The game was a few days ago, but I haven't had time to relive the amazingness because of other school commitments. I will now take the time to gloat and giggle over the wonderful, and appropriate, 5-0 shutout.
The pre-game honoring of Tony-O wasn't bad. Rocky Wirtz made another sweet reference to home games on TV when he spoke, the crowd roared and I gave him a silent salute from my couch. My favorite was the little montage:
I knew from the beginning that Kane and Backstrom were facing off. Two spectacular rookies they are and all I could think about was seeing them fight. That would just MAKE the game.
The first intermission began with a bang 4-0: a beautiful tip in by Williams from Wiz; a rather dirty, jam-the-goalie-down, goal by Toews during Lepisto's power play; a wonderfully placed slap shot from Yanic; and to top it all off, Sharpie's, easy-as-pie, hit into the 2 hole. Khabby didn't make any absolutely amazing saves during the first intermission but he did a good job. Wiz was mic'd up/live wired/talky talk boxed/whatever-you-want-to-call-it'd during the game and they showed some funny scenes of him touching the line judge's butt and saying "ohh ohh" when he was on the bench. What a rapscallion. Be careful James Wizniewski, we all know you have a big mouth and a junk yard dog demeanor but, I'd prefer it if you didn't make some unfriendly enemies.
My rather vocal hopes that Kane and Backstrom would battle it out were almost forgotten.
A little Semin on Burish. (Sorry Burish...I Just had to say it.)
The second period was full of angry Capitals. Alex "the great" Ovechkin was on a rampage; slamming our biggest guys (though not so 'tough' in Seabrook's case) into the boards whenever he had the chance. Though Big Dustin Byfuglien got a nice, crowd roaring slammer in, eventually. Then Ovie gave Khabby a little shot after the whistle blew and Toewser Laser flew over there and some punches flew. My happiness could not be expressed as I saw Kane and Backstrom pushing and shoving off in the corner of the screen. Both Toews and Ovechkin received roughing penalties; I gave Toewser a vocal kudo. Rene Bourquenstein (my own nickname, teehee) broke away within ten minutes and tapped it in smoothly. The second period ended, 5-0.
Dan and Eddie interviewed the great Tony-O during the second intermission:
I may be slightly ashamed that my brother and I couldn't breath because we were laughing so much. When Tony said, "hey Dan", I pretty much pissed in my pants. That's OK, he's an old guy and a jolly one to boot.
The third period began 5-0 but the defeat in the eyes of the Capitals was only a dull glimmer; they were coming out with a vengeance. At the same time we were leaving the locker room with a mission also: stop them. And at all costs we did. Khabby made a few spectacular saves. The crowd began to shout, "Khabby! Khabby! Khabby!" Sound familiar? "Tony! Tony! Tony!" was the usual chorus at the old stadium (and none of the announcers forgot to remind us all through out the game). Khabibulin, now fully charged with the sight of a shutout on the horizon, began to play at top speed. He finished with an absolutely fabulous diving save. The crowd went wild.
A shutout on the very night we honored one of our goalie greats. An appropriate finish.
Friday, March 21, 2008
A Capital Loss
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Best of the worst
Watching the Capitals-Bruins game today, I was struck by a particularly bad commercial. This one was Ovechkin, talking about his "passion". It was cringe worthy, and I dont even cringe when Ovechkin shows up in public dressed like a colorblind costume designer vomited clothes onto him. Which he does, a lot.
But it got me thinking about the best of the worst NHL commercials. Every team has got a few, where you can tell that a nice player agreed to do the commercial, and is miserably uncomfortable the entire time. Or best yet, when they know they are better hockey players then actors and just have fun with it.
Here is the Ovie one thats pretty terrible, but makes me laugh anyway:
Then of course there is the Martin Havlat crack up...and we aren't even talking about one of his limbs! Ca-ching. The Penguins round out the top of the list with this commercial, which produced the cringe laugh from me (squinty eyes with a snort laugh).
And then there is this Kings commercial, which is a classic. Easily the best of the worst.
I know that all hockey fans have your team faves, and I've got to be missing some, so please share in the comments!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Best of Both Worlds
With the brouhaha over the recent dismissal of John Ferguson JR reaching all time new heights even for Leafs Nation, it was nice to sit back and concentrate on watching a game. Thanks to a friend of mine who couldn't make it to tonight's Leafs/Caps tilt at ACC, my son and I snagged a pair of tickets - at cost! In a city where tickets for the entire season sell out on the first day of sales, that's no mean feat.
I'm a die hard Leafs fan but I have a soft spot for Russian hockey players, a la Ovechkin. This game did not disappoint, despite the Caps manhandling the Leafs. Ovechkin scored a beauty of a goal, but with 30 seconds left in a 2-2 game, none other than Captain Crunch himself, Mats Sundin, potted the GWG for the Leafs. Both Alexander the Great II and O Captain, My Captain buried the biscuit in the twine so I could be happy on all accounts.
