Hockey at it's best

So maybe it wasn't the Flyers (oh how I loved the Lindros days), the Rangers (I liked them with Messier in the net), or even the Penguins (who doesn't like the Mario Lemeiux story???), but the Capitals game on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning was pretty exciting!

I've never been to a hockey game, though, I would say that I like the sport. I'm not one to follow the Stanley Cup finals or track draft picks (I don't even know if UNC had a hockey team-- I'm guessing not). Pretty much all I know about hockey, I picked up from the Mighty Ducks movies (classic!) and the Cutting Edge (another good one). The game on Sunday was pretty exciting-- and I wasn't bored at all. The score was 7-1 in the end, so there was even a lot of scoring (which you don't get at soccer games, or even all baseball games). I saw a guy get a hat trick (3 goals in one game) and saw another come close. We saw a fight-- what everyone wants from a live hockey game, but doesn't always get. I would have preferred a bench clearing fight, but those are pretty rare (and I'd rather see one in baseball anyway), so I'll be okay with only 2 guys fighting. :)

Another cool thing about the hockey game-- besides the W, the fight, and the hat trick-- the music is way better than at basketball and baseball games. It was kind of like listening to 106.5 the End (if you live near Charlotte, NC, you know what I'm talking about)-- all 90s alternative rock. I half expected to hear my favorite band of old Bush, but instead they played Prodigy and who doesn't like "Smack My B*tch Up"?

Gordon and I wondered if the Russian mafia shows up to Caps games. We're pretty sure they go to the Rangers games-- though looking at their roster, perhaps it's the Czech mafia that supports the team instead. There's a couple Russians on the Caps, but I don't know if there's enough of a Russian community around here for the mafia to be out and about. Either way, no one near us was part of any mafia that we could tell. There was a cute little girl though that had a ton of energy and really liked to spell C-A-P-S. I don't really see her as being a mob boss. :) We did however see a really cool Russian Ovechkin jersey (he plays left wing)-- it's always nice to get to use my Cyrillic skills! I think my favorite Capital is Olie Kolzig (the goalie from South Africa). He's getting on in hockey (and pro-sport) years-- he's almost 37!-- and been with the Capitals for 17 seasons!

Here's to some more hockey games while I'm still in DC. Go Caps!