Monday, February 5, 2007

A Super Sports Day

Yesterday was, of course, Super Bowl Sunday. Yes I watched, no I am not happy with the outcome, but, yes the Colts played better and deserved the victory. And that is all I will say about that. There was not much point in watching after the opening play anyway . . . I was not all that impressed with the commercials, although my two favorites were the Blockbuster one (with the mouse) and the "rock / paper / scissors" Bud Light commercial. If you missed any, the nice folks at iFilm have them all online here.

The day started with me planning to go to the grocery store to get a few last minute provisions for the big game. Can you really watch the Super Bowl without little hot dogs and Pizza Rolls? Right before leaving though, we received a call from one of my wife's colleagues. Her husband works for the Washington Capitals and she was calling to offer us tickets to that day's game, starting at 1:00pm (this was about 11:30am). My wife was starting to decline, when I piped up that I could pull this off (a quick run to the store, off to the game via Metro, and back in time long before football player introductions). So off I went.

The quickest shopping trip (including a beer run - separate places in MD, still getting used to that) and back to drop off the groceries. Then off to pick up my brother in law and then to the subway station to get on the train. We made it to the Verizon Center and into our seats before the first face off.

The game featured the Capitals taking on the New York Islanders. Astute readers of this blog will note that I have no use for the Islanders, having been raised to follow the only true team from the New York City area, the Rangers. Things would be a lot better off if the NHL would revert to the original six, although I would be amenable to including the 1967 expansion. There is a part of me that refuses to acknowledge the four cups won in the early 1980s.

The game itself was rather humdrum. Each team scored a goal but the bigger excitement was the "glass guys" who came out on five separate occasions, including once to replace a pane of glass fractured from a Caps shot on goal. With the score tied at the end of regulation, the game headed into overtime. After that five minutes, the game moved to the "shootout," something I had yet to see. Basically it is three penalty shots for each team. One team is selected to shoot first (in this case it was the Caps) and the two teams alternate until three shots have been made by both teams. If the two are tied after the six shots (yesterday it wasn't) it goes to sudden death with the team notching a goal in the round over the other winning the game. But as mentioned, the Caps scored once in the shootout and the Isles scored none. So the Caps won the game 2-1.

Home from the game to get the rest of the pre-game, pre-show. Got to see Billy Joel sing the National Anthem (in the rain) and then the start of the game (in the rain) and the first time ever an opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown. As I said, from there it sort of just went downhill.

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