Washington Capitals Tickets

The NHL expanded to the US capital before the 1974-75 season. Things in DC got off to a shaky start: the Capitals won only eight games out of eighty in their inaugural season and only won eleven games the next year. But the Capitals eventually built a strong roster—including hall of fame players like Mike Gartner and Rod Langway—and the Capitals made the playoffs consistently through the most of the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1998, the Capitals made their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. With Olaf Kolzig leading the way in net, the Caps dispatched the Bruins, Senators, and Sabres in the first three rounds, winning six games in overtime on the way. In the Stanley Cup Final, however, they were overmatched against the Detroit Red Wings and lost the series in four games.

Everything changed for the Capitals, who had suffered through a few disappointing seasons, when they drafted Alexander Ovechkin with the #1 pick in 2004. Ovechkin had an immediate impact in the NHL: he scored 52 goals in his rookie season and won the Calder Trophy as the Rookie of the Year.

During the Ovechkin era, the Capitals developed a reputation for disappointing playoff finishes. They finished the regular season in first place three times between 2009 and 2017 but never advanced past the second round of the playoffs. In 2018, the Capitals faced the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins—who had eliminated the Capitals in many playoff series over prior decade—in the second round. This time, the Capitals finally came out on top, with Evgeny Kuznetsov scoring a dramatic series-winning goal in overtime of Game 6. They eventually advanced to the Stanley Cup Final and defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in five games to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.