Though I never don’t want to be in a hockey rink, I really wanted to be inside Verizon Center last night. When your hockey team can earn its 100th point on the season, it’s special, very, and an occasion not to miss.
One hundred point hockey campaigns don’t grow on trees in these parts, nor are they pedestrian accomplishments for any National League hockey franchise. One hundred points in hockey seems to me to be like 100 wins by a Major League Baseball team, or 10 wins by a college football team. You know that you’ve had a special season when you’ve earned those.
This season marks just the fifth time in 34 seasons that the Capitals have passed the century mark in points earned in regular season play. Ultimately of course a season’s success is judged on a team’s postseason achievements, but the journey from early October through mid-April carries its own important narrative, and 100 points is a barometer fans can point to with pride and say, “You didn’t much want to face us on any given night this season.”
You can’t fake your way to a claim of being good — really good — and earn 100 points. You don’t have to win 50 games to get to 100 points, but this Capitals team very well just might, and lucky or pretender-good teams don’t get to either.
The Detroit Red Wings earned 100 points this season for the ninth consecutive season, establishing a league record for sustained excellence. No one has suggested that the Wings have trivialized the 100-pt. benchmark. Far from it, in fact. The feat is being celebrated and marveled at. Rightly so.
Every NHL season membership in the 100-pt. club is exclusive. This season is a bit unusual in that three clubs in the East and likely three or four in the West will earn membership. But all of them are very good hockey clubs. The Chicago Blackhawks may reach 100 points, or they may fall just a point or two shy. They will certainly earn 100 points next season. Still, I wouldn’t want to face them in the opening round of the postseason this year.
Between 1983 and 1986 the Washington Capitals earned 100-plus points in three consecutive seasons. The dark days of the 1970s for the franchise were vanquished by virtue of them, and those Capitals’ clubs with their Langway, Scott Stevens, and Larry Murphy bluelines seemed poised to usher in a serious challenge to the Redskins’ monopoly on sports fans’ hearts in the region. But far more quickly than those stellar seasons accumulated in the new decade they vanished, for quite a while, reminding us — especially the further away from them we get — just how special those Caps’ clubs were. They beat Gretzky’s Oilers 9-2 in a game in ‘83-’84; Mike Gartner enjoyed his first 50-goal season the next year; the ‘85-’86 Capitals’ club remains the benchmark for regular season success, having earned a club record 107 points. I hope at practice today Bruce Boudreau brings up that 107-pt. Capitals’ club and says, “Let’s beat ‘em.”
Invariably 100-pt. seasons deliver feats of individual heroism that have a way of searing themselves into the fan’s mental scrapbook, perfectly preserved. Some Caps’ fans may recall Alexander Ovechkin’s surreal scores against Montreal and Buffalo this season, while others will point to Mike Green’s eight-game goal scoring streak, a new NHL record for goals in consecutive games by a defenseman.
It will be Green I think of when I think back on the ‘08-’09 regular season campaign, and last night’s 2-goal, 3-point performance while battling a rugged strain of influenza and a pesky and gutsy Islanders’ club that shut out Detroit in Joe Louis last Friday night. Gracious but 30 goals in a season by a defenseman is special, no matter the era. Only one other defenseman in Washington Capitals’ history has accomplished that feat — Kevin Hatcher scored 34 goals in ‘92-’93. That will be tough for Green to match or beat in this season’s final five games, but I wouldn’t want to wager against him.
The Southeast Division-winning Capitals of a season ago were a good team by season’s end, fairly feared around the league, but no match for this season’s version. Mike Green’s season has a lot to do with that, but so does that 100-point barometer.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to wear a red necktie or blouse to the office today, signifying your allegiance to a special hockey club. Last night that designation was certified.
9 Comments
While 108+ points would be a great accomplishment, that ‘85-’86 team reached 107 in an 80-game season (two fewer than this team will play), and did it without the aid of shootout wins (from which this team has garnered an extra four points via wins that would have likely been ties back in the day).
Then again, that team lost in the second round of the playoffs to a team that finished the regular season with 78 points, so anything can happen when the games really matter.
No doubt 100+ is amazing, and no one can argue the Caps have what it takes to win games, but how concerned are we going into the playoffs with the Caps less than steller GF/GA differential?
Right now the Caps are +25 third best in the division, but only 7 best in the league. And they are significantly behind the Bruins at +77.
I don’t know if there’s a strong statistical correlation between playoff success and goal differential over the regular season, but I’ve always liked the phrase “They don’t ask ‘how’, they ask ‘how many’ to determine who won the game”.
The last time the Capitals reached the 100-point plateau, they fell on their faces in the first round I believe. Hopefully Bruce won’t let that happen to this new version of the Capitals…
i’ve only been watching hockey for a few years, but from what i’ve heard, this capitals team is far different from any prior one.
i like to think they’ll continue to be different…and beyond the second round of the postseason
I too am skeptical of such statistics, but I think there is something to say about allowing almost as many goals as you have scored. I think it speaks to the same concern we’ve had all season that even with Pothier return still seems to plague the boys. To use everyone’s favorite cliche, “Offense wins games, defense wins championships”. I feel stupid saying that…
Don’t forget that Green has put up those numbers while missing 14 games. I’m not usually a stats nerd, but in 1992-93, Hatcher scored 30 goals and 79 points in 83 games. Green has 30 goals and 70 points in just 63 games — that’s TWENTY fewer games.
1992-93 Hatcher — .40 goal per game, .95 point per game
2008-09 Green (so far) — .47 goal per game, 1.11 point per game
The overtime loss (the “charity point”) has significantly diluted the relative value of the 100-point season. Subtract one point for every Caps overtime or shootout win and where does that put them now? 82 game schedule doesn’t help the value either.
Now go look up the record of the 1976-77 Canadiens and see if your jaw doesn’t drop.
The Caps have had a fine regular season, but 100 points just isn’t what it used to be. Kind of like 40 home runs in the post-juice era in baseball.
Paul,
Once you open the Pandora’s Box on rules tinkerings for standings points, all manner of criteria and conflict emerge. More than a third of Detroit’s 9 nine straight 100-pt. seasons now have been achieved with the aid of the shootout/skills competition, not just the Caps. But I’m not convinced that the Wings were otherwise lousy, or merely good. And what of the standings in the early 1990s, when expansion and godawful San Jose and Ottawa arrived on the scene? Were in-conference teams that feasted on them actually 92-pt. clubs, adjusted for non-expansion eras? Or what of the Original Six once the league expanded overnight to 12? They had easy pickings for quite a while, no? Just how much were Orr’s early ’70s stats inflated against the California Golden Seals and the like? How far to do want to play your stats game?
May I add another salute to the Detroit Red Wings?
The Red Wings have hit the 100-point mark 13 times since the 1992-93 season – including this present season. They’ve now done it nine years straight. Obviously, Detroit is the dominant team of the present era.
However, if you think racking up 100 points in 82 games is impressive – and I imagine we all do – imagine a team racking up 100 points in 70 games. The Red Wings did it, twice.
In 1949-50, the NHL schedule was stretched from 60 games to 70 games. The very next season – 1950-51 – Detroit hit the 100 point mark (finishing with 101 points). To prove it was no fluke, they did it again in 1951-52 (finishing with 100 points). Needless to say, they lost very few games during these two seasons.
This was the golden era of the Red Wings. They finished in first spot for seven straight seasons – from 1948-49 to 1954-55. Four times – 1949-50, 1951-52, 1953-54 and 1954-55 – they won the Stanley Cup.
That success coincided with Gordie Howe’s rise to superstardom. In 1948-49 – in the playoffs – he followed up an ordinary regular season with 11 points in 11 playoff games (leading all other players). An injury restricted Howe to one playoff game in 1949-50 – after finishing third in points in the regular season. Gordie would then go on to win the Art Ross Trophy the next four years running, and win three Stanley Cups.
To be fair, I should point out that other players – like Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel, Red Kelly, Harry Lumley and Terry Sawchuk – contributed something to the success of the Detroit Red Wings.
The secret to a 100-point season is a roster full of future Hall of Famers.
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