Washington Capitals: Looking Back At The 1995-1996 Season

Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

The Washington Capitals are beginning their 41st season as a franchise in 2015. To honor Washington Capitals teams of the past, we will be reviewing each season that the Washington Capitals have spent in the nation’s capital. Today, we remember 1995-1996, a season that whipped fans into hysterics with a new emerging team identity. Ultimately thwarted by one of the best teams to ever play the game.

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The year is 1995. George Clooney is Batman, Judge Ito has declared O.J. Simpson a free man, the Smashing Pumpkins were kind of a really big deal and the Washington Capitals began their 22nd season with a renewed defense-first mentality and some new uniforms. An exciting season for hockey fans overall, 1995-1996 brought us the first season of the Colorado Avalanche (relocated from Quebec City and winners of that year’s Stanley Cup) and the departure of the Winnipeg Jets (to become the Phoenix Coyotes). Fans saw a record-setting ridiculous (62 Win, 131 Points) regular season by the Detroit Red Wings foiled by the newly-formed Avs in the Western Conference Finals and sparked a decades long rivalry between the clubs.

The team was led by head coach Jim Schoenfeld (current AHL Hartford Wolfpack GM, Assistant GM of the New York Rangers and remarkably interesting guy) and captained by rough-as-sandpaper 35 year old veteran center Dale Hunter. Hunter (13G, 24A, 112PIM) embodied Schoenfeld’s coaching philosophy to a tee and goes down as one of the best captains of the Washington Capitals ever. The head coach said this of him going into the season.

At the #17 overall pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, the Washington Capitals chose winger Brad Church of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, who would ultimately play only two games for the Caps before spending the next ten years in the minor leagues and in doing so, overlooked the player at the #18 spot: Petr Sykora (who in hindsight had a much better career). Oops. Where they didn’t miss in talent scouting were the men standing between the pipes. Entering his first full season with the team, Jim Carey played his best season in the NHL, recording 35 Wins over 71 games, posting 9 shut-outs and ending the season with a 2.26GAA. He was awarded the Vezina trophy as the league’s best goaltender and was elected to the NHL First All-Star team. Backing him up was NHL’s first African-born goaltender: 25 year old Olaf Kolzig.

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Peter Bondra once again rewarded adoring fans by posting a sensational 52 Goals over only 67 games while centers Michal Pivonka (65A) and Joe Juneau (50A) fed goal-scorers the puck with ruthless efficiency during the regular season. Winger Craig Berube (151PIM) and center Kevin Kaminski (164PIM) provided a great deal of toughness while Calle Johansson (10G, 25A, 78GP), Sylvain Côté (5G, 33A, 81GP) and recent addition from the Dallas Stars Mark Tinordi (team high +26 +/- rating) brought stability to the blue line. The newly acquired 6’4″ defenseman; whose physically imposing stay-at-home style of play earned him accolades from coach Schoenfeld and comparisons to all-time great Rod Langway during the season, providing the type of responsible play that is not unsimilar to current coach Barry Trotz’ hockey philosophy.

The team would finish 39-32-11-0, good for 4th place in the Atlantic Division and the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They would meet the #2 seeded Pittsburgh Penguins led by hockey prodigy and eventual 1995-1996 Art Ross, Lester B. Pearson (Ted Lindsay), Lady Byng and Hart Memorial trophy winner Mario Lemieux; who put up an other-worldly 69 Goals and 92 Assist (70GP, 161 Points) season. The series will go down as one of the best the sport has ever seen. For the uninitiated: here are the highlights.

While the “Blizzard of ’96” assaulted the D.C. metro area outside, fans inside of USAir Arena weathered the storm of one of the longest, most heart-wrenching games in franchise history during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals. With a 2-1 series advantage and the benefit of home ice, the Caps went into Game 4 with killer instincts against the series favorite. Michal Pivonka got the Washington Capitals on the board after a hard-working assist from a sprawling Hunter in the slot.

Olaf Kolzig came up big with at least two humongous saves on Lemieux who stretched Washington’s staunch defense before a beautifully fed Joe Juneau pass set up the Peter Bondra snipe on Penguins’ goaltender Ken Wregget to double the lead. Jaromir Jagr would answer with a breakaway short-handed goal to the far post for the Pens and tensions began to rise. Serving multiple penalties for retaliation against Todd Krygier, Pittsburgh’s best scorer in Lemieux was off the ice for what looked like the duration of the game. It was far from that however. Petr Nedved would score on the Penguins’ Power Play to knot up the score and almost scored again by whacking a deflected Jagr shot out of mid-air. Joe Juneau had come agonizingly close to catching his own rebound in the 2nd OT (and subsequent penalty shot), but it would ultimately take 139 minutes and 15 seconds of playoff hockey (19:15, 4th OT) before Petr Nedved found twine again with 5 seconds left in another Penguins’ Power Play and Washington Capitals fans around the world would groan in all-too-familiar agony. The looks on the players’ faces told the story after that.

The Washington Capitals would lose the next two games (1-4 and 2-3) to become eliminated from the playoffs in the 1st round. It’s hard to deny the challenge they were presented with in overcoming the #2 seeded Penguins, but you can’t help but feel that if they had managed it; they could have gone all the way. Instead, the Penguins would go on to beat the New York Rangers in 5 games before losing to the first-time-appearance Florida Panthers in the ECF. The Avs, of course, would go on to sweep Florida and win the Cup.

It’s rarely easy belonging to the Washington sports faithful, but even through a difficult series loss, the Washington Capitals had some incredible moments in 1995-1996. It was a golden era in hockey.

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