In 1974 the Washington Capitals were formed and the town was still relatively new to the sport of hockey. It was mostly a football town with the NFL team reaching lots of success. It took a while for the Caps to create a winning culture.
It was a tough start for the expansion Caps
It all began on Oct. 9 at Madison Square Garden in a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers. Jim Hrycuik scored the first ever goal in Capitals history at 5:06. Greg Polis would tie it. Ron Anderson struck on the power play to give the Caps their only lead of the night at 9:32 in the second period.
That goal was assisted by Denis Dupere and Greg Joly. The Rangers tied it on a power play goal of their own at 12:38 from Brad Park. In the third period the Rangers took the lead 1:11 in with a goal from Rick Middleon. At 1:43 the Caps got one back from Dave Kryskow assisted by Bruce Cowick and Hrychuik. From there the Rangers ran away with it with a power play goal from Greg Polis, another goal from Middleton and Rod Gilbert to put it away.
Three nights later the Caps would fall on the road 6-0 to the Minnesota North Stars. Then on Oct. 15 the Caps would open their new home the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland and play the Los Angeles Kings to a 1-1 tie.
Both goals would come in the second period. Yvon Labre would strike at 4:35 off assists from Dave Kryskow and Bill Lesuk. Dan Maloney would be set up by Terry Harper at 7:54 and both teams would play to a 1-1 tie in a season that would see the Capitals win just eight games.
Greg Adams, who played for the Caps from 1983-88, would say this, "When you got a franchise, the other teams didn't help you. They threw you an anchor and said 'good luck... maybe in five years you'll be okay'."
Archie Henderson would add in the same video, "You look back I mean guys that had come in, they were usually cast off from other teams."
Don Fishman, assistant general manager of the Capitals added, "The Capitals were getting the 18th best player on the team so it was designed to be a poor team. We came into the Leauge with the Kansas City Scouts."
Alan May said, "Kansas City went to Denver to became the Colorado Rockies then became the New Jersey Devils."
It was crazy to think the Capitals survived all that time and you're encouraged to check out the rest of the video to see raw footage of the old Capital Centre.