Washington Capitals: Metro versus Metro...Know the Differences

Washington Capitals fans, living where they do, might still be confused about the naming of the new "Metropolitan Division" in which the Caps play.  After so many years of patronizing "Metro" to get to games, a new "Metro" might be a bit much, even for the sophisticates that live and work in the region.  So, we bring you this handy table of comparisons that will help you differentiate between "Metro" -- a finely tuned instrument that brings its patrons hours of comfort and pleasure -- and that contraption you ride to hockey games...

The Metropoutheast Division?

Washington Capitals: Rivalries Reborn -- The "MetroPatrick" Division, Part VII: The End of It

In the end, 14 years of play in the Patrick Division was a mixed bag of results for the Washington Capitals.  There were the moments – the five-goal night Bengt Gustafsson had against the Philadelphia Flyers; the Bobby Gould knockout of Mario Lemieux; Steve Leach scoring goals ten seconds apart against the Penguins (a club record for fastest two goals scored by one player), part of a three-goals-in-21-seconds sequence.

But those were moments in the regular season.  The playoffs were a continuing disappointment for the Caps.  Even when something memorable would take place – Dale Hunter scoring a game-winning, series-clinching overtime win in Game 7 of a playoff series – it would be taken away in short order, the Caps following up their Game 7 overtime win over the Flyers with a seven-game loss to the New Jersey Devils.

In 14 seasons in the Patrick Division the Caps reached the playoffs in each of their last 11 seasons.  In 88 post-season games they posted a 42-46 record in games, averaging 3.4 goals per game for and 3.3 goals per game against.  But within that record was a deeper one of frustration.

The Caps were capable of stringing wins together.  Four times they compiled four-game winning streaks, accounting for more than a third of their total playoff wins over the period.  Oddly, perhaps, none of those streaks came in a single series.  The Caps, in fact, have never swept a seven-game playoff series in franchise history (they did sweep best-of-five series against Philadelphia Flyers in 1984 and the New York Islanders in 1986).

On the other hand, the Caps also had three four-game losing streaks in their Patrick Division playoff history.   They did, however, avoid ever being swept in a best-of-seven series in their 14 years in the Patrick Division.

During this period the Caps were the big tease, which led to the big disappointment.  In 16 playoff series played against Patrick Division teams, this being a period when the first two rounds were intradivisional play, the Caps were 11-5 in Game 1 results.  And what came of those 11 Game 1 wins?  The Caps went on to lose eight of those series.  Worse, the Caps won only one best-of-seven series out of eight tries when they won Game 1, that coming in the 1990 division semi-finals when they beat the New Jersey Devils in six games after winning Game 1.

The Caps were never able to sustain early series advantages.  In winning Game 1 on 11 occasions against Patrick Division opponents over this period the Caps won Game 2 only four times and only once in eight tries in a best-of-seven series (1992 versus Pittsburgh; the Caps would go on to lose the series).

It did not get better as series went on.  Game 3 was a minefield for the Caps in the playoffs.  They were 6-10 in Game 3 in 14 playoff years, winning only three series of the ten in which they lost Game 3.

Game 4… Game 5… Game 6… it was more of the same.  The Caps had a below-.500 record in those games during their Patrick Division years.   Not abominable, mind you (Game 4: 6-8, Game 5: 5-8, Game 6: 4-5), but bad enough to be a team that spent a lot of time trying to come from behind.

That brings us to games in which the Caps or their opponents faced elimination.  There were 15 occasions over 11 playoff series in which the Caps faced elimination at least once.  Their record in those games was 5-10, and three of those wins came in their 1988 division semi-final against the Philadelphia Flyers in which the Caps came back from a 3-1 deficit in games to win the series.  Other than that, when the Caps dug a hole, it was filled in behind them.

On the other hand, in ten series in which the Caps had the chance to eliminate their opponent they posted a 6-10 record in games.  Three times they lost three such games in a row in a series, dropping the last three games of their 1985 series against the New York Islanders (a best-of-five series), their 1987 series against the Islanders, and their 1992 series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  When the Caps blew up, they blew up big.

Game 7 deserves its own mention.  Four times in 14 seasons in the Patrick Division the Capitals played in a Game 7 in the post-season.  Three of them came in consecutive series over the 1987 and 1988 playoffs, two of them in overtime, all of them one-goal decisions.  The fourth featured an empty-net goal for what would end as a two-goal defeat for the Caps.  Those contests put into clear focus one of the great shortcomings of the Caps in this period – one-goal games.  There were 35 one-goal decisions involving the Caps in Patrick Division playoff series, and the Caps finished with a 15-20 record in those games.  Five of those one-goal losses came in games in which the Caps were eliminated.

Taken together, 14 years in the Patrick Division was a period of growth for the Capitals franchise, a period in which it was quite literally saved from extinction.  However, only once in 14 seasons in the division did the Caps win a regular-season division title, that coming in 1989.  Six times in 14 seasons the Caps finished third or lower in the division.  Only once did the club advance beyond the divisional rounds of the playoffs, that being in 1990 when they beat the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers to reach the conference finals, where they lost to the Boston Bruins.

The 14 years in which the Caps battled in the Patrick Division was a period of “haves” and “have nots.”  Of the six teams that played in the division over the majority of these seasons, Patrick Division teams reached the Stanley Cup finals nine times.  But three teams – the New York Islanders (five), the Pittsburgh Penguins (two), and the Philadelphia Flyers (two) account for all of the appearances.  Six times in those 14 seasons – the Islanders four times and the Penguins twice – the Patrick Division would become home to the Stanley Cup champion.

On the other hand, you had the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils, and the Washington Capitals.  The Rangers were 9-12 in post-season series, but did reach the conference finals twice.  The Devils were 2-5 in series, but did reach the conference finals in 1988.  The Caps were 6-11 overall (6-10 in the division), but did reach the conference finals in 1990.  You would have to say, though, that these teams were the “have nots” of the Patrick Division.

The Rangers and Devils would cast their Patrick Division frustration aside shortly after the league abolished named divisions.  The Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, and the Devils would win three Stanley Cups over the 1994-2003 period along with a loss in the finals in 2001.

The Caps, however, would continue to know little but frustration.  They would reach a Stanley Cup final in 1998, but it would be the only time they would escape the second round since they took the Patrick Division banner into the conference finals in 1990. It is a record of frustration that continues to this day.

Caps fans probably remember the Patrick Division days as being better than they were, at least in terms of on-ice performance.  It was a competitive division of teams that asked for and gave no quarter.  It was rough and hard-fought, often over the line of the rulebook.  The Caps often won more than they lost, their 221-195-35 regular season record in the division and 11 straight playoff appearances to close their divisional history being evidence of that.  But the hope that success sparked in the hearts of Caps fans was almost always extinguished in the post season, often in cruel and unexpected ways.  In a way, the profile of their Capital Centre home during those years was a visual representation of the deflated dreams of Caps fans.

The Caps now join their old Patrick Division rivals in the new Metropolitan Division with a chance to write a new history.  Years from now fans will have memories of individual battles, team rivalries, and memorable games won and lost.  Here’s hoping that there are more happy endings to seasons than what fans of the Caps during the Patrick Division years witnessed.

Washington Capitals: Rivalries Reborn -- The "MetroPatrick" Division, Part VI: Pittsburgh Penguins

Our look back at the Washington Capitals’ history against their rivals in the old Patrick Division finally gets to the team that Caps fans have grown to love to hate – the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins had an intradivisional rivalry that preceded their Patrick Division rivalry.  When the National Hockey League expanded to 18 teams for the 1974-1975 season, adding the Washington Capitals and the Kansas City Scouts, the Caps were placed in the new Norris Division of the Prince of Wales Conference.  There they would reside with the Penguins for the next five seasons until the league expanded to 21 teams for the 1979-1980 season.  The Capitals were sent to the Patrick Division, while the Penguins remained behind in the Norris.  The Penguins would make their move to the Patrick Division in the 1981-1982 season, taking the place of the Calgary Flames who, one season removed from their relocation from Atlanta, were realigned into the Smythe Division of the Clarence Campbell Conference.

The Caps and Penguins had something in common in that first year together in the Patrick Division.  They were not very good.  However, since four of the five teams in the conference would make the playoffs, the Penguins would get in by virtue of their fourth-place finish.  They made it largely at the expense of the Caps, who they defeated in the season series, five games to two with one tie.

When the Penguins won the first game of the 1982-1983 season series it might have seemed as if it would be more of the same in Year 2 of their Patrick Division rivalry.  It was not.  When the Caps beat the Penguins, 5-4, at Capital Centre on December 2, 1982, it touched off a span of 27 games over which the Caps would dominate the Penguins to the tune of a 23-2-2 record.  It was not as if the games were especially close, either.  Over those 27 games the Caps averaged 4.8 goals per contest, holding the Penguins to 2.6 goals per game.  There were only six one-goal games in that 27-game span, the Caps winning all six.  There were 14 games decided by three or more goals, the Caps going 12-2 in those contests.  Twice the Caps beat the Pens by 9-1 scores.

Not even the entrance of Mario Lemieux into the rivalry made much of a difference.  Lemieux started his NHL career in the 1984-1985 season, but only once in his first two seasons could the Penguins beat the Caps, an 8-1 win on February 12, 1986.

Although the Caps utterly dominated the Penguins, it would be hard to think of this rivalry as being all that intense, especially when compared to the Caps’ experience against the New York teams and the Philadelphia Flyers.  Even when the Caps 23-2-2 run came to an end with the end of the 1985-1986 season, the Penguins could not swing the pendulum entirely in the other direction and make this a rivalry to challenge the intensity of the other Patrick Division rivalries the Caps had, at least not right away. 

The Pens did turn things around somewhat in the 1986-1987 season, winning four of the first six games of the season series.  It was the seventh and last game of that season series that Caps fans might remember best, though, and one that might have set the stage for a more intense rivalry to come.  On March 20, 1987, the Caps and Penguins were rolling into the last ten games of the regular season battling for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Patrick Division.  The Caps went into that game in fourth place with a 30-32-9 record, while the Pens were in fifth place with a 28-33-11 record.  The Caps were leaking oil, though, having gone 1-4-1 in their previous six games.  The Penguins were not blazing themselves, but at least they had a 5-3-0 record in their previous eight contests.

That was the setting for a late-season Friday night game in Landover, Maryland.  If the Capitals-Penguins rivalry lacked a certain intensity to that point in their Patrick Division histories, the urgency of a late-season rush for a playoff spot added some fuel to it.  It exploded 77 seconds into the second period.  It started with a scrum along the boards to the right of the Penguins’ net.  The Caps’ Gaetan Duchesne and Pens’ Troy Loney exchanged shoves while the linesman was separating the Penguins’ Mario Lemieux and the Capitals’ Bobby Gould.  Gould started skating up ice when he was challenged by Lemieux to a throwdown.  Gould obliged before the linesman could get back between them.  Three right hands from Gould later, it was over.  Gould dropped Lemieux with those wallops before Penguin forward Craig Simpson jumped in and pulled Gould off the fallen Penguin center.

The dazed Lemieux had to be helped off the ice, and the Caps would go on to defeat the Penguins, 4-3.  It started an 8-0-1 run for the Caps to finish the season in second place in the Patrick Division.  The loss would be the first of a 2-5-1 finish for the Penguins that left them out of the money in the race for a playoff spot in the 1986-1987 season.

Starting with the 1987-1988 season the Caps would lose nine of the next 11 games they played against the Penguins and would go 8-18-2 against Pittsburgh through the end of the 1991 regular season.  Caps fans did not know it at the time, but it was the advance wave of a new source of frustration and heartbreak for the Caps.  This is when the Caps-Penguins rivalry fans came to know started coming into being.

That 1990-1991 season was the first in which the teams would meet in the post-season.  Pittsburgh finished first in the Patrick Division, seven points ahead of the third-place Caps.  Washington eliminated the New York Rangers in the division semi-finals in six games, while Pittsburgh knocked off the New Jersey Devils in seven games in their semi-final series.

The division finals opened in Pittsburgh, and the home team took a 2-1 lead into the third period of Game 1.  The Caps tied the game in the third period on a Kevin Hatcher power play goal, and Al Iafrate put the Caps up for good with less than five minutes left in what would be a 4-2 Caps win.

The Caps had a chance to put the Pens in a deep hole in Game 2 in Pittsburgh, and it looked as if they would do just that after the Pens took another lead into the third period.  With the home team leading, 5-3, Dino Ciccarelli scored two goals in the first eight minutes of the period to tie the game.  Calle Johansson scored just over two minutes after the second Ciccarelli goal, giving the Caps a 6-5 lead.  Goalie Mike Liut – playing in relief of starter Don Beaupre – could not make it stand up, though, allowing a Randy Gilhen goal with less than five minutes left in regulation to tie the game.  It would be Gilhen’s only goal – only point – of the 1991 playoffs.  Kevin Stevens might have saved the Pens’ season when he scored just over eight minutes into the overtime to tie the series at a game apiece.

It was all downhill for the Caps after that.  Washington was able to muster only a single goal in each of the next three games, the victim of Penguin goalie Tom Barrasso stopping 97 of 100 shots.  Pittsburgh won all three games and the series, and would go on to win the first Stanley Cup in their history.

In the 1991-1992 season the Caps won five of the first six regular season meetings and did so in commanding fashion, outscoring the Pens by a 32-11 margin in the five wins.  The teams had one more meeting, though, in what would be the Caps last game of the regular season.  For Washington, the game did not mean much.  The Caps already clinched the second spot in the division.  For Pittsburgh, the game did not mean a lot more.  The Penguins already clinched a playoff spot with two games remaining.  However, there was the matter of seeding.  Pittsburgh came into game 79 of their season in fourth place in the division, two points behind the New Jersey Devils, who were wrapping up their regular season the same night as the Caps and Penguins were meeting.  A win and a New Jersey loss would vault the Penguins into third place in the division and a first round playoff matchup against the Caps.

That confluence of events made the meeting between the Caps and Pens on April 15^th in Pittsburgh something of a “Game 0” of the Patrick Division semi-finals.  And Pittsburgh would go into the game missing their leading scorer, Mario Lemieux, who was on the shelf with a badly bruised shoulder.  The Penguins had another weapon, though.  Second-year forward Jaromir Jagr scored his 31^st and 32^nd goals of the season to lead the Penguins to a 4-1 win over the Caps, third place in the division (the Devils lost that night), and that first-round matchup against the Caps.

The Caps took advantage of Lemieux’ third straight absence from the Penguin lineup when they took Game 1 of the division semi-finals.  Peter Bondra led the way with two goals for the Caps, and goalie Don Beaupre stopped 32 of 33 shots in a 3-1 Washington win at Capital Centre.

It looked even better for the Caps in Game 2.  Mario Lemieux returned to the lineup and contributed assists on the first two goals of the game.  That would be the extent of Lemieux’ contribution and the Penguins’ offense for the evening.  Peter Bondra and Michal Pivonka had identical 1-2-3 scoring lines, Dino Ciccarelli and Dmitri Khristich each had a goal and an assist, and Don Beaupre stopped the last 28 shots he faced in the Caps’ 6-2 win.

The Caps headed off to Pittsburgh looking to drive a stake into the defending Stanley Cup champions.  That would not be the operative metaphor for Game 3.  “Street fight” was more like it, and it was not one that the Caps would win.  It was a penalty fest.  Eight penalties were called in the first period, all of them leading to power plays – none of the penalties were of the coincidental variety. 

The Caps came out of that first period with a 2-1 lead, but the tone had been set.  Pittsburgh – behind a four-point period by Lemieux – wiped out the Caps’ first intermission lead and took a 5-2 lead into the third period.  The Caps got back to within a goal on scores by Al Iafrate and Kevin Hatcher, but Lemieux scored an empty-net goal to complete a hat trick and six-point night in the Penguins’ 6-4 win.  A total of 23 power plays were awarded in the game, the Caps going 2-for-11 and the Penguins going 3-for-12.

Washington shook off the Game 3 setback and put the Penguins on the brink of elimination in Game 4 in Pittsburgh.  The Caps got two goals in the first eight minutes of the contest, took a 3-0 lead into the locker room at the first intermission, and chased starting Penguin goaltender Tom Barrasso.  Dino Ciccarelli put the Caps up 4-0 early in the third period before the Penguins could find their offense, getting one back off the stick of Mario Lemieux.  It was too little, too late for the Penguins.  The Caps scored three more times, Ciccarelli ending the evening with a four-goal night and Mike Ridley finishing with three assists in the Caps’ 7-2 win.

Then it was back to Washington for Game 5 and a chance for the Caps to close out the series.  The celebration would have to wait, though.  Pittsburgh played a smart road game, forsaking run-and-gun for clamping down on defense.  The Penguins held the Caps to just four shots on goal in the second period and Dino Ciccarelli without a shot on goal over the first 40 minutes.  Meanwhile, former Cap Larry Murphy scored a power play goal in the second period to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead they would not give up.  Jaromir Jagr scored on a breakaway later in the period, and the Pens would add a late goal in the 5-2 win

Game 6 in Pittsburgh turned into a Nightmare in the Igloo for the Caps.  The Penguins scored the game’s first two goals, both by forward Kevin Stevens, both set up by Mario Lemieux.  The Caps came back with four of their own, two of them by forward Peter Bondra, to take a 4-2 lead early in the second period.  The Caps could not stop Lemieux, though.  Only Lemieux could…to the Penguins’ advantage.  With the Penguins nursing a one-goal lead, Lemieux drew a penalty from Dino Ciccarelli, a call some folks might have thought Lemieux embellished to referee Andy Van Hellemond.  With Ciccarelli in the penalty box, Lemieux converted the power play, and the Pens were in the clear, eventually winning Game 6 by a 6-4 margin.  Lemieux finished the night with two goals and three assists.

That left it up to Game 7 at Capital Centre.  Going into that game on May 1^st, there had been only 10 teams over more than half a century of Stanley Cup playoff history to come back from a 3-1 deficit in games in a best-of-seven series.  The Penguins made a bid to make it 11 when Mario Lemieux scored a shorthanded goal in the first period to put Pittsburgh up, 1-0.  After the Caps tied the game on a goal by Al Iafrate, Lemieux set up Jaromir Jagr for a power play goal to restore the Penguins’ one-goal lead.  The visitors clamped down after that, holding the Caps to a total of 19 shots on goal for the game.  Joe Mullen scored into an empty net in the game’s last minute to complete the comeback and send the Caps to the golf course for the summer.

The Penguins would go on to win their second straight Stanley Cup.  The Caps would go on to make it something of a cottage industry in dropping playoff series after taking two-game leads.  That division semi-final loss to the Penguins was the second time in six years the Caps dropped a series after taking a 3-1 lead in games.  They would go on to do it in 1995 (again to the Penguins), would lose a 2-0 lead in games in 1996 (yes, to Pittsburgh), lose a 2-0 lead in games to Tampa Bay in 2003, lose a 2-0 lead in games in 2009 (again with the Penguins), lose a 3-1 lead in games to Montreal in 2010, and would lose a 2-0 lead to the New York Rangers in 2013.

All of those series came after the Patrick Division was dissolved after the 1992-1993 season.  The 1991-1992 division semi-final series against the Penguins was the last time the teams would meet as Patrick Division rivals.  But the storm clouds had already gathered overhead in what would be the Capitals-Penguins rivalry that would carry over into their Atlantic Division years that would last through the 1990’s and into their post-season rivalry of the early 2000’s. 

It always seemed to rain on the Caps, a disappointing period of hockey for the team and their fans with the Penguins replacing the New York Islanders of the 1980’s as the agent of heartbreak.  As fans would come to realize in the Capitals-Penguins rivalry in the Patrick Division, regular season domination – that 23-2-2 run in the 1980’s by the Caps – would not be what was remembered, but what would happen in the playoffs.

Washington Capitals: Rivalries Reborn -- The "MetroPatrick" Division, Part V: New Jersey Devils

We wind up the Big Apple portion of the look back at the Washington Capitals’ Patrick Division rivalries with a stop just back over the river in New Jersey and a team that spent a decade in transition from one of the league’s bottom dwellers to a playoff contender while trying to fend off their Patrick Division rivals.

It was a long and winding road for the New Jersey Devils to become the “New Jersey Devils” of the National Hockey League’s Patrick Division.  It started in the same year that the Washington Capitals came into the league – 1974-1975.  The other expansion team joining the league that season took up residence in Kansas City and was known as the “Scouts.”  It seemed to be an apt name.  They started their inaugural season on the road for eight games (their new arena was not yet complete) before their franchise home opener – a 5-4 win over Washington. 

Then, just two dismal (27-110-23 record) years later they hit the road for good, moving to Denver to become the “Colorado Rockies.”  Things were not much better in Denver.  In six seasons in the Mile High City the Rockies posted a 113-281-86 record with one playoff appearance.  Not even having Don Cherry behind the bench in the 1979-1980 season could raise them to respectability.  After six seasons, much of which was spent hinting at a move to New Jersey under new ownership, the Rockies moved east, renamed the “New Jersey Devils” for the 1982-1983 season, the team that would be the last addition to the Patrick Division.

In the 11 years that the Caps and the Devils fought in the Patrick Division, the Caps recorded a 50-23-4 record against New Jersey, by far the Caps’ best regular season record against a division rival.  Only in 1989 (3-4-0) and 1993 (2-5-0) did the Caps finish the regular season with a losing record against New Jersey.

For the Caps and the Devils, the rivalry started something less than emphatically. When the teams got together for their first meeting as Patrick Division rivals in East Rutherford, NJ, on the night of November 8, 1982, the Caps were sitting in fifth place in the division with a 4-7-2 record, while the Devils were in the midst of a nine-game winless streak (0-7-2) that dropped them to 3-8-5 and fourth place in the division.  The game did not give either team much comfort.  First, paid attendance was only 10,273.  Second, the teams skated to a 2-2 tie, the Devils scoring on a late goal by Jeff Larmer to even the score.

From that point forward, though, the Caps owned the Devils.  They won the last six meetings that 1982-1983 season, and by the time the 1987-1988 season ended, the Caps had a 32-6-4 record against New Jersey in the Patrick Division.  Washington outscored the Devils, 171-100, over those 42 games (4.07 goals per game to 2.38).  The Devils managed consecutive games without a loss only once in that span, and that “streak” was split between two seasons, the Devils beating the Caps by a 3-2 score in their last meeting of the 1984-1985 season on March 28, 1985, then beating the Caps by a 4-1 margin in the teams’ first meeting of the 1985-1986 season on October 12, 1985.  At one point the Caps had a 19-0-1 record at home against New Jersey as Patrick Division rivals before losing at Capital Centre on March 20, 1988, by a 4-2 score.

That 1987-1988 season and that loss to the Devils at home to end the season series… Caps fans should have known.  It would be the first in which the Devils would qualify for the post-season as a member of the Patrick Division.  They did it by the width of their skate blades, finishing in a tie for fourth place in the division with the New York Rangers, but qualifying for the playoffs on the basis of having more wins (they actually lost their season series with the Rangers).

While the Capitals were battling the Philadelphia Flyers to a Game 7 overtime in the division semi-finals before advancing, the Devils were showing a certain resiliency in their first round matchup, upsetting the New York Islanders in six games after splitting the first four contests, both of the Devils’ losses coming in overtime.

After their seven-game series against the Flyers, the upstart Devils might have seemed a lesser foe to the Caps in the division finals. The Caps might have been feeling even better after racing out to a 3-0 lead against the Devils in Game 1 on goals by Mike Ridley, Larry Murphy, and Scott Stevens before strangling the Devils over the remainder of the contest in a 3-1 win at Capital Centre.

The win came at a price, though.  Late in the third period, Caps defenseman Rod Langway got tangled up with Devils’ forward Pat Verbeek.  In the moment, Verbeek’s skate sliced through the back of Langway’s calf.  Langway skated off under his own power, a steak of red following him to the Capitals’ bench.  The injury to his leg would end his season...

Langway’s absence was felt keenly and immediately.  The Devils outscored the Caps, 15-6, in Games 2 and 3, including a 10-4 pasting in Game 3 in which the Devils’ Patrik Sundstrom and Mark Johnson recorded hat tricks, Johnson finishing with four goals.  Sundstrom finished with eight points, eclipsing Wayne Gretzky’s record for points in a single playoff game.  That still stands as an NHL playoff record, since tied by Mario Lemieux.

Then, it was Washington’s turn to display their own brand of resilience.  The Caps won Game 4 in New Jersey by a 4-1 margin, and after dropping Game 5 at home, 3-1, faced elimination in New Jersey in Game 6.  The Devils opened the scoring just 18 seconds into the game when Claude Loiselle took advantage of indecision between goalie Pete Peeters and Scott Stevens over who would play a loose puck.  Loiselle got to the puck before either of them and scored the game’s first goal.

That would pretty much end the fun portion of the evening for the Devils and their fans.  The Caps ran off six unanswered goals from six different players -- Mike Ridley, Dale Hunter, Steve Leach, Yvon Corriveau, Dave Christian, and Kelly Miller, for those keeping score – before the Devils’ Dave Maley scored in the third period.   Mike Gartner ended the scoring in the 7-2 win to set up a Game 7 at Capital Centre in Landover, MD.

Ah, but you know how such things end.  The Caps could not duplicate their first round seventh game magic against the Flyers in the deciding game against the Devils.  The Devils scored early once more, Kirk Muller scoring just 14 seconds into the contest.  The Devils did not wilt this time, though.  Claude Loiselle scored 12 minutes in to make it 2-0.  The Caps rallied behind goals by Grant Ledyard and Kevin Hatcher in the second period to leave the teams tied at two goals apiece headed into the last 20 minutes. 

It was John MacLean scoring 14 minutes into the third period, giving the Devils a 3-2 lead that they would carry to the final buzzer, eliminating the Caps.  The series stands out, not just for the Caps losing their captain and on-ice leader for the last six games of the series, but for the mayhem on the ice.  The teams combined for 654 minutes in penalties over the seven games, an NHL record for penalty minutes by two teams in a playoff series that still stands, as does New Jersey’s 349 penalty minutes as a team.  By way of comparison, the 2013 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks played 23 games and compiled a total of only 209 penalty minutes.

The Caps would get a measure of revenge two years later when they met the Devils in the Patrick Division semi-finals.  The Caps lost two of the first three games, all of the decisions of the one-goal variety.  Game 4, however, would signal what was to come for the Capitals in the 1990 post season.  With the game tied at 1-1, John Druce got what would be the game-winning goal (his second of the series) in what would be a Capitals 3-1 win.  Druce went on to record 14 goals in 15 playoff games in 1990.

There was still unfinished business against the Devils, though.  Washington got balanced scoring in Game 5 with Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Dino Ciccarelli and Geoff Courtnall scoring for the Caps.  It was just enough for Don Beaupre, who stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced in a 4-3 win for the Caps.  In Game 6, the Devils squandered a chance early when defenseman Aleksei Kasatonov hit the post on a shot just four minutes into the game.  The teams fought to a draw almost to the horn for the first intermission, but Steve Leach gave the Caps a 1-0 lead with 11 seconds left in the period when he intercepted defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov’s attempted clearing pass and fired the puck past goalie Chris Terreri.

The Caps took a 2-0 lead early in the second period on a goal by Geoff Courtnall, and the Devils halved the deficit on a goal by John MacLean late in the period.  Not late enough, though.  John Druce poked in his own rebound with less than a minute left in the second period to give the Caps a 3-1 lead at the second break.  Peter Stastny got the Devils back within a goal early in the third period, but that was as close as the Devils could get, the Caps eliminating them with their 3-2 win.

The Caps and Devils would not meet again as Patrick Division foes in the playoffs.  In fact, that 1990 series remains the last time those two teams met in the post-season.  Although both teams would reach the playoffs in their last three seasons in the division, only the Caps would win a playoff series over that time, beating the Rangers in six games in 1991. 

Over their last three seasons as Patrick Division foes, the Caps eked out an 11-10-0 regular season record over New Jersey.  But even to the end it was an interesting rivalry.  On April 10, 1993, the teams met for the final time as Patrick Division opponents.  The Caps had clinched a spot in the post-season the previous night when the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers.  The Devils were still in need of a win to reach the playoffs, though.  They got off on the right foot on a goal by former Caps defenseman Scott Stevens in the first period.  It was the springboard the Devils needed, building on that early goal for a 4-1 lead in the third period.  The Caps then got two goals of their own, one of them by Bob Carpenter, now in his second tour with the Caps.  It was not enough, however.  Claude Lemieux scored late, and Craig Billington made the two-goal lead stand up in a 5-3 Devils win that brought the rivalry to a close.  Carpenter would later go on to play for the Devils, and Billington would later tend goal for the Caps. 

The stuff that makes for a devil of a rivalry.

Washington Capitals: Rivalries Reborn -- The "MetroPatrick" Division, Part IV: New York Rangers

After getting in touch with our inner Patrick Division memories with looks at the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers, we head back up I-95 to take a look back at the Patrick Division years spent battling the New York Rangers.

On October 14, 1979, Wayne Gretzky recorded his first National Hockey League goal.  That same night, the Philadelphia Flyers won their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, starting what would be (and what remains) an NHL record 35-game unbeaten streak.

One might forgive the fact that the Washington Capitals’ first meeting with the New York Rangers as Patrick Division rivals did not get a lot of attention.  Not that this first-ever meeting was without its moments.  It was the night that the Rangers retired the jersey of Rod Gilbert  (number “7” for those keeping score).  The Capitals own number “7,” defenseman Yvon Labre, was involved in two fights, one of them with future hall of famer Phil Esposito (it would be Esposito’s last fight in his NHL career).  As for the hockey portion of the evening, Dennis Maruk scored four goals, three of them coming in a span of 6:57 in the second period, and the Caps ruined the Rangers’ celebration with a 5-3 win.

That was the first of what would be 95 regular season contests between the Caps and the Rangers when they shared a Patrick Division address from 1979-1993.  The Caps had the advantage in those years, posting a 46-40-9 record against the Blueshirts, 24-19-5 at home and 22-21-4 on the road.  It was a remarkably back-and-forth rivalry over those 14 seasons.  Only three times did the Caps enjoy winning streaks of more than three games against the Rangers.  Only once did the Rangers have a winning streak as long as four games.  In addition to the nine ties these teams recorded, there were 29 one-goal games, the Caps going 15-14 in those contests.

The rivalry was especially close in the early years.  From that October 1979 first-ever meeting through the 1983-1984 season, the Caps were 9-10-5 against the Blueshirts and could not muster consecutive wins against the Rangers over that 24-game stretch.  However, with the 1984-1985 season the Caps opened up some ground on the Rangers in the rivalry.  After dropping the first two contests of the season against New York, the Caps beat the Rangers five times in a row, outscoring them by a 24-11 margin.  It would be the start of a 14-7-1 run for the Caps that would be the most dominating period for either team in the Patrick Division era of the rivalry.

This part of the era would be memorable for other things, though.  In the 1985-1986 season the Caps and Rangers split the season series with three wins for each club plus a tie in the seven games.  But the Caps finished the regular season with a club record 50 wins and 107 standings points.  The Rangers, on the other hand, nearly fell out of playoff contention when they finished the regular season with a 7-12-2 record in their last 21 games.  They finished the regular season fourth in the Patrick Division, just two points ahead of fifth-place Pittsburgh.

In the Patrick Division semi-finals the Caps were making short work of the New York Islanders, sweeping them in three games in their best-of-five series.  The Rangers were in a death match with the Philadelphia Flyers, finally emerging with a 5-2 in in Game 5 of their series.  That left the Caps and Rangers to battle to be the Patrick Division representative in the Prince of Wales Conference final.

The Caps were the favorite to advance.  They had five players finish the regular season with more points than the Rangers’ leading scorer, Mike Ridley.  They averaged almost half a goal more per game on offense than the Rangers.  They were getting healthy, with Mike Gartner and Bobby Carpenter getting back on track after knee injuries.  They had the coach with experience in Bryan Murray, who earned his 200^th win as coach of the Caps that season.  The Rangers had a rookie head coach – Ted Sator.  The Caps finished 29 points ahead of the Rangers in the regular season and were rested after their sweep of the Islanders.

In Game 1 at Capital Centre, the Caps picked up where they left off (they did not trail at any point in their series against the Islanders), skating out to a 3-1 lead.  But the Caps allowed a shorthanded goal (they allowed the fewest such goals in the regular season) to halve the lead, then allowed a goal by Mike Ridley to tie the game.  Brian MacLellan scored the game-winner in overtime on a breakaway to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead in games.

The Caps treated the loss like a speed bump, winning Game 2 by an 8-1 margin (the goals scored setting a playoff game scoring record for the club that stands to this day), Alan Haworth and Gaetan Duchesne each scoring a pair of goals and the Caps chasing goalie John Vanbiesbrouck in favor of Glen Hanlon.

Game 3 was not a lot different, even if the venue was.  The series shifted to Madison Square Garden where the Caps got another pair of two-goal performances in a 6-3 win, Bobby Carpenter and John Barrett doing the damage.

At that point, folks might have thought the rout was on, that the Rangers would go quick and quiet.  However, the Rangers salvaged a split in New York when they got a late goal from Bob Brooke to tie Game 4 at 5-5, then got the game-winner in overtime from Brooke to tie the series.

Losing in overtime after twice having two-goal leads, including a 5-3 lead in the third period, appeared to flummox the Caps.  The Caps took a 2-0 lead in Game 5 at Capital Centre, then yielded the last four goals of the contest to enable the Rangers to take a 3-2 series lead back to Madison Square Garden. 

In Game 6 it was the Rangers who got out to a 2-0 lead, an advantage they took into the third period.  Bobby Carpenter scored at 5:38 of the period to get the Caps to within a goal, but that was as close as they would get.  The Rangers held on, leaving Caps head coach Bryan Murray to recognizewhat was lost:  "It's kind of hard to swallow a series loss like this when we had the greatest chance in the history of the franchise . . . an opportunity to win.”

Less than a year later, the clubs made noise off the ice.  It started in Washington where there was a growing rift between head coach Bryan Murray and Bobby Carpenter over where Carpenter was positioned.  Murray chose to deploy Carpenter as a left wing instead of center, the position at which he played most often to that point.  Things got bad enough in the dispute over position that Carpenter’s production plummeted.  After 22 appearances in his second season removed from scoring 53 goals, Carpenter had only five goals.  Carpenter met with general manager David Poile in November, the result of which was that Carpenter agreed to the club’s making an effort to trade him.  At that point, Poile also informed Carpenter that his services were no longer required by the club and that he should not attend practices.

Carpenter was traded to the Rangers on New Year’s Day, 1987.  He, along with a 1989 second-round draft choice, was sent up I-95 in exchange for Mike Ridley, Kelly Miller, and Bob Crawford.  Carpenter would last barely two months in New York, traded in March to the Los Angeles Kings with Tom Laidlaw for Jeff Crossman, Marcel Dionne and a 1989 third-round draft pick.  Crawford would play in only 12 games for the Caps without recording a point.  However, Miller would go on to play in 940 games for the Caps over 13 seasons and establish himself as one of the best defensive forwards in the league.  Ridley would play in 588 games for the Caps, scoring 218 goals and averaging almost a point per game (547 total points) over his career with the Caps.  This trade stands as one of – if not the – most lopsided trades in Caps history.

After a period in which the Caps’ most important games seemed to come against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Caps and Rangers renewed post-season acquaintances in 1990 in the Patrick Division finals.

The Caps went into their division final matchup having struggled against the New Jersey Devils through six games until getting a game-winning, series-clinching goal from forward John Druce in the second period of Game 6, a 3-2 Washington win.  That goal, his third of the division semi-final series against the Devils, was merely prelude for what came next.

Druce scored a goal that was lost in the noise of a 7-3 Ranger win in Game 1 of the division finals at Madison Square Garden.  He made some noise of his own in Game 2.  Druce scored a goal in each period to record his first post-season hat trick – his first NHL hat trick, for that matter – in a 6-3 Capitals win.  In Game 3 at Capital Centre he rose to the occasion (Dino Ciccarelli would miss this game and the rest of the playoffs with a sprained knee, and goalie Don Beaupre went out early in the first period with a groin injury) by scoring a pair of power play goals in a four-goal first period in the Caps’ 6-3 win.

In Game 4, Druce scored two more goals, giving him eight in the four games of the series, goals that the Caps needed to get to overtime against the Rangers.  Rod Langway won it for Washington in overtime, 4-3, on what would be his only shot on goal for the game.  In Game 5, Druce took things into his own hands in settling the affair.  Kelly Miller and Normand Rochefort exchanged goals for the Caps and Rangers, respectively, in regulation.  In overtime, though, it was Druce redirecting a centering pass from Geoff Courtnall past goalie John Vanbiesbrouck to give the Caps a 2-1 win and their first trip into the conference finals in franchise history.  For Druce it was the series of a lifetime – nine goals on 20 shots over five games.

The Caps and Rangers would meet the following year in the playoffs as well.  It was their reward for a long, slow slog in which five Patrick Division teams finished only 12 points apart in the standings (the Philadelphia Flyers were the odd team out, missing the playoffs).  The Caps struggled against the Rangers in the regular season, going 2-4-1 in seven games.

They struggled early in the Patrick Division semi-final as well.  Washington managed only a single goal with 93 seconds left in a 2-1 loss in Game 1.  After getting a 36-save shutout from goalie Don Beaupre in a 3-0 win in Game 2, the Caps’ offense went dark once more.  Mike Richter returned the favor to the Caps, shutting them out by a 6-0 score in Game 3, the worst playoff loss at home in Caps’ history to that point. 

In Game 4 at Capital Centre, the Rangers went out to a 1-0 lead in the first period.  But just 25 seconds into the second period, Kevin Hatcher tied the game for the Caps.  Washington took the lead late in the period on a goal from Dave Tippett.  In the third period, Alan May stuffed home a rebound of a Mike Lalor shot to give the Caps a 3-1 lead.  It was just enough offense for the Caps, who tied the series at two games apiece with a 3-2 win.

Game 5 at Madison Square Garden would be the turning point in the series.  And it would turn on the stick of the Capitals’ Dino Ciccarelli.  From 1989 through 1992, Ciccarelli, who was obtained in 1989 in one of the biggest deals in Capitals history (Ciccarelli and defenseman Bob Rouse to Washington for Mike Gartner and Larry Murphy), was among the most popular of the Capitals.  Small wonder why.  In the playoffs over those four seasons only three players – Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, and Cam Neely – averaged more goals per playoff game.

It figured that Ciccarelli would score one of those goals in this game.  The teams went back and forth in regulation but could not settle things in the first 60 minutes, heading to overtime in a 4-4 tie.  However, in the overtime it was a case of each team getting a chance, one missing theirs and the other capitalizing almost immediately.  The Rangers’ chance came from, of all people, Mike Gartner (he was traded by Minnesota to the Rangers in March 1990).  Gartner missed a golden opportunity off a pass from Bernie Nicholls that was shot high.  Then, at the other end, Ciccarelli took the puck deep into the Ranger end, eluded a check, and popped out from behind the net where he sent a soft shot through goalie Mike Richter’s skates on the Caps’ 55^th shot of the game at the 6:44 mark of overtime for the 5-4 win.

In Game 6 at Capital Centre the Caps scored on their first two shots, led 3-0 barely seven minutes into the game (sending Richter to the bench in favor of John Vanbiesbrouck), and held on for a 4-2 win in the series-clinching game.  For the Caps it would be the first time in club history that they advanced past the first round of the playoffs in consecutive years and the second consecutive year that they eliminated the Rangers in the post season.

It was the last time that the Caps and Rangers would meet in the post season as Patrick Division rivals.  The Caps would win two of the three playoff series between the clubs, all three series won by the lower-seeded team.  It would be that 1986 meeting, though, that would stick in Capitals fans’ minds as the best opportunity for a Stanley Cup missed.

As much as any other rivalry between the Caps and the rest of the Patrick Division, this one between the Capitals and Rangers might have been defined by personalities.  Mike Gartner, Mike Ridley, and Kelly Miller played important roles for both sides over the course of the 14-year rivalry.  John Druce was the very embodiment of the player who came out of nowhere to be the dominant force of an entire playoff series in 1990.  There were the five overtime games played between the clubs over three playoff series with game-winning goals scored by five different players.  There was Dino Ciccarelli, who scored nine goals in his first 18 regular season games against the Rangers as a Capital, but who might have been remembered for the only two goals he scored against the Rangers in the post-season in this rivalry, both of them game winners in New York.  There was a feisty young Ranger forward, all of 5’9, 170 pounds, who on a November night in 1984 decided it would be a good idea to take on Scott Stevens with 32 seconds left in a 4-3 Ranger win, and then a month later mixing it up with another Cap, Timo Blomqvist, this time on Washington ice…

Today, that undersized forward – George McPhee – is the general manager of the Capitals.  The legacy of the Patrick Division is long indeed.

Washington Capitals: Rivalries Reborn -- The "MetroPatrick" Division, Part III: Philadelphia Flyers

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 1,000^th 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’ 40^th 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.

Washington Capitals: Rivalries Reborn -- The "MetroPatrick" Division, Part II: New York Islanders

Having provided an overview of the Washington Capitals history in the old “Patrick Division” as they embark on a new history in the “Metropolitan Division” of the NHL – a division largely made up of those old Patrick Division teams – we will take a look back at the individual rivalries from years gone by that will be renewed come this fall.  First up… the New York Islanders.

By the time the Washington Capitals faced the New York Islanders as a Patrick Division rival for the first time on December 22, 1979, the Caps first season in the division was pretty much over.  The Caps trudged into Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the Saturday before Christmas carrying a 7-21-5 record.  It had been more than a month since the Caps had their only two-game winning streak of the season to date.  On this night they had a chance to make it their second such streak, having defeated the Vancouver Canucks at Capital Centre the night before.

That second two game winning streak would have to wait, though.  The Islanders, who were struggling themselves with an 11-13-6 record, eked out a 2-1 win.  Not that such a result was uncommon.  Before these clubs found themselves thrown together in the Patrick Division, the Caps compiled an overall 1-16-3 record (that is not a misprint) against the Islanders.

That misfortune would continue for the Caps in the early history of this rivalry.  They posted a record of 7-23-2 against the Islanders from December 1979 through November 1984 and were outscored over that span of games by a 135-94 margin (2.94 goals for per game, 4.22 goals against).  Of course, this was also the era in which the Islanders would appear in five straight Stanley Cup finals, winning four straight from 1980 through 1983 and losing in the 1984 finals.

And for those of you Caps fans of recent vintage who might be impressed with the likes of current star islander John Tavares, the Caps had to deal with the likes of Mike Bossy and Brian Trottier during this winning drought.  Bossy, who would record nine straight 50-plus goal seasons from 1977-1978 through 1985-1986, recorded three hat tricks against the Caps in that 7-23-2 run.  Trottier had one of his own, and as if for good measure Duane Sutter had another.

And that brings us to the Sutters.  In the 1970’s and 1980’s six brothers who grew up in Viking, Alberta (fittingly) would dress for NHL teams.  All of them were on an NHL roster from 1982-1983 through 1986-1987.  Two of them – Duane and Brent – would dress for the Islanders as part of their Patrick Division rivalry with the Caps.  They had reputations as good players – Brent had 363 goals over an 18-year career, and Duane recorded 342 points over an 11-year career.  But as much as that, they had a knack for bring out the best – or worst – in opponents…

After that 7-23-2 run to start the Patrick Division phase of the Capitals-Islanders rivalry, things got a lot better for Washington.  From December 27, 1984 until the Patrick Division was disbanded after the 1992-1993 season, the Caps posted a 35-22-4 regular season record against the Islanders, including a nine-game winning streak that straddled the 1990-1991 and 1991-1992 seasons.

Part of that was a changing of the guard in goal.  Billy Smith was the number one goalie in each of the five straight Stanley Cup appearances that ended with the 1984 post-season.  However, his workload started to diminish after that 1984 post-season.  Until then he was typical of the Islander penchant for feistiness.  If there was one word to describe his style in goal during his heyday, it would be “ornery.”  From 1979-1980 through the 1983-1984 seasons, Smith compiled more penalty minutes (160 in 208 games) than any other goaltender, and it was not close.  Pete Peeters was second over that period with 124 penalty minutes in 236 games.  He was a guy who was not afraid to mix it up with players who got close enough to annoy him.

However, with the 1984-1985 season most of the workload ended up with Kelly Hrudey, who would record more appearances for the Islanders from that season until the Patrick Division was disbanded in 1993-1994 than any other Islander goalie.  Hrudey would play a crucial role in the Caps-Isles rivalry in the post-season, but we get ahead of ourselves a bit.

In their Patrick Division years the Caps faced the Islanders in the playoffs more often than they did any other team.  By and large, it was not a pleasant history for the Caps or their fans.  The Isles were the first playoff opponent in franchise history for the Caps, the teams meeting in the Patrick Division semi-finals in 1983.  The Caps earned a split in the first two games of the five-game series, those games being played on Long Island.  The Caps’ 4-2 win in Game 2 to send the series back to Washington tied a game apiece seemed to get the Islanders’ attention.  The Islanders made short work of the Caps in Landover, winning Game 3 by a 6-2 margin, then closing out the Caps in Game 4 by a 6-3 score.  The Islanders would go on to win their fourth straight Stanley Cup.

It would be the Islanders who would end the Caps’ season the following spring when, after the Caps swept the Philadelphia Flyers in three games for their first post-season series win, the Isles ousted the Caps in five games after dropping the opening game of the series.  It looked as if the Caps might finally solve the Islanders when they met in the division semi-finals in 1985 when the Caps won Games 1 and 2, both in overtime.   However, in what would become a too-often repeated trend in Capitals playoff history, they could not close out their opponent.  The Isles  won the last three games of the series, getting the clincher on Capitals home ice (the start of another disturbing playoff trend).

Even when the Islanders did not beat the Caps in the playoffs, they would influence the Caps’ final outcome.  On March 28, 1986, in the teams’ last meeting of the regular season at Capital Centre, Bengt-Åke Gustafsson suffered a broken right leg when he was tripped by Islander defenseman Denis Potvin.  Gustafsson was on his way to setting a career high in points, but his season ended on that night (he finished with 75 points, tied for his career best).  Not only would he miss the rest of the 1985-1986 season, but he would sit out the following season as well (he skated for Bofors IK in Sweden for the 1986-1987 season).  His absence has not so keenly felt when the Caps swept the Islanders in the first round of the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs, but it might have been when the Caps were upset by the New York Rangers in the division finals, four games to two.

All that was prelude to what perhaps stands to this day as the single most heartbreaking loss in franchise history.  There are not many NHL games that have their own Wikpedia page, but the “Easter Epic” does.   The Patrick Division semi-finals in 1987 pitted these two teams against one another, and it was the Caps who looked as if they would make quick work of the Islanders.  Washington won three of the first four games of the series, allowing the Islanders only seven goals in the four games.  The Islanders spent those first four games either shooting themselves in the foot or having it done to them.  As to the latter, the Isles lost leading goal scorer Mike Bossy (in what would be his last season) for the last two weeks of the regular season to a back injury.  He returned for this series but injured a knee in a 3-1 Islander win in Game 2.  He joined Brent Sutter, who had been nursing a groin strain for the past month, on the bench.  With regard to the former, the Islanders whiffed on a chance to tie the series at home in Games 3 and 4 when they managed a total of one goal in six periods of hockey against Caps netminder Bob Mason, who substituted for Pete Peeters, who split Games 1 and 2 in Washington.  The Isles performance at home left the fans in Uniondale displeased.    On top of that, the Caps would host two of the last three games of the series in Washington, if it came to that.

It did. 

Peeters returned to the net for the Caps in Game 5, but despite the Caps outshooting the Isles by a 42-24 margin, the Caps lost in Landover, 4-2.  It was back to Mason for Game 6 on Long Island, but he could not repeat his stellar performance in Games 3 and 4, the Caps losing, 5-4, to force a seventh game.

Mason got the call in Game 7 for the Caps, Hrudey doing the same as he had done for all six games of the series to that point.  A lot of words have been written about that game, from simple descriptions to perspectives from the players and officials.  Numbers told a story, too…

36-21… The Caps outshot the Islanders by this margin in regulation but could not find the back of the net in the last 21:15 of regulation play.

3… Only three power plays were awarded in more than six full periods of hockey, only one of them coming in extra time, an Islander power play when Greg Adams was sent off for a misconduct penalty 16:47 into the second overtime.  It was the last penalty called in the game.

0… The Capitals had not been shut out all season heading into Game 7.  However, they did not score a goal in the last 90:02 of the contest.

73… Kelly Hrudey stopped 73 of 75 shots on goal in the 128:47 of total playing time.  The 73 saves still stands as an NHL record for saves in a playoff game.

128:47… More than two full games of time, this Game 7 remains the longest Game 7 in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But more than the numbers, there was the sound of puck hitting iron and a silent arena…

Pat LaFontaine did everything right… when defenseman Gord Dineen circled behind the Caps net with the puck, LaFontaine covered for him at the blue line.  When Dineen’s shot was blocked, there was LaFontaine to keep the puck in the offensive zone.  Realizing the situation, that there is no bad shot to take in this situation, LaFontaine spun and fired.  But even with having done everything right, it took a nod from the hockey gods to bring this game to a finish.  The puck might have been deflected ever so slightly by the stick of Rod Langway, who was set up in front of the Caps’ net.  The puck still had to elude Dale Henry screening Mason.  Then, after eluding the screened Mason, who never saw the shot, the puck hit the post to Mason’s left.  Instead of caroming out, it settled into the back of the net, the Islanders a 3-2 winner in the fourth overtime.  

The Caps would play one more playoff series against the Islanders as Patrick Division rivals.  Perhaps fittingly, it was the last playoff series the Caps would play as a member of the Patrick Division.  In the division semi-finals in 1993 the Caps would find themselves just short at just about every turn in the series.  After taking Game 1 at Capital Centre, Washington lost each of the next three games in overtime.  The Caps came back to win Game 5 at home, 6-4, but succumbed to the Islanders on Long Island in Game 6, 5-3.  

Caps fans of long standing will note as well that it was in that Game 6 of that last series in which one of the ugliest moments in Capitals playoff history unfolded…

It would result in what was for Dale Hunter, at the time, the longest suspension in NHL history (21 games, served at the start of the following season) since the Boston Bruins’ Billy Coutu was suspended for life for assaulting on-ice officials and instigating a bench-clearing brawl in the 1927 Stanley Cup playoffs.  The Islanders, who would defeat the Caps in their first Patrick Division playoff series, would be the club that would repeat the result in the Caps’ last Patrick Division playoff series.

As much as the contemporary Capitals are defined in their rivalry against the Pittsburgh Penguins, their Patrick Division rivalry with the New York Islanders in the 1980's and early 1990's might have been more intense.  For most of the 14 seasons that they shared a Patrick Division address, the Islanders were the club that frustrated the Caps most often in the games that mattered.