2008-12-11T23:03:00.001-08:00


	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. Jim West and Yvon Labre call the final 4 minutes.


	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.


	January 24, 1979: 13,000 Caps fans see one of the best individual efforts P.O. (Pre-Ovechkin), as Greg Polis goes end-to-end to score. Robert Picard adds two goals. Jim Gordon and Bill Chadwick have the call.


	March 5, 1979: This "NHL 79" national broadcast employs 6 cameras (and the legendary Dan Kelly) for as good a look at an early Caps team as you'll ever see. And the spirited effort against the mighty Habs fires up a raucous Capital Centre crowd.


	March 14, 1989: Pucks skitter and float past helpless goalie Pokey Reddick, who takes some bumps, too. Mike Fornes and Al Koken describe how the Capitals punch their ticket to the '89 playoffs with this convincing victory, on the way to their only Patrick Division title.


	December 26, 1980: Dennis Maruk and Bob Kelly each score twice, while Yvon Labre and Mike Palmateer (yes, the Caps goalie) lay the smack down on the Rangers. Jim Gordon's spot-on commentary is laced with acerbic, witty zingers; Bill Chadwick provides analysis.


	Looking back, boy was this team loaded. Langway, Stevens, Murphy and Hatcher on defense; Hunter, Gustaffson, Gartner and Christian up front. Meet them all in this retrospective from the 1987-88 regular season.


	I squeezed the tubes of the Interweb for old-school Capls highlights; this is what came out. (Except the fights.) Most of the video clips are from the 80's, but there are 15 seconds of grainy film from a Jan. 28, 1976 game with the Seals in Oakland.


	February 9, 1982: For the first and only time, Capital Centre hosts the NHL All Star Game. This video shows player introductions of Wayne Gretzky, and a pre-DC Rod Langway. Clearly, the highlight of these highlights is a hometown standing ovation for the Capitals representative, Dennis Maruk.


	1978-79 Season: The Capitals and L.A. Kings are division rivals (?), meeting 8 times! That cross-country travel made Gordie Lane and Glen Goldup irritable. Fight clips clog the web; 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. 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."

2008-11-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

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.

Caps In Motion