October 6, 1982: Opening night at Madison Square Garden. After the summer blockbuster trade with Montreal, Langway, Engblom, Jarvis and Laughlin play their first game for the Capitals.

This video shows the final four minutes, with the score tied 4-4. Jim West and Yvon Labre call the action.

February 8, 1986: The Capitals are in overtime against the league-leading Oilers.

Owner Abe Pollin is in attendance; watch for him during the postgame interview with Bengt Gustafsson. Mike Fornes does play-by-play.

March 23, 1986: A classic Patrick Division battle before a sellout crowd at Capital Centre.

In the offense-first style of the '80's, 11 goals would be scored and all four goalies would see action. Mike Fornes and Al Koken are behind the microphones.

I squeezed all the tubes of the Interweb for old-school Capitals highlights, and this is what came out. (Except the fights.)

Most of the video clips are from the 80's, but there is 15 seconds of grainy film from a Jan. 28, 1976 game with the Seals in Oakland.

1978-79 Season: Defying geographical logic, the Capitals and L.A. Kings are division rivals, meeting eight times! All that cross-country travel apparently made Gordie Lane and Glen Goldup irritable.

Fight clips clog the web, so there's no need to repost them here. But 1970's Caps video is rare, so here's the home pay-per-view call by Jim West and Jack Doniger.

1989-90 Season: This Capitals promotional video celebrates the first time the team won two playoff series in the same season. The Caps reached the 1990 Eastern Conference final with series victories over the Devils and Rangers.

Bonus video includes their pre-season trip to Russia, where Washington won 3 of 4 exhibition games.

Starting 1987: One video is worth a thousand words in explaining why Dale Hunter was beloved by teammates and despised by opponents.

Fellow warrior Chris Chelios summed up the feeling of friend and foe, to espn.com: "As much as you hate him, it's the same old story, you'd love to have him on your team."
During the 2008-09 season, 80 of 82 Capitals games were televised. And fans howled on message boards about the two they couldn't see.

They don't remember the team's first TV partner, Channel 9, which showed as few as 7 games per season. And not always in their entirety! Some were joined in progress, so as not to interrupt game shows.

Ch. 9's first broadcast team was Hal Kelly, older brother of legendary hockey announcer Dan Kelly, and DC sports icon Warner Wolf.
My Home Page:
Growing Up with the Capitals

My E-mail:
notapwplfan@yahoo.com