Double Whammy Hasn’t Stopped Burridge : NHL: Player comes back from operations on both knees to boost Capitals.

By now you’re probably familiar with stories about athletes undergoing major knee surgery, losing a step or two and never performing quite the same way.

Now imagine double reconstructive knee surgery, a major operation on each knee. Either knee injury could have ended Randy Burridge’s NHL career.

Thing is, amazingly, Burridge hardly seems to have skipped a beat despite surgery on each knee in 1992. Friday, he scored two goals and had an assist in the Washington Capitals’ 5-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks at Anaheim Arena.

Rehabilitation sidelined Burridge for almost all of last season, but he says both knees now feel as good as new.

“The Randy Burridge story is unbelievable,” Washington Coach Terry Murray said. “You could write a book about that. For a hockey player to come back from two reconstructive knee surgeries is unheard of.”

Burridge suffered a partial tear of a ligament in his right knee in 1991, blew out the left one at the end of his first season in Washington in 1992, then ripped the right one to shreds in September 1992. He missed 80 games last season, playing only four regular-season games and four more in the playoffs.

“Certainly, it puts a fire in your eyes after missing an entire year,” Burridge said. “After missing a year, I’m happy just to be able to play again.”

What’s so surprising to anyone, except perhaps Burridge, is how well his comeback has gone. With three points against the Ducks, he pushed his season total to nine, tied for third on the team.

Murray and goaltender Don Beaupre point directly at Burridge for helping yank the Capitals out of a season-opening funk. Washington lost its first six games, but the victory against the Ducks was the Capitals’ fifth in the last six games.

“He’s playing with a lot of pride and without hesitation,” Murray said. “It’s a great addition to our club to get this player back.”

Said Beaupre: “A guy like Randy Burridge works hard every game and gets a lot of (scoring) chances.”

Burridge helped the Capitals jump the Ducks right from the start Friday, assisting on Dimitri Khristich’s first-period goal, then scoring twice in the second period.

The ability to score quickly and consistently was sadly lacking last season, according to Beaupre.

“At times last year we didn’t have goal scoring,” he said. “We had spurts where we might score seven goals, but then nothing.”

Murray couldn’t count on Burridge--who had a career-best 67 points in 66 games in 1991-92--to be back to full strength, however much the Capitals needed him. Without Burridge last season, they had to rely on 92 goals by their defensemen. What’s more, Kevin Hatcher, who had 34 goals, Al Iafrate (25) and Sylvain Cote (21) became the first three defensemen from one team to score more than 20 goals in a season.

It was no wonder that Burridge couldn’t wait to hit the ice this season. He was confident he would skate as well as ever and help provide the scoring the Capitals would need, but he couldn’t foresee the team’s awful start.

“It’s hard to believe 15 to 20 guys could be so out of it right at the beginning of the season,” Burridge said. “The first six games, we seemed tired for some reason. Maybe we were out of shape.”