Capital Pursuit: The Washington Capitals’ Chase For The Stanley Cup: Conf. Semis Game 7

The Stanley Cup Playoffs continued last night for several teams including my hometown Washington Capitals. Click below to read what unfortunately will be my final post on the Caps’ playoff run, last night’s Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 7 between the Caps & Pittsburgh Penguins.

Capital Pursuit: The Washington Capitals’ Chase For The Stanley Cup: Conf. Semis Game 6

The Stanley Cup playoffs continue for a handful of teams including my hometown Washington Capitals. Click below to read my thoughts on last night’s Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 6 between the Caps and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Capital Pursuit: The Washington Capitals’ Chase For The Stanley Cup: Conf. Semis Game 4

The Stanley Cup Playoffs continue for several teams, including my hometown Washington Capitals. Click below to read my thoughts on last night’s Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 4 between the Caps & Pittsburgh Penguins.

Capital Pursuit: The Washington Capitals’ Chase For The Stanley Cup: Conf. Semis Game 3

The Stanley Cup Playoffs continue for several teams, including my hometown Washington Capitals. Click below to read my thoughts on last night’s Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 3 between the Caps & Pittsburgh Penguins.

Capital Pursuit: The Washington Capitals’ Chase For The Stanley Cup: Conf. Semis Game 2

The Stanley Cup Playoffs continue for several teams, including my hometown Washington Capitals. Click below to read my thoughts on last night’s Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 2 between the Caps & Pittsburgh Penguins.

Capital Pursuit: The Washington Capitals’ Chase For The Stanley Cup: Conf. Semis Game 1

The Stanley Cup Playoffs continue for several teams, including my hometown Washington Capitals. Click below to read my thoughts on today’s Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 1 between the Caps & Pittsburgh Penguins.

Capital Pursuit: The Washington Capitals’ Chase For The Stanley Cup: Game 7

The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are underway for the playoff teams, including my hometown Washington Capitals. Throughout the playoffs I’ll offer my thoughts & observations on each Caps game after it’s over, today it’s last night’s all-or-nothing Game 7 between the Caps and the New York Rangers.

Cold War: Capitals-Penguins Is Officially The Best Rivalry In Sports

This is gonna be biased of course, but sorry Yanks-SAWX and other rivalry faithful, but I’ve found the best rivalry in sports: Washington Capitals vs. Pittsburgh Penguins. This hockey grudge has always been heated and passionate, with each team’s fans turning out in force at each team’s game whether it’s in DC or Pittsburgh, and if the actions between stars Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby yesterday were any indication, as well as past happenings between Ovechkin & Evgeni Malkin, the NHL has a genuine any-night-prize-fight in their league. They’re not only the 2 or 3 biggest stars in the NHL, they plain old don’t like each other…for hockey and it’s fans that’s a good thing. The NHL hasn’t had players of this caliber since The Great One & Super Mario, and a rivalry like this since…well…if there was one it was before I started watching hockey, which was back around 1992. I have always enjoyed the Caps-Pens rivalry because of not only the teams and players, but the fans. Caps fans hate the Pens passionately and vice versa, and it makes for a sometimes rowdy yet energetic and fun atmosphere at matchups between the two. And best of all, unlike in other sports, Crosby & Ovy could drop the gloves and go at it and the worst they’d probably get is 5 minutes in the “sin bin”, aka the penalty box. Anywhere else outside of boxing or MMA and you’re sitting a few games-if not worse. Doesn’t hurt that, on ice, each is capable of some crazy playmaking, which Ovy has shown recently, while Crosby has taken heat for displaying some old-school MMA skills. Will they actually fight in a game? Who knows, but it will be fun and hopefully it’ll be a good show for the NHL fans. The NHL has done a good job of promoting each guy individually, and yesterday’s latest chapter was the Sunday afternoon national game. Best hope for the NHL, of course, if for the Pens to turn things around and make the playoffs. Washington’s in barring a late collapse and should make a deep run this season. I never complain about Caps-Pens in the playoffs, it would only cement it’s place as the best rivalry in sports right now. Sit back and enjoy the fireworks.

Sidney Crosby: The Next MM-Eh Superstar? Or Either NHL Officiating Needs Work Or Another Superstar Getting Away With Anything (Again)

It’s good to be Sidney Crosby. You’re the NHL’s 2nd-biggest superstar (behind, of course, Alexander Ovechkin…yes, I’m a Caps fan so #8 is #1 here), the face of a league and franchise, and apparently you can get away with going Joe Son on a downed opponent. This article on Yahoo’s “Puck Daddy” NHL blog (with video of the incident) says it all:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/With-Crosby-disregard-NHL-obviously-endorses-ge;_ylt=AtMYcbhekcejSIXEy1JwwjY5nYcB?urn=nhl,130785

I immediately thought back to UFC 4 (I think that’s the one) when now-convicted felon Joe Son not only lost his fight quickly, but his opponent went Alistair Overeem on his Mirko Cro Cop. Twice. Not unlike what Crosby did to this guy. There are 2 sides to this story: One, the NHL needs to re-evaluate how it handles on-ice incidents and disciplines, they might be slacking ebcause of the Sean Avery incident or because Crosby is a face of the league (the incident still seems to be under review). Two, Crosby might have himself a career in MM-Eh (MMA) with shots like that. We’ll see what happens when this gets totally blown up and out of proportion if it hasn’t already…and if Sid tries anything like this next time the play the Caps. Donald Brashear better not be anywhere near the arena if he does. But on a serious side though, it does show flaws in the NHL’s officiating considering he got only a 2-minute minor roughing penalty. If I was the ref and I saw a guy doing that, game misconduct. But the ref may not have seen it, there was quite the fracas on ice at the time, so it’s quite possible the window was there for a free cheap shot on a downed opponent not knowing (or caring) that it still would get caught on camera somehow. Plus, with the Pens somewhat regularly being featured on Versus (the NHL’s national TV partner in the US), the league may be reluctant to suspend Crosby in the name of ratings and exposure. We’ll see what Colin Campbell (the NHL’s head disciplinarian) does if anything but one bit of advice to Sid: Paybacks are hell. Next time you play the Thrashers, stay well away from the guy you punched. And fortify that cup…I hear titanium plating works quite well.