Down In Front!

Capitals 3, Devils 4

The one thing I hate the most other than the Penguins is going to a game that has as many Devils fans as there are Caps fans. What is worse is those Devil fans (or any visiting team's followers) that are obnoxious and rude, that sneak their way down the aisles to the seats they will never be able to afford and bang the glass and scream and yell for no other reason than to incite the crowd of Caps jerseys around them.

One such "friend" would hit the glass and scream, spilling his beer and being an idiot for idiot sake. Finally, and mercifully, an attendant finally checked their tickets early in the third and even some of the Devils fans around us applauded MCI Center's finest.

I don't mind the fans that wear their jersey's proud and support their teams and maybe heckle our guys a little bit. I remember when I attended a game in Phoenix wearing my Caps jersey and would jump up when we scored. When the puck scampered down the ice towards the Coyote's goaltender I yelled, "Miss it!"

It was just quiet enough for a few rows to hear me, and two rather large Coyote fans turned my way with scowls. Then they laughed upon seeing my jersey and nervous smile. I ended up haveing a rather good conversation with them through the game and it actually turned out they were relatively new to the game and I helped them understand the subtle differences between a center and goaltender.

My point being is I could support my team without making a drunken spectacle of myself. And in return I turned two guys into fans that would return and support their NHL Franchise.

So during all of this, the Caps drop the first game of a home and home against the Devils. The Caps killed themselves with bad turnovers in their own end. Jeff Halpern, a name not heard for a while on here, gets his first goal of the season on a bad Devil's pass the trickled in front of the net and on Halpern's stick.

If the Capitals play the entire game like they did in the last 10 minutes, the Capitals will be a tough team to beat. Frederic Cassivi filled in the net for the Caps doing a spectacular job in the net. He should have been the number one star because he kept the Caps in the game to the very end.

Overall Grade: C-

Wash Post covers the game in greater detail as always, and since I haven't posted in a while, they also explain personel moves which includes Mike Green's return to the Hershey Bears and Olaf Kolzig's injury.