Washington Capitals -- Mikhail Grabovski: The Virtues of Patience and Our Next Contestant

“Marry’d in haste, we may repent at leisure.”

-- William Congreve, “The Old Bachelor”

Today’s signing of center Mikhail Grabovski by the Washington Capitals serves as an example of the virtues resisting the temptation to “marry in haste.”  Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal had this question yesterday about a potential Grabovski signing…

“If it’s true as a radio report in Belarus says that the much-maligned ex Maple Leafs’ centre Mikail Grabovski is signing a one-year $3 million deal with the Washington Capitals…what took the Caps so long to jump on this guy after losing Mike Ribeiro to Dallas as a free-agent with Mathieu Perreault and Jay Beagle as the No.  2 and No. 3 centres behind Nicklas Backstrom?”

In his Dump and Chase post earlier today on what was, in fact, Grabovski’s signing by the club, Mike Vogel had the information that serves as the answer…

“Teams went hard after top tier centers in free agency; the likes of Mike Ribeiro (four years at $5.5 million per), Stephen Weiss (five years, $4.9 million annually), Tyler Bozak (five years at $4.2 million annually) and Valtteri Filppula (five years, $5 million per season) were all signed within the first few hours of free agency and Derek Roy (one year at $4 million) signed with the Blues a few days later.”

Ribeiro, Weiss, Bozak, Filppula, and Roy are all fine players.  You might debate whether Grabovski is on a par with them (we think at the very least he compares favorably).  Nevertheless, Grabovski fills a perennial urgent need for the Caps – someone to provide reliable and productive minutes as the second line center.  One would think that he will assume the role of Mike Ribeiro at both even strength and, perhaps, in Ribeiro’s role as the trigger man on the power play from the goal line-extended in head coach Adam Oates’ scheme.  He is sturdier and better defensively; he is likely to be a more effective five-on-five player.

That is the obvious benefit of Grabovski’s signing.  The less obvious one has to do with patience.  In a salary cap world, teams cannot just go out a buy up talent (the New York Rangers’ apparent operating plan of a decade or so ago).  Dollars have to be stretched, and if a club can save a million or two dollars in cap room by evaluating the contours of the market, recognize the potential in waiting, and then still fill a need with a player who might have gone for that million or two more in July, that has to be a good thing. 

Why?  It’s not just getting a bargain signing in Grabovski.  It is what that bargain allows the club to do.  That extra million dollars (or two) can be put to productive use – fitting Marcus Johansson comfortably under the salary cap on his new deal (whenever that happens), obtaining the services of a depth forward, holding the cap room in reserve for the time when a trade might have to be made later in the season to fill a need or find a missing piece to the playoff puzzle.  The team has options on the ice in how Grabovski's signing affects the rest of the lineup; the club has options on how to address needs as they might arise as the season unfolds.

Grabovski is a fine player who looks even better under the cold light of possession data.  Signing him will make the Caps better.  But it is that extra cap room found by waiting that might be a valuable asset down the road, too.  Keep that in mind in the weeks and months ahead.

There is a “but,” however.  If you look at this deal in the here and now, it looks like a clear win for the Caps.  Grabovski has talent, and the team has saved cap room while plugging the second line center hole with a real second line center.   As we suggested, the signing opens up many more options among the forward lines that head coach Adam Oates can ponder and evaluate.  In 2013-2014, the Caps suddenly look much more capable of competing in the Metropolitan Division.

If one looks at the front office in the light of this deal, one has to conclude that it not only was the right move to make, but that the timing was impeccable.  It makes one wonder, how is it that deals such as this (and it is not an isolated circumstance) look so good – make the front office look so good – yet the Caps still struggle in the spring?

Part of it might be that we have been here before.  Just last year, in fact.  Cody Eakin and a draft pick were sent to Dallas in June 2012 for Mike Ribeiro, making Ribeiro (who had one more year on his contract) the solution du jour for the second line center position.  Before that, it was giving the kids a try – Marcus Johansson and Mathieu Perreault.  Before that, it was Jason Arnott as a rental.  Before that, Brendan Morrison on a one-year deal.  Before that, it was Sergei Fedorov in the twilight of his career (made necessary when Michael Nylander went down to injury).  After he was obtained at the trading deadline in 2008, Fedeorov was signed…to a one-year deal.

The position has been one cobbled together with the hockey equivalent of spit and baling wire for the last half dozen years, a series of experiments, rentals, and one-year deals.  In that context, Grabovski is the latest wad of spit or loop of baling wire.  His signing is already being framed as a chance to secure a bigger payday (presumably with another team) if he performs well for the Caps.  Well, that’s what Mike Ribeiro did, too.  In the end, what good did it do for the Caps last spring?

In this context, the theme might be less the musings of a 17th century playright on marriage but the opening to that old panel game show of the 1950's and 1960's, "What's My Line?"...

"...Will the next contestant enter and sign in, please?"

We do not mean to splash cold water on the good time Caps fans are having at the moment.  This deal on its own merits has no apparent down side, and Grabovski will make this club better.  Adding to this era of good feeling is the role of Adam Oates in the signing, described in some detail in Mike Vogel's post.  Oates knows what he wants to do and has a plan for Grabovski's role in it.  One has to admire and take as a good sign this kind of organized thinking.

However, when we (or anyone else) says that Grabovski will make this club better, the operative phrase there is "this club" -- the 2013-2014 edition.  There is never a permanent (meaning: more than one year) solution to this problem the club seems to face every year.  We have seen this movie before.  The earlier releases of it did not have happy endings.  Perhaps this sequel will have that happy ending.  It is a happy beginning.

 

Countdown to Opening Night by the Elements: Number 39

It is 39 days to Opening Night of the 2013-2014 season, and that can only mean one thing in our countdown of the elements.  Take it away, Fearless…

Yttrium

Yttrium -- atomic number 39 -- is often described among chemists as being a “transition metal.”  It is also described as a “rare earth element.”  In fact, it is name for a village in Sweden – Ytterby – that is the site of a quarry where, in 1787, Carl Axel Arrhenius (whose day job was in the army, but who found time to practice a little chemistry) found a heavy black rock.  He thought it was an unknown mineral containing tungsten, itself only recently discovered.  He named the mineral “ytterbite.” Alas, “yttrium” would not be isolated in its elemental form until more than 40 years later.  Seems Arrhenius thought he had one thing, when in fact it was something else.

It is a soft, silver-metallic, lustrous and highly crystalline metal that is stable in air.  If finely divided, it can spontaneously ignite in the presence of very high temperatures.  Seems it needs some help to get fired up, so to speak.

Yttrium has a variety of uses.  In its oxide form it is used as a component of the phosphors used to produce the red color in television picture tubes. The oxides also have potential use in ceramics and glass. It can be used as part of materials to filter microwaves and as transmitters and transducers of acoustic energy. Yttrium is used as a catalyst in the polymerization of ethylene (we looked this up).

Let’s see… discovered in Sweden… a “transition” metal that can be used as a catalyst… shows up in red on television… described as soft, but stable… needs to be in the presence of something very hot to ignite… thought to be one thing, say, a center, when it turns out to be something else (maybe a left wing).

Aha!  Yttrium… the “Marcus Johansson” of chemical elements.

Countdown to Opening Night by the Elements: Number 40

Fearless is bored, and a mind as fecund and nimble as Fearless’ should never have to suffer boredom.  So, he’s going to take over some of the blogging duties as we drag our way slowly toward opening night of the 2013-2014 season.  Take it away, cuz…

Thank you, cousin.  Hockey is an elemental sport, a combination of strength, speed, power, and grace.  While we are taking our long, slow walk to opening night, I thought I might explore the relationship of this elemental sport with, well, the Periodic Table of the Elements.

It is 40 days to opening night.  Number 40 in the periodic table is…

Zirconium

Zirconium is a lustrous, grey-white, strong transition metal that resembles titanium.  It is found in abundance in S-type stars, which as you know, are cool giants the display evidence of zirconium oxide in their spectral signature.  Zirconium also has been identified in the sun and meteorites, and analyses of lunar rock samples obtained during the various Apollo missions to the moon show a significant zirconium oxide content, at least when compared with rocks of this earth. So, much of what can be called “zirconium” is not of this place.

Zirconium also takes many forms.  Naturally occurring zirconium contains five isotopes, while 26 other radioactive isotopes and isomers are known to exist.  It is a quite diverse element.

It is a grayish-white lustrous metal. When finely divided, the metal may ignite spontaneously in air, especially at elevated temperatures. However, the solid metal is much more difficult to ignite. The inherent toxicity of zirconium compounds is low.  So, it is capable of being ignited, but is generally inoffensive to we humans.

There are many uses for it.  It can be found in surgical appliances, light filaments and watch cases.  It can be used as an alloying agent in steel, in photoflash bulbs, in explosive primers, in lamp filaments, and many other items.  It is used in poison ivy lotions.  With niobium, zirconium is superconductive at low temperatures and is used to make superconductive magnets.  It is quite the versatile element.

So there we have it… strong, ignitable (but agreeable), versatile, and often not of this place.  Zirconium is the “Brooks Laich” – Saskatchewan’s finest – of chemical elements. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The stuff that makes for a devil of a rivalry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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