Caps (27-15-9, 63 points) vs. Montreal Candiens (27-18-5, 59 points)
What » Game #52
Where » Verizon Center
When » 7:30 p.m.
TV » CSN+ HD
Radio » WFED 1500-AM
It’s Turn Back the Clock Night at Verizon Center. For the final time this season the Caps will wear the throwback uniforms from the Winter Classic. Also, the organization honors forward Dino Ciccarelli, who played just four of his 19 seasons in Washington yet became an instant fan favorite. Just anecdotal evidence, but it seems wandering around Verizon Center before a game you’re as likely to see a Ciccarelli jersey as a Mike Gartner or Rod Langway jersey – players who were here far longer. Ciccarelli certainly made an impression, though. The 5-foot-10, 180-pound winger wasn’t the biggest guy in the world. But his tenacity in front of the net led to 608 career goals and 1200 career points.
“When you’re a smaller guy and you play hard people love you,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, who remembered Ciccarelli getting called up for his NHL debut on the same day Boudreau was recalled by the Toronto Maple Leafs. “Because they love the common man that works and that was him. Add a few goals into that – a few? I mean 600 – and you’re going to get somebody that’s going to be very, very popular with the people.”
Ciccarelli was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this year. He was in Washington from 1988-89 to 1991-92 and had 112 goals and 97 assists in 223 career games with the Caps. Ciccarelli also led the team with 41 goals and 79 points in 1989-90 and had a team-high 38 goals the following season.
“The fans aren’t dumb. With 20,000 people they know who’s working hard, who’s not working hard,” Ciccarelli said. “That was my simple approach every night. Do something, get noticed even if you’re not scoring goals. Draw penalties, get in the goalie’s face. Get the crowd into it. If you’re losing try to change the momentum.”
Ciccarelli fondly remembered some of the great players on his Caps teams, including a pair of Hall-of-Fame defenseman in Rod Langway and Scott Stevens:
“Obviously I hated [Stevens], too, playing against him,” Ciccarelli joked. “We lived together in the Davidsonville area and rode in together every day.”
Ciccarelli spent a productive year-and-a-half on the same line as Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller. But – as with most Caps alumni – there are some bitter memories, too. In 1990 Ciccarelli and Kevin Hatcher were injured and didn’t play in the Eastern Conference finals against Boston, a four-game sweep.
None is worse than the blown 3-1 series lead against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1991. Mario Lemieux has said that was by far the toughest series his team faced that season en route to the Stanley Cup. Paul Coffey – later Ciccarelli’s roommate with the Red Wings – said Lemieux gathered the team before Game 5 of that series and told them they weren’t going anywhere unless they embraced a defense-first philosophy Washington employed in those years.
Bruce Boudreau says forward Alex Semin will miss his 10th straight game with a groin injury. Meanwhile, Semyon Varlamov gets the start in goal again. He posted a 3-0 shutout of Montreal in the two teams’ only meeting of the season on Dec. 28 at Verizon Center.
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