We continue our look at Washington Capitals Patrick Division
rivalries of the past in anticipation of renewing them this fall in the new
Metropolitan Division. Next up…the
Philadelphia Flyers.
Washington and Philadelphia are cities separated by about 150 miles of Interstate 95. That proximity made for a convenient – and mutual – hatred between fans of the Washington Capitals and those of the Philadelphia Flyers. That hatred paled, however, in comparison to what the players had for their opponents over the 14-year history that the clubs shared in the Patrick Division from 1979-1980 through the 1992-1993 season.
At the north end of the rivalry when these teams found
themselves together in the Patrick Division, the Flyers were the “Broad Street
Bullies.” They were only in their fourth
season removed from a Stanley Cup championship and still among the most fearsome
– and feared – teams in the NHL. Bobby
Clarke, Bill Barber, Rick MacLeish, and Reggie Leach provided the offensive
firepower. Paul Holmgren, Mel Bridgman,
and Behn Wilson provided the enforcement and intimidation.
At the other end of I-95 the Washington Capitals went into
their inaugural season in the division coming off a 24-41-15 record in
1978-1979, but did so with a revamped lineup.
Dennis Maruk and Tom Rowe – team-leading 31-goal scorers each in the
1978-1979 season – would play lesser roles on the 1979-1980 team. For Maruk, who arrived in Washington from the
Minnesota North Stars the previous season, his reduced role would be the
product of injuries that limited him to 27 games. For Rowe, it was the result of his being
traded to Hartford in exchange for the Whalers’ Alan Hangsleben. The Caps would go younger with this edition
of the team. Mike Gartner, Ryan Walter,
and Bengt-Åke Gustafsson – none of them older than 21 years of age – would play
bigger roles for this team.
The Capitals held their own in that first season, given the
relative stature of the two clubs.
Washington went 0-2-2 against Philadelphia that first season in the
Patrick Division. It was the young guys
leading the way in that first season series.
Gustafsson was 3-1-4 in four games, Gartner was 1-3-4, and Walter was
0-3-3.
Things got better for the Caps after that first Patrick
Division season against the Flyers. Over
the next four years the Caps would do no worse than split the season series and
won it outright three times. The high
point of that early era, at least in the regular season, might have been
January 8, 1984. The Caps traveled to
Philadelphia for a game that night in the midst of a soft patch in their
schedule. They were 3-4-1 over their
previous nine games and were stuck at 19-20-3 for the season, comfortably in
fourth place in the six-team Patrick, but 11 points behind the second-place
Flyers. Meanwhile, Philadelphia was on
an 11-3-4 roll that had them breathing down the necks of the first-place New
York Islanders.
On that night, though, history was made for the Caps. Dave Poulin scored at 5:20 of the first
period to give the home team the lead, but it would not survive the next full
minute of play. Bengt Gustafsson scored
at 6:19 to tie the game. Then he scored at
the 11:15 mark to give the Caps the lead.
After Dave Christian put the Caps up by a pair before the end of the
first period, Gustafsson completed the hat trick on a power play at 11:41 of
the second period. In the third period,
after Doug Jarvis gave the Caps a 5-1 lead, Gustafsson scored at the 5:12 mark
to tie the club record for goals, which he then shared with six other players
(Dennis Maruk turned the trick twice).
Gustafsson grabbed the record all for himself with his fifth
goal of the game on a power play at the 10:11 mark. It escaped no one’s attention that the victim
of the barrage in goal was Gustafsson’s fellow Swede, the late Pelle Lindbergh. But not everyone was impressed. The Flyers’ Darryl Sittler, who was playing
in his 1,000th game that night and who was no stranger to big nights
himself, having scored six goals in a ten-point night for the Toronto Maple
Leafs against the Boston Bruins in 1976 (a points game record that still
stands), said, “the game itself is one only Washington and Gustafsson will
remember.”
Gustafsson’s five-goal night in a 7-1 win was the spark the
Caps needed. Starting with that win the
Caps would close the regular season with a 29-7-2 record. On ten occasions in that 38-game stretch they
scored at least six goals. It did not
stop there, either, at least as far as the Caps’ matchups with the Flyers was
concerned. The Caps would draw first
blood against the Flyers in their playoff rivalry that same season. The Caps dominated the orange and black in
their best-of-five Patrick Division semi-final, sweeping the Flyers in three
games and outscoring the Flyers by a total 15-5 margin. Craig Laughlin led the Caps in the series
with three goals.
The Caps would see their fortunes sour against the Flyers in
the next few years, though. Over the
next three seasons the Caps would manage only a 4-14-2 regular season record
against the Flyers and be outscored, 80-55, in the process. Over that same period the Caps were 130-66-24
against the rest of the NHL.
It was during this period that the rivalry took on a nasty
edge. For example, there was the March,
8, 1985 game in which the penalty tote looked like this…
- PHI - Peter Zezel (Roughing) 2:51
- WAS – Scott Stevens (Slashing) 2:51
- PHI - Murray Craven (Slashing) 10:30
- WAS – Mike Gartner (Hooking) 11:32
- PHI - Rick Tocchet (Cross check) 17:48
- WAS – Gaetan Duchesne (Holding) 19:17
- PHI - Brad McCrimmon (Fighting (maj)) 20:00
- PHI - Ed Hospodar (Fighting (maj)) 20:00
- WAS – Lou Franceschetti (Fighting (maj)) 20:00
- PHI - Glen Cochrane (Fighting (maj)) 20:00
- WAS – Alan Haworth (Fighting (maj)) 20:00
- PHI - Ed Hospodar (Game misconduct) 20:00
- PHI - Glen Cochrane (Game misconduct) 20:00
- PHI - Brad McCrimmon (Misconduct (10 min)) 20:00
- WAS – Lou Franceschetti (Misconduct (10 min)) 20:00
- WAS – Alan Haworth (Misconduct (10 min)) 20:00
- PHI - Peter Zezel (Roughing) 20:00
- WAS – Scott Stevens (Roughing) 20:00
…and that was in the first period (source:
flyershistory.com). In 20 contests over
this three-year period 47 fighting majors were assessed, along with 15 ten-minute misconduct penalties and another four game misconducts.
The Caps and Flyers would have to confine their animosity to
the regular season during that period.
Their next post-season meeting would not take place until they met in
the 1988 division semi-finals. It looked
as if the Flyers would use that series to exact a measure of revenge for having
been swept in the teams’ only previous playoff meeting back in 1984. After splitting Games 1 and 2, Philadelphia
won Games 3 and 4 to take a 3-1 lead in the series. The Caps crawled back into the series by
getting a fast start in Game 5, scoring four goals in the first 29 minutes of
the game on their way to a 5-2 win.
Then, with the series returning to Philadelphia for Game 6, the Caps
forced a Game 7 when they scored four goals in even less time – 23:17 – in a 7-2
win. That set the stage for one of the
most memorable games in Capitals history.
When the Caps took the Capital Centre ice on April 16, 1988,
they were looking for their first playoff win in a seven-game series in
franchise history, having lost in three previous tries. It looked grim for the Caps when the Flyers
scored three goals in a span of 5:23 straddling the first and second periods,
putting the Caps in a deep 3-0 hole.
However, by the time the second period ended, the Caps had come all the
way back after Gary Galley, Kelly Miller, and Kevin Hatcher scored goals 11:12
apart in the period.
Dale Hunter gave the Caps a lead at 5:19 of the third period
on a power play, and it might have been the goal to break the Flyers’
back. These being the Caps, though, it
was not the case. Brad Marsh tied the
game again just 62 seconds after Hunter’s goal.
Neither team could break through for the clincher, and regulation ended
in a 4-4- tie.
In overtime the Caps had an early chance when Mark Howe was
sent off for hooking at the 1:12 mark, giving the Caps a power play opportunity,
their eighth of the game. But despite
pressure, the Caps could not solve goalie Ron Hextall. Washington would get another chance, though,
with Capitals play-by-play announcer Mike Fornes making the most famous call in
franchise history on what would be the Capitals’ 40th shot of the
game…
The next season the Flyers would finally get their
post-season revenge on the Caps. The
Caps won the season series, four games to three, and the teams split the first
four games of their division semi-final playoff matchup. However, in Game 5 at Capital Centre the
Flyers took control of the series. It
did not start that way. The teams split
four goals in the first period, then repeated the effort in the second frame to
leave them knotted at 4-4 entering the third period. The Caps took a lead at 5:35 of the third
period when Calle Johansson scored on a power play. Then the roof fell in on the home team.
The Flyers took a 7-5 lead when they scored three goals in 5:29. The Caps were not out of it, though. Jeff Chychrun was sent off for the Flyers on
a cross-checking penalty at 17:27. The
Caps had a power play and pulled goalie Pete Peeters with 70 seconds left in
the game. As Peeters was heading off,
Scott Stevens sent the puck hard around the boards into the Flyer zone to get a
line change. The puck got only so far as
Hextall behind the Flyer net, though.
With no Cap within 20 feet of him, and with Rod Langway just coming off
the bench in relief of Stevens, Hextall had an unchallenged chance with clear
ice ahead to score the first goal by a goaltender in Stanley Cup playoff
history. He did not miss…
After the 8-5 win in Game 5, the Flyers won Game 6 and the series in what would be the
last time the teams would meet in the playoffs as Patrick Division rivals. The Caps would dominate play in the regular
season over the next two years, winning 10 of 14 games. The Flyers would return the favor, going
9-4-1 in the regular season over the last two seasons these two teams would
skate in the Patrick Division.
In one of those curious turns of history, the last goal
scored in the last game between these two teams as Patrick Division rivals in
April 1993 would be scored by a rookie winger for the Capitals by the name of
Keith Jones on his only shot of the contest.
Jones would spend his first four-plus NHL seasons with the Caps and end
his career with three seasons skating for the Flyers. Today, he is a color commentator for the
Flyers on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.
Flyers and Caps, as “Patrick Division” as it gets.
Note: The flyershistory.com site is really quite a treasure
trove of Flyers game information as it includes game information for every
regular season and playoff game played by the club. If you are interested in Patrick Division
history, even through the eyes of a rival, it is a good place to visit.
