The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team that plays in Washington, D.C. and is based in Arlington, Virginia. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Since their founding in 1974, the "Caps" have won one conference championship to reach the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, and captured seven division titles. In 1997, the team moved their home hockey rink from the suburban Capital Centre to the new Verizon Center in Washington's Chinatown neighborhood. Former AOL executive Ted Leonsis has owned the team since 1999, and has revitalized the franchise by drafting star players such as Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, and Alexander Semin, and hiring former head coach Bruce Boudreau. The 2009–10 Capitals won the franchise's first-ever Presidents' Trophy, for being the team with the most points at the end of the regular season.
Read more about Washington Capitals: History, Recent Seasons, Team Colors, NHL Awards and Trophies
Famous quotes containing the word washington:
“There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)