After burying ghosts, Caps look to raise the Cup

Sporting News, The, Oct 12, 1998 by Helene Elliott

Washington coach Ron Wilson claims he dreamed last spring that the Capitals would open this season against Anaheim-the team that fired him after an impressive playoff run in 1997-and that before the game, the Capitals would hoist the Stanley Cup banner to the rafters of Washington's MCI Center.

"I got the schedule, and I couldn't believe it, because we're actually opening against Anaheim," Wilson says. "Except the banner we're raising is the Eastern Conference championship, not the Stanley Cup banner."

Difficult to believe? Maybe. It's almost too good an anecdote to be true.

But it was even more difficult to believe that the Capitals, with a new coach and first-year general manager George McPhee, went from missing the playoffs to their first Stanley Cup berth in the franchise's 24-year history. And still more incredible that they didn't squander the 3-1 series leads they held against Boston, Ottawa and Buffalo in each round, as they had in previous years.

"Those were three huge tests," Wilson says. "We had this history, and even though it had nothing to do with myself and George McPhee, it was palpable. Everybody tried to ignore it, but I was going to be the one who confronted it. I talked to the team about that, saying that instead of fearing it we were going to use this as a positive."

It was a positive thing, all right. Wilson was positively petrified history would repeat itself and his Cinderella team would revert to being a pumpkin. "When we got to 3-1 against the Bruins and you think you've got the situation under control, we stunk the joint out (a 4-0 loss) and I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach," he says. "It seemed every game, we had a 2-0 lead and in the third period, the Bruins threw everything at us. (Goaltender) Olie Kolzig was fantastic. Olie Kolzig is the one who buried all the ghosts here.

"We won that series, 4-2, and then we find ourselves in the same boat the next series, and we hear the same stuff. ... In the finals, there wasn't anything we could do. The Red Wings were so pumped up. ... Going into that series, I thought we would win the Stanley Cup. After the first period of the first game, I didn't believe we'd do it."

His premonition proved true, and the Capitals were swept. Still, losing to the Red Wings was no shame. And it didn't make the Capitals' season any less of a success or diminish the outstanding job done by Wilson and McPhee.

Kolzig's emergence as a top-notch goalie helped immensely, as did the team's new depth in the face of 480 man-games lost to injuries. However, Wilson's contributions can't be overlooked, especially his ability to guide his team through the maze of bad memories left by past playoff failures. The Capitals are poised to build a tradition of success, and it's Wilson who coaxed, cajoled and prodded them there.

Wilson, 43, is a coach, huckster, psychologist and strategist wrapped up in one brash but engaging package. His motivational tactics might seem hokey--when he led the Ducks past Phoenix in the 1997 playoffs, he used the movie The Wizard of Oz to make the point that his players need only look within themselves to find the courage, wisdom and heart to win--but they worked with Anaheim and the 1996 U.S. team m me World Cup of Hockey. The U.S. men's team's meltdown at the Nagano Olympics in February is less his fault than the fault of a bad setup, insufficient preparation time and the jamming of a major event into the middle of an NHL season that meant more to most U.S. players.

Wilson's dismissal in Anaheim was the result of a personality clash with then-G.M. Jack Ferreira and with Tony Tavares, then the club president and an overzealous hands-on manager. If the Ducks' failure to make the playoffs last season with coach Pierre Page and Wilson's success in Washington made the Ducks' decision to fire him look all the more ridiculous, well, so much the better for Wilson.

Yet, the move still stings Wilson. He had envisioned coaching the Ducks for years and growing with them. When he went east, he couldn't sever his ties to Anaheim because his wife, Maureen, and youngest daughter, Lauren, remained in California so Lauren could finish high school.

"I look back at that time very fondly. That was a great time and a great learning experience," he says. "I worked with some great people and great players. It still bothers me that you start something and don't get to finish, but it's not always within your control.

"Some people think I'm in Washington trying to stick it (to Anaheim). Sure, you hope you do well to prove them wrong and you hope things deteriorate there, but to some people, it was like I'm coaching better with the Capitals because I want to prove the Ducks wrong. That isn't the case. There's some sense of vindication (when the Ducks missed the playoffs). People were led to believe the team succeeded when I was there because the Ducks had a couple of great players, not because of the coaching.

"My sense is being fired was a good thing because it gives you a sense of perspective. You find out who your true friends are. ... You move on and hope in your next situation you find an environment you're going to succeed in."