Capitals weren’t always contenders, expansion version lives on in infamy

WASHINGTON (CP) — The original Washington Capitals were just hoping to avoid more embarrassment.

Saddled with an ugly 0-37-0 road record late into their appalling first season, the Capitals travelled to Oakland for a game against the California Golden Seals when something miraculous happened. They won. “We took the garbage pail and we signed it,” former Washington defenceman Jack Lynch recalled in a recent phone interview. “That was our Stanley Cup.

“As sad as that was, it really was a fun moment.”

It was one of very few for the 1974-75 Capitals. Unlike the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, who trail the present-day Capitals 3-1 heading into a do-or-die Game 5, Washington’s original incarnation was set up to fail on the ice from the start.

Abe Pollin paid a relative pittance of US$6 million to bring the NHL to the U.S. capital — roughly $30 million in today’s dollars — chump change compared to the $500 million Bill Foley ponied up for his Sin City hockey team.

That meant there was an expectation the Knights, who stunned almost everyone in hockey by winning the Pacific Division before breezing through the first three rounds of the playoffs, would be competitive from the start.

The leagues other 30 teams could only protect seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender, or eight combined skaters and a goalie in the expansion draft held last June to stock the Vegas roster.

The Capitals and the Kansas City Scouts, who joined the league together as the NHL’s 17th and 18th teams in 1974, were not given even close to the same opportunity, with franchises being allowed to keep 15 skaters and two goalies.

“Tommy Williams, one of our better players, used to say, ‘We’ve got a good team. The problem is we should be in the minors,’” said former Washington forward Ron Lalonde. “He probably wasn’t very far off because of the talent pool we had.”

The expansion 1974-75 Capitals remain statistically the worst team in NHL history with a record of 8-67-5, good for just 21 points.

Lynch came over in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings that February.

“I was shocked. Losing was so entrenched,” Lynch said. “Guys were counting down how many games were left, how many practices, how many periods. They just really wanted to get the season over with.”