On the 52nd anniversary weekend of their first ever game in the NHL, the Capitals learned the sad news of the passing of Bobby Gould, a stalwart from the first two decades of the team’s existence. A solid and dependable 200-foot, middle six winger, Gould twice finished third in Selke voting during his eight seasons with the Caps, during which he played 600 of his 697 career NHL games.
Gould was a bridge between the dark early days of the Caps franchise and the decades of regular season prosperity they’ve enjoyed since the early 1980s. When he departed the Caps in a Sept. 28, 1989, trade with the Bruins, Gould’s 600 games played with the Caps ranked third on the franchise’s all-time list behind only Mike Gartner (758) and Bengt Gustafsson (629).
Gould was born in Petrolia, Ont. on Sept. 2, 1957. Situated about a half hour east of Sarnia in the southwestern portion of the province, Petrolia is a town of about 6,000 inhabitants that also produced NHLers John Van Boxmeer, Jody Hull and the Hunter brothers – Dale, Dave and Mark – among several more.
After starring for four years at University of New Hampshire under USHHOF coach Charlie Holt, Gould was drafted by the Atlanta Flames (seventh round, 118th overall) in the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft and by the WHA’s Calgary Cowboys (eighth round, 70th overall) in the 1977 WHA Amateur Draft.
Although his college career didn’t begin until 1975-76, Gould’s early pro and NHL career carried a couple of interesting ties to the very first Caps team in 1974-75. After the conclusion of his senior season at UNH, Gould turned pro in a five-game stint with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League in 1978-79. He scored his first two pro goals – the second of which was the game-winner – on April 3, 1979 at Kansas City, beating goaltender Ron Low, who was the winning goaltender for each of the Caps’ eight victories (8-67-5) during their first season in the League.
And when Gould made his NHL debut with the Atlanta Flames – their last season in the south before moving to Calgary in 1980-81 – on Jan. 4, 1980, one of the players on the opposing Red Wings was original Capital and first-ever Washington draft choice Greg Joly.
With Calgary on Oct. 10, 1981 at the Checkerdome in St. Louis, Gould hung a hat trick on the Blues in the second game of the NHL season. He scored a goal in each period against Mike Liut – who later played for the Caps – and his goal at 3:58 of the third was the game-winner. They were the first three goals of his NHL career.
“Just getting my first NHL goal is quite a thrill,” Gould told Gary Mueller of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the game. “But getting my second and third in the same game is unbelievable. I’m really not much of a goal scorer, but things just went right for me.”
Gould’s coach, Al McNeil, didn’t share that opinion.
“He’s here because he’s a tireless worker, not because he’s a goal scorer,” said the 1971 Stanley Cup-winning coach. “But that doesn’t mean he won’t score in the NHL. I think he will because he’s got a good shot and a quick release. His hard work in training camp earned him a spot on the team, and his scoring is going to keep him here.”
McNeil was right, but not right away. Gould was without a point in his next 15 games with the Flames. And with the team mired in a 6-12-5 early season rut, he was traded with defenseman Randy Holt to the Capitals for blueliner Pat Ribble and a second-round pick, on Nov. 25, 1981. That deal turned out to be arguably the best trade the Caps made in their early years, before the landmark, franchise-saving trade with Montreal that brought Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis, Rod Langway and Craig Laughlin to Washington on Sept. 9, 1982.
Gould had a goal and an assist in his second game with the Caps and soon became a fixture here and had his best years in Washington. He arrived the same month Bryan Murray was named the team’s head coach. Gould’s first season with Caps was the last of the eight straight playoff misses at the start of the franchise’s existence; he scored 18 goals and was named the first winner of the team’s Unsung Hero award. With the hat trick he scored with the Flames early in the season, he also reached the 20-goal milestone for the first of four times in his career.
In addition to being a steady and reliable player, Gould was durable, too. He didn’t miss a game with the Caps until his third season in Washington, and he missed a total of just 20 games across his eight seasons here.
Washington made its first-ever playoff appearance in 1982-83, and Gould was a key player on that team. He played in all 80 games, scored 22 goals – one of seven Caps to score 20 or more that season – and finished third in the NHL in balloting for the Selke Trophy.
In the Caps’ first trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs, Gould quickly and indelibly etched his name into the team’s history books. With help from Dennis Maruk, at 4:01 of the first period on a Washington power play, he scored the first Stanley Cup playoff goal in franchise history – and he added a second goal later in the game – on April 6, 1983 against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. Gould had five goals in four playoff games for the Caps that spring.
Longtime Caps fans and former Gould teammates still talk about the Friday night, March 20, 1987, game between the Caps and the Penguins at the Capital Centre in Landover. It’s a shining example of Gould’s impact on his team and teammates, and his one-man impact on the playoff chase that spring.
The Caps entered that Friday night game in a tailspin; they had won only one of their previous six games (1-4-1), enabling the Pens to surge to within two points of Washington in the Patrick Division standings entering that game.
The game was played late in Gould’s best NHL season – he totaled 23 goals and 27 assists for 50 points and was a plus-21 that season; all of those figures represented single-season career highs – and during the push for playoff positioning; fewer than 10 games remained in the regular season, and the game was crucial for both teams.
With the Caps leading 1-0 early in the second period, a bit of a skirmish broke out along the boards, and 21-year-old Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux made the youthful mistake of dropping his mitts first and challenging Gould to a bout. Although he was four inches shorter and 35 pounds lighter than the Pittsburgh pivot, Gould began throwing with both hands and quickly pummeled the Pens star so thoroughly that Lemieux’s 20-year-old linemate Craig Simpson had to come to his rescue as the third man in; Simpson incurred a game misconduct for his troubles, leaving the Pens without two of their top three scorers for the remainder of the contest.
Lemieux left the game and didn’t return; according to Chuck Finder’s piece in the March 21, 1987 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Lemieux sustained a slight concussion and was to spend the night for precautionary measures at George Washington University hospital in Washington, D.C. He was taken there for observation, though X-rays show no bones around the eye were broken.”
“The first one was right there,” Finder quoted Gould, of his first punch. “I’ve never hit anybody like that. I’ve never hit that hard in my life before.”
Less than a minute after exiting the penalty box after serving his fighting major, Gould scored to double the Caps’ lead. His goal incensed the Pens, and more scuffling ensued, the result of which was Gould returning to the penalty box with players from both teams, and the Caps getting a power play out of the situation. Alan Haworth scored on the power play to make it 3-0 Washington just seconds later.
The Pens clawed their way back to 3-2 going into the third, but Gould’s second goal of the game proved to be the game-winner in a 4-3 Caps victory.
Lemieux entered that game with 52 goals in just 55 games on the season. To his credit, he didn’t miss any of the Pens’ remaining games, but he was limited to two goals in his final eight games – starting with that March 20 game – as the Pens waddled to a 2-5-1 finish and missed the playoffs by four points.
The Caps didn’t lose another regular season game, going 8-0-1 and finishing second in the Patrick Division.
Gould finished his NHL career with the Boston Bruins in 1989-90, reaching the Stanley Cup Final and getting into 17 playoff games in his final NHL campaign. After a season as a player/assistant coach with the AHL Maine Mariners in 1990-91, Gould retired as a player. He later was an assistant coach – under fellow Petrolia native Mark Hunter – with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting for a couple of seasons, and he also coached minor hockey.
A valued and valuable player for the better part of a decade here in D.C., Gould leaves a legion of admiring fans and former teammates, as well as his wife Janice and children Todd, Dayna and Blair, and a host of other family members and friends. Bobby Gould will always be missed, but he will never be forgotten.
