RSS FeedMontreal Canadiens Dispatch Washington Capitals To The Links
Al Koken, Comcast SportsNet broadcaster for the Capitals, has gray hair these days but it may not be because he’s been broadcasting Caps hockey since the Channel 20 (WDCA) days. The more likely explanation is games like last night’s dismissal of the Washington Capitals from the playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens in a 2-1, Game 7 loss last night at the Verizon Center here in the Penn Quarter.
The Caps have come a long way since 1982 when a Save the Caps TV telethon was needed to keep them in DC at the Capital Centre. An NHL expansion team in the 1974-1975 season, they had not made the playoffs before then and attendance was so poor that Abe Pollin threatened to pull them out of Washington if they didn’t generate enough preseason ticket sales. They got the sales and the message making the playoffs in 1983 but didn’t get past the Islanders in the first round. Fast forward to 2010 and they win the President’s Cup for the first time as the most winning team in the NHL. Sure that’s progress but we still have to pity long suffering Caps fans including ourselves as the outcome was exactly the same in postseason play. Whether it’s Kelly Hrudey of New York Islanders fame in 1987 or Jaroslav Halak of Montreal Canadiens fame in 2010, it doesn’t matter much in Game 7. When your home team runs into a hot opposing goaltender it is really, really hard to notch that critical win.
In last night’s game, the Caps ultimately couldn’t get it done. Montreal got the first tally of the night with 30 seconds left in the first period and then a real deflater in the tail end of the third period to go up 2-0. Not ready to call it quits, the Caps came back and lit the red lamp with 2:16 to go in the game thanks to a great effort by Laich off a Ovechkin backhander rebound. The Caps clicked off 42 shots on goal compared to the Canadiens’ 16 with Ovechkin accounting for 10 of those Caps’ shots but ultimately the effort fell short and the 3-1 series lead morphed into a 4-3 series defeat.
Off to the golf course the Caps go. Sadly, it seems like not much has changed in postseason play for the Caps. We guess there’s always next year.
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Comments
Selfishly, I love it when neither the Caps nor the Wizards play long seasons because the neighborhood gets a lot quieter. These are my favorite months in Penn Quarter….no sports fans except people coming to see the Mystics. A completely different crowd.
I love the excitement that all the people bring to the neighboorhood for verizon center events…especially during hockey season it’s awesome to see all these people rocking the red. The noise is part of the fun and excitement. If you want peace and quiet go the ‘burbs.
News flash people – you live in the city and next door to the Verizon Center. You will get noise. Go move somewhere else if noise bothers you. Local PQ businesses lost a lot of potential revenue which is a bad thing. Well, who cares because you need your precise peace and quiet. How old are you anyways? In your 60’s?
just a friendly reminder that we’re not too keen on the ‘you need to move somewhere else’ comments. please check our comment policy for more detail.
thanks
the management
I love living in PQ, I love living in the city. I have been in PQ longer than 90% of the folks who read this blog, I’d bet. I am grateful to have the Verizon Center in the neighborhood, it is the engine that made all of this possible. That said…I also have a preference for those months when neither the Caps nor Wizards are playing. Parking in my garage is very hard on game nights, street parking is impossible for guests and visitors, and I don’t really appreciate the drunk fans in my garage, the mess they leave behind (many many beer bottles and other debris). Please don’t tell me to move to the burbs….I love living here, but find a real downside to the profession sports team crowds.
I’m also sick of the rowdy sports fans in the neighborhood, having lived here for almost a decade, most of the fans come from the burbs and create all the problems with traffic, barfights, and loitering. Its ironic that after AC/DC plays at the Verizon Center the crowd is rather calm, but Caps and Wizards fans feel like they have to regress back to their teenage years. Let’s keep PQ & Chinatown urban and professional, noise is expected, but excessive caroling is not cool.
The Verizon Center is more than professional sports team crowds. You have other events all year round that cause parking issues, noise issues, drunk people, etc. Rock concerts, rap concerts, WWE, Monster Trucks, the Circus (where streets are closed down), and so on. To say its just the Caps or Wizards is a bit narrow minded. Yes, it is annoying at times but its managable. We know the Verizon Centers calendar of events and we can plan accordingly.
PQ was a ghost town of boarded up stores and restaurants in the early 1990s. It all changed in 1997 when Abe Polin built the then-MCI Center. If it were not for that decision, none of us would be here. That being said, rowdiness, drunkeness, and littering are not cool. However, I am afraid it comes with the territory.
kids..
ive lived here a long time…
it is completely possible to love both!
i love the noise/crowds/energy of game night
and on nights when i come home in august and i can cross the street without an elbow…i smile…and love that too…
..it reminds me very much of growing up on the coast …busy season / off season i enjoy BOTH
xoxo
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I grew up in FL and frankly just don’t understand ice hockey. However, because the Caps are a great revenue source for the hood, I’m sad to see the season end.
On the bright side, I’m thrilled to no longer have to endure that aggravating noise pollution for 30 minutes after every game. If only I could sit outside a perpetrator’s home in the burbs at 10 pm on a weeknight incessantly honking my horn for 30 minutes.