November 17 - Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers (at NY)

Woo! Great game! Neil and I watched from the comforts of home tonight and it was fantastic. Ovie is back and scored a goal, Coach Boudreau got his 100th NHL victory as a coach, Matt Bradley scored a sweet breakaway goal (and as I have stated before, I love games when Matt Bradley scores), and the Caps beat the Rangers in regulation in Madison Square Garden.

Unfortunately, Quintin Laing may have suffered a broken jaw when he blocked a shot. The Caps are really running through the injuries and Laing has some unfortunate luck. I hope he heals fast and is back in the lineup soon.

The game looked a bit like a playoff game with both teams playing hard and neither making many mistakes. It was really good to see the Caps pick up their defensive game and go crazy with the forechecking.

Can't wait till they come home again on Friday night. Man, I love this team.

November 1 - Washington Capitals vs. Columbus Blue Jackets

Ovie is hurt. :(

The good things about this overtime loss:
1.) The way the team rallied after Ovechkin left the ice and scored three goals to take the lead.
2.) Two goals from Brooks Laich.
3.) A goal from Quintin Laing who just returned from having H1N1
4.) An awesome penalty kill where Knuble kept it near their goal for almost a minute and the crowd went wild.

The bad things about the overtime loss:
1.) The penalties, one in overtime which cost the Caps the game.
2.) The referees who missed several calls against Columbus and made a few questionable calls on the Capitals.
3.) The scary hit when Jurcina seemed hurt (fortunately he returned later in the game)
4.) Ovie got injured.
5.) Caps lost.

This may have been the most frustrating game this season. But it could also just be the proximity that is making me feel that way. I hope Ovie is better as soon as possible. I also hope he doesn't play injured. It really was great to see the rest of the team pick up the slack and keep us in the game, even if the outcome wasn't ideal.

Neil and I went to the arena early and caught warm ups tonight where I noticed some fascinating fans:

This woman had a whole bunch of yarn on her head.

This group of girls was my favorite. They were wearing t-shirts painted with their favorite players' numbers and they said things like "Katie is Varly's girl" on the back. They each had a strange little black back pack on, sweat bands on their heads, ponytails in their hair, paint on their bodies, black spandex pants with red socks taped up  like hockey players and, inexplicably, they all had black paint below their eyes like football players. Maybe they're new to hockey fandom? It looked like they were having a lot of fun and I hope they weren't too disappointed by the loss.

Here's a look at the whole ensemble from behind so you can see the socks.

Fascinating fans aside, I hope the view from 419 improves this week.

The Dreaded H1N1

For some time I have been concerned about a flu outbreak among the Capitals. I've even had such non-PC thoughts as, "The Capitals should be at the front of the line for the H1N1 vaccines." I really don't want my hockey team to suffer a flu outbreak. But, it looks like H1N1 has come to the Capitals.

I hope that Quintin Laing gets better quickly and I REALLY hope that nobody else gets it.