As previously reported here, I used to be a sportswriter in college, reporting on the achievements of the Albany Great Danes Hockey team. During one game, I was seated in the press bench rink side and watched a puck take out several teeth of an Albany player, but that's a story for another day.
Tonight was the long awaited contest between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers. I had purchased tickets at the start of the season and looked forward to tonight's game. The Rangers are having a good season, first place in the Atlantic division, while the Caps are having a mediocre season, currently in third place in the Southeast division. Last night the Rangers beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-2 in Atlanta, while the Caps were handed a 5-0 loss to the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Carolina Hurricanes two nights ago.
The Rangers arrived in DC early this morning, and the Caps practiced at their new practice facility this morning. Normally game day practice is held at the Verizon Center, but there was a basketball game and the ice was not available until tonight. The Rangers played sluggishly during the first period and the Caps scored a goal a little more than halfway through the first period.
It was clear the Rangers got a good talking too between the first and second periods and they came out crisper in the second period. However, the Rangers took several penalties over the course of the the game (7 penalties), though the Caps were unable to score on the power play.
After a scoreless second, the two teams took to the ice for the third period and the Caps broke the game open with two more goals, putting them up 3-0. The Rangers managed to score a late goal in a 6 on 4 power play but that was it. Final score 3-1.
A word of thanks here to the Senior Director of Operations for the Capitals, and a good friend. He came and retrieved my wife and I prior to the start of the game from our seats in the "nose bleed" seats and moved us down to some prime real estate behind the goal. While there are few bad seats in the Verizon Center, I greatly appreciated the upgrade, though the outcome was not desirable.
2 comments:
Sorry, I must object here. The outcome was quite desirable. Did you catch Coach Renney's rather objectionable "those were two points for the taking" comment?
Yes, well. Let's see who is still playing hockey after April 7 and who is shaking the rust off their golf games.
Done rebuilding yet?
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