Washington Capitals ice hockey, that is. Just in case, you know, you didn't know.
My favorite sites to keep up with "my" team?
The NHL site of course: Washington Capitals
Russian Machine Never Breaks, titled from a phrase Alexander Ovechkin (Caps captain) once said off the ice.
Rock the Red.net
... and the Hershey Bears site, the AHL farm team for the Caps. Braden Holtby was pulled up for, I think, 10 games this season and ended with 2 shutouts and 8 wins. Holy smokes.
Here's a scene from a nearby neighborhood. Our HOA probably wouldn't like that so we'll live vicariously.
I know some people really get into football. I used to be one who watched Sunday game every week with my parents, and then with Ian. Ian watched football this year as well but I have to admit my heart was totally not into it. Part is that our team stinks. Part is that the players are far too often, for lack of a better word, thugs. I know there are bad apples in every sport, but football seems to be packed with them and I have trouble cheering on any team where I can't respect its players, so I'm done with that sport until one of my kids picks it up, of course. It's much like basketball, another sport fraught with whiney babies and hoodlums. While my boys played in the local league this year I still didn't jump on the professional or even the NCAA bandwagon. Our local team, the Wizards, is lousy, so very lousy, beyond lousy, and regularly seems to have its players thrown in jail. No thanks. I do know that UConn beat Butler in the NCAA final (go me!) but it boils down to I couldn't tell you a single player's name or even what their jerseys or mascots look like. Heck, I don't even know where Butler is. Really don't care either. What did catch my eye? The Frozen Four... the college ice hockey playoffs. We told the kids on Sunday that their college decisions have new requirements: must have a hockey team. OK, ok, we're kidding. Sort of.
We're only in the States a few years before heading to our next post in Jordan so we're soaking up the wide availability of live sports (Ian brought Nicholas to a Redskins game, we've taken all the kids to Caps games [Katherine, Rebecca, Nicholas, no photo of Jonathon, oops], a DC United soccer game, and tennis matches with the Washington Kastles) and televised sports. There was a drought of such entertainment in India unless cricket was your thing (we tried to understand cricket, we really really did try). Hockey has taken ahold of all of us, some more than others (i.e. Katherine really doesn't care about it, but does own a Backstrom jersey because he's cute). But I think what's taken ahold of us is the players. Of course we only see what's provided to the media, but the Caps are everywhere. We can watch them practice at the Kettler Iceplex in Arlington. We can go to local restaurants in Arlington and DC and see them. They do clinics at schools, hold casino nights for charity, and in September there's a convention. There's a women's club called Scarlet Caps and recently held a Hockey'n'Heels program
Starting tomorrow we'll be in playoff mode. Is this the year the Caps finally win the Stanley Cup? We sure hope so because the team has been around since 1974. Tickets are pricey and playoff tickets tough to come by, so we'll Rock the Red right at home. It's time to wash the jerseys.
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