THE VERDICT: Expansion history and success

Scotty Bowman is getting a lot of telephone traffic lately.
With the incredible Vegas Golden Knights pursuing a Stanley Cup in their first year of existence, the Blackhawks' Hall of Fame senior advisor/hockey operations gladly reminisces about the 50th anniversary of his St. Louis Blues - the most successful expansion team in National Hockey League annals until now.
"Lots of memories, lots of similarities," said Bowman, who coached the Blues to the 1968 Stanley Cup Final in their debut. They paid $2 million, along with five other new franchises to double the size of the NHL. To fend off an application by Baltimore, the St. Louis group agreed to purchase an existing building for $4 million.

Lots of differences, too. With a berth in the Final guaranteed to winners of the all-expansion West Division, the Blues went the distance in their first three seasons. They were swept, twice by the Montreal Canadiens and once by the Boston Bruins, but the games were competitive and St. Louis was established as a vibrant market.
Not unlike Las Vegas, where what's happening there is not supposed to be happening. Except that the Golden Knights have been the antithesis of the norm from the first puck drop. Some teams peak for the playoffs; they've been on fire since October, and it's up to the Washington Capitals to uphold the honor of the establishment and restore a sense of decorum. Expansion teams are supposed to suffer.
As did the Washington Capitals. Their fans, cheering through scar tissue, have to be wondering why Las Vegas averted growing pains. If the Golden Knights are the best expansion franchise ever - not much debate there - there need not be much doubt about one that was historically hapless. The 1974-75 Capitals. They rewrote the 1962 New York Mets' definition of futility and stewed until the 0-14 Tampa Bay Buccaneers challenged it in 1976.

Duty compels us to report that the Capitals' first conquest was at the expense of a team dear to our hearts. On Oct. 17, 1974, the visiting Blackhawks, travel-weary after a home triumph over the Bruins one night earlier, succumbed 4-3. Washington's record at that point in time was a promising one victory, two losses, one tie.
The rest is a mélange of numbers that could pass for typographical errata. The Capitals finished the season with a record of 8-67-5. Bowman's mighty Canadiens romped to the top of the Norris Division with 113 points. The Capitals brought up the rear in no uncertain terms with 21, yielding an astronomic 446 goals. They endured a 17-game losing streak. They lost four games by 10 or more goals.
The Capitals actually had a player, Bill Mikkelson, who wound up minus-82 on a squad with a goal differential of minus-265. Their backup goalie, Michel Belhumeur, posted a mark of 0-24-3 with a goals against average of 5.36 - which was still a shade better than that of No. 1 masked man, Ron Low.
Winless on the road with the season's end mercifully in sight, the Capitals refused to mail it in when they landed in Oakland on March 28, 1975. They somehow vanquished the Golden Seals, 5-3, before a focus group of 3,933 customers. Aware that they would not touch the Stanley Cup, the ecstatic Capitals grabbed a garbage pail and handed it off to each other while taking laps around an empty rink. Their final road record was 1-39.
Milt Schmidt, a Hall of Famer who starred for and then built the Bruins, was the Capitals' coach for that momentous evening. He had been hired as general manager, but took over behind the bench after two predecessors - Jim Anderson and Red Sullivan - departed. They intended to make Washington believe in Santa Claus, but bowed out, citing the Sanity Clause.
Abe Pollin, who owned the Washington Bullets in the National Basketball Association (and much, much later would lure Michael Jordan there) spent $6 million for an expansion hockey team. He also built the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., and was hailed as a civic hero in our nation's capital, then deeply enmeshed in the Watergate scandal that cost President Richard Nixon his job.

For his money, and with the rival World Hockey Association hiring players, Pollin did not get much. Greg Joly, the Capitals' no. 1 draft choice, underwhelmed. Dave Kryskow, a second-round selection by the Blackhawks in 1971, staged a cameo, questioned management, and was traded. Doug Mohns, a former Blackhawk now 40, became the first captain. Bald with a hairpiece, Mohns wore a helmet and saluted for the Star-Spangled Banner and O Canada. He retired after going 8-67-5, completing an estimable career.
Preseason expectations for the first-year Capitals were reserved. Their players, like the Golden Knights, were discards with something to prove. Alas, reality soon took hold. The Capitals indeed had chips on their shoulder but their lower bodies didn't get the message. The local media - then called the "press" ­- tread carefully. The Washington Post had two terrific columnists, Dave Kindred and Ken Denlinger. As the story goes, they would play golf and the loser would have to write about the Capitals.
For the record, the Blackhawks did not take kindly to that aforementioned landmark defeat. A couple weeks later, they were guests for the home opener of the other 1974 expansion team, the Kansas City Scouts. The Blackhawks prevailed 4-3. Soon the Scouts became the Colorado Rockies, who then became the New Jersey Devils.
But the Washington Capitals stuck around, and look at them now.