The History of the Washington Capitals(Est. 1973)
WASHINGTON CAPITALS VS PHILADELPHIA FLYERS--WAR ON ICE
The cities they represent are just 138 miles apart; cities steeped in history and tradition. Cities with passionate fan bases. Cities that don’t have much mutual respect for one another. How could their respective hockey teams not become fierce rivals? Even their goalies (Flyer Ray Emery and Capital Braden Holtby) got into a slugfest.
The Capitals rivalry with the Philadelphia Flyers started out as not much of a rivalry. Washington was a woefully bad expansion team when they joined the NHL in 1974. Philadelphia was the defending Stanley Cup champion and were on their way to a repeat. Their first meeting was November 9th, 1974 at the Spectrum where Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, and Tom Bladon each scored a goal and added two helpers while Rick MacLeish and Orest Kindrachuk scored on a penalty shot and assisted on another as the Flyers steam-rolled the Caps, 6-2. Philly outshot Washington 45-27 while while former-Flyer goalie Michel Belhumeur made 39 saves in defeat.
by Rick Benson
During the early stages, while the Flyers packed the Spectrum every game with 17,077 faithful fans, the Capitals were having trouble filling seats at the Capital Centre. Philly fans, many of whom couldn’t get tickets at the Spectrum, took full advantage as they bought up tickets and literally took over the Caps home ice and made chants of “Let’s Go Flyers” fill the air. The talent level between the two teams was so vast that even a tie at the Centre against Philly brought championship-like euphoria. Once such memorable moment (which happened to be my very first Capitals game) happened on December 3rd of 1976 when Hartland Monahan’s sixth shot on goal got past future Hall of Fame goalie Bernie Parent with 30 seconds left to secure a 4-4 tie.
While the early Capitals couldn’t match the skill level of their neighbors up I-95, they began to match up well fist to fist. The Broad Street Bullies had Dave Schultz, Bob Kelly, Paul Holmgren, Mel Bridgeman and Jack McIlhargey. The Capital Punishers countered with Captain Yvon Labre, Craig Berube, Scott Stevens, Alan May and Brendan Witt. Later, Dale Hunter joined the mix; no doubt remembering the time in 1985 as a Quebec Nordique when he was on the receiving end of a bone-jarring hit from Flyer Peter Zezel which shattered the glass behind the net. Caps fans, who grew tired of their arena being taken over by Philly fans who relished victory after victory in the series, could take some solace that their guys weren’t physically intimidated by the Bullies of Broad Street.
Meanwhile, it took their 26th try before the Caps finally beat the Flyers; a 6-0 shutout just four days before Christmas at the Spectrum in 1980. Just 19 seconds after the initial puck drop, one of the most legendary brawls between the two teams broke out. When all the dropped gloves and sticks were sorted out, eight 10-minute misconducts, a pair of fighting majors and dual bench penalties were doled out. Less than three minutes later, Labre and Bridgeman got into another fight and later Philadelphia defenseman Behn Wilson and Washington’s Archie Henderson had two separate scrums; resulting in each getting a fighting major and then a 10-minute misconduct. Almost lost in the battle royal was a shutout performance by Belhumeur, who turned away 44 shots on goal for the Caps first happy ending against Philly.
The Tide Begins to Turn
After the Capitals finally achieved their first win over the Flyers, they went on to win 10 of the next 19 games against Philadelphia. Included in this run was a 10-4 December 1981 beat down at the Capital Centre with center Dennis Maruk netting a hat trick. The Caps-Flyers rivalry became a great rivalry in the 1980’s, when the Caps and the Flyers were both in the Patrick Division. The rivalry really started back in 1984 when the Washington Capitals, led by Mike Gartner, swept the Flyers out of the playoffs (their first ever playoff series victory) to put a fitting end to the careers of future Hall of Famers Bobby Clarke and Bill Barber.
The 1980s saw the Capitals close the talent gap as stars like Gartner, Maruk, Hunter, Rod Langway and Mike Ridley made the team perennial playoff participants while Philadelphia was struggling to maintain the talent level of their Cup teams from the mid-70s. The Flyers were also reeling after their All-Star goaltender Pelle Lindbergh was killed in 1985 while crashing his sports car with a blood alcohol level over twice the legal limit; a tragedy that some feel still haunts the organization today.
Like any good rivalry, it built up for a few more years before exploding in 1988. In 1988, the Flyers led the Capitals 3-1 in the first round before the Caps rallied to beat the Flyers in seven games. Washington turned the series with a 7-2 beat down at the Spectrum in game six; pushing four goals past Flyer Ron Hextall in the second period. The Capitals returned home and rallied from a 3-0 deficit and took game seven into overtime before Hunter tallied the series winner.
The Flyers, however, would get revenge the next season by beating the Patrick Division champion Capitals four games to two; taking the final three games, including a Rick Tocchet game winner in game seven at the Capital Centre.
The two teams didn’t meet again in the playoffs until 2008 with the Flyers coming out on top four games to three. There was another long gap between playoff meeting until 2016 when the President Trophy winning Capitals jumped out to a 3-0 series lead before the Flyers took the next two to force a game six in Philly. Vezina Trophy winning Caps goalie Braden Holtby stole the show; turning back all 26 Flyers shots and center Nicklaus Backstrom scored the lone goal in the second period to win the series.
The Caps and Flyers have always had physical battles. The videos on this page show some of the classic brawls between these two combatants. Tom Wilson and Wayne Simmons probably don’t exchange Christmas cards. Hextall is probably as popular in Washington as Hunter is in Philly. This rivalry might have died down a little bit because both the Capitals and the Flyers are no longer in the same division and both are no longer the bullies that they were back in the 1980’s, but it’s still one of the most intense rivalries in all of hockey. It’s Washington versus Philadelphia. It will never be a lovefest.