I Hope This Is The Caps Hinting They Are Finally Going To Retire Peter Bondra's Number
I don't know what has stopped the Caps from retiring Peter Bondra's number. He was an absolute superstar for the Caps during those awesome mid-late 90's years, including taking us to our first Stanley Cup in 1998. Until Ovi, Bondra was the face of the Caps, along with Olie Kolzig of course, who should also have his number raised to the rafters.
Bonzai officially retired after the 06-07 season and has been making appearances on behalf the organization since. He is always at games, always at charity events, and is, as we see above, still used in promotion for the team. If you're like me and grew up on the Bondra-led Caps, you have an undying love in your heart for him and want to see that number 12 hanging from the roof of Capitol One Arena.
What's crazy is out of everyone who has ever played in the NHL, only 45 players have scored over 500 goals in their career. 45. That is a tiny, microscopic number. And Bondra is one of them. He won't make the hockey hall of fame, but at very least his number should be retired. I'm not going to ponder or pontificate why it hasn't yet- I think they are just waiting for whatever feels like the right time, but THIS is definitely it. In the retro jersey that Bondra wore for the majority of his career.
Unfortunately, as I just realized as I got to the end of this blog, it more than likely *won't* happen this season because of the whole no fans in the arena thing, which sucks. Fucking Covid. But when everything is back to normal, Peter Bondra (and Kolzig too) should be retired by the Caps.
PS: Fun little trivia here, Bondra is who Hasek threw his blocker at in a fit of rage. What a moment.
PS: A shame Buffalo didn't go back to the red and black for their Reverse Retro jersey. I loved that logo. For my top 5 and bottom 5 retro jerseys that the NHL released today: