Ten. The basis of the numerical system in which most of the world operates. A “top” number for purposes of ranking. A “perfect” number as a means of evaluating things, experiences, and even persons.
“The number of weeners in a package.”
Yes, Cheerless, commonly the number of hot dogs to a pack.
“So what’s with the eight hot dog buns in a bag?”
Cheerless, can we…
“I mean, what do you do with the extra hot dogs?"
Cheerless?
“Feed ‘em to the dog? Make franks ‘n’ beans?”
Cheerless??
“And what with the ‘n’ in ‘franks ‘N” beans,’ anyways?”
CHEERLESS?!?!?
“…sorry, go ‘head.”
In hockey, “ten” has become an uncommon number. Over the last ten seasons, including this
one, a team scored ten goals in a regular season game only five times. Only once in almost 30 years has a team
scored ten goals in a playoff game (Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia, 10-3, in Game
4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal in 2012).
Which brings us to the Washington Capitals. We can get one thing out of the way at the
beginning. The Caps have never scored
ten goals in a postseason game (they have been victimized for one, a topic we
might get to at a later time).
They have, however, scored ten or more goals on 12 occasions in the regular
season.
And did you know that…
1. The 12 instances
of ten or more goals scored in team history ranks tied for sixth among all NHL
teams since 1974-1975, when the Caps entered the league.
2. The Caps tended
to do this sort of thing in bunches, calendar-year wise. They did it twice in 1981, twice in 1987,
three times in 1993, accounting for seven of the 12 instances.
3. Twice in games
that the Caps scored ten goals, they won by a double-digit margin:
- February 6, 1990, Capitals 12 – Quebec Nordiques 2. Seven different Capitals recorded goals with two-goal games from Randy Burridge, Dino Ciccarelli, and Mike Ridley. It was Alan May’s goal at 8:03 of the second period to give the Caps a 5-1 lead that chased starting goaltender Stephane Fiset. Jacques Cloutier also allowed five goals in relief. Mike Liut stopped 30 of 33 shots for the win.
- January 11, 2003, Capitals 12 – Florida Panthers 2. This game was probably the high-water mark of the Jaromir Jagr era for the Caps. Jagr had a seven-point game, including a hat trick, one of two times in Caps history that a player recorded seven points in a game (Dino Ciccarelli: 4-3-7 vs. Hartford Whalers, March 18, 1989, in an 8-2 win).
4. Power plays were
featured prominently in these 12 games.
The Caps scored no fewer than two power play goals in each of them.
5. Speaking of power
plays in ten-goal games, in the Caps’ 10-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on
March 13, 1987 – Friday the 13th – the Caps recorded seven power
play goals, one of only three teams in NHL history to record seven power play
goals in a game. Boston did it in an 8-0
win over the Minnesota North Stars on January 4, 1975, and the Maple Leafs
scored seven of their own in a 9-1 win over the Atlanta Thrashers on October
14, 2005. The last six goals the Caps
scored in that game, all in a span of 8:36 of the third period, came on power
plays. For the record, those last six goals
were scored by: Craig Laughlin, Mike Gartner, Garry Galley, David Jensen (2),
and Ed Kastelic. The Caps took advantage
of the Maple Leafs taking two major penalties for fighting in the last five
minutes of that contest (no Capital served a coincidental major), over which
the Caps scored five of their power play goals.
6. That 10-2 win over
the Maple Leafs in March 1987 was the second time that the Caps lit up Toronto
for ten or more goals. They beat the
Maple Leafs, 11-2, on December 11, 1981.
Toronto is one of three teams against which the Caps scored ten or more
goals twice. They also turned the trick
twice against the Los Angeles Kings (a 10-3 win against the Los Angeles Kings
in Washington on December 6, 1987, and a 10-3 win over the Kings in Los Angeles
on February 13, 1993) and the Quebec Nordiques (a 12-2 win in Washington on
February 6, 1990, and a 10-3 win in Quebec on November 10, 1991).
7. Nine of the 12
ten-goal games by the Caps came on home ice, six of them at the old Capital
Centre/USAirways Arena and three of them at MCI Center/Verizon Center (now
Capital One Arena).
8. The games on the road in which the Caps scored ten or
more goals are the more interesting. I
addition to the 10-3 win over Quebec in November 1991, the Caps beat the St.
Louis Blues in a wild 10-6 contest and the Los Angeles Kings by a 10-3
margin. What is interesting about those
latter two games? They came in
consecutive games for the Caps, the win in St. Louis on February 11, 1993, and
again against the Kings in Los Angeles two nights later, on February 13, 1993.
9. As best as we can
determine, those two consecutive ten-goal games by the Caps in 1993 were the
fourth instance in NHL history of a team recording ten or more goals in
consecutive games. The others:
- Montreal Canadiens: January 11, 1919 (13-4 over the Toronto Arenas) and January 16, 1919 (10-6 over the Ottawa Senators)
- Edmonton Oilers: January 12, 1983 (10-4 over the Chicago Black Hawks) and January 15, 1983 (10-4 over the Minnesota North Stars)
- Detroit Red Wings: November 23, 1992 (10-5 over the Tampa Bay Lightning) and November 25, 1992 (11-6 over the St. Louis Blues)
The Caps and Edmonton were the only teams to win both of
their respective games on the road.
