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there is actually no Jeff Skinner in this post but I have no Caps icon
Last night was open Caps practice at the Verizon Center as part of Fan Appreciation Week, which meant free food and drink, plus 20% off all Caps merchandise. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
celerywench and I, along with a few thousand other desperate fans, filed into the arena in our red and blue to get our hockey on two days before the start of the season.
Rockin' the Red
It was our first official glimpse of NHLers live and it's always both fun and disarming to see them as real people. We got pretty decent first level center ice seats (probably worth $180 per during the season) and squinted at the Caps and their practice jerseys in attempt to identify them. Ovie & Backstrom were easy to spot, of course, but Mike Green and Troy Brouwer eluded us for a while. Mike Green, your hair got so long! (Cut your damn hair, hippie!) Holtby and Neuvirth also stymied us with our inability to SEE THROUGH THEIR MASKS. P.S. An iPhone camera zoom? Just not that good.
Eventually Holtby pulled off his mask to give his signature diva hair shake, and then we promptly lost him again after he skated away from the goal and into a morass of people. It took us way too long to realize that they actually had different pads on. SIGH. What are eyes? What is seeing?
The practice was great, though, and the players seemed like they were having fun too with a few over-the-top cheers by defenders when they made an empty net goal \o/!! And Holtby literally made an orz emoticon with his body when he let Ovie get a shootout goal on him. Stop being adorable!! But keep being excellent.
NO BUT WHICH ONE ARE YOU? (Neuvy's facing us; that's Holtby's back.)
The crowd groaned in disappointment every time Ovie didn't make a goal or when the other players' shootout attempts were stopped, but I was thinking that it's not a bad sign if your goalie is good... Of course, you want the rest of your team to be able to score, sure, but let's just hope the other teams' goalies just aren't as good. ;) For real, though, it'll be interesting to see Holtby start in goal, especially since he's been keeping active with the Bears through the lockout while a lot of other goalies haven't been getting the same action. But it may be unrealistic to see him keeping the same stats as over last season's playoffs. I still hope he does really well though, naturally.
There was the CUTEST small boy sitting behind us and his dad kept asking him if he was having a good time. He was so excited to see Ovie. And then his dad pointed out Holtby when he skated out, saying to him, "And that one is Mommy's boyfriend," which made them both giggle. SO CUTE. I feel you, mom of that small child. I feel you. Holtby can be everyone's boyfriend.
A few rows even farther back, a kid around 7 or 8 was loftily informing his row of equally small friends the identity of every single player as they skated by. Kid was impressive, I am telling you. I could barely tell them apart. (Then again, I am much less invested in the Caps roster than, say, that of other teams.) There was a light scrimmage and the kid basically ran a play by play and screeched, "WHAT A BEAUTY," at a goal that Hendricks (as he informed his friends) scored. He was also a massive Ovie and Backstrom fanboy.
Chillin'.
Near the end of practice, the players went out and threw t-shirts into the screaming crowd. The kid, again, was amazing at identification, screaming the name of every player who skated near us to throw him a t-shirt. I hope he plays hockey. I hope he goes into the NHL, lol.
Then there was a brief Q&A with a few players, the highlights of which include the crowd erupting in cheers and whistles for Ovie's engagement and Holtby & Brouwer's new babies, and Trollvi saying, upon being asked his favorite hockey player ever, "DALE HUNTER". And then the emcee asked Hendricks his favorite "Gangnam Style" dance move, which utterly baffled the poor guy, as apparently he lived under a rock throughout the entirety of the lockout and had no clue what "Gangnam Style" was. Brows then kindly demonstrated the dance for us.
"wat is a gangnam style"
(x) BROWS KNOWS
BROOOWWS. I TOO AM READY FOR PATTY KANE TO DO THIS DANCE AND FOR YOU TO MOCK HIM. ;__; Why has this not happened yet?
Other highlights: Joel Ward got a quickie interview and cheers and hollers for putting the Caps past the Bruins in last season's playoffs. Brouwer said his most memorable NHL game ever was the overtime Stanley Cup win which, fine, understandable, but which made me go DDDDDDDDD: NOOOOOOO. DON'T REMIND ME.
All in all, there was a great turnout and the energy was super high even though the arena wasn't even half full. (And even if I occasionally got distracted by my Twitter feed with its simultaneous Flyers practice. CLAAAAUUUDEE.) So, so excited for hockey to be back. So, so excited to see at least one live game, maybe a couple more if I can swing some cheap as balls Canes @ Caps tickets (lol, Canes). If this trend continues, I'll basically keep going to games where I cheer the Canes against the home team. Oops. Except the Canes are never the wrong team to cheer for! ♥
LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED. GO TEAM GO.
By which I mean, oh my god, UNC please win your game on Saturday. And Flyers. And Hawks. And Canes. And Caps. /o\
celerywench and I, along with a few thousand other desperate fans, filed into the arena in our red and blue to get our hockey on two days before the start of the season.Rockin' the Red
It was our first official glimpse of NHLers live and it's always both fun and disarming to see them as real people. We got pretty decent first level center ice seats (probably worth $180 per during the season) and squinted at the Caps and their practice jerseys in attempt to identify them. Ovie & Backstrom were easy to spot, of course, but Mike Green and Troy Brouwer eluded us for a while. Mike Green, your hair got so long! (Cut your damn hair, hippie!) Holtby and Neuvirth also stymied us with our inability to SEE THROUGH THEIR MASKS. P.S. An iPhone camera zoom? Just not that good.
Eventually Holtby pulled off his mask to give his signature diva hair shake, and then we promptly lost him again after he skated away from the goal and into a morass of people. It took us way too long to realize that they actually had different pads on. SIGH. What are eyes? What is seeing?
The practice was great, though, and the players seemed like they were having fun too with a few over-the-top cheers by defenders when they made an empty net goal \o/!! And Holtby literally made an orz emoticon with his body when he let Ovie get a shootout goal on him. Stop being adorable!! But keep being excellent.
NO BUT WHICH ONE ARE YOU? (Neuvy's facing us; that's Holtby's back.)
The crowd groaned in disappointment every time Ovie didn't make a goal or when the other players' shootout attempts were stopped, but I was thinking that it's not a bad sign if your goalie is good... Of course, you want the rest of your team to be able to score, sure, but let's just hope the other teams' goalies just aren't as good. ;) For real, though, it'll be interesting to see Holtby start in goal, especially since he's been keeping active with the Bears through the lockout while a lot of other goalies haven't been getting the same action. But it may be unrealistic to see him keeping the same stats as over last season's playoffs. I still hope he does really well though, naturally.
There was the CUTEST small boy sitting behind us and his dad kept asking him if he was having a good time. He was so excited to see Ovie. And then his dad pointed out Holtby when he skated out, saying to him, "And that one is Mommy's boyfriend," which made them both giggle. SO CUTE. I feel you, mom of that small child. I feel you. Holtby can be everyone's boyfriend.
A few rows even farther back, a kid around 7 or 8 was loftily informing his row of equally small friends the identity of every single player as they skated by. Kid was impressive, I am telling you. I could barely tell them apart. (Then again, I am much less invested in the Caps roster than, say, that of other teams.) There was a light scrimmage and the kid basically ran a play by play and screeched, "WHAT A BEAUTY," at a goal that Hendricks (as he informed his friends) scored. He was also a massive Ovie and Backstrom fanboy.
Chillin'.
Near the end of practice, the players went out and threw t-shirts into the screaming crowd. The kid, again, was amazing at identification, screaming the name of every player who skated near us to throw him a t-shirt. I hope he plays hockey. I hope he goes into the NHL, lol.
Then there was a brief Q&A with a few players, the highlights of which include the crowd erupting in cheers and whistles for Ovie's engagement and Holtby & Brouwer's new babies, and Trollvi saying, upon being asked his favorite hockey player ever, "DALE HUNTER". And then the emcee asked Hendricks his favorite "Gangnam Style" dance move, which utterly baffled the poor guy, as apparently he lived under a rock throughout the entirety of the lockout and had no clue what "Gangnam Style" was. Brows then kindly demonstrated the dance for us.
"wat is a gangnam style"
(x) BROWS KNOWS
BROOOWWS. I TOO AM READY FOR PATTY KANE TO DO THIS DANCE AND FOR YOU TO MOCK HIM. ;__; Why has this not happened yet?
Other highlights: Joel Ward got a quickie interview and cheers and hollers for putting the Caps past the Bruins in last season's playoffs. Brouwer said his most memorable NHL game ever was the overtime Stanley Cup win which, fine, understandable, but which made me go DDDDDDDDD: NOOOOOOO. DON'T REMIND ME.
All in all, there was a great turnout and the energy was super high even though the arena wasn't even half full. (And even if I occasionally got distracted by my Twitter feed with its simultaneous Flyers practice. CLAAAAUUUDEE.) So, so excited for hockey to be back. So, so excited to see at least one live game, maybe a couple more if I can swing some cheap as balls Canes @ Caps tickets (lol, Canes). If this trend continues, I'll basically keep going to games where I cheer the Canes against the home team. Oops. Except the Canes are never the wrong team to cheer for! ♥
LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED. GO TEAM GO.
By which I mean, oh my god, UNC please win your game on Saturday. And Flyers. And Hawks. And Canes. And Caps. /o\
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(Also, UNC! I don't particularly pay attention to their sports anymore, but I went there and I will always choose them over any opponent.)
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Eee, I too am a UNC grad! I didn't care about college basketball before I went, and then couldn't help it while I was there. Now I follow them every spring and despair.
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Yeah, I didn't care about college basketball before I went either, but oh, did I go to so many games while I was there. Now I mostly keep up from college friends posting about it on Facebook. (And I usually play in the annual Di-Phi March Madness tournament challenge, but I don't really make my picks based on any sort of actual information.)
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