Perhaps no team in the National Hockey League had as inauspicious a start as the Washington Capitals. In the entire century-plus of NHL history, the 1974-75 Capitals, one of two expansion teams to enter the league that year (after a horrendously unfair expansion draft from an already depleted league), hold the league’s worst-ever single-season points
Archives
Frank Finnigan is not in the Hall of Fame, nor was he ever the biggest star for the original Ottawa Senators. From 1923 to 1937, he only led his team twice in scoring and was overshadowed by future Hall-of-Famers Cy Denneny, Alex Connell, Frank ‘King’ Clancy and Frank Nighbor. Yet, Finnigan’s No. 8 hangs from
In today’s NHL, fans and coaches alike see any goalkeeper who starts 60 games or more as an absolute workhorse. Starting goalies are usually expected to play 45-55 games, unless they are truly at the top of the heap in the league. 20 years ago, goalies starting 60-plus games was more common, but it certainly
Thursday, just hours after Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin claimed his second consecutive ESPY award for Best NHL Player, a Capitals star of the past took to social media to take “credit”…of sorts…for the Caps’ recent run of success. “After 18 years we should look the positive way. If I would play very good ,
* originally published in Jan. 2018 Scott Stevens can be considered one of the last of a breed of NHLer that wreaked havoc on other players. During a time when checks were seemingly more vicious than in today’s game, Stevens threw his share of hits that rattled opposing players; some were injured, some were just
Beginning in 1981, Dale Hawerchuk became one of the most dominant centers in the National Hockey League and was the face of the Winnipeg Jets. After a junior career in the QMJHL in which he scored 81 goals and 102 assists in all of 72 games for the 1980-81 Cornwall Royals , he was at
The late sixties were an eventful period to say the least. Peace rallies opposing the continued American military presence in Vietnam were growing like wildfire, the Beatles maintained their dominance of the music charts with the release of their “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band” album, and the summer months were dubbed the “summer of
“The wait is over. The New York Rangers are Stanley Cup champions and this one will last a lifetime.” Never has a phrase spoken by a broadcaster been more poetic. Those words were uttered by Rangers announcer Sam Rosen on June 14 after the team won Game 7 to capture the 1994 Stanley Cup. It
Pernell-Karl Subban, known to most as P.K., is one of the most dynamic defensemen in recent memory. His electrifying play on the ice combines with his equally-charismatic personality off-ice into a person who is both beloved and criticized, often at the same time. But regardless of how you view him, he is one of the
NHL color analyst and ex-player Eddie Olczyk recently celebrated his 53rd birthday, and life is certainly good. But it wasn’t always that way. Olczyk’s world was turned upside down just a few short years ago in Aug. 2017 when he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since then, the man the hockey world affectionately refers to
Few players in the NHL have dealt with a rollercoaster-like career quite like the one Phil Kessel has. From being drafted high in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft to his battle with cancer and subsequent trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kessel’s career started off with as many peaks as it had valleys. After a
In this first installment of a four-part series comparing Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin to his four immediate predecessors, we take a look at Pierre Gauthier. It’s been 25 years since the Habs last won the Stanley Cup. In that time, players have come and gone, but so have GMs. Five have been hired
We look at some options for new Seattle NHL team names, a more difficult task than days gone by. Sports back in Grandpa’s heyday were so much easier than they are today. Case in point: team monikers. Back then, franchise names were so simple, so logical that they rolled right off the tongue. The NFL
Enough time has gone by that a large number of today’s hockey fans do not realize that the New Jersey Devils were once the Colorado Rockies. And even before that, the franchise began as the Kansas City Scouts. After the team’s inception into the NHL for the 1974-75 season, their time as the Scouts lasted
Combine a gritty style of play with quick hands and fast feet, throw in a swagger that sat well with his movie-star good looks, mix well with his fair share of nastiness and you have the young Derek Sanderson, better known by his friends and teammates as “Turk”. Born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario,
The Vegas Golden Knights are a paradox. For one, they’re an ice hockey team based in the desert. The National Hockey League’s success – or lack thereof – in such markets doesn’t exactly inspire great confidence (see: Coyotes, Arizona). Plus, the Golden Knights were the first major professional sports team to call Las Vegas home
This article was originally written in December, 2015. During the dead puck era in the years leading to the 2004-05 NHL lockout, the Canucks’ trio of Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison far from followed the pattern of declining offense in the league. The West Coast Express line, named after the commuter train in
Despite only being around for 24 years, the Anaheim Ducks sure do like taking walks down memory lane. After he previously spent parts of six seasons with the team, the then-Mighty Ducks brought back Teemu Selanne for the 2005-06 season (and the eight that followed), four years after shipping him to the San Jose Sharks