1992-93 Washington Capitals Sylvain Cote Jersey

The old cliche goes that "The Best Offense is a Good Defense" and no team took that to heart like the 1992-93 Washington Capitals, whose rearguard consisted of Todd Krygier, who reached double digits with 11 goals and chipped in 12 assists for 23 points, and Calle Johansson, who contributed just 7 goals but added 38 assists for 45 points.

Also a key contributor to the Capitals attack was the legendary heavy shot of Al Iafrate, whose blast of 105.2 mph in the NHL Skill Competition stood for 16 years. Iafrate already had two 20 goal seasons on his resume while he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but in 1992-93 he set a career high with 25 goals for the Capitals. He nearly equalled his career mark of 42 assists with 41 that season for a total of career best of 66 points.

Al Iafrate

Also setting a series of career highs was Kevin Hatcher, who led the Capitals blueline with 34 goals and 45 assists for 79 points, which placed him third in team scoring behind only center Mike Ridley's 82 points and team leader and right wing Peter Bondra's 85. In fact, Hatcher's 34 goals were second on the club behind only Bondra's 37, and were more than forwards Dmitri Khristich (31), Ridley (26), Pat Elynuik (22), Michal Pivonka (21), Dale Hunter (20), Kelly Miller (18), Keith Jones (12) and one-time 50 goal scorer Bobby Carpenter (11).

Kevin Hatcher

Finally, Sylvain Cote scored his 20th goal of the season on this date in 1993 to make the Capitals the first team in the 76 year history of the NHL to have three defensemen score 20 goals in a single season when he connected at 19:45 of the second period against Swede Tommy Soderstrom of the Philadelphia Flyers with assists from Carpenter and Miller.

Cote would add one final goal during Washington's last four games for a total of 21 for the year. It would be the only 20 goal season of Cote's 19 year career and he would finish third among Capitals defensemen and ninth in team scoring with a then career high of 50 points, which he would eclipse the following season with 51.

Cote would begin his career with seven seasons with the Hartford Whalers before seven in Washington. He would leave the Capitals for the Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars before returning to Washington to finish his career with two full seasons in 2000-01 and 2001-02 before playing a single game in 2002-03 before his retirement.

Sylvain Cote

The Capitals would finish second in the Patrick Division to the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins with a 43-34-7 record and actually place mid-pack in team scoring, 10th out of 24 teams, despite the record setting contribution from their potent defense corps. In the postseason, the Capitals would be upset by the New York Islanders, who finished 6 points back of them in the standings, but won Games 2, 3 and 4 of their playoff series all in overtime before eventually ending the Capitals season in six games.

Today's featured jersey is a 1992-93 Washington Capitals Sylvain Cote jersey. All players wore the Stanley Cup Centennial patch during the 1992-93 season in recognition of Lord Stanley of Preston's donation of the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup as the symbol of the top-ranking amateur hockey club in Canada 100 years earlier.

The Capitals wore their star-spangled jerseys from the time of their NHL debut in 1974 through the 1994-95 season when they stopped wearing their classic red, white and blue jerseys and changed to a new blue and black color scheme. Names would not arrive on the back of the Capitals red jerseys until 1977-78.

What really sets the authentic version of the Capitals jersey apart from the replica jerseys is that each letter of the Capitals logo on the front is a separate piece of material, rather than the entire crest being embroidered in a smaller size onto a patch, which would then be sewn onto the jersey. Each of the 16 stars on the chest and sleeves are also separate pieces of material which are sewn on. If you can get an old game worn or authentic Capitals jersey, do so, as it is one of the largest differences in quality between the authentic and the replica of any jersey.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1992-93 Washington Capitals Al Iafrate jersey from the season the Capitals became the first team to have three defensemen in NHL history score 20 goals or more. Additionally, it was the season Iafrate set career highs in goals and points as well as setting the record for the hardest shot in the NHL Skills Competition with his 105.2 mph blast.

Today's video segment is a compilation of goals scored by Iafrate with his powerful snapshot, as well as setting his long standing record in the hardest shot competition through the power of his mullet.