Game 7 Is More Than A Win or Go Home Statement for Caps

Game 4 was fun to watch in person, Game 5 was awesome to see the Caps not give up after blowing a 2 goal lead and Game 6 was another OT thriller that the Caps unfortunately came up on the wrong end of.

If you haven't been excited or entertained by this series you either hate sports or don't know shit about it. As much as I hate that the series is now going 6 games, that its lacked fights and that there has been a lot of inconsistency in officiating this has been a great series which will end, fittingly in Game 7.

Its been quite eye opening to see how fans react from both teams on certain plays. In Game 4 Ovechkin ran into the back of a Bruins player and pushed him to the ice. All the Caps fans signaled for an interference, ,one came, and the Caps ended up scoring a goal. If you listen to the Bruins fans it was evident that Ovechkin should have been called for the interference. Maybe it could have gone either way, since it was right in front of me at the game I saw it clearly as the Bruins player slowing down and trying to keep Ovie from getting to the puck and Ovie saying f**k you its mine at all costs. I think in the end the no call was the best one.

Game 6 we had more questionable non-calls. The Bruins scored a goal after an illegal screen, that should have resulted in an interference away from the play, went uncalled and the the Bruins took the lead. Late in the 2nd period the Caps headed up ice when Bergeron collided with Chimera and went down to the ice. Chimera raced up the ice to score on a pass from Backstrom while Bergeron got up with a bloody mouth. Replays showed Chimera barely touched him, definitely not up high, and Bergeron spun around, as he's done all series at the Caps defensive blue line, and went to the ice, where one assumes he either bit his tongue or had one of those blood packs that wrestlers use.

In the end it was a bad pass up ice by Nick Backstrom, a bad defensive angle by Dennis Wideman, and a bad decision by Braden Holtby to come far out of the net to try and stop Tyler Seguin that ended with the Caps heading back to Boston for a Game 7.

The Caps entered yesterday's game with a ghastly 2-4 record in Game 6's when they lead the series 3-2. Their record in those Game 7's that followed? A dismal 0-4, in fact they have one only one Game 7 since Dale Hunter lead the Capitals over the Flyers in 1988 and that came in 2009, and 2-7 overall in Game 7s. Needless to say the Caps were hoping to buck the trend and take Game 6. Instead they will need to look at rewriting history by giving all they have to take Game 7 from the Bruins in Boston, where they are 4-1 this season.

That gives me hope but I also can't get myself to believe too much that this team will be any different than any other we've seen or just about any DC area team that chokes under pressure or in big games. I've been disappointed too many times rooting for my teams but I'll still be rocking the red and pulling for them all the way. I even went so far as to plea with all the local media, via Twitter, to not bring up, ask or talk about in any fashion, the Capitals failures in Game 7's in any other year. Why be so negative? The team is under enough pressure from themselves and the fans and they know the history and what's at stake so why bother adding to it? Hell the last four times all the media talked about was the team's inexperience and then their inability to win that 7th game so why not try to reverse the curse?

Karl Alzner has already said the team is going to come out and give it their all. Well I sure hope so and I hope they start off with more energy than they have most of the other six games, then again they've looked like they don't care and won some of those games. John Carlson said that the players know what they have to do in Boston...I hate those damn cliches. We all KNOW what you have to do and SCORE and WIN should be the top two things. In order to do so the players can't be tentative, they've got to take advantage of Tim Thomas challenging and leaving the net exposed, they've got to put home the shots that are there...I'm looking at you Marcus Johansson, they've got to clamp down defensively...I'm looking at you Dennis Wideman and they've got to control rebounds and not attempt the poke check so much...yeah I'm talking to you Braden Holtby, though less so than the rest.

Things this series has done is gotten people off the back of Sasha Fierce (Semin for you new readers) and his play has not only guaranteed an NHL payday it may lead to an overpayment by a franchise not named the Capitals, but would he be willing to stay for less and play with his best buddy? While Semin has played great he has not alleviated the pressure that is on Ovechkin to bring the Cup to DC. Regardless of the reasons he's been benched Ovie will not change how he plays, which is to say he'll either gamble badly and be lost and out of position on defense or he won't play any at all and on offense he'll try to beat anyone on him whether he should or not. The series has shown that Green is a capable defender and may finally be turning the corner offensively. Its brought Jay Beagle to the forefront of the fourth line and shown how hard he hustles to get to pucks and can annoy opponents with his tenacity. We've seen that Joelle (Ward) played himself into that contract in last year's playoffs and oh how I wish there was a way to sucker the Blue Jackets to take him and two 1st round picks for Nash, regardless of cap issues. This series also showed that Dale Hunter doesn't fully grasp match-ups and what it takes to win games. It took the suspension of Backstrom to get Knuble back in the line-up and he's managed to score and be physical. His veteran presence and leadership is exactly what they need right now. The other thing was putting Schultz out there instead of Erskine. With as physical as this series was expected to be and how dirty the Bruins can be Erskine was a must to be out there on the ice and finally in Game 4 he made his first appearance since February 12th and seeing him out there and getting at the Bruins players it has definitely played into them going after the Caps less because they know they'd have to answer to him.

What does Game 7 hold? History says a loss...hell the Caps have yet to win, or maybe did once, the night before I have an event at work. I have events Wednesday and Thursday this week so here's hoping that history doesn't play into the outcome. Many people believe its safe money to assume this game will be decided by one goal since the first six were, a record. I don't think that will be the case and I don't think it'll take an empty netter to make it a two goal game. The Bruins head back to Boston with the momentum of an OT win and their home crowd supporting them while the Caps head back probably a little deflated after the loss, in a game they probably should have won, back to being the underdog and with the pressure of their fans and a possible off-season roster shake-up looming. Neither team wants to see their season end now and I can honestly see either team moving on in the next round, and even to the Cup finals, regardless of who the opponents are over the next two round. I obviously want the Caps to win and will pull for them despite the history.

At some point you've got to break a trend and what better time than the present? Its time to put up or shut up. No more talking, no more excuses. If you're going to go down, make it respectable and go down fighting but winners find a way to win (yes so damn cliche) and the Caps have the ability to do it and the want to do it but will they give the effort to do it? No playing turtle in this game. If you take the lead, go for the jugular while still playing smart. Pressure, forecheck, backcheck, hit, shoot, block, score, do whatever you have to do but don't take penalties. Make this the statement for those NHL "History Will Be Made" commericals

Caps STH Event at Six Flags...3 Years Running

Last night the Capitals held their annual event at Six Flags for Season Ticket Holders. This is the one event that I look forward to all year. I don't own season tickets myself but my work does so I have used their tickets the past three years. Its always awesome to see the players walking around the park and going on the rides and hanging with the fans though at the same time it can open a can of worms for some (more on that in a bit).

Two years ago when I went I had a blast. In the span of an hour or so I got autographs from about half the team and the coaches. That fed my passion for wanting to do this event every year as well as holding out hope that I could get there early enough to be one of the first 450 to get Ovechkin's autograph. In 2009, on the way back from having dinner at the park, we ran into a bunch of the players as the handlers were taking them to their spots for the autograph signings. There was Jose Theodore walking into the men's room in a fedora which lead to some laughs; Boudreau as he posed with my cousin that resembles him very much and is mistaken for Gabby quite often; Michael Nylander who was sporting the hat of a rival sports team and who I spent a good 5 minutes talking shit to because my favorite, Chris Bourque, was cut and claimed by Pittsburgh earlier in the day all because Nylander's contract couldn't be traded and he wouldn't accept a buyout; Fleischmann and Jurcina shooting baskets which I may not have turned around to see had my cousin not said to me "that guy's wearing a Jurcina jersey so I'm not the only guy who wants one" to which I had to tell him "hey stupid that is Jurcina." We headed off to get autographs and ended up with all the coaches, Sloan, Laing, Laich, Erskine (Lumberjack), Pothier, Steckel (man crush), Schultz (family whipping boy) and of all the stars we lucked into getting Alex Semin.

Last year was not nearly as pleasant. The initial night it rained so they rescheduled it for a later date. Well on that day Ovechkin and Varlamov couldn't participate because they were shooting a commercial at the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, CT.  This left more fans to go after the rest of the players and longer lines. It didn't help that the players got off some of the rides late which got them to their tables after the 7pm start time and they didn't want to keep the players past 8pm so they started cutting some lines off at 7:30pm. I went in with plans to get two autographs, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, as I had purchased 8x10 pictures of each of them just for this event. So after dinner we went and got into Nicklas Backstrom's line and after about 45 minutes we were able to get his autograph. Across from his set up was John Carlson, but they weren't allowing anyone in that line so we headed towards the lines for Mike Green and Mike Knuble. Knubes line was shorter so I got his and we were done. Disappointed that it was less of a haul than the previous year but still happy to have gotten Nick.

This year I planned ahead. I took off from work and hoped to get there early but when it was announced that Ovie's uncle had passed away and he'd be flying back to Russia getting there early was less of a necessity. As the day went on it seemed like the wheels were going to fall off as one family member dropped out and another wasn't sure they felt well enough to go. After a bit of convincing my mother (in her Ovie), my cousin Pam (in her Knuble) and I (in my Bourque) were on our way to Six Flags.  We got there and had our plan. Pam wanted to get her Knuble jersey signed so we headed straight to his line, all the way on the other side of the park and waited about 45 minutes. On the way over we passed Neuvirth and as we stood in Knuble's line many of the players went walking by to get on the ride including Jason Chimera,  Troy Brouwer, Jeff Schultz, Jeff Halpern, John Carlson, Matt Hendricks (who high 5's some fans) and Mike Green. We also pretty much stereotyped every black guy that went by as possibly being Joel Ward (or Joelle as my cousin Alex legitimately calls him...the boy ain't too bright). In fact I really thought one guy was until realized he was much too young and he looked more like Carlton Banks from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" which made me break out in the Carlton Dance and almost had to go ask him if he'd do it since I had the people in line cracking up.

Lucky for us we were probably around 10th in line for Knuble, who was about 5 minutes late, and after we got his autograph we were off to our next goal...John Carlson aka The All-American Hero. As we were headed there DJ King and his handler were walking to DJ's table, so I made some comments about how he sucks and I don't  how he's on the roster when Bourque could be (and not be playing)...and of course I said it all loud enough so he could hopefully not hear me and I made sure to add "man you're a big dude please don't hit me." Anyways we get to Carlson's line since Alex wanted his jersey signed but couldn't make it so his sister, being the great person she is, got in line to get it signed for him. As it was he was one of 3 people I wanted to get autographs from as well. My mom on the other hand insisted on getting Jay Beagle because she's a huge fan of his...because we own a beagle...that's it, not other reason. So her and I hurry over to Beagle and Hamrlik who are the first table at the other end of where they're doing autographs...and of course my dumbass gets in the line for the coaches before quickly realizing my mistake and heading over to the Beagle line which had about 30 people in it...two years ago our shortest lines had about 10 (it was Schultz's line haha). After we got Beagle and the Hamerlik (sounds like a bad porn title/name) we ran back over to the Carlson line where we met up with Pam who had a handful of people ahead of her, got his and then had to decide if we wanted more or to call it a night even though there was about 15 mins left for autos. We headed towards King's line but opted not to get it, which I later regretted because I wanted Brouwer who was with him and decided to head into the arena to try for Mike Green. Lucky for me I had bought the picture last year I needed signed and have a Green jersey...unlucky for me both were at home so I had him sign on the poster the team was giving out that everyone else had signed for me. At that our night was done and it was a HUGE success and now I'm ready for next year's event.