It doesn’t happen all that often, but occasionally the Washington sports calendar features a Nationals game during the day and a Capitals game at night. My family has talked many times about doing the doubleheader, but never made it happen.
It doesn’t happen all that often, but occasionally the Washington sports calendar features a Nationals game during the day and a Capitals game at night. My family has talked many times about doing the doubleheader, but never made it happen.
With a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild Friday night, the Washington Capitals tied one of the most prestigious records in all of sports. That, of course, would be matching my longest ever streak of attending games with my chosen team winning.
My older brother has run every day for five years so it’s only appropriate that I started 2015 with my own streak: today I hugged a stranger.
Granted, I have no real intention of stretching this streak past one day, but for this one glorious day, the Washington Capitals made it a necessity.
The Caps hosted this year’s edition of the Winter Classic, the outdoor game that the NHL stages on New Year’s Day. The venue was Nationals Park, where I’ve been dozens of times for baseball games (ok, fine, exactly 85 times according to my spreadsheet), but obviously never for hockey.
Across the street from the stadium, the NHL and various sponsors set up a fun fan zone area with food, live music and games:
I worked the night before and planned on napping for a few hours in my car before the game, but then I wasn’t tired at all and ended up getting to the park far earlier than my brother. I killed the extra time doing things like shooting pucks at a pair of stacked dryers:
None of my pucks went in, but I can’t describe how satisfying it is to send a chunk of rubber slamming into a dryer. Please try this in your home. I give you full permission.
You may wonder how they make an ice rink inside a baseball stadium. Well, there’s a series of pipes underneath the ice surface connected to this giant chiller truck parked outside:
No, I don’t know why Jonathan Toews has a hole in his forehead. Anywho, the result is this:
We were out in right-center field with a slightly different view:
Note my sweet Winter Classic hat I picked up a few weeks ago. Thanks to the Caps, or Bridgestone, or the NHL or leprechauns, we arrived at our seats to find these beauties, which were essential in the cold:
I also picked up official Winter Classic handwarmers and a bandana while playing one of the pre-game games, and shelled out hard-earned cash for the puck in the middle:
Oh, and they did actually play a hockey game. The players came out of the replica Capitol building and lined up near us for the national anthem:
Then the ref dropped the puck, and many of the 42,000 of us in attendance started cheering on our beloved Caps:
Late in the game, with the score tied 2-2, the video board began playing the customary Unleash The Fury rally montage, and Nats Park let that fury fly:
WOOOOO! What happened? Well, the Caps eventually ended up on a power play with less than two minutes left in the game. I told my brother a game-winning goal here would be THE GREATEST. Naturally, Alex Ovechkin — aka The Great 8 — brought the puck into the zone in the waning seconds, it then ended up on the stick of Troy Brouwer, who buried it in the net with 12.9 seconds left:
Absolute bedlam. We celebrated. The Caps celebrated.
And I hugged a stranger.
Today I almost died in a way that would have been kind of an okay way to go.
I needed to finish up some Christmas shopping, and it just so happens that there’s a mall conveniently located on my Metro route home that doubles as the practice site for the Washington Capitals.
After picking up my last item, and stopping in the team store, I settled into the bleachers to watch practice:
I hung out for a little bit as they ran through a few sets of drills. But then I felt the urge to get a little closer to the action, so I walked down to a spot behind the nearest goal:
From here I had a much better view of the guys and got a greater appreciation for their skating. I also got to hear just how LOUD the pucks can be when they slam off the glass three inches away from your face. As they transitioned between two drills, Alex Ovechkin took a sharp-angle shot from the left of the net that skipped off the crossbar and up out of the rink.
The puck flew all the way to the wall behind the bleachers and slammed off one of the “Kettler” signs.
Where did it come down? How about the exact spot where I had been sitting five minutes earlier.
It wasn’t in the vicinity, the general zip code or kinda near where I was. That puck would have hit me in the back of the head (or the nose if I had turned around). Since I got my hair cut yesterday, it’s doubtful I had enough protection left to shield my skull.
Bullet, or should I say puck, dodged.
There’s no more denying Brouwer Power.
I wrote just over a month ago about the stellar play of Troy Brouwer and the Washington Capitals that began when I got a Brouwer Rangers t-shirt. Things have only gotten better since then.
The shirt came in the mail on February 9. The Caps have rolled off a 22-10 record (with Brouwer missing one game while sick), vaulting from one of the worst teams in the league to leading their division.
Brouwer? He has scored 14 goals, including four game-winners, and now ranks 13th in the NHL in goals. He has also notched 11 assists in those 31 games. My brother Pat has the same shirt, and in all four games that either of us has attended while wearing it, Brouwer has scored and the Caps have won.
I think perhaps Ted Leonsis should make sure we’re in the building for the rest of the season. It’s Brouwer Power, Ted. Embrace it.
My sport apparel jinx may finally be over, thanks to a new Washington Capitals-related t-shirt.
I wrote last year about the often troublesome things that happen to players when I get their jersey or shirt — a nasty concussion for Nicklas Backstrom, ACL/MCL tears for Jason Sehorn.
But on February 9, this t-shirt arrived in the mail:
A tiny bit of background for you. For a few years, a dedicated group of fans in Washington named themselves Knuble’s Knights in support of Mike Knuble. He left the team this season, so the guys needed a new player to love. They landed on Troy Brouwer, naming themselves the Brouwer Rangers, complete with red Power Ranger-like suits they wear to games.
@cjhannas yes, thankfully.
— Brouwer Rangers (@brouwerrangers) March 8, 2013
Since getting my shirt, the Capitals have won 8-of-11 games. Brouwer himself scored four goals in the first three games, and has eight goals and four assists during that period.
Last night, I went to my first game since getting the shirt, and naturally had to wear it:
What happened? Well, the Caps scored on their first shot. Then they scored on their second shot. And then their sixth shot. And then their eighth shot. They were up 4-0 after 8:10. The opposing team changed goalies after that second goal — 3:10 into the game. He would have barely made it through two renditions of the national anthem.
The Caps eventually won 7-1, and given that they also missed a few wide open nets, it could have been even better.
Go Go Brouwer Rangers!!!
I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.
This hasn’t been his best year at the plate, with just three home runs and a .229 average in 51 games. Compare that to last year, when he played 101 games and belted 12 home runs with a .289 average.
How is this my fault? Well, before this season I got his jersey. I don’t have a good history with jerseys.
It started when I was in high school and my beloved New York Giants emerged from years of suckitude to become a contending team. They had a star cornerback named Jason Sehorn. I got his jersey. He subsequently blew out his right knee (tearing both the ACL and MCL) and was never the same.
Even player t-shirts aren’t safe. Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom experienced my curse last year when he was elbowed in the head and missed 40 games with concussion issues.
Looking in this section of my closet, there’s another player I’ve put in jeopardy by putting his number on my back.
Of course, I was wearing this shirt when Eli won his second Super Bowl MVP. I guess that’s proof he can crush any challenge.
This week, Washington Post columnist John Kelly has been sharing stories of people with interesting life goals — like today’s piece about a guy who has visited every county in the United States.
Seems like a good opportunity to at least partially take care of a blog topic that my brother can attest I’ve been meaning to tackle for more than a year.
My crazy goal — which would require winning the lottery for both free time and funds — is to see every Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association team play a home game…all in the same year (or a 12-month period). Plus see the championship-clinching game for each league and their respective all-star game.
I think this would be the greatest year a person could possibly have. I’d be going to games all the time, traveling to every major city in the country and gaining at least 700 pounds from eating delicious stadium food. Logistically, obviously it would be quite a challenge, but in a way I think it would be really fun to figure out how to get all the games in.
Certain sports would be easy. Baseball teams play the most games and also have a block of the year all to themselves. Plus with the way they play on back-to-back days, and at different times of the day, it’s not hard to imagine seeing the Mets play on a Saturday night, the Yankees at 1 p.m. Sunday and then the Phillies at 8 p.m. Sunday. That’s a good chunk of the league in just 24 hours.
Football is the real challenge. Without taking the risk of trying to guess which teams I think would end up hosting a playoff game, geography would be my biggest friend in safely hitting my goal in the regular season. I envision trying to hit 1 p.m. games nearest the city where the Sunday night game is being played — or at least in a city where there is an easy flight to that site. But the NFL also seems to be making the schedule even easier, adding more Thursday night games and continuing to have Saturday games later in the year. It’s like they know I’m coming.
When my Mega Millions numbers hit, this is happening.
[Some time I’ll actually do the long-awaited sports bucket list post featuring what I’d like to see at those games.]
If you are a sports team, you do not want me as a fan.
I mentioned in a post back in February that I collect the stubs to just about every event I attend, which means I can go back and look up the results of any games for which I still have the ticket. The result — I know that the teams I wanted to win those games went 26-37-1 with me there.
Of course there are many variables that go into that result, and it certainly didn’t help that I back a baseball team that has had a few atrocious years. But in 64 games, I’ve never been to more than three in a row in which my team won. In a stretch starting with Capitals-Devils on February 27, 2002 and ending with Nationals-White Sox on June 19, 2010, I saw my teams lose 10 out of 11 games.
Beyond the nerdily interesting task of putting more of my life in an Excel spreadsheet, reading the recaps of games stretching back to 1993 was really fascinating.
Some interesting notes:
-Best pitching matchup: Greg Maddux and Mike Mussina at Camden Yards in 2000.
-Attended same games as Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
-Saw Orioles OF Larry Bigbie get traded during a game
-Went to a Nats game on the wrong day, got a free ticket and saw Roy Halladay pitch a CG 2-hitter to record his 21st win of the season.
-Watched Caps winger Alex Semin get in a fight. The video of his effort shows why this is a momentous occasion.
-Witnessed a Chicago Bears punter — on a fake field goal — throw a 27-yard touchdown pass to linebacker Brian Urlacher to beat the Washington Redskins.
-This season I’ve been to three Nationals games — all extra-inning wins, including a 13-inning game that featured two runnings of the illustrious Presidents Race. I saw that happen once last year, too.
We’ll see what happens next time. Stay tuned.
[Note: I found some non-game-related items as well. Covered in this post.]
Things are not too happy in Caps land these days. A talented team with very high aspirations has spent the season squandering opportunities, rekindling hopes with small winning streaks and responding with games that seem to completely lack any effort.
Last night I attended a game they lost 5-0. It was still a good time at Verizon Center, but not an inspiring thing to watch.
This video pretty much sums up the entire game. You can hear the P.A. announcer running through the details of a goal the visiting Devils just scored, followed by the standard “WHO CARES?!” response from the Caps fans. At this point the game was only 2-0, so the sarcastic refrain was still welcome and funny. Of course the chant had barely ceased by the time the Devils scored again:
The guy sitting next to me heartily enjoyed the “WHO CARES?!” the first two times, but didn’t participate himself. After the goal you just saw — which made it 3-0, no longer time to be taunting — he decided to jump in, even as the rest of the arena stayed mostly quiet.
The good thing about going to Caps games is that overall experience is one of the best I’ve ever experienced. When the professionals are playing so badly they get booed off the ice after the second period, and welcomed the same way when they return for the third, you can always count on the kids who play during intermission to give you some joy.
I wonder how long it took to settle on the “Benny Hill” music as the standard background for this event? I’m guessing about -12 seconds.
