Caps Host Sell-Out Hockey N'Heels

Tyler Sloan talks with attendees during the on-ice skills demo.

The Capitals hosted another successful Hockey N'Heels event tonight, celebrating the unique female fans who faithfully rock the red and whose numbers have been growing dramatically since the team created the Scarlet Caps program! There were more than 300 ladies in attendance both young and old and tickets for this year's event sold out in less than 30 minutes. Hockey Mom ran into several of her fellow hockey moms at the on-ice session and we joked about the dads having to drive to practice tonight. I also got to spend time with the wonderful DC SportsChick of On Frozen Blog fame. I decided to forego the chance to practice my shot so no one can say "Mom, do you have any idea how hard it is to do a wrist shot"? But most of the ladies lined up for the chance to test their shooting prowess with Capitals great Peter Bondra and current Capitals Mathieu Perreault, Tyler Sloan, Eric Fehr and Jay Beagle. Assistant coaches Bob Woods and Dean Evason demonstrated the finer points of perfecting a wicked slap shot or wrist shot.


The ladies turned the Caps equipment bin into a makeshift purse holder.

The event was comprised of several different sessions, including the on-ice skills portion. The women got to hear Chalk Talk with Comcast SportsNet's Lisa Hillary and former player Alan May, where the gals got to ask questions about the game and the team.

Lisa, who hails from Canada and knows her hockey, made a terrific moderator for her second year of hosting Chalk Talk and really engaged all the participants! In another session, Brett "Stretch" Leonhardt, demonstrated each piece of a player's equipment and its purpose, drawing lots of laughs from some of the very funny comments. HM didn't sit in that session too long as unfortunately I drive around with a car full of smelly hockey equipment every day and could probably do my own roadside demonstration.




Lots of new women's Capitals merchandise for sale.

The line for Gabby's book was long as women waited patiently to have their personal copy of Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer signed by our own jovial bench boss. One of the most popular sessions of the night was Coach Boudreau's film session as he took us through a typical pre-game routine of scouting the opposition (in this case we studied tomorrow's opponent, the Montreal Canadiens). Gabby was quite the jokester and the ladies in the audience had lots of interesting questions for him, including the NHL's popular slogan: "Is this the year", to which he replied "for what?"


Coach Boudreau hams it up with a new Gabby book owner.


The team also had all of their new merchandise for the female fan on display and if you have any Caps fans on your holiday list, then the Kettler Pro Shop is your one-stop shopping destination. There are some really fabulous new shirts, scarves, hats and lots of other fun fangear that I haven't seen anywhere else! At the end of the night, all the guests received an adorable Scarlet logo tote (will be perfect for schlepping my mags and books to and from the rink) and a mini-guide to everything hockey, just the right size for a purse or pocket.

So a big Hockey Mom high five to the Caps for another great event designed just for us ladies! Looking forward to next year's already...