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Capitals poll
What was your Caps highlight of the season? Bruce Boudreau to a 37-17-7 record!
Ovechkins 65 goals 47 assits
Olie Kolzigs 300th career win
Washington winning its final 7 games vs SE.
Southeast Champions/Playoffs
Capitals scoring 10 goals vs Bruins
Washington Sweeping Ottawa
Niklas Backstrom and his back to back 4assist game
Mike Green highest scoring defenseman in NHL
Washington only loss back to back under Boudreau once
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Get this widget!In the beginning & From way back in the Caps opening-season of 1974-75 to the division-winning campaign of '99-'00, the team has experienced a memorable history. We chronicle that history here to give Washington fans the best possible source of information for the team we all love. From year-to-year records to stats to Trophy winners, get what you're looking for in Caps History.2003-04 and 2005-06 Season Review After a fantastic 2002-2003 season with 92 points Butch Cassidy the youngest NHL coach and second in the southeast they ended up falling to the Tampa Bay Lighning after leading the series 2-0 in the playoffs. After that finacial problems with McPhee and Leonsis occured. The 2003-2004 season started with the Caps winning their home opener against the Islanders 6-1 which looked like it would be another good year. the financial problems caused to trade captain Steve Konawalchuk to the Colorado Avalanche only 6 games into the season for LW Bates Battaglia. Things got worse as they finished October 2-7-1-0 with 2 wins and a tie. On December 10th 2003 Cassidy was dismissed and Glen Hanlon was the new head coach. Cassidy and his Caps were 8-18-1-1 when fired with 18 points. It didn't take long for the team to get used to Hanlon as the Caps beat the Bruins 6-5 and for the rest of December he went 3-5-2-0. The Caps picked up pace little by little and they werent going on huge losing streaks but they werent winning either. Washington dealt to Overtimes but couldnt win or ended with ties. At the end of January a week after he scored a goal to tie for the Caps with .8 of a second left Jaromir Jagr was traded to the Rangers for Anson Carter who was traded a month later. After a 1-1 tie at home against Ottawa they liked what they saw in Peter Bondra and after 12 long years with the Caps it was time to say good-bye. In exchange the Caps got Brooks Laich. It wasnt over. Robert Lang went next to the Wings for a player who is now Tomas Fleischmann. Then Michael Nylander was shipped to Boston. March was winding down near the deadline and fans had hope that they wouldnt make this next move but the Caps did and it was expected. Defenseman Sergei Gonchar was traded to Boston for Shaone Morrison. The last to go was Mike Grier who was sent to Buffalo. All these stars were gone and the Caps were a completely new team. Olie Kolzig, Brendan Witt, Dainus Zubrus, and Jeff Halpern was all that was left. The season finished in a loss to Pittsburgh 4-3. The Caps finished in a low 59 points and a record of 23wins-46-losses 10ties- 3 OTL. Although many young stars like Boyd Gordon who showed a great season in +/- and Alexander Semin with 10 goals. Olie had it the toughest and managed to finish with 2 shutouts. rookie goalies Maxim Oullet and Rastislav Stana had a shutout too.A NEW ERA FOR WASHINGTONThe 2004 draft couldnt have been any more fun than for the Washington Capitals hitting our big time star Alexander Ovechkin, and fantastic defensemen Mike Green and Jeff Schultz.A NEW HOPE OF TALENT BUT THE TEAM THAT NEVER CAME TO BEMany of the new Caps and Caps veterans were so looking forward to the 2004-2005 season. The Caps centered eyes around forwards Roman Tvrdon, Jared Aulin, Ovechkin, Laich, Adrian Podkonicky, the rising Alex Semin, surrounded by a veteran bunch of Kip Miller, Dainius Zubrus, Brendan Witt, Joel Kwiatkowski and others. "We're just gonna have fun and give our best" said Glen Hanlon back in July of 04 as he was ready to start a fresh year. The Caps opened up away and home against Atlanta and ended home against Toronto and away at New Jersey. The Lockout took effect however and many of those Caps left to play and other leagues. Few Returned.THE CAPS ARE BACK!After the lockout Jeff Halpern was named team captain, traded for Chris Clark, inked Matt Bradley, Ben Clymer, Mathieu Biron, Jamie Heward and backup goalie Brent Johnson. Alex Ovechkin kept the Caps on their feet with 52 goals and 54 assists the third rookie to score the highest number of points in the NHL and was 4th in scoring. He showed his great ability after scoring 2 goals his first game, a hat-trick and OT winner in Anaheim, one of the most amazing goals as he scored on his back against Phoenix, and his many shootout goals. His 100th point was his 49th goal in an OT winner on April 10th in Boston and his 50th came a couple of days later against the Thrashers. The Caps still finished in last but improved 11 points. The Caps finished 29-41-12 OT Losses. Dainus Zubrus finished over 20 goals with Clark and Pettinger. Brendan Witt was traded to the Predators for center Kris Beech and Brian Willsie and Jeff Halpern became free agents and signed elsewhere. It was back to work come the 2006/07 season. With Halpern gone Chris Clark became the new captain and scored over 30 goals for the Caps that season. McPhee worked out a deal with Alexander Semin who returned to DC since the 2003-04 season and had a phenominal year becoming another great Alex on the team and had two hatricks, they signed Brian Pothier a PP quarterback, Donald Brashear a fan favorite AKA BRASH who brought excitement and motivation to his team and fans, Alex Ovechkin was nowhere near a sophomore slump as he scored 46 goals and 46 assists. He scored a goal 6 seconds into OT one game and his hatrick in the same game. By Christmas break the Caps were looking for a playoff spot after being 8th in their conference, but slowly started to slip away and finished last in the southeast. The Caps final two wins came in a shutout against the Panthers and a win the next night against the Thrashers. The Caps finished again with 70 points going 28-41-13.The COOL ALTERNATIVE/NEW LOOK/NEW TEAMFirst the Caps signed Niklas Backstrom a month after seasons end, went to the red and white uniforms, and drafted defenseman Karl Alzner the day after. The Caps made plenty of moves to move in more players watcing Heward, Zednik and Dainius Zubrus and on July 1st they signed Center Viktor Kozlov and Tom Poti. A day later the Caps signed former Cap center Michael Nylander. The Caps won their two openers on October 5th in Atlanta where Caps rookie Niklas Backstrom recored his first NHL point. The next night they shut out the Hurricanes at home 2-0. The Caps started off 3-0 but went into struggles down the road. Glen Hanlon was fired on Thanksgiving and Bruce Boudreau took over. The Caps won 4-3 in OT the next day thanks to Nik Backstrom. The Caps made a great turn around and for the first time since 2003 the Caps won 7 games in one month in December going 7-3-3. The Caps finished off with a 4 goals from Ovechkin in Ottawa as the Caps won 8-6.HERE IS A LIST OF EVERY CAPITALS PLAYER FROM 1974 to the year of 2007.Keith Acton, Greg C. Adams, John Adams, Jason Allison, Murray Anderson, Ron Anderson, Shawn Anderson, Peter Andersson, Mel Angelstad, Chuck Arnason, Steve Atkinson, Patrik Augusta, Jared Aulin Bob Babcock, Niklas Backstrom, Garnet "Ace" Bailey, John Barrett, Bates Battaglia, Nolan Baumgartner, Robin Bawa, Yves Beaudoin, Don Beaupre, Jim Bedard, Kris Beech, Michel Belhumeur, Brian Bellows, Jan Benda, Harvey Bennett, Sergei Berezin, Michel Bergeron, Tim Bergland, Rick Berry, Craig Berube, Todd Bidner, Craig Billington, Mathieu Biron, James Black, Timo Blomqvist, Mike Bloom, John Blum, Patrick Boileau, Larry Bolonchuk, Peter Bondra, Pierre Bouchard, Josef Boumedienne, Rollie Boutin, Matt Bradley, Rick Bragnalo, Donald Brashear, Martin Brochu, Gord Brooks, Willie Brossart, Jeff Brown, Andrew Brunette, Jan Bulis, Ted Bulley, Randy Burridge, Nelson Burton, Eric Calder, Tony Camazzola, Jim Carey, Kent Carlson, Bobby Carpenter, Greg Carroll, Anson Carter, Andrew Cassels, Frederic Cassivi, Tony Cassolato, Paul Cavallini, Guy Charron, Shawn Chambers, Sebastien Charpentier, Eric Charron, Guy Charron, Denis Chasse, Tom Chorske, Dave Christian, Brad Church, Dino Ciccarelli, Enrico Ciccone, Ivan Ciernik, Chris Clark, Bill Clement, Steve Clippingdale, Ben Clymer, Bill Collins, Chris Corrinet, Yvon Corriveau, Alain Cote, Sylvain Cote, Tim Coulis, Geoff Courtnall, Bruce Cowick, Bob Crawford, Shawn Cronin, Roger Crozier, Brian Curran, Glen Currie, Jakub Cutta, Byron Dafoe, Ulf Dahlen, Jason Doig, Doug Doull, John Druce, Gaetan Duchesne, Denis Dupere, Mike Eagles, Rolf Edberg, Jack Egers, Miika Elomo, Pat Elynuik, Steve Eminger, Brian Engblom, Bryan Erickson, John Erskine, Daryl Evans, Dean Evason, Mike Farrell, Rico Fata, Eric Fehr, Chris Felix, Mark Ferner, Chris Ferraro, Peter Ferraro, Tomas Fleischmann, Colin Forbes, Dave Forbes, Alex Forsyth, Jean-Francois Fortin, Lou Franceschetti, Jeff Friesen, Larry Fullan, Owen Fussey, Garry Galley, Paul Gardner, Mike Gartner, Martin Gendron, Doug Gibson, Stan Gilbertson, Bob Girard, Alexandre Giroux, Eddy Godin, Sergei Gonchar, Boyd Gordon, Bobby Gould, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, Benoit Gratton, Josh Green, Mike Green, Rick Green, Jeff Greenlaw, Mike Grier, John Gruden, Bob Gryp, Bengt Gustafsson, Chris Hajt, Jeff Halpern, Trevor Halverson, Alan Hangsleben, David Harlock, Kevin Hatcher, Alan Haworth, Dwayne Hay, Timo Helbling, Archie Henderson, Alex Henry, Matt Herr, Jamie Heward, Dennis Hextall, Doug Hicks, Andre Hidi, Corey Hirsch, Benoit Hogue, Randy Holt, Bill Houlder, Phil Housley, Ken Houston, Jim Hrivnak, Jim Hrycuik, Jamie Hunt, Dale Hunter, Mark Hunter, Jamie Huscroft, Al Iafrate, Gary Inness Jaromir Jagr, Doug Jarvis, Wes Jarvis, Grant Jennings, Al Jensen, David A. Jensen, Calle Johansson, Jonas Johansson, Brent Johnson, Craig Johnson, Jim Johnson, Jay Johnston, Greg Joly, Keith Jones, Ron Jones, Bob Joyce, Joe Juneau, Milan Jurcina, Kevin Kaminski, Boyd Kane, Ed Kastelic, Mike Kaszycki, Bob Kelly, Dmitri Khristich, Orest Kindrachuk, Brian Kinsella, Ken Klee, Scot Kleinendorst, Jakub Klepis, Olaf Kolzig, Steve Konowalchuk, John Kordic, Viktor Kozlov, Todd Krygier, Dave Kryskow, Frantisek Kucera, Joel Kwiatkowski, Nick Kypreos, Yvon Labre, Pete Laframboise, Brooks Laich, Ron Lalonde, Mike Lalor, Mike Lampman, Gord Lane, Robert Lang, Rod Langway, Tyler Larter, Craig Laughlin, Steve Leach, Grant Ledyard, Patrice Lefebvre, Antero Lehtonen, Mikko Leinonen, Jean Lemieux, Curtis Leschyshyn, Bill Lesuk, Trevor Linden, Mike Liut, Mark Lofthouse, Ken Lovsin, Ron Low, Dwayne Lowdermilk, Joe Lundrigan, Jack Lynch Paul MacDermid, Paul MacKinnon, Ivan Majesky, Clint Malarchuk, Stewart Malgunas, Steve Maltais, Jason Marshall, Mike Marson, Grant Martin, Dennis Maruk, Bob Mason, Jim Mathieson, Alan May, Gary McAdam, Mike McEwen, Jim McGeough, Walt McKechnie, Jim McKenzie, Don McLean, Jim McTaggart, Gerry Meehan, Dean Melanson, Glen Metropolit, Bill Mikkelson, Mike Millar, Kelly Miller, Kevin Miller, Kip Miller, Graham Mink, Dmitri Mironov, Doug Mohns, Hartland Monahan, Barrie Moore, Robbie Moore, Lew Morrison, Shaone Morrisonn, Bryan Muir, Ryan Mulhern, Paul Mulvey, Joe Murphy, Larry Murphy, Rob Murray, Terry Murray, Brantt Myhres, Jeff Nelson, Todd Nelson, Paul Nicholson, Andrei Nikolishin, Claude Noel, Brad Norton, Lee Norwood, Jiri Novotny, Milan Novy, Lawrence Nycholat, Michael Nylander, Adam Oates, Maxime Ouellet, Alexander Ovechkin, John Paddock, Mike Palmateer, Bob Paradise, Dave Parro, Doug Patey, Craig Patrick, Kent Paynter, Pat Peake, Rob Pearson, Stephen Peat, Pete Peeters, Andre Peloffy, J?rgen Pettersson, Matt Pettinger, Robert Picard, Michal Pivonka, Steve Poapst, Harvie Pocza, Andrej Podkonicky, Greg Polis, Brian Pothier, Tom Poti, Dave Poulin, Jean Pronovost, John Purves, Nelson Pyatt, Joel Quenneville, Bill Ranford, Errol Rausse, Alain Raymond, Joe Reekie, Pat Ribble, Mike Richard, Mike Ridley, Pat Riggin, Bill Riley, Gary Rissling, Torrie Robertson, Louis Robitaille, Todd Rohloff, Mike Rosati, Bob Rouse, Tom Rowe, Ken Sabourin, Joe Sacco, Andreas Salomonsson, Gary Sampson, Reggie Savage, Peter Scamurra, Brad Schlegel, Dwight Schofield, Jeff Schultz, Steve Seftel, Rod Seiling, Steve Self, Alexander Semin, David Shand, Brad Shaw, Neil Sheehy, Mike Siltala, Chris Simon, Bob Sirois, John Slaney, Dennis Smith, Gary Smith, Gord Smith, Greg Smith, Rick Smith, Rastislav Stana, Brian Stapleton, Dave Steckel, Wayne Stephenson, Scott Stevens, Blair Stewart, Roland Stoltz, Garret Stroshein, Peter Sundstrom, Brian Sutherby, Jaroslav Svejkovsky, Leif Svensson, Petr Sykora, Rick Tabaracci, Mikhail Tatarinov, Mark Taylor, Alexei Tezikov, Joey Tenute, Greg Theberge, Jim Thomson, Esa Tikkanen, Mark Tinordi, Dave Tippett, Rick Tocchet, Jeff Toms, Tim Tookey, Brent Tremblay, John Tucker, Alfie Turcotte, Brian Tutt, Roman Tvrdon, Igor Ulanov, Stefan Ustorf, Chris Valentine, Darren Veitch, Darcy Verot, Dennis Ververgaert, Alexandre Volchkov, Howard Walker, Ryan Walter, Bryan Watson, Tony White, Trent Whitfield, Doug Wickenheiser, Tom Williams, Brian Willsie, Brendan Witt, Bernie Wolfe, Jason Woolley, Richard Zednik, Dwayne Zinger, Dainius Zubrus
