Game 7

I detest Game 7s. It's like OT. Everything is on the line. There is no "well, if I lose, I could still have a chance next time". No. It's do or go home. Game 7 is where you bring everything you've got. Needless to say, it's very unpleasant to be the loser of a game 7. Knowing that you were that close and yet ultimately you fall short. Not that I've ever been on the losing end of a game 7 actually.... I've only sat through one with my team and my Habbies blanked the Bruins in that one (I can still see that 4th or 5th goal slide right past Marshmallow....)

But now I have to suffer through not 1, not 2 but 3 game 7s. How's that for some insane bad luck?

The Bs remembered that they are the Bs who finished second overall and started demolishing the Whalercanes. The fact that I had the Bruins winning this in 6 with the Whalercanes forcing the extra games, doesn't really make me feel any better with the probable Bruins victory.

The Dumb Ducks also won a few bad bounces/lucky breaks. When I say dumb, I do mean it as they took two too many Ducks on the ice penalties. Obviously counting it not their forte. I also laugh every time I hear the words "Ducks" and "fight". I mean, yeah, it's all the DUCKS know how to do, but really... I've never seen a real duck fight. A goose, yeah. They're nasty. But a duck? No way. It should be an interesting final because I think the Wings will remember who`s the boss here and will at least try to put up a better effort back home.

Anyway, everyone else can drop of the face of the earth right now (except for the Wings) because all that matters right now is what's going to happen in less than 10 hours at the Verizon Center.

I'm pretty nervous about this one. I don't think anybody really doubted that this series would go the distance. That this series has actually lived up to the hype and gone beyond in some cases, is pretty unbelievable. It's been a very wild ride so far and I hope for the Caps it continues into the next round. I'm not offering up any advice or anything on this one.

You know which team I want to win. You know I'll be sitting there screaming in a Habs shirt because rocking the red in a Habs shirt is lucky. And you know that, no matter what the outcome is, I'll still be planning my trip to Washington next year to see them live =)

Edit: Oh Bruins fans, you are so nice to me! (no sarcasm meant this time! *g*) Dwatson783 got me to listen to "The Pretender" by the Foo Fighters. I've never heard it before but man, I am listening to this all day. We're calling this Ovie's pre-game song with a certain Puffle in mind =)

Nobody ever said I was the most... sane fan out there...

GO CAPS GO!

GAME SEVEN HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!

(group hug!)

CAPS WIN IT IN OT, BABY! WE ARE GOING TO GAME SEVEN!

Excuse me while I go collapse now after that very intense game.

.....

...............

..............................

.............................................

Okay. I'm back.

David Steckel tipped the puck in, and for once the deflection went into the back of the opposing team's net. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! (sorry Maffy....)

The Caps didn't look like they wanted it at the beginning though. The Pens dominated and were rewarded with a... either Puffy goal and a Puffy assisted goal. Whatever. It was two on one and Simmy had no chance. And that was it for the period. Shots on goal were apparently 18-4 which sort of reflected the Penguins total attempt at decimation.

Second period was... I'm trying to remember... We had a Kozzy goal - which reminded me of Andrei's awesome rocket shots (*sniffles* Andrei.....come back soon.....), a Flash goal after A2 got tripped up and *le gasp* they actually called a penalty. But it wasn't needed and A2 set up Ovie (or somebody) who attempted to score but Flash put it in past a sprawling Maffy. Of course the Puffles got a power play at the end of the period and scored on it. Meh. Still, we went into the third tied 2-2.

And then it got scary.

Between the 4:40 and 6:07 mark we had three goals. First from some Puffle - I thnk it was The Vampire - and then we had an A2 goal (FINALLY!!!!!!!) which I think actually went off of Laich (pffft). And THEN we had another goal from Kozzy. Because Gill sort of obstructed his own goalie. Hm...

And then with less than five mins left... guess who ties up the game? Puffy! *pukes*

AND THEN! We had a Puffles powerplay with TWO minutes to go. Heart-attack time.

Plenty of close calls but NO GOALS.

OT!

I thought the Caps really pressed hard in OT but of course it was the Pens who looked like they would have the break. I freaked out every time one came near the Simmy. And...and...and...THEN! Some Puffle shoots the puck and it rings off the post. OFF THE POST! Finally a lucky bounce in favor of the Caps! AH!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...... Steckel who got sent to the box at the end of the third period finally tipped in Laich's shot past Maffy. GAME OVER. See you Wednesday.

Of course this isn't over. Not by a long shot. We have 60 mins or more left until we know who will make the next round.

But for tonight, we will celebrate this win. Tonight, we will think about all the things that went right. We will remember that as the truly delusional fans that we are, we ignored the "experts" saying that the Penguins had the advantage and we never stopped believing that the Caps could send it back home for a game 7.

Well... their home. Unless they want to take over the Bell Center. I bet our ice would be better than crap at the Igloo. For an igloo with Penguins in it, the ice was crappy.

To quote that really annoying PA guy in Boston: WhoooooooOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!

GO CAPS GO!!!!!

Useless info: With all kinds of puffy flowers poofing my sinuses have been bugging me so I was pretty low key about the game (until that wild third period). It didn't help that I was feeling great until the game started and Puffy came on the TV. I think I'm allergic to him.....

And... is it just me or does the that Win a Honda commercial use the Bruins goalhorn? You know... the commercial where the car pulls up into the garage and the goal thingy goes off.

By the way... The Hawks just finished off the Canucks. Now, as much as I'd like the Wings to win, could you imagine a final with the Caps and the Hawks? I may hate Kane and Toews but Semin does have a point about them. They can score and they can score awesome goals. Imagine... Ovie vs Kane.... Ovie would crush Kane of course.... =) It'd be battle of the showboats *g* (not that I necessarily think Ovie is a showboat.... *coughs*)

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Still rocking the red...!

Ahem.... The highlights from last night. I'm half tempted to get myself a video editing program and add some really drop dead amazing music to it but I'll spare you all for now =p

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE

Forget caffeine to keep you awake. Watch Ovie. He. Is. Freaking.Awesome.

I've been running around like an idiot right now....=p

OOOOOOOOVIIIIIIIIIIIIIE = AMAZING

If saying that makes me anti-Canadian, then fine. I don't care. Ovie makes me smile every time he scores. Well.... minus that highlight reel goal against Pricey.... but almost every time!

Yes, I haven't been this excited over a game in.... a long time.... WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

So awesome that this calls for another lame limmerick!

We just can't get enough of Ovie
He just loves to score so much - sowwy
He came out to play
And made them all pay
What would we ever do without Ovie?

I'm too hyped to even think properly about the game. I can't even type in a coherent fashion....Can't you tell? THIS WAS AMAZING!!

Despite the LAME start to the game which saw yet another Puffy goal in the first period... the Caps came back with... an Ovie goal to tie it up in the third period. Simmy and Maf - Simmy in particular - were amazing again. The Ovie goal was followed by a Puffy goal later which brought us to 3-2 going into the third period. Dino (see "Dictionary of EPisms") tied it on some icky Pens playing. And then Ovie scored on the PP - which was amazing because the Caps hadn't done anything on the PP before and semi-sad because Eggplant decided to not show up to the playoffs- which had me in absolute fits. And then again he gets a mini breakaway and puts it away. HAAAAAAAAT TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK! That sound you heard was the Verizon Center roof coming off.

And then Jurcina decides to make a bid for my Hate-You-Right-Now list by taking a penalty with 2 minutes to go. Pens pull Maf and guess who the heck scores on the PP? OH YES. PUFFY PUTS IT OFF OF SIMMY'S HEAD AND INTO THE NET WITH 30 SECONDS LEFT TO GO! Like seriously.... Puffy topped off my Hate-You-Right-Now list because it wrecked an otherwise wonderful ending to the game.

And yes. Ovie AND Puffy had hattricks. Apparently it's the first time in 13 years that two players have had hattricks in the same game in the playoffs or something. I dunno. Bettman must be freaking now. Oh and yes, only Puffy showed up tonight. Maf got no help from the Pokemon or the Vegetables or the Vampires tonight. Poor Maffy. I felt bad for him.

Kinda. I wished he played somewhere else.... =(

but anyway....

Funniest moment of the night: The Sens relative calls. The mother picks it up. He started watching the game later so he's behind where I am (I've got it on live). He hears me screaming and thinks it's because Mr. Puffy scores (the Sens relative likes Puffy). I hear something about some chants about "Sidney" (glad he remembers my rabbit's name *g*). I'm too busy dancing around to point out that it was the "Hated-Ovie" that scored the goal to make it 3-2 and not the Puffy. I will have to remind the relative that the Wonderfully Amazing Ovie's hat trick won over the Puffy's hat trick when I see him next =)

Quote of the night:

Boudreau: If this were tennis, we've held serve.

Dude. This guy is brilliant. Yes. The Caps hold serve to take the first set! Hell yeah!

Oh wait! More quotes. Crosby apparently has a problem with other people getting a hattrick....

"People kept throwing hats. I was just asking if he could make an announcement to ask them to stop. I mean, the first wave came and then I think they were all pretty much picked up, and then more started coming. So for us, we just wanted to make sure we kept kind of moving and kept the game going, wanted to try to get back in it. So wasn't complaining about anything."

I'm thinking this is the cue to start throwing hats at the beginning of Game 5 - assuming there is a Game 5. Puffy is just jealous that he only got one hat.... Pfft....

And what does the Anointed one think of Simmy?

"I mean, yeah, he's made some timely saves. I still think we can do a better job of burying the puck and capitalizing on our chances. The difference is a few inches, but he battles and he competes, and there's times where he's out of position but he finds a way to get a piece of his body on it. So as a shooter you have to make sure that you bear down, and we have to really correct that quickly. I mean, there are times when he's kind of swimming in the crease and we've got some loose pucks and we've got to put them in."

Does this remind anyone of Jumbo Joe's comments about Jaro being "good" when he beat the Sharks? Uh how about "yeah, he was amazing"?

And finally, Mr. Puffy comments on Ovie's hattrick

"When it comes down to it they got a big goal there on the power play when it counted, and that's the difference. I don't see anything else but that. We had opportunities, I mean, the last two games we can honestly say we did some really good things but we made a few mistakes that have hurt us. That can be a good thing to look at as well, knowing that we're that close and these are things that we can easily and change quickly. But we have to do that."

Read: Hattrick? What hattrick? I got one too, remember? Hello? I GOT ONE TOO DAMNIT!

Ovie says:

Sick game. Sick goals by me and him.

We liked yours better Ovie.... really.... =p No, I have no shame whatsoever in saying that.....

GOOOOOOOOOO CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPS!

Whooo! Caps 3 Puffles 2

Wow. If this is what the rest of the series is going to be like then we're in for some exciting stuff here. And as long as we get the same result (a Caps win) I'll be happy. Ovie was great (Ovie goals are always great), Simmy was amazing, Pie and A2 had a solid game, I thought. And the Caps third (fourth?) line was rolling right along. On the other side, Mr. Puffy was great (sadly), Maf was stellar for most of the game. I thought Malkin was fairly quiet, but that could be more to do with the fact that I was subjected to highlights of Crosby doing something every two seconds. The problem was I had Blersus feed on RDS... which by the way, had Pierre Houde doing the announcing, which is such a welcome change from RDS's B team. Yay! Now if only I could shove a sock down Benoit Brunet's throat....

I need to find Simmy's brilliant save on Mr. Puffy. He completely robbed the Kid of a goal. That's probably the save of the series. Or the playoffs even.... EAT THAT CROSBY!

EDIT: Got it.



A couple of sticking points though...

• The Caps started off really shakey and the Pens took advantage early with a Puffle goal from Mr. Puffy.
• The Caps D was spotty at times
• Simmy needs to do something about those rebounds. If the D can't clear them, then expect the Puffles to take a huge advantage of those

Good start though =)

Oh and... rocking the red in a CAPS shirt actually worked this time! YEEEEEES!

And yes, I did spend most of the game coming up with random names for everyone...

So not liking Crosby makes me anti-Canadian, eh?

JT at the H Does NOT Stand for Habs brought up in an interesting topic the other day about our (least) favorite player. Apparently someone said that if she didn't cheer for the Penguins over the Capitals, she would be anti-Canadian. You heard it. Cheering for the Capitals over the Penguins makes you anti-Canadian. I've actually had similar if not quite so blatant statements from people myself, which always, without fail, puzzle me.

Let's be honest here. This series is between the Capitals vs. the Penguins. This is not a series between Russian and Canada. It's not even just about Crosby vs. Ovechkin, despite what the media tells you. It's the Washington Capitals vs the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two very talented teams in the National Hockey League who are based in the United States.

With most teams in the NHL comprising of players from many different nationalities, I find it hard to understand why people would associate a team like say, the Penguins as being Canadian? Sure they have a lot of Canadian players, but the team itself is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Capitals are considered "Russian" and yet they have more Canadians than Russians on their team. But I suppose because the Caps have a few high profile Russians, the entire team must be Russian and that's somehow a bad thing....Both teams however, are technically American.

Personally, I don't see why even defining the team as "American" or "Canadian" is needed in most cases anyway. The thing is, a player should be playing for the logo on the jersey (however ugly it is). They play for the team. In the NHL, that means they are not playing for their country and I'm not sure that most guys play for the city either. They play for the logo on the jersey. Nationality should have zero to do with it.

When I watch hockey, I watch it to see what the guys on the ice do. I want to see guys play with a lot of passion. I want to see guys who care. And I like exciting plays on most nights as a bonus. I dont' care what the guys do with their lives off the ice as long as it's legal. I don't pick my favorite players based solely on where they were born. That's ridiculous.

If I limited myself to only Canadian players, then I'd be stuck with people like Sidney Crosby, Danny Heatley, Jason Spezza, Eric Staal, Sean Avery and Martin Brodeur. Thanks but no thanks. I'm not saying that these guys aren't talented. I believe everyone I just named is capable of being talented at something (I wouldn't say that Avery is an extremely talented player. He's a talented pain though). But I can think that they're talented and still detest them.

Ovechkin meets my criteria for what I want to see in a player. He works hard, he cares and he's pretty exciting on most nights. I like him because of that. I don't like him solely because he's Russian. I don't care if he was from India or Australia. I don't like him because I don't like Crosby. All I care about is what he does on the ice. All I care about is what he brings to the game. And on most nights, I like what I see.

Crosby's seemingly lack of emotion in general, makes me snore. He doesn't make me interested in watching hockey. When I initially watched the Pens, I watched Malkin (until he disappeared). I watched Fleury. I didn't watch Crosby. Look, I feel bad for him. I think he's been manufactured and handled by various people beyond belief and that's resulted in this cardboard cut-out guy. I'm not going to say that he isn't talented or that he doesn't try hard. I think he's talented and he tries. But he doesn't interest me at all. I find him annoying now. I don't like his constant yapping and whining. I don't really like his new hobby of getting into cheap fights. I just do not like him.

I don't see how that makes me anti-Canadian if I don't like Crosby and would rather cheer for a team that interests me. If I said "I prefer Lidstrom to Avery" do you think many people would complain? I doubt it because we're talking multiple Norris winner vs major pain who got suspended for dissing his ex-girlfriend. But Lidstrom is from Sweden and Avery is indeed Canadian. If I said "I wouldn't cheer for the Leafs if they were the last Canadian team in the playoffs" would anybody care? No. They know I'm a diehard Habs fan and I would never cheer for the Leafs, even though the Leafs are a Canadian team.

So. If it's okay to prefer Lidstrom to Avery and if it's okay to not cheer for the Leafs under any circumstances, why the heck isn't it okay to cheer for the Ovechkin over Crosby? In case everyone missed it, the Cold War sort of ended a while ago.

Again, this isn't about Russia vs. Canada. This is about the Washington Capitals vs the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is about which team I prefer to watch. Nationality of the players notwithstanding.

Go Caps Go!