Gameday Preview: Caps vs. Lightning

Another Southeast Division showdown! Can you FEEL the excitement?? This time is extra special, too, because the arena should be packed full of dozens of people who aren't hungover from St. Patty's Day...or home watching NCAA basketball...or just staying away from the Caps on principle. Should be a rockin' good time!

Here are a few tips and tricks for the Caps to keep in mind as they take on the Bolts this afternoon (they're blurry, but you get the idea).

- Score early:
- Stay out of the box:- Don’t take the second period off.
- Win in regulation: - Shut down St. Louis: - Shut down Richards:
- Shut down Lecavalier:
- Shut down Lecavalier:- Shut down Lecavalier.



Fun Facts (courtesy of these fine sites):

- Daytime lightning is difficult or impossible to see under local sun and/or hazy conditions.
- Contrary to popular belief, it is quite common for people to be struck by lightning, and in fact lightning is a very poor killer. While people do get killed by lightning, most survive it.
- Still, lightning kills more people each year on average than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.
- A lightning stroke begins with a faint predischarge, called the leader, which goes from the cloud to the ground. The leader establishes a path for the highly luminous return stroke (what you really see) which propagates from the ground up to the cloud. The first stroke of a flash is usually preceded by a "stepped leader", so called because it appears to progress in discrete steps (about 100 segments, each 50 m long) from cloud to ground. The subsequent strokes are preceded by a "dart leader" which smoothly follows the path of the previous return stroke (and is about 10 times faster).

- Safety Tips (courtesy of the National Weather Service):

• The safest place commonly available during a lightning storm is a large, fully enclosed, substantially constructed building, e.g. your typical house, school, library, or other public building. [Verizon Center - Check!]
• Proceed from higher to lower elevations [so much for the Cheap Seats...]
• Once inside, stay away from corded telephones, electrical appliances, lighting fixtures, ham radio microphones, electric sockets and plumbing. [Um...there’s none of that in a modern NHL arena, right??]
• Avoid tall, isolated objects like trees, poles, and light posts. [Or Jeff Schultz, Milan Jurcina, and Shaone Morrisonn.]
• Do not remain in open vehicles like farm tractors, cabless construction machinery, riding lawnmowers and golf carts [No zamboni-driving. Got it.]
• If circumstances or a series of bad decisions [AHEM, Steve Eminger...or Brian Pothier...or Mike Green...or...anyone in a Caps uniform] have found you outside of a shelter, far removed from a safer place when lightning is occurring, there are still measures to be taken.
• If lightning is about to strike, it will sometimes provide a very few seconds of warning. Sometimes your hair may stand on end, your skin will tingle, light metal objects will vibrate or you will hear a crackling or "kee-kee" sound. [Incidentally, "kee-kee" is the scientific term...] If this happens and you're in a group, spread out so there are several body lengths between each person. [It’s Verizon Center, so, again...check.]
• Once you've spread out, use the lightning crouch. Put your feet together, squat down, tuck your head, and cover your ears. [Oh, the Mike Green position!]
• When the immediate threat of lightning has passed, continue heading to the safest place possible. [i.e., the golf course.]

More Fun Facts:

- Ben Clymer won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004.

And speaking of Ben Clymer...have you submitted your nickname yet?