Better Red than dead

13 current NHL teams have not won the Stanley Cup, according to Answers.com:
Atlanta Thrashers
Buffalo Sabres
Columbus Blue Jackets
Florida Panthers

Los Angeles Kings
Minnesota Wild
Nashville Predators
Ottawa Senators
Phoenix Coyotes
San Jose Sharks
St. Louis Blues
Washington Capitals
Vancouver Canucks

5 others have won it only once, according to Wikipedia:
Anaheim Ducks
Calgary Flames
Carolina Hurricanes
Dallas Stars
Tampa Bay Lightning

Hmmm. Must be hard to do.

Maybe you shouldn't expect it every season, then go into a finger-pointing tailspin when it doesn't happen. Maybe you should enjoy your team, your team's players and your fellow fans and hope that some day everything falls into place and you can all celebrate together.

Or you could declare yourself dead to the Capitals and move to Montreal, which has won it 24 times.

Me, I'd rather be Red.

TillyCapsFan for CK

Another PepsiCo energy power play, Coke?

So, a thunder and lightning storm moves across the Washington, D.C., area Wednesday night just as Tampa Bay is beating Pittsburgh in Game 7 of their quarterfinals series.

Then the power goes out at Kettler Capitals Iceplex during the Caps' practice Thursday morning.

And then Coca-Cola decides a good giveaway for Game 1 between the Capitals and the Lightning would be, wait for it, thundersticks.

4-2, Tampa Bay.

Coke has had any number of advertising slogans over the years that would have been more appropriate to inundate us with instead of thundersticks.

Let's review.

1908: Good til the last drop. OK, well, good until about six minutes were left in the second period.

1923: Enjoy life. Hard to do this morning.

1924: Refresh yourself. Tried that. A week off. Didn't work.

1929: The pause that refreshes. See 1924.

1947: Coke knows no season. Regular season? Or playoffs? There's a big difference apparently.

1954: For people on the go. Yup. Saw lots of Caps fans carrying their thundersticks as they left the building.

1959: Be really refreshed. Enough already. See 1924, 1929.

1963: Things go better with Coke. Apparently not.

1989: Can't beat the feeling. 2000: Enjoy. 2001: Life tastes good.

Make . . .  it . . .  stop.

2009: Open happiness.

And this year's Coke slogan:

2011: Life begins here.

Finally, something helpful. Yup, there WILL be a Game 2 Sunday, Caps fans.

Sponsored by some kind of electric power company spawned by Benjamin Franklin and his lightning rod experiments, no doubt..

TillyCapsFan for CK

Not Whyno's fault -- and here's Whynot

Lots of talk today about hockey jinxes, what with Russian Machine Never Breaks blogging about a painting showing the Capitals receiving the Stanley Cup.

Folks take this jinx stuff seriously.

Just ask Stephen Whyno, Capitals reporter for The Washington Times.

Whyno took some heat for tweeting near the end of Rangers-Capitals Game 5, shortly before the Rangers scored, that goalie Michal Neuvirth was about to record a shutout.

It's a time-honored hockey tradition not to talk about a shutout until it's safely on the books -- much the way baseball players and fans won't discuss a no-hitter in progress.

Here's a series of tweets from Whyno Saturday during the game:

SWhyno: There's 1:48 left and Michal Neuvirth is ready for his second career playoff shutout.

SWhyno (replying): @JapersRink O Cmon.... this one's over

SWhyno: There goes the shutout - go ahead and blame me - Neuvirth won't complain.

SWhyno (replying): @SlavaKM Jinxes don't exist!

SWhyno: Dear Caps fans, your team just won its first playoff series in under 7 games since 1998 ... don't fret about me jinxing shutout.

I've been keeping my dirty little secret since Saturday, but it's time to let Stephen off the hook:

TillyCapsFan jinxed Neuvirth, not Stephen Whyno.

Late in the game, I turned to my wife and said, "Well, the only thing left to do is get Neuvirth the shutout." Moments later, the shutout was gone.

Don't know why I did it. I'm very careful about this usually. But I think it had something to do with being on an absolute high about proving we ARE louder than another team's fans.

And, no, I won't be bidding on that Capitals painting.

TillyCapsFan for CK

Atwitter about spying on the Caps

Pretend you're spying on the Capitals. You know, rifling through an ESPN file cabinet while Varly's in the ceiling waiting to pull you out. That sort of thing.

Except your piece of spycraft is . . . Twitter.

What can you learn? Well, some pretty amazing things, actually.

Did you know some of the guys ate at a mussel bar the night before Caps-Rangers Game 5, according to @greenlife52? Me, I think Rule #1 for night-before-a-big-game meals should be: don't eat anything that might want to return to the sea. What's next? Ethiopian food? Scares me when our guys tweet about eating sushi.

@greenlife52, one of several players who occasionally tweet their bedtime, went to bed about 11 pm before Game 5. @ovi8? How about 1 am, by my calculations? Not sure how to feel about that. Worried that he stayed up two hours longer than Green, or happy that he got to bed that early?

Speaking of @ovi8, he tweets like he plays: full speed, with little regard for spelling or punctuation. A typical Ovie tweet: "Thanks u caps fans!we love u!!!you guys kill tonight them!!it was the loudest rink!!!!!!!!!" No spaces between sentences. Fifteen exclamation points. Hey, he had me when he tweeted a picture of Phil Kessel getting picked last in this year's All-Star draft.

Want to tire the Caps out before Game 1 of the next series? Offer them a trip to the zoo. @johncarlson74 took his little cousins to the zoo. @djking_17 took out of town visitors to the zoo. For God's sake, @andrewgordon10 has been to the zoo in Hershey!

@karlalzner tweeted a picture of @johncarlson74 taking a picture. @ericfehr16 seems to watch a lot of baseball; he even apparently warms up before games by throwing a baseball instead of joining in the soccer kick-around. Nope, nothing useful there.

Pulls up me Varly!!Right now!!!!!!!!

TillyCapsFan for CK

Good Lord, Stanley! and other Cup thoughts

* Wait, we have to win THREE more series to win Lord Stanley's Cup? How can any team possibly do that? And yet every year one does.

* How many seasons has Marcus Johansson played for the Caps? Part of one, you say? Could have fooled me.

* Pre-game -- on signs, on the scoreboard, in Tweets -- Caps fans were tossing out ideas for a group taunt. "We are louder!" is what we went with. How did that happen? Any sociology majors out there need a topic for a masters thesis?

* So, a couple brought their little baby to the game yesterday. "I hope that kid's hearing isn't damaged," I told my wife. Next time I looked over, the baby was wearing huge earphones like you see on the guys next to planes at the airport. Oh, and he was yelling "We are louder" and selling short on ETrade.

* Caps raised their sticks in salute to the fans yesterday after the game. Just realized this morning that I see them do that every season -- after they've played their last game. We're headed into uncharted waters.

* Two CAPS fans got into a fight during pre-game warmups yesterday. Yup, emotions were running high!

* A week's rest? Think again. Playoff beards don't just grow themselves, people.

TillyCapsFan for CK

Calling out the "Phone Booth"

What's the loudest Verizon Center has even been for a hockey game?

Trick question, if you answered anything before 2006!

While the arena opened in 1997, it was "MCI Center" until 2006, when Verizon bought out MCI and changed the name.

Trivia aside, for me, the loudest hockey moment has to be April 28, 2009, when Sergei Fedorov scored the game-winning goal 15:01 into the third period of Game 7 to give the Capitals a series victory over, you guessed it, the New York Rangers.

The noise, it was like a bomb went off -- and it continued unabated for the next five minutes of playing time as Capitals fans cheered every clearing of the puck from in front of our net. It continued during the postgame handshakes. And it continued in "C-A-P-S Caps Caps Caps" chants as fans exited through the stairwells. And it continued out onto the streets around Verizon Center. Three blocks from the arena I was finally able to hear well enough to call my wife on my cellphone.

What's coming at Saturday's game?

Rangers fans did themselves proud, answering Coach Bruce Boudreau's Madison Square Garden putdowns with "Boudreau sucks" chants and "Can you hear us?" sing-songs that were unmistakable over the TV broadcast.

Will Caps fans up the ante?

Think of this as a rap battle. Rangers fans got their flow going with some insulting rap lyrics. Now it's time for Caps fans to answer back.

Can't wait to see -- err, hear -- what happens.

TillyCapsFan for CK

Damn you, Peter Bondra

Confession time: I had given up.

Didn't see any way the Capitals could come back from a 3-0 second-period deficit to the Rangers in Game 4. Was seriously doubting the wisdom of Coach Bruce Boudreau calling out Madison Square Garden. Began rationalizing a 2-2 series split as not really that bad considering that two of the remaining three games would be played at Verizon Center, right?

Good thing I'm a Caps fan, not a Caps player.

Anyone else want to make a mea culpa?

I'll say one thing in my defense: I didn't turn off the TV. Stayed right on my couch, hoping against hope that the Capitals would find a way.

Why?

Because that's what I do, or at least what I have done ever since Peter Bondra, with his powerful shot and goofy celebration dances, made my son and I Capitals fans, what, 15 years ago? That's how it starts, isn't it? One player captures your affection, then its Bondra to Jagr (I feel so dirty) to Ovechkin. And the next thing you know, you're sitting up way past your bedtime, cheering for millionaires and investing a significant portion of your disposable income in red clothes.

Bless me, Father Bruce, for I have sinned. It has been, well, a long time since I have rocked the red without doubting. For these and all the sins of my past fanhood, I am truly sorry.

My Act of Contrition?

Say 10 Hail Boudreaus and scream 50 "Can you hear me's" at 3 p.m. Saturday.

TillyCapsFan for CK

There's no place like home

In a tightly contested NHL playoff series, the deciding factor may be where a game is played, not how.

Witness Rangers-Capitals: First two games played at Verizon Center, Washington wins by one- and two-goal margins; third game played at Madison Square Garden, New York wins by one goal.

Home-ice advantages are many: The home team typically doesn't have to travel. The home team's players sleep in their own beds and practice at their usual rink while the visitors kill time in a strange city (which is why the Capitals flew home between Game 3 and Game 4). The home team plays in front of rabid supporters. Even the rules are tilted: The home team gets to make player substitutions after the visitors do, increasing the likelihood of favorable line matchups; for faceoffs, the visiting center has to put his stick on the ice before the home center, giving the home man the ability to time the faceoff better.

Winning away from home can be the turning point of a series.

Think of it this way: To win the series, the Caps, who have home-ice advantage over seven games, only have to win at home, which they have done so far. The Rangers have to win ALL their home games AND win once on Capitals ice.

If the Caps win tonight's game at Madison Square Garden, they can close the series out at home Saturday afternoon. If they lose -- well, the Rangers still have to win at Verizon Center before they've really turned the series.

So why would Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau say Madison Square Garden isn't as loud as Verizon Center? Doesn't that just spur Rangers fans to be even louder Wednesday night?

Boudreau has been at this game a long time. There's a purpose to everything he says. Criticizing MSG noise levels after a loss is classic misdirection: Let's not talk about how the Rangers beat us, let's focus on, oh, whether their fans are as loud as ours.

And he's no doubt thinking two moves ahead: to when Capitals fans say "We've got your back, Coach" and boost themselves to new levels of fury unleashment Saturday.

There's no place like home.

TillyCapsFan for CK

Playoff hockey: Get used to it

Eight NHL playoff series are under way. Of the five where two games have been played, three are tied 1-1. Of the three where three games have been played, two are tied 1-1.

So, five teams that have lost a game already are going to eventually win a playoff series.

Sunday's result was not the end of the world, Caps fans.

No, instead, it was this  "playoff hockey" we keep talking about: good defense, tight scores, games turning on a good play, a lucky bounce or a bad call. Last Wednesday, the Caps force a puck across the goal line late, tie the game and win in overtime. Sunday, the Rangers get a puck to bounce into the goal late and THEY win.

We'll know a lot more after Wednesday night's game.

If the Rangers win, we're in a three-game dog fight to advance.

If the Caps win, we have a chance to close things out Saturday afternoon on home ice.

TillyCapsFan for CK

Why the Alex Semin hat trick is a good thing

Gordie Howe's hat trick -- a goal, assist and fight -- earns respect from fans and players alike. Few can complete the deed, and those who do walk amongst the world knowing what a badass they are.

Washington Capitals forward Alex Semin's trademark trick isn't quite so revered. The Russian's trio generally brings forth a range of emotions starting with "ooh" and ending with "ahh sh*t!"

Semin's hat trick -- a goal, an assist and a stick penalty -- might be one of the most frustrating sequences a Caps fan can witness, but is it really worth getting upset about?

Before Friday's Game 2, my father (TillyCapsFan) told me about a coworker who is OK with the Alex Semin hat trick. Why? Long story short, the worst case scenario of an ASHT is that Semin is plus-1 on the night.

If Sasha Semin gets his patented hat trick, that means the Capitals have scored at least two goals, and in the playoffs two goals goes a long way. In Games 1 and 2, two goals has been the scoring ceiling between the Caps and Rangers.

The ASHT also means the Capitals are likely going to win. In the 2010-11 regular season, the Capitals went 4-0-1 when Semin recorded a goal, an assist and a penalty.

Games with Alex Semin Hat Tricks in 2010-11
April 2nd - 5-4 OT win over Buffalo
March 29 - 3-2 SO loss to Carolina
March 26 - 2-0 win over Montreal
March 9 - 5-0 win over Edmonton
Nov. 3 - 5-4 SO win over Toronto

Include Wednesday's Game and that's 5-0-1.

Alex Ovechkin famously gets his game going by hitting. If Semin's starts with an ill-advised hook in the offensive zone -- and it produces these results -- then maybe it's not so bad after all. Instead of groaning next time the ASHT occurs, maybe just mutter, "That's just Sasha being Sasha."