NHL Playoffs 2012: Revisiting Bruins-Capitals Playoff History

The Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals are about to cross paths in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third time in their respective histories. The franchises have split their first two meetings and, in both cases, the victor went on to the Stanley Cup finals, though they fell short of a banner.

Current Capitals head coach Dale Hunter will be one of two holdovers from the two previous Boston-Washington playoff bouts, which took place in 1990 and 1998. The other is Bruins’ assistant general manager Don Sweeney, although he did not suit up for the 1998 playoffs due to injury.

Another one of Boston’s current front office figures, team president Cam Neely, played an integral role in their first postseason tangle with the Caps. And he very well could have been involved in the second one if his knees had not sputtered.

None other than Neely set the tone for the 1990 Wales Conference finals, which was the farthest the Capitals had gone up to that time in their 16-year history. But this series would be all things black and gold.

Fueled by their power forward’s three-point performance, the Bruins paced themselves to a 5-3 triumph in Game 1. They expanded their lead to 2-0 when Andy Moog pitched a 28-save shutout and both Neely and Craig Janney turned in their second straight multi-point effort.

Neely and Janney Xeroxed their lines in the box score for Game 3 with a goal and an assist apiece. They were joined in the night’s multi-point club by Ray Bourque and Randy Burridge en route to a 4-1 triumph at the Capital Center.

In Game 4, Neely inserted two goals and Janney tallied a pair of helpers to help the Bruins polish off the sweep with a 3-2 victory. It would be Boston’s last conference crown before their run to the title last spring.

It would also be the last moment of glory for the 1989-90 campaign as off-and-on friend Bill Ranford sealed the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Cup for the Edmonton Oilers in a five-game victory.

Ranford would watch from the bench as Washington’s backup when the two teams met again in the opening round of the 1998 tournament. Although Ranford would not burn the team that twice traded him away, this series nonetheless called into question the blockbuster deal Boston GM Harry Sinden had struck barely 13 months prior.

On March 1, 1997, with his team plummeting to a dead-last finish, Sinden exported the veteran Ranford along with prolific playmaker Adam Oates and Rick Tocchet to the Caps. In exchange, the Bruins transfused younger blood in the form of Jim Carey, Jason Allison and Anson Carter.

Ranford may have been backing up Olaf Kolzig for the 1998 playoffs, but Carey, the 1996 Vezina Trophy winner, was soon reduced to an AHL-caliber stopper.

Ultimately, it was a battle of backstopping buddies between Kolzig and Byron Dafoe. Between Games 2 and 5, the former Calder Cup colleagues with the Portland Pirates each attained a shutout victory and an overtime triumph.

But two nights after Dafoe’s 26-save whitewash at the MCI Center kept the Bruins alive, Washington’s Brian Bellows polished the series off with a Game 6 overtime winner at the FleetCenter.

Meanwhile, Tocchet was already gone from Washington and Carter did not make much of a splash in the series. Oates tallied three goals and four assists against his former mates while Allison led the Bruins with a 2-6-8 log.

A pretty even deal on the surface, but other than enforcer Ken Baumgartner, the 1997-98 Bruins did not have any forwards over the age of 29. They could have used some upfront veteran presence that year―even more so than the current team―and dealing the then-35-year-old Oates more than a year prior effectively cost them that.

Of course, not having Sweeney on the blue line to team up with Bourque didn’t help them either. Kind of like how Bruins buffs are presently hoping Johnny Boychuk is in decent shape to help the likes of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg stifle Washington’s strike force.

As for the Caps, their run to an eventual championship sweep at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings was the second time they so much as progressed beyond the second round. They have not done so since, winning one playoff series in 2009 and another in 2011.

Under Claude Julien, the modern-day Bruins expelled an altogether temporary playoff demon by reaching the third round on a third try and ultimately splashing a 39-year championship drought. The Caps continue to have the same basic plague, long enough that Hunter supplanted Bruce Boudreau behind the bench at midseason.

Can Hunter put an immediate stamp on his inherited team’s turnaround or will a Boston franchise run by Neely sustain its elevated status?