POLL: MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT IN WASHINGTON CAPITALS HISTORY

[yave1964]

 A lot like the Sharks, the team is mired in regular season excellence and post season futility, one cup final, one additional conference final, that is about it in fourty years. Here are my moments that i feel are the greatest moments in Capitals team history, one with a twist. Happy voting!

 

ROD LANGWAY WINS TWO NORRIS TROPHIES AND LEADS TEAM TO RESPECTABILITY

 

 I will be getting into just how bad this team later in this poll, but it took a trade of popular Ryan Walter to the Canadiens for Mullet man Brian Engblom and Rod Langway to turn the team around. Langway was named Captain, he steadied the defense and after missing the playoffs for the teams first eight years with Langway redefining the term defensive defenseman and winning two consecutive Norris Trophies, the team made the playoffs all eight years, a hell of a Captain, he demanded his teammates give everything on the ice and earned the nickname 'Secretary of defense' on his way to a Hall of Fame career. To this day when i think of elite defensive d-men i start with Langway as the benchmark to base them off of.

 

 

2004 DRAFT

 

 'With the first pick in the 2004 draft..." and like that the franchise had a savior, a face to base a team that had gotten stale and vanilla. Alex Ovechkin for better or worse was drafted and has become the teams signature player. A calder trophy as the leagues best rookie followed by 3 Hart Trophies as the leagues MVP (08, 09, and 13) and more hardware than you can count, just a hell of a player. They also nabbed Mike Green in the same draft a player that for a few years there was as great of puck moving blueliner as you could find

 

DRUCE IS LOOSE!! JOHN DRUCE LEADS TEAM TO CONFERENCE FINALS

 

John Druce was stuck on the fourth line all year when he wasnt in the AHL or the pressbox, scoring 8 goals in 45 games. The team was led by Dino Ciccerelli Geoff Courntnall and the Nasty Dale Hunter up front and the incomparable Rod Langway and the big and mean Kevin Hatcher on defense, but it was the unknown Druce who stepped up in the postseason. After being a healthy scratch for a few games, he was inserted into the lineup for grit and instead scored 14 goals in 15 games, nearly doubling his season total as he led the team to their first ever conference final before bowing out to the Bruins

 

WORST TEAM EVER- THE EXPANSION CAPITALS SET RECORD FOR FUTILITY

 I love this kind of stuff, the worst Goals against of all time, the teams that fold after a year or two, the worst of the worst is my bread and butter. And to me it gets no better (worse) than the expansion Capitals. They were built at the end of a time when the league was overly expanding trying to claim cities before the WHA did, so between expansion and the rival league, the talent pool was at an all time low never to be reached Again. A few highlights (lowlights)

THE TEAM WENT 8-67-5 FOR A RECORD OF FUTILITY WITH A MEASLY 21 POINTS

 They won 1 (one!!) game away from home all year

 Bill Mikkelson was a minus 82 in only 59 games. Really.

 Other players were a minus 55, 69, 56, 49, 54 (two players accomplished this) and 46.

 Former Flyer farmhand Michael Belhuemer in 27 starts went 0-24-3. That is right in 27 starts he failed to win a single game.

Goals for 181. Goals against 446. differential: MINUS 265.

They had winless streaks of 14, 12,18, and 18 again.

  In short the worst team of all time deserves accolades for their futility.

 

THE GOAL! OVECHKIN GOAL AGAINST COYOTES DEFINES INDIVIDUAL EFFORT

 

 

On his back against the great ones team. An amazing goal.

 

1998: OLI THE GOALIE LEADS TEAM TO CUP FINALS

 

1998 was a magical postseason run for the Capitals, they finished fourth in the East, with sixovertime wins in the postseason led by goalie Olaf Kolzig's amazing run, they got past the Bruins, Senators and Sabres before succumbing to the buzzsaw in Detroit.

  Thet were led by Peter Bondra who had 52 goals, veteans such as Adam Oates, Phil Housley, Essa Tikkenan and Brian Bellows all contributed, and young Joe Juneau was the spark that led the team.

  Kolzig was the man of the hour, with a 920 save pct in the regular season he managed to lift that up to an incredible .941 in the postseason, winning six OT games including two double overtime ones.

[yave1964]

I cast my vote for the Kolzig team, he was simply brilliant, he was as good in the finals for a team that ended up being swept as it was possible to be. I thought about Langway or even my quirky listing of the worst team of all time, and with apologies to Ovechkin didnt give him much thought.

[flyerrod]

Most Memorable......How about when Emery skated end to end just to beat the tar out of a helpless Holtby? I am pretty sure that is something that all Caps fans will remember forever

[yave1964]

Most Memorable......How about when Emery skated end to end just to beat the tar out of a helpless Holtby? I am pretty sure that is something that all Caps fans will remember forever

I remember watching that on vacation with my wife when we got back to our room.If I am not mistaken Holtby stayed in and pitched a shutout and Downie went off in an ambulance. Ugliest game of the year.

[flyerrod]

I remember watching that on vacation with my wife when we got back to our room.If I am not mistaken Holtby stayed in and pitched a shutout and Downie went off in an ambulance. Ugliest game of the year.

I would be willing to bet that you will not find a Caps fan that remembers anything but Emery being a bully and that he should have been drawn an quartered for his attack........just sayin'

 

P.S. Going from my memories of that game, Downie  got owned long before Emery decided he needed to wake the dead(aka Flyers). Holtby very much earned that win but I would be willing to bet that is not why people will remember that game.

[jammer2]

@flyerrod  Not sure, but that was Downie's last fight as a Flyer, no? He seemed pretty timid and scared to get hurt after that, which in turn ended his usefulness as a Flyer.

[jammer2]

  I voted for drafting OV. The other Caps team never won, and the Caps will always and permanently be tied to OV and their success or lack-thereof with his presence. This is a long haul kinda thing, he's signed for what...another 8 years?  By the time the Caps realize they can't win with his brand of selfish hockey, he will be useless in a trade scenario, or at least gr8ly (see what I did there?) diminished returns.

[yave1964]

@jammer2

the reason I listed the god awful first season was because I have been titling these 'most memorable' and what could be more memorable than a 21 point season of biblically bad proportions? Mikklesons -82 in only 59 games, when people talk about unbreakable records I always bring that one up, a lot of people don't believe me, I have actually won a few bar bets over the years....

[Yorick]

I hate Ovechkin. An egoist player par excellence. Maurice Richard Award and the Caps out of the playoffs. Great job.

 

I'm glad the Pens did not draft him. The dips**it would have been traded if that was the case, because of the obvious incompatibility with superior Crosby.

[yave1964]

@Yorick

I beg to differ. IMHO Ovie on the Wing with Crosby would have been akin to Jagr on the wing with Mario. The number one center int he game setting up the best shooter of his time. I think they would have been a perfect match.

[flyercanuck]

I'm going Mike Gartner scoring 30 goals a season for 10 years as a Cap, then 5 more after that. 15 -30 goal seasons...only getting traded to the Leafs could break that run. Wayne Gretzky couldn't do it.

[nossagog]

I voted for the Ovie draft, most memorable of what's there.  But my most memorable moment, albiet in the wrong way, was was the Dale Hunter cheap shot on Pierre Turgeon.  After all, the topic title was most memorable moment, not the best moment.

[yave1964]

I voted for the Ovie draft, most memorable of what's there.  But my most memorable moment, albiet in the wrong way, was was the Dale Hunter cheap shot on Pierre Turgeon.  After all, the topic title was most memorable moment, not the best moment.

You know, I considered that. but after listing the worst team in Hockey history, I didn't want to appear to be slamming the Caps with two negatives....