The Rink Rat: April 2009

Monday, April 27, 2009

Some City Will Suffer

The playoffs progress. Two game sevens are scheduled for tomorrow. Two game sixes commenced last night and two more are ongoing at this moment. For the pure hockey fan the daylight hours signify a waiting, a need, only satiated when the puck hits the ice later that night. But those fans live for the purity of the sport. They are the ones who will come home or go out and default to watching hockey. Those fans don't need their team to be playing to love the game. It helps. But since so many of those fans live in Toronto, they aren't used to seeing their team in the playoffs. It doesn't matter since they are just as happy to root against Montreal. Or maybe they will pull for Vancouver because of some OHL connection or because their grandkid lives in Pentiction,BC or some other city somewhere. Those are true hockey fans.

While those fans might need hockey as much as hockey needs them, they aren't as invested as Aunt Edna living in New Jersey right now who's not totally sure what icing is but is damn sure that Zach Parise is cute. Now I may not agree with her about Parise, but I will admit that such passion for an NHL team is what the playoffs are all about. They are supposed to insprire those fans that some call 'bandwagon' to rally behind their team. They are supposed to inspire a city. They are supposed to make Raleigh, NC and Calgary, AB scary places to visit. They are supposed to make you hoarse at work the next day. They are supposed to make you appreciate all those years your team missed out.

Tomorrow night will feature the first two game sevens of the 2009 playoffs. Four cities will watch and hang on every hit and every shot. On Wednesday some of those residents will go to work and get coffee and prepare for the rest of the year without the thought of hockey. Other fans will prepare for another series, another test of emotions and another step toward The Cup. And still others will be devastated. They may miss work. They may just exist in a haze. But they will survive. They will graviate back midway in the second round after the scars aren't as raw.

Some city will suffer. That is what game seven does. It ensures elimination. One team will exit. I just hope it isn't mine.

Labels: NHL, playoffs, the rink rat, therinkrat, therinkrat.com

posted by therinkrat @ 11:02 PM 0 Comments // HERE

Friday, April 3, 2009

Building a Capital Community

Michael Pivonka was the first person who ever tried to teach me to skate backwards. I had no idea what he was saying. I didn't understand a word. I had never played hockey and had no context for what he was trying to explain. His accent didn't help either, but it didn't matter. I was hooked.

That was in 1987. It was at Washington Capitals hockey camp. At the end of the week I got a Certificate of Completion signed by David Poile and Yvon Labre. I got my picture taken with future Hall-of-Famer Scott Stevens and I learned that you could actually play hockey if you lived below the Mason-Dixon line.

It's interesting and amazing to see the way the residents of the DC Metro area have started supporting the Caps. It helps that they have Ovechkin, Green, Backstrom, Semin and are playing as good as ever but these seeds were sewn a long time ago.

Hockey didn't just sprout in Washington, Virginia and Maryland overnight. It's been growing for a long time. The Capitals have always been active in that regard. They allowed for the creation of a hockey community and then they fostered it and watched it grow.

They are responsible for more than just putting a great team out on the ice this year. They are responsible for having made a 34-year investment in a city and in a metro area that has not only grown as an NHL community, but as a overall hockey community. And the Caps are responsible for that growth. The Caps are also directly responsible for turning out some great hockey players.

Caps fans should be proud of what the 2008-2009 team has accomplished, but they should be just as proud as what the team has accomplished for the hockey community in and around the District since they entered the league.

Unfortunately, I did find a couple photos from some of those years at Caps camp. They might be a little embarrassing, but it could’ve been worse than just the bowl cut. I could've been sitting next to Larry Murphy.