Tuesday, January 8, 2008

A Holly Jolly Hockey Holiday

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays! I'll spare you the non-hockey details of my trip to Washington, DC no matter how amusing they were to me. On the first day that we did touristy things, I spotted this vehicle on Capitol Hill:




Like any good hockey fan, first thing I did once the trip details were finalised was to check the schedule. LUCK! The Caps were hosting the Lightning on Boxing Day so I bought 2 tickets, 2 tickets so great I couldn't believe they were still up for grabs. I shall let the pics do the talking.








Coming from Toronto where tickets are sold out the first day of sale I was floored that such prime seats were there for the taking. I also bought tickets to the New Year's Day game vs. the Ottawa Senators. Those were farther up and I didn't bother taking pics. The Caps came through for me and doubled the Sens, 6-3.

What struck be most about both Caps games was how empty the arena was. To say it was at 50% full would be generous. I know DC is not a hockey town, but a lifelong hockey fan, as a long suffering Leafs fan, seeing all those empty seats when a player of Ovechkin's skill plays...to me, it's a hockey sin.

2 comments:

CapsChick said...

Believe me, it's a sin to a lot of us. We have the misfortune of competing with two football teams, two baseball teams, a basketball team, a million and one college teams of every different sport, all in a city that has never been too high on hockey to begin with. Throw in the fact that this is a winners' town and the Caps have an uphill climb.

Oh, and the attendance for these two games actually wasn't that bad - the building looks emptier because of that stupid middle level. The team doesn't own those seats, they're owned by the people who own Verizon and don't go on sale to the public until the day of, so it always looks like partially empty even when "sold out".

It was great to meet you!

Shmee said...

I'm glad you got to see the Sens take a thrashing!