Washington Capitals: All-Franchise Teams by the Alphabet -- Team O

Here we are up to Team O in the Washington Capitals All-Alphabet Franchise Teams. What does the “O” stand for? Ohhhhhhhh, my God, it’s early."

Well, not really (sorry, Robin), but it is time to look at what is a team abundant in vowels.

Left Wing: Oskar Osala

Regular Season (with Capitals): 1 seasons, 2 games, 0-0-0, minus-1

Playoffs (with Capitals): none

Seriously. Why? Because there are only five skaters in Washington Capitals history whose last name starts with the letter “O.” Curiously, it you look at them in an odd sort of way (and we’ll get to that, although you can probably figure out what it is already), there is one “O” player for each position.

Oskar Osala gets the left wing position. Why? Well, he serves to make a point. Osala was drafted in the fourth round by the Capitals (97th overall) in the 2006 entry draft, the sixth player taken by the Capitals in that draft. At 6’4”, 217 pounds, Osala might have been that power forward that the Caps seem to lack from time to time (at least not named “Ovechkin”). He sounded like the whole package at the time from the scouting reports…

Central Scouting Bureau Scouting Report:

Is a good skater with a long stride, good straight away speed and balance … a hard and accurate shot and has been used on the point for Mississauga’s power play … he goes to the net and is tough to move … showed some good playmaking ability during the season … sees the ice well and with his good passing ability can move the puck effectively … responsible defensively … a big guy with a good physical presence although not to be considered a punishing type of player … has the ability to separate opponents from the puck … gives a hard working up and down effort … has shown a significant improvement over the course of his 1st OHL season …

International Scouting Service Scouting Report:

Osala entered his rookie season this year with Mississauga of the OHL with high expectations. He had a slow start, which was expected, due to his transition from Europe to the North American game and culture. Surprisingly Osala finished strong, putting up great offensive numbers and finished his rookie OHL season with 27 points in the last 30 games. With his quick release and cannon of a shot, he managed close to a point a game in the second half of the season. He has the offensive tools to be dangerous on a nightly basis, but consistency is the biggest question for this player.

Red Line Report:

Liked him last year as an underager with the Finnish U-18 Team and thought he’d be a strong two-way player and physical center in Mississauga this year. Started coming on in January after disappointing start and even picked up at the offensive end, where he began to pot some goals and create chances for linemates with strong board work and by using his overwhelming size/strength advantage down in the crease area. Two late season viewings showed RLR he’s definitely moved his game ahead after slow transition to North America and is back to being a legitimate prospect. At 6-4/220 pounds, he has a huge frame and will play it rough in the trenches. Can also be a dominant force on faceoffs, and while he will never have great hands, he does have a very hard/heavy shot that he was able to get away more often and with a quicker release as the season progressed. Projection: 4th line shutdown checking center; PK duty.

Sounded pretty good for a fourth-rounder, but that last line in the Red Line Report was ominous. Fourth line as a projection? Then there was his progress. Osala spent another season with the Mississauga IceDogs, but then went back to Finland to skate with Blues Espoo for the 2007-2008 season (he was not under contract to the Capitals). He signed a three-year deal with the Caps in June 2008 and came back to play the 2008-2009 season with Hershey, also getting his two games of playing time with Washington (17 minutes and change, two shots on goal, no points).

He appeared to plateau, not the best thing to say about a 20-year old. The following season, with his numbers not improving appreciably in Hershey, he was traded in March 2010 to Carolina with Brian Pothier and a second round pick in the 2011 entry draft for defenseman Joe Corvo. Osala played in one game for the Hurricanes late that season (oddly enough, against Washington – no points in six minutes of ice time), and that would be it for his NHL career.

The point? Oh yeah, the point. Drafting is an inexact science (or maybe it really was just a thing about Finnish players with this team).  To this day, Oskar Osala is the last player drafted by the Capitals from Finland since 2006. But he gets a jersey for Team O.

Center: Adam Oates

Regular Season (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 387 games, 73-290-363, plus-5

Playoffs (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 32 games, 6-14-20, plus-4

Pity that most fans these days will remember Adam Oates as an unsuccessful head coach in his rookie turn behind an NHL bench with the Capitals. They might not know (or long-time fans might not remember) that Oates played more regular season games with the Caps (387) than he did for any of the other six teams he skated with in his 19-season career.

He did not arrive in Washington until he reached his mid-30’s, having played 11-plus seasons with three other teams – the Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, and Boston Bruins. And that was after he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Red Wings after three seasons at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute.

Oates came to the Capitals from Boston in March 2007 with Bill Ranford and Rick Tocchet for Jim Carey, Anson Carter, Jason Allison and Washington's third round choice in the 1997 Entry Draft. He arrived in D.C. with more than 800 games of experience, more than 250 goals, and almost 1,000 points.

He arrived far too late to salvage any part of the 1996-1997 season, but in his first full season with the Caps he finished second on total scoring (76 points) to Peter Bondra (78 points) and finished tied for fifth in the league with 58 assists. In the post-season he tied with Joe Juneau for the team lead in points (17) as the Caps advanced to their only Stanley Cup final in team history.

The next season was a difficult one for Oates and the injury-riddled Caps. He played in only 59 games but still averaged almost a point per game (54). He came back from that season to post his two top years with the club. In 1999-2000, having assumed the duties of captain after Dale Hunter was traded the previous spring, Oates finished 13-69-82 in 81 games, and then followed it up with a 14-64-78 year in 80 games in 2001-2002. In both seasons he led the NHL in assists.  The playoffs were another matter.  In 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 he could not repeat his solid production from the 1998 Stanley Cup run.  Over those two post-seasons Oates was 0-3-3, minus-4 in 11 games as the Caps were eliminated in the first round in both years.

That 2001-2002 season would prove to be another difficult one for Oates and the Capitals. The team traded for Pittsburgh Penguin winger Jaromir Jagr the previous summer, and much was expected of the 2001-2002 squad.  It did not deliver.  The Caps stumbled out of the gate, going 5-6-1 in October and had only one winning month over the first four months of the season, barely at that (5-4-4).  It was too big a hole out of which to climb.

Even though the Caps made a run at a playoff spot, the damage to the season was done, and on March 19^th the Caps traded Oates to the Philadelphia Flyers for goalie Maxime Ouellet and the Flyers’ first, second, and third round picks in the 2002 entry draft.  

Jagr would be gone a year later, and thus ended one of the more confounding periods in Capitals history, something former teammate of both, Chris Simon, later alluded to: “For whatever reason, he and Adam Oates just didn't jell together.”  

It seems incomprehensible that Oates, who meshed quite well with a mercurial personality such as Brett Hull in St. Louis (158 goals over two full seasons playing with Oates) and with a power forward such as Cam Neely in Boston (50 goals in 1993-1994) could not jell with Jaromir Jagr, but the record stands for itself.

Oates wrapped up the 2001-2002 season in Philadelphia, and then spent a season in each of Anaheim with the Mighty Ducks and Edmonton with the Oilers.  Those would be his last NHL seasons, completing a 19-year career with the 2003-2004 season.

Adam Oates had one of the more complicated relationships to Capitals hockey, an immensely skilled center who made others around him better.  He could not, however, find the combination to unlock the potential of the club in his later years in Washington when he put up his best personal numbers with the Caps. Nevertheless, among Capitals playing in at least 250 games for the team Oates is the franchise leader in career assists per game (0.75) and is fifth in points per game (0.94).  That is why he is the center on Team O.

Right Wing: Alex Ovechkin

Regular Season (with Capitals): 9 seasons, 679 games, 422-392-814, plus-47

Playoffs (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 58 games, 31-30-61, plus-9

The “headline” numbers for Alex Ovechkin’s career are well known by fans of the Washington Capitals: five 50 goal seasons, four 100-point seasons, six times named to the first team NHL all-star team, a four-time Richard Trophy winner (most goals), a three-time Pearson Award winner (outstanding player), a Calder Trophy winner (top rookie), a Ross Trophy winner (most points), and a three-time Hart Trophy winner (most valuable player).

However, that only scratches the surface of Ovechkin’s accomplishments over his nine-year career.  In addition to the three Hart Trophy wins, he had received votes for the award in eight of his nine seasons.  In addition to being a six-time first team NHL all-star, he has been named to the second team three times, including one year in which he was named first team all-star at a different position (in 2012-2013 he was first team at right wing, second team at left wing).  Three times he has received votes for the Selke Award as top defensive forward (that is not a misprint: 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010, in the last of which he received a first place vote).

Three times he was named a monthly three-star selection by the league (twice as first star); ten times a weekly three star selection (seven times a first star).  No player has more hat tricks since his rookie season than Ovechkin (13).  He is the only player to have scored four goals in a game three times over that span of seasons.  Only two players – Evgeni Malkin (7) and Sidney Crosby (5) – scored five or more points in a game more times than Ovechkin (4). 

That he is the dominant goal scorer of his era is in little doubt.  Since he came into the league in 2005 Ovechkin has more than 100 more goals (422) than the second place goal scorer (Jarome Iginla: 310).  And, while Steven Stamkos is his stiffest challenge to goal scoring dominance at the moment, Ovechkin leads him in goals scored per game since Stamkos came into the league (0.60 to 0.57) and has a better goals-per-game mark over his first six seasons (0.63) than Stamkos’ six seasons to date (0.57).

Ovechkin has four of the league’s 26 100-point seasons since he came into the league in 2005.  Only Sidney Crosby has more (5), and those four seasons rank in the top-14 point totals (no player has as many).

However, there are two pieces of NHL hardware still looking for a place on his mantle – a Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the post-season and the Stanley Cup.  Ovechkin’s performance in the playoffs is testimony to how much of a team game hockey is, and how difficult it is, perhaps especially for a winger, to bend the post-season to his will. 

Since Ovechkin made his first appearance in the playoffs in 2008 he is tenth in total goals scored (31).  He did that in 58 games, by far the lowest total among the top ten goal scorers.  On a goals-per game basis he has a substantial lead over second place Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red Wings (0.53 to 0.48 goals per game).  His 61 points in the post season ranks tied for 16th, but on a per-game basis he is fifth (1.05).  And for those who remember with crystal clarity his minus-35 from last year’s regular season, his career plus-9 in the post season puts him in the top-50 since 2008, tied with Evgeni Malkin (okay, tied with Daniel Carcillo, too…chalk one up for the plus-minus haters).

In Capitals history Ovechkin almost stands alone as an offensive force, despite his having only completed nine seasons.  Each of his nine seasons rank in the top-50 in single season goals scored, and that includes a pair of 32-goal seasons, one of them in an abbreviated 48-game schedule.  He has six of the top 15 goal-scoring seasons in Caps history.  Peter Bondra and Mike Gartner are next with three apiece.  He has five of the 11 50-goal seasons in Caps history (Bondra and Dennis Maruk each have two).  He has four of the seven 100-point seasons in Capitals history, those four years ranking in the top-five.  Only Dennis Maruk, who holds the single season franchise points record (136 in 1981-1982), holds another top-five slot.

Many of his goals were of a highlight quality.  There was his stickhandling through three New York Rangers in Game 5 of the opening round of the 2009 playoffs:

His “selfie” assist off the side board against the Montreal Canadiens on February 8, 2009:

And there is “The Goal” on January 15, 2006

If Alexander Ovechkin scores goals in 2014-2015 at his career pace and plays in every game, he will surpass Peter Bondra (472) as the franchise leader in goals on the last night of the season against the New York Rangers.  If he records points at his career pace he will surpass Bondra (825) in all-time franchise points (825) in the tenth game of the season, at Tampa Bay on November 1st.  But if Ovechkin was spirited away by aliens and was not to play another game for the Caps, he would arguably be the best player in franchise history.  Oh, the right wing thing.  Now you know why Oskar Osala is the left wing on this team.  Even though most of Ovechkin’s achievements were realized as a left wing, he has continued to dominate from the right side and skates on the right side of Team O.

Defense: Steve Oleksy

Regular Season (with Capitals): 2 seasons, 61 games, 3-16-19, plus-16

Playoffs (with Capitals): 1 season, 7 games, 0-1-1, minus-1

There is a slogan, “join the Navy, and see the world.”  Well, for some, take up a career in hockey, and see North America.  Such has been the case for Steve Oleksy who, at the young age of 28, has seen his share of it in his hockey career.  Undrafted when he became eligible, he took up with the Traverse City North Stars of the North American Hockey League, where he recorded 11 goals and 30 points in 57 games of the 2005-2006 season.

His hockey life took on a semblance of stability when he moved on to Lake Superior State University of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association in 2006-2007.  Oleksy spent three years with the Lakers, but no sooner did his 2008-2009 season end, and he was on the road again, this time to join the Las Vega Wranglers of the ECHL. 

Two games in the Nevada desert was all Olesky would get, though.  In 2009-2010 he headed back to his native Michigan (born in Chesterfield Township, Michigan) to play for the Port Huron IceHawks in the IHL.  Just 28 games later it was off to play for the Toledo Walleye.  He probably didn’t even unpack in Ohio, because after three games he headed to Boise to play for the Idaho Steelheads.  Three teams and 72 games (including eight playoff games), his 2009-2010 season came to an end.

In 2010-2011 it was more frequent flyer miles.  Oleksy started with the Steelheads, but late in the season he moved cross country, settling with the Lake Erie Monsters of the AHL.  He lasted 17 games there to end the season, and then it was back to Idaho to start the 2011-2012 season.  After 14 games he moved cross country again, this time to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in Connecticut.  Oleksy finished the season with the Sound Tigers, but he would move again.

On July 2, 2012 Oleksy signed as a free agent with the Hershey Bears.  If there was one player who benefitted from the 2012 lockout and the Capitals and Bears deciding to have new head coach Adam Oates and assistant Calle Johansson work in Hershey during the hiatus, it was Oleksy.  His energy and feistiness, plus the fact that he was a right-handed defensemen, caught the eye of the coaches.  

In early March, the Capitals signed Oleksy to his first NHL contract and called him up from the Bears.  On March 5th, in his NHL debut, Oleksy recorded an assist in a 4-3 overtime win over the Boston Bruins.  He went on to play 28 games for the Caps and finished tied for third in points (9) and plus-minus (plus-9) among Caps defensemen in the regular season.  He skated in all seven games of the Caps’ first round loss to the New York Rangers in the playoffs, getting 15 minutes of ice time a night.

With the Caps deep in right-handed defensemen in 2013-2014 and head coach Adam Oates preference to play defensemen on their “handed” side, Oleksy fought for ice time.  He played in only 33 games yet still ranked fifth among defensemen in points (10) and led them in plus-minus (plus-7).  Part of that might have been puck luck.  Oleksy’s PDO of 1042 at 5-on-5 was highest among Capitals defensemen playing in at least 20 games, but his Corsi-on ice per 60 minutes of -7.55 was sixth among nine defensemen in that group.

Yes, there might be some puck luck in Oleksy’s game, but hard work and perseverance are big parts of it, too.  Eight seasons, nine teams, five leagues, 441 games, and he finally made to the NHL.  The map of Oleksy paints a picture of determination…

…and that is more than enough to earn him a spot on Team O.

Defense: Dmitry Orlov

Regular Season (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 119 games, 6-25-31, plus-5

Playoffs (with Capitals): none

Seventy defensemen were taken in the2009 entry draft.  Dmitry Orlov of Metallurg Novokuznetsk in the KHL was the 20th of those defensemen taken.  Since then, though, Orlov has done rather well for himself.  Only seven defensemen taken in that 2009 draft have played in more NHL games to date that Orlov (for the record: Victor Hedman, Dmitry Kulikov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nick Leddy, John Morre, Jared Cowen, and Ryan Ellis). No defenseman taken after Orlov (second round, 55th overall) has appeared in as many games (119).

Not that it has been a smooth ride for the 23-year old.  After he was drafted, Orlov played another two seasons in Novokuznetsk, and after the second of those seasons he played in 25 games for the Hershey Bears of the AHL (six of them being post-season games).  That part of his development looked rather ordinary. 

The plan might have continued that way, with Orlov getting a full season or two in Hershey, but he lasted only 15 games with the Bears in the 2011-2012 season.  He ended up dressing for 60 games with the Caps, finishing fourth among rookie defensemen in scoring (19 points) and second in assists (16). 

Then the 2012-2013 season came around.  Or more precisely, it didn’t.  When the NHL went on lockout to start the season, youngsters such as Orlov could continue their development in the minors.  Orlov did just that.  But on December 6th, with the Hershey Bears playing the Norfolk Admirals at Verizon Center in the AHL Showcase, Orlov took a two-fer hit from Emerson Etem and Chris Wagner that might have concussed him.  In any case something in that game left Orlov with a concussion that limited him to 31 games with the Bears for the season and, more important, only five games with the Capitals.  The hoped for development building on his strong rookie year was stopped cold. 

Orlov came back to appear in 54 games for the Caps last season, although his scoring numbers (3-8-11) did not measure up to his rookie campaign (3-16-19).  This might have been the case of development arrested by iffy coaching as much as any lingering effects of his concussion. 

His bumpy ride over the last two seasons makes Orlov a tantalizing subject on defense.  Certainly, his rookie season suggested the potential to be a top-four defenseman.  The question is whether that progress will resume or if it has been stunted by the events of the last two seasons.   Still, Orlov has shown himself a capable performer in his young career and gets the jersey as second defenseman on Team O.

Goaltender: Maxime Ouellet

Regular Season (with Capitals): 1 season, 6 games, 2-3-1, 3.12, .910, 1 shutout

Playoffs (with Capitals): none

When the Capitals traded Adam Oates to the Philadelphia Flyers in March 2002, the return was a first, second, and third round pick in the 2002 entry draft and a young prospect in goal, Maxime Ouellet.  At the time, it looked like a steal for the Caps in return for an aging star on an expiring contract.  The “steal” part of it was largely due to Ouellet’s presence in the return package.  Ouellet was, after all, the second-ranked goalie by NHL Central Scouting in the 1999 entry draft and was being compared in some quarters to Martin Brodeur.

Making comparisons like that is often a fool’s errand, and it ended up being one in this case.  He was fine in the minors.  In 146 games over three-plus seasons with the Portland Pirates affiliate in the AHL, Ouellet had a so-so win-loss record (55-68-18), but his goals against average (2.40) and save percentage (.924) were very good, not to mention his 17 shutouts.

The NHL was a different matter.  Ouellet had the misfortune to arrive in Washington about the time that they became historically bad.  In the 2003-2004 season, that of the Great Selloff, he appeared in six games and had decent numbers, given the cards he was dealt: 2-3-1, 3.12, .910, including a shutout in his first appearance of the season, a 5-0 whitewashing of the Atlanta Thrashers in December.

Those would be his only games with the Capitals. In a way, it was a missed opportunity.  When the NHL went into its 2004-2005 lockout, Ouellet tended goal for Portland.  Instead of continuing he progress as perhaps the eventual successor to Olaf Kolzig in goal for Washington, his numbers took a dive.  His goals against average with the Pirates went from 1.99 in the 2003-2004 season to 2.89, and his save percentage dropped from .930 to .911.  After recording 20 shutouts in the 2003-2004 season with Portland, he had none for the Pirates in 2004-2005. 

By the end of 2005, Ouellet was out of the organization.  In December the Caps traded him to the Vancouver Canucks for a fifth round pick in the 2006 entry draft.  He played in four games with the Canucks in 2005-2006, going winless in three decisions.  They were his last in the NHL, and he was out of hockey entirely after the 2007-2008 season at the age of 26.

Maxime Ouellet was something like Jim Carey without the Vezina.  Promise early and a quick and quiet exit from the game.  The trade that seemed like a steal at the time on paper seemed a good deal less so with the passage of time.  Ouellet did not fulfill his promise, and neither the second round pick (Maxime Daigneault) nor third round pick (Derek Krestanovich) ever played for the Caps.  The first round pick would yield some results later. It was traded to the Dallas Stars as part of a trade made to improve the Caps’ position in the first round of that 2002 draft.  Moving from 26th to 13th, the Caps took Alexander Semin.

Something came out of the trade that brought Maxime Ouellet to Washington, but one might ask, what is a goalie with six appearances in one season for the Caps doing on Team O?  Well, he’s the only goalie in Caps history whose name starts with the letter “O.”

There is Team O, a collection of two legends (Oates and Ovechkin), two youngsters (Oleksy and Orlov), and two duds (Osala and Ouellet).  At least it’s balanced.

Washington Capitals: All-Franchise Teams by the Alphabet -- Team N

Team N is the newest addition to our Washington Capitals All-Alphabet Franchise Teams.  It is a team that might be light in experience, but it makes up for it with effective use of the alphabet.

Left Wing: Paul Nicholson

Regular Season (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 62 games, 4-8-12, minus-39

Playoffs (with Capitals): none

In 1974 the Washington Capitals had 25 picks in the NHL amateur draft, its first as an expansion team in the NHL.  Six of those picks would go on to play in the NHL.  Paul Nicholson was one of them. 

Nicholson was a fourth round (55^th overall) pick in that draft after playing for three years with the London Knights in the Ontario Hockey Association.  His last season with London, in which he more than doubled his goal total (from 16 to 36) and almost doubled his assist total (from 18 to 33) must have seemed appealing to the Caps.

The Caps being new, shorthanded, and… well, bad, Nicholson got significant playing time in the following season with the big club.  He appeared in 39 games and, considering the team on which he played, had a fairly respectable 4-5-9, minus-29 scoring line (16 players on that team had a worse plus-minus, five of them having played in fewer than 50 games).

Nicholson never got a full season with the Capitals.  Over the following two seasons he played in a total of 23 games without scoring a goal and recording only three points.  He spent most of his time in the minors, shutting among the Richmond Robins, Dayton Gems, and Springfield Indians.  In 1977-1978 he skated for the Port Huron Flags of the IHL, his last season in professional hockey at the age of 23.

He remained attached to the game after his playing days ended, involved in both minor hockey and in mentoring minor league hockey coaches.  Nicholson passed away on September 20, 2011.  His stay with the Capitals was a short one, part of a difficult stage of the team’s history.  But a part of that history he was, and he is the left wing on Team N.

Center: Michael Nylander

Regular Season (with Capitals): 4 seasons, 186 games, 37-91-128, minus-15

Playoffs (with Capitals): 2 seasons, 9 games, 3-2-5, minus-1

Michael Nylander did not become a Washington Capital until he passed his 30^th birthday.  By the time he was traded to the Caps in November 2002 he was a veteran of more than 550 NHL games with the Hartford Whalers, Calgary Flames, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Chicago Blackhawks.  Having built that resume, the Blackhawks traded Nylander to Washington in November 2002 with a third round pick in the 2003 entry draft and future considerations (which became a fourth round pick in the 2004 entry draft) for Chris Simon and Andrei Nikolishin.

Nylander played 71 games in that 2002-2003 season and finished tied for fourth on the club in points (56), helping the Caps return to the post-season after failing to qualify in the 2001-2002 season.  In the playoffs he was second on the team in goals (3) and tied for third in points (5). However, that post-season lasted only six games, the Caps eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The following season was almost over before it began for Nylander.  Late in training camp, Nylander was checked against the boards by defenseman Nolan Yonkman, suffering a broken leg.  He missed 63 games before he returned to the lineup on February 27^th in a 4-1 win against the Florida Panthers. 

By that time, the Caps were 20-34-8-2 and long out of playoff contention.  The team was selling off veterans for draft picks and prospects, and Nylander’s contribution to the effort was being traded to Boston for a compensatory fourth round pick in the 2004 entry draft and the Bruins’ second round pick in that draft.

Nylander, who was about to become an unrestricted free agent, finished the year with the Bruins, recording 12 points in 15 regular season games and another six points in a six-game first-round loss to the Montreal Canadiens.  He did not re-sign with Boston, taking a deal with the New York Rangers instead.  After two years in New York, Nylander found his way back to Washington in July 2007 as a free agent, signing a four-year, $19.5 million deal with the Caps.

He played in only 40 games of the 2007-2008 season with the Caps, losing the rest of his season to a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder.  After trying to play through it, missing practices intermittently until January, he finally underwent surgery at the end of the month.  At the time head coach Bruce Boudreau said of him, "I give him full marks for having the courage to play the last three weeks with it -- until he couldn't play anymore.  He's tried and he's taken [practices] off, but he just couldn't go anymore. So it was best to get it done.”

In 2008-2009 Nylander dressed for 72 games with the Capitals, but it was not a very productive season.  His nine goals were a career low for Nylander among seasons in which he played at least 40 games.  His 33 assists tied a career low, set as a rookie, for a similar minimum of games.  He would appear in only three of the Capitals’ 14 post-season games.

Part of the problem was a fundamentally different playing style than that which head coach Bruce Boudreau designed.  The Caps, full of growing offensive talent, were a fast-paced group.  Nylander was a player who preferred gaining the offensive zone, peeling off, and looking to set up plays.  It was as if the “Showtime,” fast-breaking Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980’s NBA had a point guard who walked the ball up the court instead of Magic Johnson. 

By the time the 2009-2010 season rolled around, Nylander was not a top-six forward, he was something of a distraction, a poor fit for the Caps and head coach Bruce Boudreau.  Shortly after the season started he agreed to a two-week conditioning reassignment with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL.  In the first week of November he was placed on waivers.  In December he was sent to the Griffins once more.  In January he was reassigned from Grand Rapids to Jokerit Helsinki in the Finnish League. 

That completed the transactions for the 2009-2010 season.  In September 2010, on the eve of the opening of the 2010-2011 season, the Capitals and Florida Panthers completed a loan arrangement in which Nylander would play for the Rochester Americans in the AHL.  He played seven games for Rochester before sustaining a neck injury, ending his season and his career in North America.  He played one more season in Switzerland to bring his career to an end.

Michael Nylander had two tours with the Capitals that might qualify as adventures.  One was marred by injury, the other falling apart as the Caps were tearing the league up due to a playing style that was incompatible with the Capitals’ game.  It was circumstance more than skill that impacted Nylander’s two tours of duty with the Caps.  Nevertheless, that skill provides him a spot on Team N.

Right Wing: Andrei Nikolishin

Regular Season (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 407 games, 58-113-171, plus-20

Playoffs (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 32 games, 1-15-16, minus-2

The careful reader will note that Andrei Nikolishin was primarily a center in his hockey career.  That is not to say he never played on the wing.  And that is why he occupies this space on Team N (there being no pure right wingers in team history whose name starts with the letter “N”).  He came to occupy a spot on the Capitals roster when he was traded to Washington by the Hartford Whalers for Curtis Leschyshyn in November of 1996. 

Nikolishin had just started his third season in the NHL after being drafted in the second round (47^th overall) by the Whalers in the 1992 entry draft out of Dynamo Moscow.  He was a forward who showed some early promise as an offensive threat (14-37-51 in 61 games in his second season in Hartford) but fell into more of a checking role with the Caps. 

What helped hold Nikolishin back from contributing more on offense was a tendency to sustain injuries. In the summer of 1997 he sustained a knee injury and missed 38 games the following season.  In 2000 he suffered an abdominal injury that he largely played through.  In 2001, a leg injury slowed him down.  There were also contract problems over the years.  In 1998 he held out briefly at the start of the season before agreeing to terms of a new deal.  In 2002 he threatened a holdout rather than accept a qualifying offer and was traded that November to the Chicago Blackhawks with Chris Simon for Michael Nylander, a third round pick in the 2003 entry draft, and future considerations.

But in the midst of all of that, Nikolishin was a solid checking forward who was effective on faceoffs and in his own end of the ice.  In 1998, despite playing only 38 regular season games as a result of his knee injury, he was a very productive performer during the Capitals’ run to the Stanley Cup finals.  He finished the post-season third on the team in scoring (14 points in 21 games) and led the club in assists (13).

That would be the high point of his offensive performance with the Caps.  The following season, perhaps affected by the early season holdout, he scored only eight goals in 73 games, although he did set a personal record for the Capitals portion of his career with 27 assists.  The next three seasons were more of the same – solid if unspectacular, an average of 12 goals per season and 33 points, with a plus-5.  In the post season, though, he could not recapture the touch he had in 1998.  In 11 games covering the 2000 and 2001 post season, he registered only two assists and no goals and was a minus-6.

After the Capitals failed to make the post-season after the 2001-2002 season, and the Caps were not willing to accept his contract demands, they traded him to Chicago.  He spent a year with the Blackhawks, going 6-15-21 in 60 games, then moved on to Colorado, where he was 5-7-12 in an injury-plagued season that limited him to 49 games. 

The 2003-2004 season in Colorado was Nikolishin’s last in the NHL.  He returned to Russia during the 2004-2005 NHL lockout and played with CSKA Moscow.  He stayed in Russia when the NHL resumed play for the 2005-2006 season and played with several teams before his career ended with Traktor Chelyabinsk in 2010-2011.

Over six seasons with the Capitals, Andrei Nikolishin did a lot of the hard work necessary to win hockey games – solid checking, responsible defense, occasional offense – for a team that won 225 games over those seasons.  He might have been held back by injuries and contract issues, but he was an important part of those teams and gets a spot on Team N.

Defense: Lee Norwood

Regular Season (with Capitals): 2 seasons, 34 games, 7-11-18, plus-4

Playoffs (with Capitals): none

Lee Norwood put the “journey” in journeyman hockey player over his 12-season NHL career.  He played 503 regular season and 65 post-season games with seven different NHL clubs.  Two of those seasons were spent in Washington.

It started in Quebec where the Nordiques picked him in the third round (62^nd overall) in the 1979 entry draft from the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League.  After another year with the Generals, Norwood skated for the Hershey Bears in the AHL and got his first taste of NHL action with 11 games in the 1980-1981 season.    

The following season Norwood skated for the Fredericton Express in the AHL for 29 games with a two-game stop in Quebec when he was traded to Washington with a sixth round draft pick in the 1982 entry draft for Tim Tookey and the Capitals’ seventh round pick in the 1982 draft.  He skated in 26 games with the Caps to close the season and had a very  respectable seven goals and 17 points in 26 games.  That was largely a product of his deployment on the Capitals’ power play, on which he went 3-7-10

What might have been more noteworthy, though, was his accumulating 125 penalty minutes in those 26 games.  That included five fights on a team that tended to engage in that sort of thing frequently (84 fights, third in the league that season). 

That would be pretty much the sum and substance of Norwood’s stay in Washington.  In 1983-1984 he played in eight games for the Caps (one assist, minus-3) before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Dave Shand.  Oddly enough, despite playing for seven clubs in his NHL career, Norwood never suited up for Toronto.  He spent the entire remainder of the 1983-1984 season with the St. Catharines Saints in the AHL, then the next season with the Peoria Rivermen of the IHL. 

After that he resumed his trip through the NHL, moving on to St. Louis, then Detroit, New Jersey, Hartford, back to St. Louis, and then to Calgary where he finished his NHL career in 1993-1994.

Lee Norwood, who acquired the nickname “Hack” for his rugged style of play, occupies a small place in the early history of the Washington Capitals franchise.  But he made the most of his limited time with the club and gets a spot on the blue line for Team N.

Defense: Lawrence Nycholat

Regular Season (with Capitals): 1 seasons, 18 games, 2-6-8, minus-3

Playoffs (with Capitals): none

OK, here’s the thing.  Only four defensemen in Capitals history have last names that begin with the letter “N.”  Lawrence Nycholat has the second highest number of games played for the Caps among those defensemen.  His contribution to the club came in the 2006-2007, in his second NHL season. 

He came to the Caps by way of the New York Rangers in a roundabout way.  Nycholat was signed by the Minnesota Wild as an undrafted free agent in August 2000.  He never played for the Wild, bouncing around the minors before he was traded to the Rangers for goaltender Johan Holmqvist in March 2003.  Nycholat got a taste of NHL play the following season, playing nine games for the Rangers in 2003-2004.

The 2004-2005 lockout intervened, at the end of which Nycholat signed a free agent deal with the Capitals.  He played the 2005-2006 season with the Hershey Bears, winning a Calder Cup in the process, then split time in the 2006-2007 season between  Hershey and Washington.  In February 2007 he was traded to Ottawa for Andy Hedlund and the Senators’ sixth round pick in the 2007 entry draft.

He spent parts of two seasons with the Senators before heading on to Vancouver in a trade for Ryan Shannon in September 2008.  After getting limited action with the Canucks, he was claimed by the Calgary Flames on waivers in March 2009.  He did not play for the Flames, sent instead to Colorado in March 2009 with Ryan Wilson and a 2009 second round draft pick for Jordan Leopold.  Again seeing limited time in the NHL, Nycholat returned to Vancouver as a free agent in July 2009, never seeing action with the Canucks in his last year in an NHL organization.  He finished up his hockey career playing with the Hershey Bears in 2010-2011 and then with the Krefeld Pinguine in Germany for the 2011-2012 season.

Lawrence Nycholat played only 18 games for the Caps.  It would be hard to say any of them were memorable from a fan’s perspective, those games coming during a season (2006-2007) when the Caps were still struggling to return to competitiveness after the 2004-2005 lockout.  Still, he will get the second spot on defense for Team N.

Goalie:  Michal Neuvirth

Regular Season (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 134 games, 59-41-13, 2.67, .910, 7 shutouts

Playoffs (with Capitals): 1 season, 9 games, 4-5, 2.34, .912, 1 shutout

The 2006 NHL entry draft was a big one for goaltenders.  Five of the first 34 picks were netminders.  Michal Neuvirth of the Czech Republic (HC Sparta Praha Junior) was taken with that 34^th overall pick.  Rather than spend another year in the Czech junior leagues, Neuvirth made the jump across the ocean to Canadian juniors where he played for the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League in 2006-2007, backstopping the Whalers to the semifinals of the Memorial Cup.

That was only the beginning of a long and winding road to Washington and the Capitals.  In 2007-2008 Neuvirth played for three OHL teams – the Whalers, the Windsor Spitfires, and the Oshawa Generals – posting a 17-7-8, 3.12, .911 record in the regular season and a 7-2 post-season record.  In 2008-2009 he made the jump to professional hockey and split his time between the Hershey Bears and the South Carolina Stingrays.  He was also called up to the Caps for five games to introduce him to NHL competition.  It was in Hershey where he left his mark, though.  Neuvirth went 16-6, 1.92, .932 with four shutouts, winning the Jack Butterfield Trophy as most valuable player in the Calder Cup tournament as Hershey won the AHL championship.

In 2009-2010 Neuvirth got a little longer look in the NHL, getting 17 games with the Caps (9-4-0, 2.75, .914), but it was again with Hershey that he was most successful, winning a second straight Calder Cup with the Bears.

This was a period in which Neuvirth was locked in a battle with Semyon Varlamov to see who would emerge as the number one goaltender for the Caps.  Varlamov, who was drafted ahead of Neuvirth in that 2006 draft (23^rd overall), was a step ahead of Neuvirth throughout the developmental chain.  Most notably, while Neuvirth was in Hershey winning Calder Cups in 2009 and 2010, Varlamov was in Washington tending goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  However, Varlamov was also prone to injury, and in 2010-2011, when Varlamov battled groin and knee injuries, Neuvirth made the jump all the way to number one goaltender.  He appeared in 48 games, posting a 27-12-4 record with a 2.45 goals against average and a .914 save percentage with four shutouts.  The appearances, wins, goals against average, save percentage, and shutouts would be career highs for Neuvirth with the Capitals.

Neuvirth would make his only post-season appearance for the Caps in that 2010-2011 season.  It was a tale of two series.  In the opening round against the New York Rangers he was excellent, winning four of five games, posting a goals against average of 1.37 and a save percentage of .946 with one shutout and two of his wins coming in overtime.  You could say this was the high point of Neuvirth’s career with the Capitals.  In the second round against Tampa Bay he was 0-4, 3.74, .867 as the Caps were swept by the Lightning.

By the time the following season rolled around, the Caps had moved Varlamov to the Colorado Avalanche, and it seemed Neuvirth would emerge victorious in the battle for the number one spot in goal.  However, the Caps signed veteran Tomas Vokoun, and it was he who took the lion’s share of appearances (48), while Neuvirth was more of a “1-A” goaltender with 38 appearances.  Even in those he was not outstanding, posting a 13-13-5, 2.82, .903 record with three shutouts.

Making things worse, Neuvirth suffered a knee injury in a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers in April ending his season.  His absence paved the way for Braden Holtby to assume the number one duties for the playoffs, and when Holtby put up excellent numbers (1.95 GAA, .935 save percentage in 14 games), it relegated Neuvirth to backup status once more in the 2012-2013 season. 

It was a role Neuvirth would play over the next two seasons, posting similar numbers for the Caps.  He made 13 appearances in each of those years, going 4-5-2 in 2012-2013 and 4-6-2 in 2013-2014.  In the 2013-2014 season Neuvirth was not only clearly the backup to Braden Holtby, he was being pressed by Philipp Grubauer for the backup position on the basis of strong performances when called up from the Hershey Bears.  In December, Neuvirth, through his agent, requested a trade.  

In March, his wish was granted.  Neuvirth was traded to the Buffalo Sabres with defenseman Rostislav Klesla (who the Caps had just obtained in a trade) for goalie Jaroslav Halak and a third round pick in the 2015 entry draft.  It was an opportunity for Neuvirth to take a firm hold on a number one goaltending job with the trade of the Sabres’ Ryan Miller to the St. Louis Blues, but Neuvirth appeared only twice for Buffalo before sustaining a hip injury that ended his season.

Michal Neuvirth was a symbol of the unfulfilled hope that surrounded the Capitals as their fortunes improved in the 2008-2013 period.  Neuvirth, a championship caliber goalie at the AHL level, could never replicate that success in the NHL.  It seemed as if every time he was about to cement his status as a number one goalie who could lead the club to success, something happened – an injury, an untimely cold streak – that derailed his, and the team’s progress.  Nevertheless, in his six seasons with the Caps he posted 59 wins, ninth in team history.  Perhaps surprisingly, among Capital goalies having played in at least 125 games for the club, Neuvirth has the best save career save percentage (.910).  He gets the nod in goal for Team N.

Team N...short on experience, long on "Ns."  

Washington Capitals: All-Franchise Teams by the Alphabet -- Team M

“M” stands for…well, “M.”  It is that team to which we now turn in the Washington Capitals All-Alphabet Franchise Teams.

Left Wing: Kelly Miller

Regular Season (with Capitals): 13 seasons, 940 games, 162-246-408, plus-75

Playoffs (with Capitals): 13 seasons, 119 games, 20-34-54, even

No player drafted lower in the 1982 entry draft played more NHL games than Kelly Miller.  In fact, the seven players taken after Miller in the 1982 draft who appeared in the NHL played in a total of 86 games.  Miller, drafted in the ninth round (183^rd overall) by the New York Rangers, played in 1,057 NHL games, 940 of them with the Washington Capitals.

Miller came to the NHL, if not a prolific scorer, then a consistent one in his four seasons at Michigan State University.  Over a 163-game career with the Spartans, Miller was a point per game player (82-82-163).  He was a Hobey Baker finalist in 1985, an honor he shared with Adam Oates and Spartan teammate Craig Simpson, both of whom would go on to have noteworthy NHL careers of their own (former Caps assistant coach Tim Army was also in that Hobey Baker class).

Scoring was not quite the role he adopted once reaching the NHL.  In his first two seasons with the Rangers he was 13-22-35 in 74 games.  The following season (1986-1987) he was on a similar pace mid-way through the season.  Then, on New Year’s Day 1987, he was traded with Mike Ridley and Bob Crawford to the Caps for Bobby Carpenter and a second-round pick in the 1989 entry draft.

In 39 games with the Caps to finish the season Miller was 6-14-20, almost right on his scoring rate in 38 games with the Rangers.  It would kick off a remarkable string of seasons characterized by their consistency.  In the 11 full seasons that followed Miller never played in fewer than 74 games of a full season (he played in all 48 games of the abbreviated 1994-1995 season).  He missed a total of only 23 of 862 regular season games and played in every regular season game five times.

He spent those 11 seasons as a checking line forward, although five times he reached the 40-point mark and twice hit or surpassed 50 points.  He even had a flair for the dramatic.  His five overtime goals is tied for third in franchise history with none other than Peter Bondra.  His 408 points is tied for 11^th all time among Capitals forwards.

His forte, though, was preventing scores.  Five times he received votes for the Selke award as the league’s top defensive forward.  Three of those times he finished in the top-10, once finishing as a Selke finalist (1992).

In 1997-1998 Miller appeared in 76 games, the last in his 11-year run of appearing in at least 74 games in a full season.  However, his offensive production dried up.  For the first time in his career he finished a season without hitting double digits in either goals or assists (7-7-14), perhaps vaguely related to a concussion he suffered at the end of the 1996-1997 season.  He did, however, appear in ten post-season games in the Caps’ run to the Stanley Cup finals.

The next season – 1998-1999 – was Miller’s 12^th full season in Washington.  It was not a very good one, Miller being limited to 62 games on a team hobbled by injuries and finishing with just two goals and seven points.  It was Miller’s last NHL season.  He spent a year with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the IHL before ending his career for good. 

Kelly Miller is part of a storied family in college hockey, three of whom (brothers Kevin and Kip being the others) having played for the Capitals.  Kelly was the first and had a storied career of his own with the Caps, fitting squarely in line with a family of hard-nosed, checking forwards that defined the Caps in the 1980’s and 1990’s.  Kelly Miller gets the assignment on the left side of Team M.

Center: Dennis Maruk

Regular Season (with Capitals): 5 seasons, 343 games, 182-249-431, minus-46

Playoffs (with Capitals): 1 season, 4 games, 1-1-2, even

Before there was Alex Ovechkin, before there was Peter Bondra, before there were the Goal Dust Twins – Mike Gartner and Bobby Carpenter – there was Dennis Maruk.  An undersized center instantly recognizable with his period Fu Manchu moustache, Maruk was the first player in team history to score 50 goals in a season.  He was the first Capitals to score 60 goals in a season (only the sixth player in NHL history to do it when he hit for 60 in 1981-1982).

He did not get his start in D.C.  He got started when he was drafted in the second round (21^st overall) by the California Golden Seals in the 1975 amateur draft.  Even by then, he had a reputation as a goal scorer.  In three years with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey Association, he scored 159 goals in 191 games.  He kept it going in his rookie year, finishing with 30 goals in 80 games, good enough for him to finish third in the Calder Trophy voting for top rookie.   Not even the Seals’ relocation to Cleveland slowed him down. In two years with the Barons he scored 64 goals in 156 games.  When the Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars for the 1978-1979 season, though, he found his stay in Minnesota short.  Two games into the season he was traded to Washington for a first round pick in the 1979 entry draft. 

Maruk finished the season with 76 games played for the Caps and 31 goals, making it three seasons in his first four scoring at least 30 goals.  His second season was plagued by injury, and he finished with only ten goals in 27 games.  He more than made up for it in the 1980-1981 season.  On April 5^th he became the first Capital to score 50 goals in a season when he solved Detroit Red Wings goalie Larry Lozinski in a 7-2 Washington win at Capital Centre. 

Maruk set a higher standard the following year.  On April 3, 1982, he scored his 60^th goal of the season, his second of the game, in a 6-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto.  He went on to finish the season with 136 points, a team record that stands today and, that being only the dawn of the Wayne Gretzky era, it made Maruk only the eighth player in NHL history to record that many points in a season.

It was only to be expected that his production would fall off some the following season, but he fell all the way to 31 goals.  Part of it was being moved from the middle to the wing to accommodate second-year center Bobby Carpenter. 

The 1982-1983 season was Maruk’s last in Washington.  In July 1983 he was traded back to Minnesota for a second round pick in the 1984 entry draft.  Maruk remained with the North Stars for the final six seasons of his career, scoring a total of only 80 goals over those seasons and topping 20 goal in a season just once.  In a 3-0 loss to the Capitals in February 1988, Maruk suffered a shattered kneecap trying to block a shot from Grant Ledyard.  The injury would be Maruk’s undoing.  He played in only six games in the 1988-1989 season, his last in the NHL.

Over the 1980-1981 and 1981-1982 seasons only Wayne Gretzky (147) and Mike Bossy (132) scored more goals than Dennis Maruk (110).  He was perhaps the most entertaining aspect of Capitals hockey in what were the later stages of its difficult formative period.  He was certainly the most effective part of it.  Despite his lack of size, his feistiness and prolific goal scoring ability put him in the middle on Team M.

Right Wing: Alan May

Regular Season (with Capitals): 5 seasons, 345 games, 27-42-69, minus-19

Playoffs (with Capitals): 4 seasons, 39 games, 1-2-3, even

Alan May was arguably the orneriest player in the history of the Capitals franchise.  Players took liberties with the Capitals at their peril over his five seasons with the Caps.  From 1989-1990 through 1993-1994 May compiled 1,189 penalty minutes, the most of any NHL player over that five-year span (teammate Dale Hunter was the only other player to record more than 1,000 minutes (1,001)).  His average of 3:27 in penalty minutes per game is by far the most in Capitals history (Craig Berube is second with 2:55) among those players having played as many games for the club as May (345).

It was not mere thuggery on a team that had little else to offer.  May was a night-to-night presence and contributed a solid defensive game on a team that won 200 games over his five seasons in Washington, and the 1989-1990 team (his first season with the team) advanced to the conference finals for the first time in its post-season history.

May’s career started as an undrafted free agent signed by the Boston Bruins in October 1987.  He skated only three games for the Bruins in the 1987-1988 season before he was traded to Edmonton for Moe Lemay in March 1988.  After three games with the Oilers in the 1988-1989 season, it was off to Los Angeles in March 1989, a trade with Jim Wiemer for Brian Wilks and John English.  He never played for the Kings, traded just three months later to Washington for a fifth round pick in the 1989 draft.

In Washington he found a home.  He certainly started with a bang.  Perhaps it was fitting that his first game with the Caps was against their bitter Patrick Division rival, the Philadelphia Flyers.  The Caps won, 5-3, May earning four penalty minutes in the contest.  It was representative of the hard divisional fights during that period of Capitals hockey of which May was an integral part.  May also rose to the occasion against division opponents when it came to his own offense.  Though more a checking/physical forward than an offensive one, he recorded 12 of his 27 goals for the Caps against Patrick Division opponents.

Late in the 1993-1994 season he was traded to the Dallas Stars with a seventh round pick in the 1995 entry draft for defenseman Jim Johnson.  A year later the Stars traded him to Calgary for an eighth round pick in the 1995 entry draft.  May played seven games for the Flames at the end of the 1994-1995 season in what would be his last season in the NHL. 

Alan May helped define a period of Washington Capitals hockey.  The late 1980’s and early 1990’s was a period characterized by neither asking for nor giving quarter to opponents.  Those were generally hard-nosed teams that had to struggle for their success.  In fact, the 1990 conference finalist team was one that finished below .500 in the regular season.  May’s contributions came in the defensive end of the ice for the most part and in ensuring that no team could impose their will physically on the Caps.  It was a hard way to play and make a living (his 94 fights in a Caps uniform is testimony), but it was an important part of the Caps’ success of that period.  For that, Alan May is skating on the right side of Team M.

Defense: Shaone Morrisonn

Regular Season (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 377 games, 9-53-62, plus-26

Playoffs (with Capitals): 4 seasons, 27 games, 0-2-2, minus-1

Late in the 2003-2004 season, when the Washington Capitals were selling off their veteran assets to commence their rebuild, it meant parting ways with Sergei Gonchar, one of the most prolific offensive defensemen of his era.  The Caps traded Gonchar to the Boston Bruins for a first round pick and a second round pick in the 2004 entry draft, and a 21-year old defenseman wrapping up his second season with the Bruins – Shaone Morrisonn.

Morrisonn was one of 16 defensemen to dress for that 2003-2004 club and played three games with the Caps.  Coming out of the 2004-2005 lockout, Morrisonn became a cornerstone on the blue line, leading all Capitals defensemen in games played (80).  On a team that was still struggling with too young talent and a lack of experience, Morrisonn provided some steady play.  He was not an offensive defenseman (one goal and 14 points for the season), but he played 20 minutes a night and led all defensemen in plus-minus (plus-7), the only Caps defenseman playing more than half the team’s games to finish on the plus side of the ledger.

It was the first of what would be five very consistent seasons for Morrisonn with the Caps, output wise.  He ranged from 10 to 14 points, from plus-3 to plus-8.  However, there were two things that reflected both his role and those around him.   Starting with that 2005-2006 season he played in fewer games each year: 78 in 2006-2007, then 76, 72, and 68.  Over the first three of those seasons Morrisonn averaged more than 20 minutes of ice time a night.  In the last two his ice time dropped to less than 18 minutes a game.

With Jeff Shultz coming off a plus-50 season and Karl Alzner being groomed for a spot in the lineup, Morrisonn’s spot as a “defensive” defenseman was in jeopardy after the 2009-2010 season.  Coming off a one-year deal paying him $1.975 million, the Caps seemed to be disinclined to give him much of a raise.

Late in the summer of 2010 Morrisonn signed a two-year contract with the Buffalo Sabres.  He appeared in 62 games for the Sabres in 2010-2011, but he was demoted to the Rochester Americans of the AHL in 2011-2012, where he played in 65 games.  A free agent after that season, Morrisonn headed to Europe.  He is currently playing with Medveščak Zagreb in the KHL after stops with Spartak Moscow and CSKA Moscow.

Shaone Morrisonn played a quiet sort of game that did not set off fireworks.  But his stay at home style was also characterized by a certain toughness.  In 2008 he played in all seven games for the Caps in the post-season despite suffering a broken jaw and a separated shoulder.  He was one of those players who played through the team’s rebuild without enjoying much of the payoff at the end.  But he was a solid player over his five-plus seasons with the Caps and patrols the blue line for Team M.

Defense: Larry Murphy

Regular Season (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 453 games, 85-259-344, plus-57

Playoffs (with Capitals): 5 seasons, 42 games, 9-17-26, plus-1

To the extent that Capitals fans remember defenseman Larry Murphy, it might be only for “oh yeah, the guy everyone shouted ‘whoop’for.”   That isn’t really fair to Murphy.  In his six seasons with the Capitals, only seven defensemen compiled at least 85 goals and 340 points.  Murphy (85-259-344 with the Caps over those seasons) was one of them. 

Murphy began the Capitals phase of his career after spending three seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, who made him the fourth overall pick in the 1980 entry draft.  Six games into his fourth season with the Kings he was traded to Washington for Ken Houston and Brian Engblom.  It started a four-year period in which Murphy’s offensive numbers improved each year.  From 13 goals and 46 points with the Caps over 72 games of the 1983-1984 season, Murphy improved to 23 goals and 81 points over 80 games of the 1986-1987 season.

In that 1986-1987 season Murphy was named to the second NHL all-star team with Calgary’s Al MacInnis, and he finished third in the Norris Trophy voting behind Ray Bourque and Mark Howe.

Murphy slipped some in the 1987-1988 season, going 8-53-61, but it was still good enough to finish tied for ninth with Montreal’s Chris Chelios in points among defensemen.  His most important play that year came in the post-season, though.  Every Caps fan of the period remembers that in overtime of Game 7 of the opening round series against the Philadelphia Flyers, Dale Hunter ended the series.  Folks might not remember it was Murphy who stood up the Flyers’ Murray Craven at the Capitals’ blue line, poked the puck off his stick, then fed the puck through the neutral zone to a breaking Hunter to start the final scoring sequence...

Even by that time, though, fans seemed to be souring on Murphy’s game, which was viewed as neither physical enough or “defensive” enough.  In 1988-1989 his offensive numbers dropped again, and the fans turned on Murphy, perhaps as a symbol of the frustration felt at the Caps failing to advance past the second round of the playoffs in any of his five seasons with the club.  In March of that season Murphy was traded to the Minnesota North Stars with Mike Gartner for Dino Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse.

After spending parts of three seasons with the North Stars, Murphy moved on to Pittsburgh, where he skated on two Stanley Cup winning teams with the Penguins.  After five years in Pittsburgh he went to Toronto for parts of two seasons.  From there it was on to Detroit, winning two more Stanley Cups with the Red Wings, the second of which was won on Capitals home ice in 1998.  Finally, after his 21^st season in 2000-2001, Murphy retired.  He is still fifth in all-time scoring among NHL defensemen (1,216 points) and was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004.

Despite playing only parts of six seasons with the Capitals, Larry Murphy is still fifth in scoring among defensemen in club history (344 points).  On a points-per-game basis, Murphy is the best offensive defenseman in Capitals history (0.76 points per game).  Those playoff frustrations and the perceptions of inadequacy in Murphy’s game left fans wanting more from him, though.  In hindsight, Murphy deserved more respect for his game.  It is certainly more than enough to give him a spot on Team M.

Goalie: Bob Mason

Regular Season (with Capitals): 5 seasons, 76 games, 35-29-7, 3.16,  .889, 1 shutouts

Playoffs (with Capitals): 1 season, 4 games, 2-2, 1.75, .937

The lasting image Washington Capitals fans have of goaltender Bob Mason is one of him on one knee, exhausted after 128 minutes of hockey, the New York Islanders Pat LaFontaine celebrating with his teammates on winning Game 7 of the opening round of the 1987 playoffs in a fourth overtime.

There was more to Mason’s career with the Capitals than that.  He was signed as an undrafted free agent in February 1984 after two seasons with the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and a stint with the U.S. national team, including three games in the 1984 Winter Olympics. 

Mason appeared in two games for the Caps in that 1983-1984 season and five more with the Hershey Bears in the AHL.  He bounced between the Caps and the AHL in each of his next two seasons before catching on with the Caps for good in the 1986-1987 season.  Mason led the team in appearances in 1986-1987 (45) and finished the regular season with a record of 20-18-5, 3.24, .890.

In the post season, Mason started on the bench in favor of the more experienced Pete Peeters.  After Peeters and the Capitals split the first two games of their series with the Islanders, Mason got the call in Game 3.  In its own way it would be historic.  Mason stopped all 26 shots he faced to record the first shutout in Capitals playoff history, a 2-0 win on Long Island.  The following night Mason also faced 26 Islander shots, allowing a single goal in a 4-1 Capitals win that gave them a 3-1 lead in games.

In Game 5 Peeters got the call, the Caps dropping a 4-2 decision at Capital Centre.  Head coach Bryan Murray turned to Mason to try and close out the series on Long Island in Game 6, but the Islanders prevailed by a 5-4 score in a game that might have ended worse for the Caps but for Mason stopping all 18 shots he faced in the first period.

That set up the Easter Epic, the longest game in Capitals history to that date.    It was a game full of ups and downs, but in the end it was a heartbreaking night for the Capitals.  It was also the last game Mason would play for the Capitals.  He signed with the Chicago Blackhawks as a free agent the following June.

After a year in Chicago, Mason was traded to the Quebec Nordiques for Mike Eagles (who later would be a Capital).  Another year later, Mason made his way back to Washington for future considerations.  He was one of five goalies the Caps used in the 1989-1990 season, getting 16 appearances with a record of 4-9-1, 3.50, .877.  After losing eight of his last nine decisions, he did not appear in another game after giving up four goals in a 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on February 9^th.  It was his last game for the Capitals.

Mason played in one more season, appearing in six games for the Vancouver Canucks in the 1990-1991 season that would be his last in the NHL.  He spent four more years in the minors before his career ended after the 1994-1995 season.

Bob Mason is remembered for one game, one that any Capitals fan from the period remembers vividly to this day.  Lost in the disappointment is the fact that it was and remains one of the great single game performances by a goaltender in Capitals history.  There were other contributions to the club in his brief stay, though, and it makes for Bob Mason starting in goal for Team M.

Team M is a combination of grit and skill, a reflection of its era, with most of the players coming from a time when hockey was more of a rough and tumble sort of game.  They might not win every game, but they would not go down without a fight.