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In 1974 the Washington Capitals debuted as members of the NHL. The team took the ice at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. Team owner Abe Pollin built the venue to house both Bullets and Capitols games. Those with early Washington Capitals tickets saw as the franchise struggled to put together competitive teams. The NHL expansion to 30 teams and the rival World Hockey Association left few veterans of any quality for the inaugural GM Milt Schmidt to sign.

The result of the talent drain for the expansion team was an awful season by any standard. The Washington Capitals finished a dismal 8-67-5. No other team in NHL past or future has posted such a dreadful record. The winning percentage of .131 stands as a blight in the Capitals NHL history. Other teams have tied certain aspects of that year, but no one team could encompass all the bad of the 1974-75 Washington Capitals. The next year the team finished in last place in the Norris Division again, this time with a slightly less embarrassing 11-59-10 record.

The two seasons of trouble quickly led to the end of Milt Schmidt's tenure as GM. Max McNab took over and replaced Schmidt (who coached as well) with Tom McVie. The rest of the 1970s found the team trading off between terrible seasons and years that left them a point or two from the playoffs.

The Washington Capitals finally broke that postseason threshold in 1983. The team finished 3rd in the Patrick division with a 39-25-16 record. David Poile had taken over as general manager and had traded for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Duog Jarvis, and Craig Laughlin at the beginning of the season. The trade brought in the young talent that enabled the Capitals to finally reach the NHL playoffs. After spending the eight seasons as a perpetual joke, Capitals hockey became a respected franchise reaching the playoffs for 14 straight years.

By the early 1990s simply making the postseason stopped being enough for those with Washington Capitals tickets. The eventual Stanley Cup champion eliminated Washington in three out of four years from 1991 to 1994. The fans that stuck with the team through the frustrating playoff losses were redeemed in 1998.

The Washington Capitals took the ice with the familiar lineup that included Dale Hunter, Joe Juneau, Adam Oates, and Olaf Kolzig and posted a 40-30-12 record. The 92 points only got them third place in the Atlantic Division, but the team beat the Boston Bruins in the first round, the Ottawa Senators in the semifinals, and the Buffalo Sabres in the conference finals to reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time. The Capitals were summarily swept by the Detroit Red Wings.

Capitals fans have waited for over a decade for a chance to return to the Stanley Cup, but instead had to endure disappointing losses in the first round of the playoffs to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2000 and 2001 after winning the division during the regular season.

Washington hockey has showed signs of resurgence lately, with the play of left wing Alex Ovechkin. The Capitals have won the Southeast Division twice in row now, in the 2007-08 season and the 2008-09 season. The latest trip to the playoffs stung again. The Pittsburgh Penguins (the Washington Capitals kryptonite) eliminated them in a semifinals round that went seven games. This is the seventh time since 1990 that the Penguins defeated the Capitals and the third time that Penguins beat them on the way to winning a Stanley Cup.