Unlike the last overhyped game versus the Thrashers, where the media was fueling the fire, tonight's rematch with Buffalo seems to be drawing much of its furor from the fans. So what better way for me to spend my lunch hour than trolling the Buffalo blogs, message boards and website, taking the temperature of these passionate fans on what to expect tonight.
(Listen, I do this kind of stuff so you don't have to - I'm protecting you from the whole new breed of crazy that has been spawned in Sabre-land...)
So far everything seems eerily quiet among the more respectable Buffalo bloggers - the only thing I have seen to this point was the one I mentioned in my gameday preview update. I don't know if they're just worn out from the holidays or they're truly out of vitriol for one Alex Ovechkin.
I'll go with the latter.
Next stop, the Buffalo website, where a tiny poll at the bottom of their home page caught my eye, and I quote: "SHOULD HAVE ALEX OVECHKIN BEEN SUSPENDED FOR HIS HIT ON DANIEL BRIERE LAST TIME THE TWO TEAMS MET? Yes; No; Yes if Briere had been injured". Well, I'm trolling so I figured I might as well vote, and of course I was in the minority.
The results at last check - [Update] 1275 votes tallied, with 79% (1013 votes) saying Ovie should have been suspended. Shocker. Did they really think this poll was going to yield any surprises?
Bad grammar aside, the Buffalo website was pretty benign, with no mention of the hit on Ovie in their game night story. So I headed over to the message boards - the last bastion of free speech for nut jobs scattered among the normal fans, no matter what the city or sport.
First of all, it's interesting to see the change in opinion after that sucker punch by Nichol on Spacek the other night. I saw a lot of comments from people saying it put the Ovie hit into perspective, that it was still stupid but clearly not in the same league. Then there were the obligatory morons saying the 9-game suspension only proves the NHL only punishes you if you're not a superstar. All in all, though, people seemed to agree that what Nichol did was far worse.
Other than that, opinion has pretty much shifted away from the "Kill Ovechkin" mindset to a milder "Hit Ovechkin and score lots of goals" mindset, which is much healthier. I think the recent losses to St. Louis and Florida have humbled them a bit and they see this as a must-win game. They're finally healthy again and people don't want their guys getting hurt or suspended trying to enact revenge when two points are at stake.
That being said, you've still got the people who want there to be bloodshed and one fan who even suggested that Ovechkin get drilled into the boards headfirst a few times. Another equally enlightened fan started a thread entitled "Will Ovechkin cease to exist 12 hours from now...", with the summary "In layman's terms, will he be dead?" [Glad they cleared that up - ceasing to exist can mean so many things...]
The fan who started the thread incidentally had other similarly classy things to say within the thread, including "I think we should give Peters a 1 year extension today, with a $500,000 dollar signing bonus. Thus he could turn him into a quadriplegic and he won't lose any money when he's suspended. (I'm a genius)" and my favorite, "One dead AO or 5 good checks, I'll take either...". The signature of this particular fan also includes this catchy little rhyme: "Make the world a better place, punch Ovechkin in the FACE!"
Ah, message boards. You never let me down.
Crazy people aside, one thing is for sure - Ovechkin is going to be booed tonight for the first time in his career. The players may have moved on to some extent and the fans may not want blood anymore, but they still don't like him and they'll let him know it all night long. It will be interesting to see how he handles it. I personally think he can take it, and he can take the extra hitting too...we all know how many times a big guy from the opposition has lined Ovie up for a big check and ended up on his rear end instead.
I just hope it's an entertaining, hard-fought game by both sides. If the Caps win, great - icing on the cake. But I don't think anyone will be particularly upset or surprised if the Caps lose. As long as they play like we know they can, I'll be satisfied.
Kind of.
But I'd still like a win.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Lunchtime Troll
Monday, December 18, 2006
Corey Hart is a Caps Fan
For one game, we all wear sunglasses at night.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Sid the Kid's Thirsty
After the game Monday night, someone posted a note on my blog mentioning a new addition to the men's rooms at Verizon Center - in each urinal someone had placed a little picture of Sidney Crosby saying "I'm Thirsty".
Now, I'm not really one for toilet humor - (drum fill) thank you, I'll be here all week - but I have to admit I laughed when I saw that.
I know there are people out there who are reading this and shaking their heads, wondering when we became so tasteless, so vulgar, so like, for example, Philly fans...or so sayeth “Hockey Fan”, who made such a comment on Ted’s blog yesterday. With all due respect, folks, lighten up. It’s a game, and part of the fun is being able to direct some good-natured ribbing at the other team, whatever form that may take.
(And at least we don’t chant “Here we go, Redskins, here we go” at hockey games; that will forever separate us from Philly...)
So far the reaction I’ve gotten when I’ve mentioned it has been “ew!” – which is then immediately followed by uncontrollable laughter. Go figure.
Anyways, I was wondering who was behind this lovely little homage to Sid the Kid when lo and behold, I got an e-mail from Neil C. – the urinal bandit himself. He's been making the Caps' blogger rounds spreading the word of this new tradition he started for every Pittsburgh visit to DC. Feedback has been good, and our other local bloggers have shown the love. Even Dan Steinberg and our local Caps fan celebrities got a chuckle out of it.
Apparently people enjoy, er, aiming for the stars...
I'll jump on the bandwagon and add my voice to the handful that have spoken. The consensus? Pretty darn funny, Neil – well done!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
No Suspension for Ovechkin
Per TSN.ca
The league made the right call in choosing not to hand down a suspension to Ovechkin for the hit on Briere. I won't go into the reasons that this was the right decision again - I've done that a hundred times. I'll let the clip and these comments from Caps beat writer Mike Vogel speak for themselves.
Meanwhile, someone on the message boards mentioned that Ovechkin's web page was being flooded by angry Buffalo fans, so I went and checked it out for myself - sure enough, there they are...comments calling Ovechkin every name under the sun and basically saying he's not going to get out of Buffalo alive when the Caps go their in a few weeks. Seriously, who does that? There's classless and then there's a whole new level that has no name, and that's where this falls. There are kids who look up to Ovie and probably have visited the site, and to put that kind of stuff where they can see it is beyond obnoxious.
I want to point out that I'm sure 95% of Buffalo fans are much classier than this very small, very vocal bunch of idiots who feel the need to do this kind of thing. Sabres Nation may be upset about the hit, but they can voice their opinions in constructive ways - I've said it before, but this minority of people are really giving Sabres fans a bad name. No need to start putting yourselves in a group with the likes of Philly and the Rangers...
I'm going to drop this now because I don't think I can really add anything else to the debate at this point. The league has spoken, I've given my opinion, and it's time to move on...at least until December 26th. To all you Caps fans out there - our boys pulled off a great all-around win last night against one of the top teams in the league, and that's something to be proud of. Let's all bask in the glory of those two points and get ready for the next challenge facing the Caps: the Ottawa Senators, here on Wednesday night.
Show your support and come out to the Phone Booth to cheer on the good guys to a 4th straight victory!
Impartial (Ha!) Recaps:
Washington Post
Capitals Insider
Washington Times
Buffalo News
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Respect is the Watchword
It’s always fun to see how fans in other cities react after playing the Caps...well, at least it is after a win. After a loss, you couldn’t pay me to go on the opposition’s message boards or read their press clippings in depth. But when the Caps pull off a win like they did last night, I like to check in with the other side.
Oddly enough, the Ottawa message boards are full of frustration and anger today. Weird, right? I mean, they go from being one of the top teams in the league and a lock for the Stanley Cup to being beaten by previously lesser teams like the Caps, and people are upset? Crazy Canadians.
Today’s threads featured such headlines as “Fire Murray”...“Trade Alfredsson”...“Kill Gerber”...
Okay, maybe not that last one, but you get the gist.
Anyways, as I was infiltrating the enemy camp I noticed that overall people didn’t seem to have that much anger for the Caps. Most people acknowledged that Ottawa stopped playing after the first and the Caps outplayed them during the last 45 minutes. There were a few whiners, as there are on any message board (“the Caps got lucky bounces...” “did you see all those penalties they didn’t call on Washington?” etc.) but for the most part it was respect for the way the Caps played and horror at the way their own team played.
About half the people posting before the game assumed the Sens would break their losing streak in a building they have basically owned for the last four or five years; the other half were either exercising cautious optimism or had paid attention to our boys’ progress so far and gave the win to the Caps.
It all sounds very familiar – I don’t mean the frustration with an underachieving team (been there, done that). It’s the respect given to the Caps throughout the league, and this year it’s not just respect based on being a hard-working team; now we’re a hard-working team that can win. Just check out the TSN.ca power rankings that have moved us up to 13th overall (yeah, baby!), up from 15th last week and even lower than that last season.
Respect...it's more than just a butt-kicking Aretha Franklin song.
