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.

Washington Capitals: Rivalries Reborn -- The "MetroPatrick" Division, Part I

With the National Hockey League realigning into four divisions, memories are conjured of rivalries past in divisions that look similar to what the NHL will field this season.  For Washington Capitals fans, who will be cheering for the local entry in the Metropolitian Division during the 2013-2014 season, those memories are of the Patrick Division, named for the legendary player, coach, and administrator Lester Patrick. 

For 19 seasons the Patrick Division was synonymous with hard-nosed hockey and intense rivalries.  As we begin a new history with the Metropolitan Division we are going to take a look back over an old one, that of the Patrick Division and the Washington Capitals’ history in it.  We’ll start with the Capitals…

When the Patrick Division was established for the 1974-1975 season, the Caps – also celebrating their inaugural season – were not a part of it.  They were stuffed into the Norris Division, where they compiled their historic 8-67-5 record that still stands as the record for standings points futility in the post-1967 expansion era of the National Hockey League.

The Caps would not be realigned into the Patrick Division until the 1979-1980 season when the league expanded by four teams.  The expansion Hartford Whalers would take the Caps’ place in the Norris Division, and the Caps were moved to a division that included the following:

• Philadelphia Flyers
• New York Rangers
• New York Islanders
• Atlanta Flames

The next season the Atlanta Flames would move to Calgary, yet remain in the Patrick Division, a move that will look all too familiar to contemporary fans who witnessed the Atlanta Thrashers move from Georgia to Manitoba to become the Winnipeg Jets for the 2011-2012 season.  The following year the Flames were replaced by the Pittsburgh Penguins, another transplant from the Norris Division.  The 1982-1983 season saw the New Jersey Devils, formerly the Colorado Rockies of the Smythe Division, moved into the Patrick Division.  The six-team division would last until the division was renamed the “Atlantic” for the 1993-1994 season.

Looking back at the Caps’ role in this Patrick Division history, their first season in the division in 1979-1980 was hardly an auspicious debut.  They finished last in their new division with a 27-40-13 record.  Last place is where the Caps would stay for the next two seasons before finishing the 1982-1983 season with a 39-25-16 record, good for third place in the division and their first appearance in the post-season in franchise history. 

That first-ever playoff appearance in the 1982-1983 season started an 11-year run (ending when the Patrick Division was reorganized into the Atlantic Division for the 1993-1994 season)  that might be considered by some to be the Golden Era of Capitals Hockey.  Over those 11 years the Caps never finished lower than third in the division, averaged 43 wins and 95 points per season, and made the playoffs in each of them.  They won their only regular season divisional title in 1989.  Here is the Capitals’ regular season record against each of their Patrick Division opponents:

(click on picture for a larger image)

The regular season was not where the divisional rivalries stopped, either.  In those days, the post-season started with two rounds of intra-divisional series, meaning that of the 17 playoff series in which the Caps participated over those 11 years, 16 of them were played against Patrick Division rivals (the exception being the Prince of Wales Conference final against Boston in 1990).  That also means, this being a history of the Washington Capitals, that only once could they advance past two Patrick Division rivals to reach a conference final. 

The playoffs became the place where the road to heartbreak was first paved for the Caps.  You could say that it started in 1986.  That was the season in which the Caps set a franchise record (since broken) for standings points in a single season with 107.   The Philadelphia Flyers, who finished ahead of the Caps for the regular season division crown, lost to the New York Rangers in the first round of the post season while the Caps were making short work of the New York Islanders in a three-game sweep.  That turn of events meant that the Caps chances for advancing to their first conference final were looking up.  Things looked even better considering that the Caps finished 29 points ahead of the Rangers – their division final opponent – in the regular season. 

It all came crashing down, though, when the Caps, who outscored the Rangers by a 14-4 margin in Games 2 and 3 after dropping Game 1 in overtime, lost Games 4-6 and the series.

It just got worse the next season.  Until then, the Caps had not won either of their two previous seven-game series (until 1987 the division semi-finals were a best-of-five affair).  When they went out to a 3-1 lead in games against the New York Islanders in the division semi-finals, things looked good.  The Caps would have to lose the last three games of the series to forfeit the chance to advance to the division finals. 

Losing three straight games is just what the Caps did, though, dropping Game 7 in four overtimes to the Islanders.  The Caps would lose another Game 7 the following year against the New Jersey Devils.  They would drop the last three games of their opening round series against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1989 after taking a 2-1 lead in games.  After advancing to the conference final in 1990, the Caps dropped a second round series to Pittsburgh in 1991, losing the last four games after winning Game 1.  In 1992 it was the Penguins again, this time the victim of losing the last three games of the series after taking a 3-1 lead.

Overall, the Caps compiled a 6-10 record in series against Patrick Division teams in 11 years of post season action.  And while the Penguins are remembered these days as being the source of disappointment for the Caps, it was the New York Islanders of the period who were the thorns in the sides of the Caps.  Only once in six tries did the Caps solve the Isles in a playoff series, and that one came in a five-game series that the Caps won, 3-0, in 1986:

(click on picture for larger image)

It was not all bad, though.  The Caps, who struggled against the Philadelphia Flyers in the regular season over 13 season as Patrick Division rivals with a 40-44-9 record, beat the Flyers in two of three playoff series, one of them ending in what might be considered by some as the high point in franchise history, an overtime goal in Game 7 by Dale Hunter to win the 1988 series, 4-3.

There was the “Druce on the Loose” year of 1990, when John Druce – a heretofore unrenowned winger with just one game of post-season experience – scored 14 goals (four of them game-winners) in 15 post-season games. 

There was the 1991 opening round series against the Rangers when, after dropping a 6-0 decision to go down 2-1 in games, the Caps came back to win the last three games of the series.

But as much as the wins and losses, the highs and the lows, was the style.  Patrick Division games were not just studies in grit, they were often contests bordering on mayhem.  A quick perusal of the Caps’ record book offers evidence…

• Most penalty minutes… 177 in a 6-1 win at Philadelphia on December 21, 1980
• Most penalty minutes, both teams… 344 in that same 6-1 win in Philadelphia on December 21, 1980
• Most penalty minutes in a home game… 147 in a 5-2 win over the Flyers on February 10, 1991
• Most penalty minutes, both teams, in a home game… 294 in that same 5-2 win over the Flyers on February 10, 1991
• Most penalty minutes, individual… Randy Holt (34) in a 4-4 tie against Philadelphia on March 27, 1982
• Most penalty minutes (period), individual… Randy Holt (34) in that 4-4 tie against the Flyers on March 27, 1982

In the first 11 seasons in which the Caps competed in the Patrick Division, a Patrick Division team was represented nine times in the top five teams in the league in fighting majors (1984-1985 and 1987-1988 being the exceptions).  Three times the division had two teams in the top five, and on three other occasions the Patrick had three teams in the top five, including 1981-1982 when Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington occupied the top three spots.  The Caps – led by Alan May’s league-high 31 fighting majors – led the league in total fighting majors in the 1989-1990 season (source: hockeyfights.com).

As the Caps embark on a new history against old rivals, with a couple of rivals of more recent vintage thrown in, it will look a little bit like those days in the 1980’s and early 1990’s when these teams fought for every inch of ice.  The days of fisticuffs are becoming a dimmer and more distant memory, but the intensity of those rivalries will be something for fans and players alike to look forward to renewing.  We will take a look back from time to time over the next month at those old rivalries and how they might be renewed in the “MetroPatrick” Division.

Washington Capitals: A Lesson in "Grabithmetic"

“Now that development camp is over and Karl Alzner has been signed to a four-year contract extension worth $11.2 million, the Washington Capitals’ front office can turn its attention to its final restricted free agent not yet under contract: Marcus Johansson.”

That was the lede in Neil Greenberg’s analysis over at the Washington Post of the fair-market value for Marcus Johansson on July 15^th.  Today is August 1^st, and a fair-market value – one on which both the player and the Washington Capitals agree – has yet to be set under terms of a contract to extend Johansson’s stay in Washington.

A little background.  Marcus Johansson was draft-eligible in 2009, where he was ranked as what appeared to be a high-second round draft pick – 33^rd by TSN.ca, 30^th by The Hockey News, and the 8^th ranked European skater by Central Scouting.  He was taken 24^th overall by the Capitals in the draft and was described by Capitals’ general manager George McPhee this way…

"Very well-rounded player. Very good in almost every area of his game. Quick, smart, competitive, good hands."

McPhee also noted that he loved the way Johansson played in the World Junior Championships against Team Canada, that “in the final, in a real hostile environment, 20,000 Canadian fans going crazy, some of the Swedish kids didn't show up. He showed up and played hard."

Fast forward to today.  Among his cohort of three-year veterans playing over the last three seasons, Johansson is one of just 12 skaters with at least 33 goals and at least 95 points (both being Johansson’s career totals to date).  He will turn 23 years old a few days after the start of the 2013-2014 season.  

He also happens to be a restricted free agent after his entry-level deal paying him $900,000 a year expired a month ago.  As a restricted free agent, the Capitals exercised their right to extend to Johansson a qualifying offer of $850,000.  Since then…silence.

Silence is what the Caps do when it comes to the machinations of roster management.  Contracts are not leaked until they are announced, whether it is for their own players they are extending or free agents in whom the club has an interest.

And that brings us to the subject: Grabithmetic.  The Capitals are on record as being disinclined to signing unrestricted free agents…

“We made a lot of our moves in the season.  So we wouldn’t be in a position where we would have to go out and sign free agents. It just gets too expensive, too long [contract terms], and you don’t know those players as well as you know your own players.”

That has not kept others from speculating on the goodness of fit between still unrestricted free agent center Mikhail Grablovski and the Caps.  On its face, it makes sense.  The Caps need a second-line center (again), and Grabovski would appear to be a guy who could fill the bill.

However, in the NHL of the 2010’s, “the bill” that must be filled is exactly that.  Put another way, a player such as Grabovski, who might command $5 million on the open market, has to be fit under the $64.3 million salary cap for the 2013-2014 season.  Hence, “Grabithmetic.”

Let us make some assumptions.  First, let us assume that the Capitals will carry a 23-man roster comprised of 13 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goaltenders.  That roster might look like the following (less Johansson):

Note that only 21 spots are encumbered with a salary cap hit of $59,234,295.  This leaves $4,925,705 (net of bonuses, according to capgeek.com) in cap room to re-sign Johansson and, if you have read this far, coax Mikhail Grabovski to sign on the dotted line.

The Grabithmetic will not permit this.  Signing Grabovski at a presumed market price of $5 million puts the Caps over the salary cap and would not allow them to extend Johansson at any price.  You can tinker with roster size, but you are probably tinkering on the margins of the defense.  You might not have Steven Oleksy or Dmitry Orlov on the parent roster.  Executing either of those roster moves still would not permit signing both Johansson and Grabovski (and you no doubt noted by now that we have not even entertained prospect Tom Wilson making the parent roster).

You could reasonable argue that the matters of Grabovski and Johansson are not related.  Perhaps not directly, but they are in the sense that you have a fixed resource -- salary cap room -- to distribute.  Every dollar paid to Johansson is a dollar not available to sign Grabovski.  It is true that Johansson presents a unque set of circumstances, none of which seem favorable to him.  As a restricted free agent with a qualifying offer on the table, he has next to no leverage of his own.  But still, $850,500, if that is the amount for which he signs, then gets swept under that fixed sum, and there would be barely $4 million in cap room to sign Grabovski.  

If it takes somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million to secure Grabovski's services, how do you get there?  Signing Johansson at the qualifying offer leaves $4,055,205 in cap room.  Let us start improving this number by making the marginal move on defense and sending Dmitry Orlov to Hershey.  Sorry kid, but that’s $900,000 in cap savings.  Now we have $4,955,205 to work with.  If that $5 million for Grabovski is still a reasonable number, we are left with having to make more moves, if only to give the Caps a small measure of flexibility to do other things (and remember, there might be an Evgeny Kuznetsov appearing late in the season).

This is where a certain dexterity enters the equation.  The Caps might have to decide whether or not to move unpleasant contracts.  Paying $3 million for a player who might be a fourth liner comes to mind.  Or perhaps moving a forward occupying $1.875 million in cap space after a three-goal season.  Then again, is Johansson a trading asset in this instance?

Grabithmetic involves variables – players and money.  But more important, it is not just about addition.  It is about subtraction.  If Grabovski is coming to the Caps, chances are someone is leaving.

Eight Years, 3,338 Posts

It all started in a log cabin in Kentucky...

Well, no it didn’t.  But it did start on July 30, 2005 with a non-descript post about the Caps drafting 13 feet of defensemen – sort of the Washington Capitals’ version of 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. It was not the most sophisticated of debuts; we didn’t even have a title for it.

But from that modest beginning grew a colossus that is read by several on a daily basis.  It has been a vehicle for our odd cousins, Fearless and Cheerless, to weigh in (in a manner of speaking) on the great hockey issues of the day.  It introduced the world to the genius of Dr.Vynot Schootdepuck, Director of Advanced Applications at the Bettman Institute of Technology and Competitive Hockey (BITCH).    It is where we gathered the great thinkers in the coaching community for their insights.    And we brought in panels of doctors to weigh in on injury epidemics before concussions become de rigueur as a topic among the hockey media.   We’ve taken a look at The Passion of the Caps Fan and what happens when that passion is taken for granted.

We’ve done this for what is now, with this entry, 3.338 posts, a number that corresponds to the catalogue number of Elvis Presley’s LP, “Girl Happy”…think of us as “Hockey Happy.”  And hoping there are another 3,000 odd posts left before Cheerless takes over for good. 

Thank you all for reading and making this worthwhile.

Washington Capitals -- Chasing Records: Part I, Longevity

We are entering what is the dullest, dreariest month of the hockey calendar – August.  Oh, we can act interested about this or that rumor about this or that free agent who has yet to sign with an NHL team, and we can take notice of the comings and goings of our favorite players on Twitter or other social media as they do this and that over the summer.  But really, what month is slower than August on the hockey calendar?  Even the media are “gone fishin’,” tweeting from their cabins or lakeside homes or other vacation locales since there is little on which to report.

Same thing for bloggers.  Here at Peerless Central, the cousins are keeping busy.  Fearless is at work writing an opera, “Die Zauberschläger,” the story of an impish hockey player who, with the help of his magic hockey stick and his unflappable sidekick centerman, endure unpredictable, rollicking adventures over an entire winter in their pursuit of a silver chalice.  Meanwhile, Cheerless just took delivery of a full set of Rosetta Stone CDs and is busy learning English.

As for yours truly, we’ve been leafing through the Washington Capitals record book, and it got us to thinking, what are the chances any of this generation of Caps (well, those not named “Ovechkin”) will take their place in the Caps’ record book?  We will be doing this from time to time as we wind our way through August

We can start right at the beginning of the individual records, right there on page 248 of the 2012-2013 Media Guide… “Most Seasons.”  Do you think any Capitals will break the record of 16 seasons held by Olaf Kolzig?  Or even reach the second-place record held jointly by Peter Bondra and Calle Johansson?  Well, if Alex Ovechkin completes the terms of his current contract and is not traded to another club, he will complete his 16^th season in a Capitals uniform in the last year of his current contract – 2020-2021.

This being the age of the long-term contract (made slightly less long with the latest collective bargaining agreement), Nicklas Backstrom has a shot at that longevity record.  When his current deal expires at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season, he will have spent 13 seasons with the Caps, provided he isn’t dealt to another club and serves the full duration of the contract.  He would be only 32 years old at that point, and another contract with the Caps is not beyond reason.

If you are looking for a dark horse here, it might be Mike Green.  Green just completed his eighth season with the club and is under contract for another two seasons to come.  When his current contract expires he will be 29 years old.  If he was to sign a six-year deal that would begin just before his 30^th birthday, he could be right there with Kolzig as the longest-tenured of Caps by seasons played.

As for youngsters like Karl Alzner, John Carlson, or Marcus Johansson, it’s possible, but it is way too early to put them in the conversation.

Now, as far as games in a Caps sweater is concerned, no Capitals has ever hit the 1,000 games played mark in the red, white, and blue.  Calle Johansson came closest with 983 and holds the franchise record for games played.  Alex Ovechkin is only 382 games away from that record.  If he was to average 79 games played per season – his average in his first seven full seasons in the league (not counting the abbreviated 2013 season) – he would reach Johansson’s record late in the 2017-2018 season at the age of 32.  Unless he goes all Kovalchuk, he seems a good bet to break this record.

Nicklas Backstrom’s future is a bit murkier.  He was among the most durable players in the league in his first four seasons, playing every game of his first three seasons and missing only five as the result of a hand injury.  Then, in the 2011-2012 season, he missed 40 games to a concussion.  He rebounded to playing in all 48 games of the 2013 season.  If he averages the 73 games played per season in his first five full season (again, discounting the abbreviated 2013 season), he would not reach the 983-game mark under his current contract.  If he was to sign an extension to take effect after the 2019-2020 season, he could hit that mark in the first year of his new deal.

As for Mike Green, it would seem unlikely, given his recent injury history, that he would successfully challenge Calle Johansson’s mark.  Since he played in all 82 games of the 2007-2008 season, Green has participated in 69 percent of the regular season games played by the Caps.  That works out to about 56 games per 82-game season.  Even if Green was to participate in, say, 65 games per season, he would not reach Johansson’s mark until the 2021-2022 season, when he would be 36 years old.

If you are looking down the road, this is where Alzner and Carlson come into play.  Alzner has only 263 regular season games under his belt, but already he is showing himself to be a very durable player.  He has played every game of the past three seasons.  Even if he averages only 72 games per season going forward, he would tie Johansson in the last game he plays in the 2022-2023 season when he would be 34 years old.  Carlson, who has been every bit as durable as Alzner in the last three seasons, would (averaging the same 72 games per season as Alzner) hit that mark half-way through the 2024-2025 season, when he would be reaching his 34^th birthday.

Then there is Brooks Laich.  The 2013 season took a bite out of his chances to catch Johansson’s 983-games played mark, but not so big a bite that he doesn’t have a chance to get there.  With 556 games played as a Cap, Laich needs 427 games to tie the franchise record.  If he averages 75 games a season he could get to the 983 games mark in the 2018-2019 season.  He would be 35 years old if he did so.

Those are the longevity records and the players who would seem to have a realistic chance of challenging them.  If depends on a variety of factors – health, production, contract renewals.  But in this age of the longer-term deal, by the time the next decade of the 21^st century rolls around, there could very well be new holders of the longevity records of the Capitals franchise.

Tools of the Trade

Be good to your equipment, and your equipment will be good to you...

...maybe it's a DC thing.


Photo: Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images
Photo: Ryan Kelly

Washington Capitals: Draft History in Context, Part X -- At the End of the Day

So here we are.  Ten years’ worth of draft picks, 89 players selected in all, for A (Karl Alzner) to Z… well, Y (Mikhail Yunkov), from first (Nathan Paetsch, taken 58^th overall in 2001) to last (Samuel Carrier, taken 176^th overall in 2010).  Here is what we have.  Of the 89 picks…

• 30 have played in at least one NHL game, 59 have not
• Three players – Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, and Nicklas Backstrom – have recorded at least 100 goals, six of those who appeared in at least one NHL game are without a goal
• Seven players have at least 100 points in their respective careers; four did not record a point
• All of the players without points are skaters; all three goalies drafted in this span of time have at least one point
• All three goalies have records better than .500 and have an aggregate regular season win-loss record of 159-108-33
• The 20 players appearing in at least one NHL game have an aggregate plus/minus of plus-491; only seven are “minus” players.

And yet…

What do the Caps have to show for all of this drafting?  Let us look at the club right now.  What does the depth chart look like, and where do drafted players fit in?

A 23-man roster carrying 13 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goaltenders would have 12 of those roster spots occupied by players drafted by the Caps.  You could add Erat as a proxy for Filip Forsberg (taken 11^th overall in 2012).  Thirteen of 23 roster spots occupied by draft picks looks good. 

However, there are holes.  Brooks Laich is a fellow who gives an honest effort, chips in at both ends, and can play a variety of roles.  “Second line center” might not be among them.  That he is being installed in that role is at least in part a product of the fact that the Caps have not been able to fill it through draft.  If one needs evidence of that, it is there at left wing on the first line, where Marcus Johansson – himself having been a potential solution to that problem – currently resides.

The third line has two draftees occupying it, but they come to those positions by circuitous routes.  Mathieu Perreault, a study in determination, has been a player in search of a position over the last few years.  He has been reasonably productive in the offensive end, but he has had occasional problems with consistency and in the defensive end, leading to the occasional tension with his coach in how – and when – he was used.

Eric Fehr is in his second incarnation with the Caps.  Drafted as a scoring winger, injuries stunted his development, and he eventually departed via trade to Winnipeg after six seasons.  He returned as a bargain-priced free agent who was pleasant surprise last season.  The 13 minutes and change he averaged per night last season was a career high.  Perhaps he will be a late bloomer (he will be only 28 years old on opening night), but for the moment he is a scoring-winger-turned-third-liner.

The defense is solid on top – a product of the draft.  Mike Green, Karl Alzner, and John Carlson all are likely to enjoy long and productive careers, worthy of the positions in which they were selected in the draft.  Dmitry Orlov could be a top-four blueliner, although he will have to come back from injuries last season that stopped his development in its tracks.  Still, that he would have that level of potential as a second-round pick is a plus from a drafting standpoint.

After that, though, the draft is an iffy proposition as a source of prospects on the back end.  Among the 2001-2010 picks, especially those since the 2004-2005 lockout, Patrick Wey among the draftees would seem to have the best chance to make a dent in an NHL roster.

The Caps have been most successful in drafting goalies over the 2001-2010 period, and that is entirely a product of the post 2004-2005 lockout experience.  Semyon Varlamov played adequately, sometimes spectacularly, when he was healthy.  Michal Neuvirth and Braden Holtby have provided solid minutes, and Holtby has played ahead of his development curve since he turned pro.

However, the problems that persist for the Capitals – a second-line center, a defenseman to complete the top-four, a scoring line winger to slide in as a successor to Alexander Semin – persist still.  Since the Caps drafted Nicklas Backstrom in 2006, no drafted center through 2010 has really come close to filling the second line center role.  Since Karl Alzner was drafted in 2007, the Caps did well to draft John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov, but no other drafted defenseman through the 2010 draft has yet played in an NHL game.  Since Alex Ovechkin was drafted in 2004, no drafted winger has played in more than 13 games in a Capitals uniform (Chris Bourque), and the Caps have only 27 total games played in a Caps uniform from the 19 wingers drafted after Ovechkin.

We noted those three players – Backstrom, Alzner, and Ovechkin – for a reason.  All were top-five draft picks, lottery picks earned when the Caps tore their club down to the foundation and embarked on a rebuild after The Great Jagr Experiment in 2001-2004.  The Caps used their top five picks wisely, selecting a prodigy on the wing and players that can make a club strong down the middle at center and defenseman.  In that sense, the Caps “rebuilt” through the draft.

But did they “build” through the draft?  We have maintained that the heavy lifting was not in drafting an Alex Ovechkin, that the critical task would be in building around him.  Backstrom was a fourth-overall pick in 2006, and Alzner was a fifth-overall pick in 2007.  But since Ovechkin was drafted, the Caps have had two of their subsequent 11 first round draft picks never dress for an NHL game (Sasha Pokulok, Anton Gustafsson), another who never dressed in a Caps sweater (Joe Finley), and another who is expected to be an impact player (Evgeny Kuznetsov), but who has as yet not skated a game in North America.  Another – Semyon Varlamov – was traded for another first round pick (Filip Forsberg in 2012) who then became Martin Erat when Forsberg was traded.  Erat has had a solid pro career, but the jury remains out on how productive he will be as a Capital.

The second round is especially disappointing since the Ovechkin selection.  Of the nine skaters taken in the second round from 2004-2010, seven have not appeared in an NHL game.  The best that can be said for the second round, at least until Orlov develops more, is that it served to get a return in trade – Sergei Fedorov for second-round pick Theo Ruth (a 2007 pick) in 2008.  Only eight clubs have had fewer second round draft picks over the 2001-2010 period dress for 100 or more NHL games.  The only Capital to do that since Ovechkin was drafted is a goalie – Michal Neuvirth.

It does not really get a lot better after that.  One third round pick over the 2001-2010 period to dress in at least 100 NHL games and he – Sami Lepisto (66^th overall in 2006) – dressed for only 14 games as a Cap.  It goes on and on after that as well.  Three players taken in the fourth through ninth rounds over a ten year period with 100 or more games of NHL experience out of 52 players selected, and only one of them – Mathieu Perreault – has played any of those games in a Caps sweater.

In the end, the Caps “rebuilt” through the draft, but it would be a stretch to say they “built” from the draft.  They tore down their team, got top five picks in the bargain when they finished low in the standings, and drafted cornerstone players.  But after they put those cornerstones in place, their success has been uneven, especially once past the first round, putting considerable pressure on the club not to miss at the top of the draft.  Since the Caps cashed in the picks they earned from getting rid of the aging and dead wood, the draft has not yielded as many productive players as one might have hoped, certainly not for a club whose governing strategy of roster management is “build through the draft.”

Washington Capitals: Draft History in Context, Part IX -- Take Your Positions: Centers

We are almost at the end of it.  Having worked our way from goaltenders to defensemen, and then to wingers, we turn to centers in our look at the draft performance of the Washington Capitals by position over the 2001-2010 period.

Of the 89 players taken in the NHL Entry Draft over the 2001-2010 period, the Caps selected 17 centers.  It has not been quite a font of talent that Caps fans might have hoped for over the years.  Even if you go back in time, to when the NHL Entry Draft was established in 1979, the Caps drafted 40 centers from 1979 through 2000.  Twenty-one never dressed for a single NHL game.  Only ten of them went on to play in at least 100 games in the NHL.  Here they are:

• Tim Tookey
• Bobby Carpenter
• Dean Evason
• Michal Pivonka
• Rob Murray
• Tim Taylor
• Jason Allison
• Jan Bulis
• Kris Beech
• Brian Sutherby

See many difference-makers there?  Moreover, only Carpenter, Pivonka, Bulis, and Sutherby played in 100 games or more for the Caps.  This is the background we have to begin our look at the 2001-2010 period.

If you thought it would get better during that period, it would not, at least not appreciably.  Despite the fact that the Caps had a long and irregular history of finding talent at the position, they devoted surprisingly few high-round draft picks to the position over this ten-year period.  Only four centers of the 17 were taken in the first two-rounds:

The club did place more emphasis on the position among high-round picks after the 2004-2005 lockout – three first-rounders in a four-year period ending in 2009 – but even here the results are mixed.  Nicklas Backstrom was taken fifth-overall in 2006 and is assembling an impressive resume, even at the young age of 25.  After that, things go downhill quickly.

Anton Gustafsson was taken 21^st overall in 2008.  Gustafsson had a pedigree Caps fans would recognize, being the son of former Capital Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, one of the best centers ever to play for the club.  We already chronicled the history of Anton Gustafsson's selection in this series, and it is not pleasant to repeat.  

Marcus Johansson was taken 24^th overall in 2009 out of Sweden, and he might have suffered from being compared to his countryman Backstrom, taken only three years earlier and by then established as the Caps’ first-line center.  There might have been some fans who thought Johansson would slide right into the second-line center spot and fill a hole the Caps had dealt with for most of the decade.  Johansson spent another year in Sweden with Farjestads BK Karlstad, then made the jump to the NHL.  It was a successful season for him by the usual measures – he finished tied for fourth in total points among rookie centers, fifth in goals, and tied for sixth in assists.  He did so while playing in only 69 games.

Johansson did not suffer a sophomore slump, at least not so far as his offense was concerned, finishing the 2011-2012 season by improving his goal total (from 13 to 14), his assist total (from 14 to 32), and his total points (from 27 to 46).  However, he gave indications of not being the sturdiest player in terms of his ability to win physical battles.  In the 2013 season, new head coach Adam Oates chose to skate him at left wing alongside Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin.  This was a bit of a luxury (or a holding pattern, if you prefer), given that Mike Ribeiro was signed as a free agent to man the second line center spot.  However, with Ribeiro gone to Phoenix, the Caps have their perennial problem at second line center to deal with once more, choosing (for the moment) to employ Brooks Laich at the position rather than Johansson.

Those are the three first round picks over the period.  After that, things go downhill in a hurry through the rounds at the position over the 2001-2010 period.  Of the 14 picks taken after the first round, only Mathieu Perreault – a sixth-round pick in 2006 – has appeared in as many as 100 games.  And after that, only Andrew Joudrey (one game), Travis Morin (three games), and Cody Eakin (78 games) have appeared at all in an NHL game.

Eakin did prove valuable as a trading asset, having enabled the Caps to procure the services of Mike Ribeiro to fill the second line center role for the 2013 season.  Eakin, who might or might not have been a scoring line center with the Caps (he seems more of a third-line pivot), might not have filled that role productively for another few seasons.  In that sense, the pick proved valuable, but that as much a product of trading skill as drafting skill.

Perhaps Evgeny Kuznetsov, drafted in the first round 2010, will be that answer as the second line center.  Then again, being the second line right wing might be his future.  He has been playing on the wing in the Kontinental Hockey League.  If Kuznetsov is that solution as a second line center, he makes the 2001-2010 period of the draft look a lot better in terms of centers.

In the end, though, we have a team that builds through the draft unable to address what has been arguably their most persistent problem over the last decade – a second line center – through that tool.  Mathieu Perreault has shown intermittent flashes of being that solution, but has as yet been unable to hold tightly onto that job.  Marcus Johansson might be that solution someday, but he has not yet been able to hold onto the job, either, and has found a home for the time being as a winger.

If one subscribes to the notion that you draft the best player available when your number is up, it is entirely possible that even though you have a position need, you will pass on a good player at your need position to get the superior player at another position.  In that respect it is not unreasonable to think that the Caps would draft more at one position – say, defensemen and wingers – than they would at their persistent position of need. 

Still, even having drafted 17 players at the position and having so little to show for it in terms of contributions at the NHL level – one full time scoring line center, two centers who have been unable to occupy the position on a steady basis (but who might yet do so), and another who was more valuable as a trading asset -- there has not been much return.  Then there are the 11 players who did not reach the NHL level at all, five of them taken in the first three rounds.

Perhaps the Caps will realize better returns in the picks since 2010.  Filip Forsberg, a 2012 first round pick who might have been a center (although more likely to find a home as a winger), was a trading asset himself, realizing Martin Erat in return from Nashville.  Erat has been a solid pro for 11 seasons and will fill a hole on the wing on a scoring line going into 2012-2013.  But of the 20 players the Caps have drafted since 2010, only Forsberg and Brian Pinho (sixth round pick in 2013) are centers.  The draft, at least over the 2001-2010 period, has offered no lasting solutions to what has been perhaps the most serious roster problem the Caps have had over that period.

Washington Capitals: Draft History in Context, Part VIII -- Take Your Positions: Wingers

Looking at the Washington Capitals draft performance over the 2001-2010 period by position, we have covered goaltenders and defensemen.  That brings us to the wingers, with your generic “forwards” added in.

Of the 89 players selected in the entry draft over the 2001-2010 period, 35 were wingers or generic forwards.  The Caps have been all over the map with these picks, too.  Five of them were first-round picks, and six of them were seventh-round picks, with a healthy number in-between:

Looking at the Caps’ history in drafting wingers over this period is going to look like a rerun of their history with defensemen.  In the first round the club has done rather well.  Four of the five players selected there have recorded more than 300 regular season games and at least 100 points in the NHL – Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Boyd Gordon, and Eric Fehr.  Even the fifth – Evgeny Kuznetsov – would seem to be a sure bet to reach those marks (if he really, really does come to North America).

Those four players account for more than half of the goals scored in the NHL by the 89 draft picks over the period (677 of 1,075) and almost half of the total points (1,422 of 2,904).  Of course, a lot of that is Alex Ovechkin, who accounts for 34.5 percent of all the goals scored by those 89 draft picks (371) and 25.3 percent of all of the points (735).

After that?  Well, you might want to avert your eyes.  This is where the “rerun” portion of the show starts.  If you look at rounds two through five, there are only three players – Chris Bourque, Owen Fussey, and Oskar Osala – who have so much as appeared in a single NHL game.  Bourque, a second-round pick in 2004, has 51 of the 58 total appearances and has yet to get a secure foothold on an NHL roster spot.  In parts of four NHL seasons he has not played in more than 21 games in any of them. 

Of the other two second round picks, Francois Bouchard was traded by the Caps to the New York Rangers for Tomas Kundratek in November 2001, never having played a game for the Caps.  Dmitry Kugryshev left the Caps system at the end of the 2010-2011 season.  Neither Bouchard nor Kugryshev finished the 2012-2013 season in North America.  In December 2012 Bouchard signed a contract with Medveščak Zagreb, then a Croatia-based club in the Austrian Hockey League.  Kugryshev skated for CSKA Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League.

Then there is the great void that is the third through the fifth rounds.  Twelve players were selected in those rounds, and only Owen Fussey and Oskar Osala appeared in any NHL games, seven between them.  Fussey played in four games for the Caps in the 2003-2004 season, his only action in the NHL.  He bounced around the AHL and ECHL through the 2007-2008 seasons and last dressed for the Coventry Blaze in the Elite Ice Hockey League in Great Britain in 2011-2012.  Osala played two games for the Caps in 2008-2009 and another for the Carolina Hurricanes in 2008-2009.  He lasted in the AHL through the 2010-2011 season, then he headed for the KHL where he played the past two seasons.  There is still the unsettled question of how high 2010 fifth-round pick Caleb Herbert will rise in the organization, but this part of the draft had yielded very little for the Caps over the 2001-2010 period.

The history of sixth through ninth round picks (the NHL had a nine-round draft until 2005) is almost as sparse.  Over the 2001-2010 period the Caps selected 15 players over the ten-year period.  Three of them – Tim Kennedy, Andrew Gordon, and Stefan Della Rovere – have dressed for a combined 187 games.  Only 12 of them were skated in a Caps sweater (all by Gordon).  Kennedy, while he never skated a game in the Caps’ system, did bring back a 2006 sixth-round draft pick in a trade, a pick that became Mathieu Perreault (who we will see in another look at the Caps’ draft history).

No other players drafted in the sixth through ninth rounds skated for the Caps or brought much back in trade value (unless you count Stefan Della Rovere for D.J. King a value trade). It is unlikely that any of the players taken in those round who have not already appeared in an NHL game will ever appear in one.

In the end, the Caps’ draft performance over the 2001-2010 period for wingers looks a lot like their performance with defensemen.  They do well at the top of the draft, markedly less so after the first round.  In this instance the Caps did well in the top-20 picks level.  Alex Ovechkin (first overall in 2004), Alexander Semin (13^th overall in 2002), Boyd Gordon (17^th overall in 2002), and Eric Fehr (18^th overall in 2003) have had at least contributing careers (Fehr) to elite-level careers (Ovechkin).  But note that the last of those picks was Ovechkin in 2004.  The Caps have not drafted a contributing winger since the 2004-2005 lockout.  That’s a long time to go without new blood at the position from within based on your own amateur evaluations.

The Caps are counting on significant contributions from Evgeny Kuznetsov, who has yet to play a game in North America since he was drafted in 2010.  He might be a first-line left winger (and if he does not play center, it will be as a left wing so long as Adam Oates is coach – Kuznetsov is a left-handed shot).  Then again, who knows?  Even if one assumes that Kuznetsov will contribute at that level, the Caps have struggled to fill other lines from the draft.  When the 2013-2014 season opens, the Caps will find that they have only Alex Ovechkin as a winger on any of the top three lines that they drafted at that position, unless Eric Fehr skates as a top-nine winger (Marcus Johansson, who could start on the left side of the top line, was drafted as a center).  Sure, Alexander Semin and Boyd Gordon played more than 800 games for the Caps, but when each left in free agency, the Caps could not fill their positions from within with drafted players.

If you take away Ovechkin – a product of the draft lottery – the Caps’ draft performance for wingers over the 2001-2010 period looks very uninspired, specifically with respect to the post-2004-2005 lockout period.  Perhaps Tom Wilson (16^th overall in 2012), Andre Burakovsky (23^rd overall in 2013), or Zach Sanford (61^st overall in 2013) will reverse the trend.  Maybe a Chandler Stephenson (77^th in 2012) or Travis Boyd (177^th in 2011) will surprise.  But if you look to the future with hope, looking back on the past is somewhat disappointing.