thus restoring the two-goal advantage.
Washington continued the back-and-forth theme at the 8:30 mark courtesy of defenseman Mark Tinordi, assisted on the play by both Hunter and longtime Capital Kelly Miller. Down by one goal again, the team fought valiantly throughout the final frame, forcing Thibault to make several big-time saves to keep the lead intact. However, the comeback effort ultimately fell short, as Tinordi’s goal would be the final in US Airways Arena history. Thibault nabbed his 55th career win in the 6-5 victory, eventually finishing the season with a 19-15-8 showing for a .902 save percentage. Despite entering the game in relief, Ranford was charged with the loss as the deciding goal was scored against him. After the game, the Capitals completed a final ceremonial skate around the ice in a salute to the sellout crowd. Although the game signified the end of an era, the team was clearly excited to begin play at the MCI Center just nine days later. Once the Capitals and Wizards vacated the arena, it continued to host various concerts, trade shows and other events until closing in March 2002.
After setting up shop in their new building, the Capitals maintained their early season pace before really getting hot in the final two months of the regular season, winning 14 of their final 21 games. They rode the momentum into the playoffs, taking care of business against the Bruins and Ottawa Senators for a second chance at the conference finals. This time around, they defeated the Buffalo Sabres in six games, qualifying for their first Stanley Cup Finals in franchise history. Even so, they were considered the underdogs against the vaunted Detroit Red Wings squad, and the Red Wings demonstrated why with a four-game sweep in the Finals, the most recent in Stanley Cup history. While the championship run didn’t work out, the Capitals still retained a bit of magic from their time at their original venue.
