1994–95 Washington Capitals season

The 1994–95 Washington Capitals season was the team's twenty-first season of play. After stumbling to a 3-10-5 record by February 28, the Capitals caught a break in bringing up 20-year-old rookie goaltender Jim Carey from the Portland Pirates for their March 2 game against the New York Islanders. The Capitals edged the Islanders 4-3 and Carey made 21 saves. Carey would finish his rookie season with an impressive 18-6-3 record, a 2.13 GAA and 4 shutouts. With the help of Carey's superb goaltending, Washington would go on to win 19 of their final 30 games and finish in 6th place in the Eastern Conference, with a 22-18-8 record for 52 points. Peter Bondra had an excellent season, leading all NHL skaters in goals (34) and shorthanded goals (6). 
In the first round of the playoffs, the Capitals faced their old rivals from 1992 and 1994, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Washington had defeated Pittsburgh had eliminated Pittsburgh from the first round one year earlier and were hoping to do the same in 1995. The series started out well for the Capitals, as they defeated the Penguins 5-4 in the opening game. In game 2, Washington held a 3-1 lead after two periods, but Pittsburgh scored four times in the thirs period to win 5-3 and tie the series at 1-1. Washington won games 3 and 4 at home by identical scores of 6-2. The two teams skated to a 5-5 tie in game 5. Just 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the first overtime period, Luc Robitaille scored his 4th of the playoffs to keep the Penguins alive in the series. Peter Bondra, Dale Hunter, Jaromir Jagr and Kevin Stevens each scored twice in the game. Leading 3 games to 2, the Capitals had a chance to eliminate the Penguins on home ice in game 6, but goaltender Jim Carey struggled, allowing 6 goals on just 13 shots. Washington got only one shot (by Keith Jones) past Pittsburgh goaltender Ken Wregget, who made 30 saves. The Penguins went on to win the game 7-1 and tied the series at 3 games apiece. Jaromir Jagr, Luc Robitaille and Tomas Sandstrom each scored twice. In game 7, Carey played better than he had in game 6, stopping 15 of 17 shots, but Ken Wregget was solid again and stopped all 33 Washington shots to get the shutout. Troy Murray would add an empty-net goal to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 win and the series 4 games to 3. It was the second time in four years that the Penguins had defeated the Capitals after trailing 3 games to 1 in a series.
==Offseason==
==Regular season==
===Final standings===
===Game log===
No.	R	Date 	Score 	Opponent 	Record
1 	T	January 21, 1995 	1–1 OT	@ Hartford Whalers (1994–95) 	0–0–1
2 	L	January 24, 1995 	1–5 	@ Quebec Nordiques (1994–95) 	0–1–1
3 	L	January 25, 1995 	0–2 	@ Montreal Canadiens (1994–95) 	0–2–1
4 	W	January 27, 1995 	5–2 	New York Islanders (1994–95) 	1–2–1
5 	L	January 29, 1995 	1–4 	Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95) 	1–3–1
6 	L	February 2, 1995 	0–1 	Buffalo Sabres (1994–95) 	1–4–1
7 	W	February 4, 1995 	3–2 	Florida Panthers (1994–95) 	2–4–1
8 	L	February 7, 1995 	1–2 	@ Buffalo Sabres (1994–95) 	2–5–1
9 	L	February 8, 1995 	4–5 	@ New York Rangers (1994–95) 	2–6–1
10 	T	February 11, 1995	1–1 OT	@ Boston Bruins (1994–95) 	2–6–2
11 	L	February 13, 1995	3–5 	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	2–7–2
12 	L	February 15, 1995	2–4 	@ New Jersey Devils (1994–95) 	2–8–2
13 	W	February 18, 1995	4–2 	Quebec Nordiques (1994–95) 	3–8–2
14 	L	February 20, 1995	0–2 	New Jersey Devils (1994–95) 	3–9–2
15 	T	February 23, 1995	5–5 OT	@ Ottawa Senators (1994–95) 	3–9–3
16 	T	February 25, 1995	3–3 OT	@ New Jersey Devils (1994–95) 	3–9–4
17 	T	February 26, 1995	1–1 OT	Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95) 	3–9–5
18 	L	February 28, 1995	2–4 	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95)	3–10–5
19 	W	March 2, 1995 	4–3 	@ New York Islanders (1994–95) 	4–10–5
20 	W	March 4, 1995 	5–1 	Montreal Canadiens (1994–95) 	5–10–5
21 	W	March 5, 1995 	4–2 	New York Rangers (1994–95) 	6–10–5
22 	W	March 7, 1995 	3–1 	@ Boston Bruins (1994–95) 	7–10–5
23 	T	March 10, 1995 	2–2 OT	Ottawa Senators (1994–95) 	7–10–6
24 	W	March 12, 1995 	3–1 	Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95) 	8–10–6
25 	W	March 13, 1995 	3–0 	@ Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	9–10–6
26 	L	March 16, 1995 	1–5 	@ Florida Panthers (1994–95) 	9–11–6
27 	W	March 18, 1995 	4–1 	New York Rangers (1994–95) 	10–11–6
28 	W	March 20, 1995 	5–0 	@ Hartford Whalers (1994–95) 	11–11–6
29 	W	March 21, 1995 	1–0 	Ottawa Senators (1994–95) 	12–11–6
30 	T	March 25, 1995 	2–2 OT	Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95) 	12–11–7
31 	L	March 26, 1995 	3–4 OT	Hartford Whalers (1994–95) 	12–12–7
32 	W	March 29, 1995 	4–2 	@ Tampa Bay Lightning (1994–95)	13–12–7
33 	W	March 31, 1995 	6–4 	Quebec Nordiques (1994–95) 	14–12–7
34 	W	April 2, 1995 	2–1 	Boston Bruins (1994–95) 	15–12–7
35 	W	April 4, 1995 	5–4 	@ New York Islanders (1994–95) 	16–12–7
36 	L	April 8, 1995 	1–3 	Philadelphia Flyers (1994–95) 	16–13–7
37 	L	April 11, 1995 	1–3 	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	16–14–7
38 	L	April 12, 1995 	1–2 	New Jersey Devils (1994–95) 	16–15–7
39 	W	April 14, 1995 	3–0 	Florida Panthers (1994–95) 	17–15–7
40 	L	April 16, 1995 	2–4 	@ Quebec Nordiques (1994–95) 	17–16–7
41 	L	April 17, 1995 	2–5 	@ Montreal Canadiens (1994–95) 	17–17–7
42 	W	April 21, 1995 	6–3 	Hartford Whalers (1994–95) 	18–17–7
43 	W	April 22, 1995 	2–1 	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95)	19–17–7
44 	L	April 24, 1995 	4–5 	@ New York Rangers (1994–95) 	19–18–7
45 	W	April 26, 1995 	6–5 	New York Islanders (1994–95) 	20–18–7
46 	W	April 28, 1995 	5–1 	Buffalo Sabres (1994–95) 	21–18–7
47 	T	April 30, 1995 	2–2 OT	@ Florida Panthers (1994–95) 	21–18–8
48 	W	May 2, 1995 	7–2 	Pittsburgh Penguins (1994–95) 	22–18–8
==Playoffs==
==Player stats==
===Regular season===
;Scoring
Player	Pos 	GP	G 	A 	Pts	PIM	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG
 	RW 	47	34	9 	43 	24 	9 	12 	6 	3
 	C 	44	5 	38	43 	8 	-1 	3 	0 	0
 	C 	46	10	23	33 	50 	3 	4 	2 	2
 	D 	46	5 	26	31 	35 	-6 	4 	0 	2
 	LW/C	48	12	14	26 	41 	0 	8 	0 	2
 	LW 	46	11	14	25 	44 	7 	3 	3 	3
 	LW 	48	10	13	23 	6 	5 	2 	0 	1
 	C 	45	8 	15	23 	101	-4 	3 	0 	1
 	RW 	40	14	6 	20 	65 	-2 	1 	0 	4
 	D 	47	5 	14	19 	53 	2 	1 	0 	2
 	D 	47	0 	13	13 	43 	6 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	42	3 	9 	12 	71 	-5 	2 	0 	1
 	C 	29	4 	5 	9 	10 	2 	0 	2 	0
 	D 	31	2 	5 	7 	22 	4 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	48	1 	6 	7 	97 	10 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	43	2 	4 	6 	173	-5 	0 	0 	0
 	RW 	32	0 	6 	6 	96 	-6 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	23	3 	1 	4 	41 	2 	0 	0 	0
 	C/LW	13	1 	3 	4 	8 	2 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	18	0 	4 	4 	12 	-6 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	12	2 	1 	3 	6 	-3 	2 	0 	0
 	RW 	8 	2 	1 	3 	2 	3 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	16	0 	3 	3 	6 	-3 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	27	1 	1 	2 	102	-6 	0 	0 	1
 	C 	10	1 	0 	1 	2 	-2 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	8 	0 	1 	1 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	3 	0 	1 	1 	2 	3 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	2 	0 	0 	0 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	28	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	4 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	14	0 	0 	0 	4 	0 	0 	0 	0
;Goaltending
Player	MIN 	GP	W 	L 	T	GA 	GAA 	SO	SA 	SV 	SV%
 	1604	28	18	6 	3	57 	2.13	4 	654 	597 	.913
 	724 	14	2 	8 	2	30 	2.49	0 	305 	275 	.902
 	187 	4 	1 	1 	1	11 	3.53	0 	80 	69 	.863
 	394 	8 	1 	3 	2	16 	2.44	0 	147 	131 	.891
Team: 	2909	48	22	18	8	114	2.35	4 	1186	1072	.904
===Playoffs===
;Scoring
Player	Pos 	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG
 	RW 	7 	5	3	8 	10 	2 	0 	1
 	C 	7 	4	4	8 	24 	2 	0 	0
 	RW 	7 	4	4	8 	22 	1 	0 	0
 	C 	7 	2	6	8 	2 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	7 	2	5	7 	12 	0 	1 	0
 	LW/C	7 	1	4	5 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	7 	1	4	5 	21 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	7 	3	1	4 	0 	1 	0 	0
 	D 	7 	2	2	4 	2 	0 	0 	1
 	D 	7 	1	3	4 	2 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	7 	0	3	3 	4 	0 	0 	0
 	C/LW	7 	0	2	2 	4 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	7 	0	2	2 	8 	0 	0 	0
 	RW 	3 	1	0	1 	17 	0 	0 	1
 	LW 	7 	0	0	0 	29 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	7 	0	0	0 	4 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	1 	0	0	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	5 	0	0	0 	36 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	7 	0	0	0 	4 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	2 	0	0	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	2 	0	0	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	7 	0	0	0 	2 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	1 	0	0	0 	2 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	2 	0	0	0 	4 	0 	0 	0
;Goaltending
Player	MIN	GP	W	L	GA	GAA 	SO	SA 	SV 	SV%
 	358	7 	2	4	25	4.19	0 	151	126	.834
 	44 	2 	1	0	1 	1.36	0 	21 	20 	.952
 	20 	1 	0	0	1 	3.00	0 	3 	2 	.667
Team: 	422	7 	3	4	27	3.84	0 	175	148	.846
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes; PPG=Power-play goals; SHG=Short-handed goals; GWG=Game-winning goals
      MIN=Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; SO = Shutouts; SA=Shots Against; SV=Shots saved; SV% = Save Percentage; 
==Awards and records==
==Transactions==
==Roster==
==Draft picks==
==Farm teams==
==See also==
*1994–95 NHL season
==References==
==External links==
* 
Washington Capitals season, 1994–95
Washington Capitals season, 1994–95
Category:Washington Capitals seasons