The first owner of the team was Abe Pollin. He had built the Capital Center in Maryland for the Capitals and the NBA team he owned, the Washington Wizards.

A Slow Beginning

The Washington Capitals had the worst inaugural season ever in the NHL. They had only eight wins in that season and their winning percentage of .131 points is the worst ever in the history of the NHL. The next season was also bad and Tom McVie was hired as head coach. The 1970’s and 1980’s were full of ups and downs for the Capitals. Some years they had dreadful records and in some seasons they almost made the playoffs. By 1982, talks were being held to move the team out of D.C.. That year itself, the team turned around due to hiring of David Poile as General Manager. He acquired Doug Jarvis, Craig Laughlin, Rod Langway and Brian Engblom from the Montreal Canadiens. The team also drafted Scott Stevens.

With the new General Manager and players, the Capitals made their first playoffs in 1983. They lost to the New York Islanders but had at last made their mark in the NHL and the team remained in D.C.. They made the playoffs for the next 14 years. They have never won a Stanley Cup but in 1998 they won the Conference Championship. They have also won the Division Championships in 1989, 2000 and 2001.

In 1998, after winning the Conference Championship, the Capitals reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the first and only time in team history. They lost to the defending champions, the Detroit Red Wings. In the same season, three players from the team reached their 1000th career point milestone. The players were Phil Housley, Dale Hunter and Adam Oates. This was the only time that three players of the same team had reached that particular milestone in the same season.

Since 2000, the team has made many changes in its roster trying to improve the record. They signed on Jaromir Jagr and Robert Lang but Jagr failed to perform as they expected though Lang was their leading scorer. In 2004, both Jagr and Lang were traded for other players. In 2006, Chris Clark was made team captain. In June 2007, the team unveiled their new uniforms returning to their original colors of red, blue and white which they had used from 1974 to 1995. The Capitals play their home games in Verizon Center and their head coach is Glen Hanlon.