Home Again...

We are finally home again and the Caps were home at Verizon Center today in a thrilling contest against the Boston Bruins resulting in a 5 - 4 shootout loss for the men in red. The Capitals had regulation goals from Chris Clark, Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green and Chris Bourque. Goalie Jose Theodore stopped 40 of 44 shots on goal forcing the game into OT - things were obviously a bit off to be facing such a high number of shots. Shoot out goals from Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron (who's made a heck of a comeback from a season-ending concussion he suffered last year) wrapped up the victory for the Bruins.

My boys' team made it to the semi-final game of this weekend's tournament but lost in an early morning game to a tough team from New York. After enjoying several cocktails with the other parents last night and then having to get up at 5 a.m. this morning, I swore my kids were going to back to soccer - no 5 a.m. wakeup calls in soccer! I have to conduct a little sidebar here on sportsmanship. In Saturday's game one of my boys got nailed by a cheap and late hit from a player (who was supposed to be serving a 10-minute major penalty but was released after 4 minutes). The kid got a charging call from the ref but it is very scary to see your kid unable to get up from the ice. He did get up and we had to watch him the rest of the day to make sure he didn't have a concussion (which he didn't, thank goodness). But the sidebar is that sportsmanship starts with the parents and coaches, who should never encourage illegal actions. This is still a kid's game for the love of Pete!

This week is an exciting one for HM with the Capital's Media Luncheon on Tuesday and the official start of the season for the team on Friday. I will be rocking the red as the Southeast Division Champions banner is raised to the roof of the Phone Booth on Saturday night. I'll be curious to see what kind of reception Christobal Huet gets in his first visit back to VC with the Chicago Blackhawks. Still won't be as weird as seeing Olie Kolzig in a Lightning jersey!