Let this portion of the past be prologue this postseason: the first-round series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals in April 1996. Why would I invoke the painful memory of a six-game setback to them, now? Well for starters, just living to see a game 6 this April would be a welcomed development. But that remarkable chapter in Caps-Pens playoff lore offers some encouragement for depressed Caps’ fans this morning.
The 1995-96 Penguins finished the regular season with a record of 49-29-4 — good for 102 points and the Northeast division crown. Mario Lemieux scored 69 goals that season. Jaromir Jagr added 62. They were just the second set of teammates to score 60 or more goals in a season in league history. With their 362 goals scored during the regular season, Pittsburgh was a glamor offense franchise at a time when the neutral zone trap and left wing lock were seizing and sucking the life out of the sport. The Pens entered the ‘96 postseason as the East’s no. 2 seed.
The Washington Capitals, meanwhile, battled through the ‘95-96 regular season a pedestrian 39-32-11, good enough for a fourth-place finish in the Atlantic division with 89 points. The club’s offensive leader was Michal Pivonka, with just 16 goals (and 65 assists). You wanna talk lunchpail and grit? That season’s Caps’ roster included the likes of Mike Eagles, Kevin Kaminski, Craig Berube, Keith Jones, Kelly Miller, Steve Konowalchuk, and Dale Hunter. They were, I recall, very much a reflection of their head coach, Jim Schoenfeld. The Capitals’ 234 goals scored that season were 128 fewer than Pittsburgh’s. The Caps entered the postseason as the East’s no. 7 seed.
By the spring of 1996 there’d already been written a rich postseason history between the clubs. This series was the fifth between them, all five coming just since 1991. The Pens had won three of the previous four series, two of them decided by seventh games — including the Eastern conference quarterfinals just the previous spring. Pens fatigue was most certainly settling in in these parts.
The ‘96 playoff series commenced on April 17 in Pittsburgh. The Capitals won 6-4, with Todd Krygier notching the game-winning tally. Two nights later, the Caps won again, 5-3. These startling road results, coming against one of the best teams in the league, and just one season removed from yet another seven-game gut-punch from Mario’s gang, fairly set off a Pennsylvania Avenue parade. Our 7th-seeded Caps had gone into no. 2’s building and swept a pair, and now were headed home. Hechingers may even have offered discounts on brooms. We should have known better.
I recall rather vividly driving around town the afternoon after game 2’s triumph and listening to Craig Laughlin being interviewed on local sportstalk radio. He may have uttered the phrase “money in the bank” in forecasting a Caps’ series win, but he definitely predicted a sweep. He also most definitely called the Pens “donesy.” He should have known better.
Despite all their firepower that season, the Pens had some issues in net (sound familiar?), and they came to the fore in the start of the first round of the playoffs. Tom Barrasso started both games 1 and 2 and took the losses; Pittsburgh head coach Eddie Johnston made the switch for game 3, sitting Barrasso in favor of Ken Wregget.
The Pens sent a ‘We’re not dead yet’ message in game 3, winning handily, 4-1. Then came the epic of Game 4 on April 24th.
That game was knotted at 2 after regulation and remained that way after three 20-minute overtime sessions; Petr Nedved ended it in the fourth OT, on a power play goal, slipping a wrister through a maze of players in front of Olie Kolzig. The game ended sometime after 2:00 in the morning. Washingtonians who stuck with the game on television were offered the amusing spectacle of ESPN broadcaster Bill Clement illustrating his fatigue deep in the night/morning by standing next to Gary Thorne with his necktie removed and tied around his head. The series was now evened up, and Craig Laughlin I think began turning down radio appearance requests.
The rest as they say . . . Pens in six, don’t you know all too well? Capitals’ fans again stunned by a postseason stumbling, one made worse by what was now a certifiable western Pennsylvania curse.
So late this past Saturday afternoon at the playoff hockey rink downtown, as the clock ticked down on another postseason death-stab for the Caps, I glanced down at the Rangers’ bench and saw there an easy-to-recognize figure from the Caps’ sordid playoff history. Rangers’ assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld was on the brutal receiving end of that seemingly impossible Pittsburgh postseason resurrection story in April 13 years ago. Yes, we’ve been in this sort of situation before. And again, we’d like to see the no. 2 seed author another comeback shocker.
7 Comments
Hechinger? Awesome reference!
I remember watching that game 4. It wasn’t on normal TV and I and a buddy had to find a bar to watch it. Found a bar but they couldn’t pick it up and ended up in this small little crab shack in Manassas watching the game with a handful of other diehards that had happened in there as well. The owner stayed open as long as he could, but had to kick us out around 12:30/1 AM. By that time, the game was on regular TV and I was able to watch the end.
you really hate for a game to go in to OT, but it is amazing watching a game like that. Part of the great thing that is the NHL playoffs. I hope they never change the OT format.
Over at stayclassy.net they suggest the Russian Ice Hockey Federation is probably cheering for the Rangers.
Pretty sure this was the series that I destroyed Gustafsson’s and my remote when we were roommates.
J: Where is our spare remote?
G: What happened to our other remote?
J: Where is our spare remote?
G: What happened to our other remote?
J: It kind of exploded.
G: it what?
J: It kind of exploded on the way back up?
G: On the way back up?
J: It may have been thrown to the floor on a goal…. I’m not sure.
….
also, you were on business travel for the OT game. I had to drive Ed home after the 2nd OT as he was crying about work the next day. With no one at the house, I fell asleep during the break after the 3rd OT. Woke up, game was over. Had no idea what happened and this was before everyone had internet so I had to wait ’till morning…. still painful
I’m pretty sure the whole “tie around the head” thing happened in ‘87 against the Islanders. Great column, though.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We sat at the end where the Caps shot twice, everyone singing, “B’rasso, As***le,” which, according to his comments later, he actually found inspiring. Schoenfeld, red hair with temper to match, accused later by some players of shortening their careers because of injuries incurred in practice! Berube of the Hardest Shot. Pivonka and Bondra — Pivonka struggling, a defector who couldn’t return home at the death of his father. Bondra, who wouldn’t attend All Stars because he’d promised his kids they were going to Disney World. Might have been a different year, my memory’s not so good now. But I do know that back then, when I kept track of such things, any team that played our lunchpail guys usually lost their next game. The only wins were mostly those who had a 3-day rest afterwards. I could have made considerable money on it. We had a physical team that may not have had a stellar winning record but they flattened anyone they played against. I have never felt the same way about our team as I did then, and probably never shall. That epic marathon took it right out of me. But that said, our current crop has grit and character, too, and it’s only a matter of time.
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