Caps Outsider today is presenting the world with a complete list of all Washington Capitals players who scored their first goal with the team. In total, 173 players scored their first goal with the Caps, starting with Jim Hrycuik, who scored the Caps’ first goal in their first game, through Jonas Siegenthaler, who accomplished the feat on Nov. 9.
A few fun facts we discovered while looking through this data:
- In nine different games, multiple players scored their first career goals, most recently when Tyler Lewington and Madison Bowie each scored on Dec. 29, 2018.
- No surprise, but the Caps had more first-time goal scorers in the their inaugural 1974-75 season, with 14, followed by 10 in 1981-82. The most in recent years was in 2013-14 when the Caps had seven.
- The Caps are 91-58-12-3 (W, L, T, SOL) when a player scored his first career goal (the games when multiple players score are counted once).
- Alex Ovechkin and Mike Gartner are tied with eight assists for first-time goal scorers.
- The Caps score more first goals at home than on the road, 97-76.
- 29 defensemen scored their first goals with the Caps (it’s tougher to get an accurate count by other positions as many players used to only be listed as ‘forwards’).
Other fun facts: Alan May assisted on four different players, but didn’t score his first career goal with the Caps. Craig Laughlin assisted on two first goals, including Scott Stevens.
See the data here:
