| | WASHINGTON -- Dale Hunter had only one regret after ending his 12-year run with the Washington Capitals: He never got to see the team raise a Stanley Cup banner.
He settled for the next best thing Saturday night.
|  | | Dale Hunter, the third player to have his number retired by the Capitals, remains popular with his former teammates. |
Hunter had his number retired during a ceremony before the Capitals' game against the New Jersey Devils. With the sellout crowd standing and cheering its approval, Hunter's No. 32 was raised to the rafters of the MCI Center.
Hunter, who finished his 19-year career last May, joins Yvon Labre and Rod Langway as the only Capitals to have their numbers retired.
"For the Capitals to do something like this for me, it's really something," he said. "I'm not a Wayne Gretzky. I was more of a hard worker."
The 5-foot-9 Hunter came to the Capitals in June 1987 after seven years with Quebec. He had 181 goals and 375 assists in 872 games for Washington, but his value was in winning faceoffs, venturing into the corner against players much bigger than himself and dishing out punishment to anyone who dared entered the Capitals' zone.
One of the gifts he received Saturday night was a penalty box, an entirely appropriate present given that he spent 2,002 minutes in such surroundings as a member of the Capitals.
Hunter did manage to score a big goal every now and then. In 1988, he beat Philadelphia goalie Ron Hextall in overtime of the seventh game of the Patrick Division semifinals, capping a comeback in which the Capitals rebounded from a 3-1 deficit in games.
"Being here tonight sends butterflies into my stomach, like when I scored that overtime goal against the Flyers," he told the crowd.
Hunter holds team playoff records in goals (25), assists (47), points (72) and, of course, penalty minutes (372).
Washington's longtime center and team captain now serves as its player development instructor.
"Each and every day he gave the team his all," Capitals president Dick Patrick said. "As a member of our front-office staff, Dale continues his hard work and lifelong dream of capturing the Stanley Cup."
Hunter, 39, played in 1,407 regular-season games and accumulated 3,565 penalty minutes -- second-most in NHL history. The closest he got to winning the Cup was in 1998, when Washington advanced to the finals before dropping four straight.
The Capitals traded him to Colorado last year in an effort to give him one last chance to get his name engraved on the Stanley Cup, but the Avalanche didn't make it to the finals. | |
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