Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals are an American professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the National Hockey League (NHL). They are members of the league's Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference. Since their founding in 1974, the "Caps" have won one conference championship to reach the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, and captured eight division titles. In 1997, the team moved their home hockey rink from the suburban Capital Centre before its own 1999 closure, to the new Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Businessman Ted Leonsis has owned the team since 1999, and has revitalized the franchise by drafting star players such as Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green. 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.

History

Along with the Kansas City Scouts, the Capitals joined the NHL as an expansion team for the 1974–75 season. The team was owned by Abe Pollin (also owner of the National Basketball Association's Washington Bullets/Wizards until his death on November 24, 2009). Pollin had built the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Maryland, to house both the Bullets (who formerly played in Baltimore) and the Capitals. His first act as owner was to hire Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt as general manager.

Virginia Squires

The Virginia Squires were a basketball franchise in the former American Basketball Association from 1970 until just before the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.

In Oakland

The Squires were founded in 1967 as the Oakland Oaks, a charter member of the ABA. The team colors were green and gold. An earlier Oakland Oaks basketball team played in the American Basketball League in 1962.

The Oaks were owned in part by pop singer Pat Boone. They were probably noted more for a major contract dispute with the cross-bay San Francisco Warriors of the established National Basketball Association over the rights to star player Rick Barry than for any on-court accomplishments. Barry, a former NBA Rookie of the Year who led the Warriors to the NBA finals in 1966-67, was so angered by management's failure to pay him certain incentive awards he felt he was due that he sat out the 1967-68 season. He joined the Oaks in the following year, leading the franchise to its one and only ABA championship in 1968-69.