After practice on Friday, Alex Ovechkin came out of Kettler to sign a few autographs with his dry cleaning in hand. Unlike his teammates, Alex usually only signs a few things and then gets out of there in his awesome car (that has been documented to land more girls than me)
You can get an idea of how he gets mobbed by the fans, and how some of them even follow him to his car trying to score an autograph, while also seeing that he is a real person. He puts his dry cleaning in the passenger seat, he has to slide his big frame into that tiny car. Plus the car is just awesome.
CNN sent a reporter out to Kettler Iceplex on Friday morning for the final day of Washington Capitals training camp. The reporter spoke to a bunch of fans about the lockout, about what hockey means to them, and about the Caps.
Awesome Picture Taken And Tweeted By Criag of Puck Buddys
One of the featured interviewees was Doug from Puck Buddies. (The only reason this entire website exists is because of them, so you need to follow them if you aren't yet) Doug was getting really passionate in his interview as he talked about his love for hockey. And of course he predicted that the Caps would take home the Cup!
The segment is being pieced together and should air sometime on CNN on Saturday (or so I was told). Be sure you check it out and see what all the great Caps fans had to say about their favorite sport!
Here's a quick video showing the CNN crew at the home of the Washington Capitals:
The following is a video of Nicklas Backstrom of the Washington Capitals signing autographs for the fans with a Diet Coke in hand. Nicky signs something for every single fan, then gets in his car to leave.
Unfortunately at the same time, Tom Poti comes out of the building and fans mob him in the parking lot for autographs...right behind Backstrom's car.
Nick honks his horn a couple times, but nobody moves. Find out how long it takes him to slowly squeeze out of his spot and get on the road.
That was one of the several conversations I creepily overheard Thursday night at the Washington Capitals fan appreciation night. The free event at Verizon Center featured a ton of free food, a Caps practice, face painting, cheerleaders, and of course overpriced beer.
The event had about 10,000 fans attend, which is insane and possibly more than actual attendance at a Washington Wizards game.
One of the first thing fans noticed if they spent any time walking around the concourse was that many people spent a majority of the night waiting in lines. The fans arrived early and lined up outside of Verizon Center before the event began. Herding up like cattle awaiting the farmer to open the fence. And when the gates were open fans raced to another line, where they stood and awaited free food.
And why wouldn't the fans line up, the food choices were great. They had chili nachos, buffalo wings, hot dogs, Dippin' Dots, cotton candy, popcorn, soda, and more. And it was all free with just one catch. You couldn't grab a second item for your friends.
Concession Lady Letting The 10,000th Person Know The Limit Was 1 Item Per Person
You should have seen the number of sob stories at the front of lines. Fans complaining that they could only take 1 FREE food item were coming up with all sorts of stories to try to convince the men and women at the register to break the rule for them.
My favorite instance of this was a 8 year old (ish) boy in the Dippin' Dots line. He was sent there to pick up some ice cream of the future for him and his brother, who was waiting back at his seat. When the guy in charge gave him the answer "no" the kid was not happy.
In a very loud and authoritative voice the little person stated his credentials as a season ticket holder. Obviously, he was not like the other rubes in the line. He was special. Didn't the ice cream guy understand?
The server still refused and the child was stunned. He just stared at the guy speechless with a Tony Kornheiser like "Do you know who I am" look on his face before heading back towards his seat dejected and angry. In my head I heard him exclaim, "Why I neeehhhvaaaa!" in a southern woman's accent.
Other highlights of the night included Elliot in the morning being awkward, Ovechkin saying his favorite NHL player was Dale Hunter, and Troy Brouwer dancing the Gangnam Style.
Joey Crabb is one of the new faces on the Washington Capitals this season. All week long at Caps training camp fans have been staring at him, trying to place his face. Most of the time, he goes unrecognized by fans until a die-hard Caps fan lets them on to the fact that Crabb is on the team.
Here is a cool little video from after Caps practice on Thursday where Crabb pretends he is Marcus Johansson's friend, and not a hockey player. He makes it past the fans with this strategy, but I wasn't fooled. I laughed as he escaped unbothered.
Check out the video, and then what happens when Crabb is recognized, it is quite funny. Joe also tells us what to eat if we want to play in the NHL. I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with Russell Fouts:
Back in March of 2012, Alexander Ovechkin collided with teammate Mike Knuble and was knocked out of practice. Knuble was fine and Ovechkin apparently just had the wind knocked out of him.
Well Alex was back at it again, this time colliding with teammate Marcus Johansson in a training camp scrimmage against the Caps ECHL affiliate Reading Royals on Tuesday. Ovechkin got hit in the mouth and lay on the ice bleeding after the hit. There were no serious injuries but it was a scary moment.
I know that several people didn't get to see the incident live, so I recreated it with Mojo the Dino and a shake weight that is Alex Ovechkin. This is just bizarre.
Here's another quick video from Caps training camp. Adam Oates had the players skating laps during practice, and the players went in groups with their same color jerseys.
It was quite the colorful situation. Check it out!
So a little kid, maybe 6 years old has this really cool Maryland hockey goalie helmet, and he was wearing it around Kettler all day. Later his mom takes him to get autographs from the Washington Capitals goaltenders. See what happens in this video.
This video is great because it starts off with one of the fans screaming "Brandon" to get Braden's attention. Later, you can hear the little kid scream "Mr. Neuvirrrrth!" in an adorable kids voice. Enjoy:
After the first day of training camp, the Washington Capitals players walked past some fans on their way to get their pictures taken. One of the kids got so excited that the Caps players were so close to him that he got a little sick.
The Kid pukes on the floor, and a quick thinking Caps employee grabs a trash can and runs over to the kid to catch the rest of the puke. Nick Backstrom comes by unaware a few minutes later. Take a look to see what happened:
LOL. Not sure how much puke was on the floor at the time when Backy walked through.
After a Washington Capitals unofficial practice, Matt Hendricks took a few minutes to spend some time with a small group of fans who were gathered outside of Kettler Iceplex. Hendy talks about the time he spent in Afghanistan this holiday season to support the troops, the impending CBA signing, and the signing of former Cap Eric Fehr. Check it out:
While all of the Caps players were very friendly to fans and signed all requested items (and took all requested pictures) Hendricks was extremely nice, spending several minutes small talking with fans.
When I was growing up I played a lot of sports and as an adult I continue to try out new games and sports. However, I never had the opportunity to play hockey.
I played some street hockey as a kid in the neighborhood. We used a tennis ball. We didn't wear rollerblades. I could only shoot a backhanded shot. I played goalie with a baseball glove. It was not hockey.
Because I never played and never tried, I can't really figure out how much skill certain things take. On TV these NHL guys make it look easy.
But after seeing the following drill, I have a new greater respect for the skill that these players have. And I finally understand what happens in the cloud of people who jumble up in front of the net.
The players stand in front of the net and use their sticks to slightly change the direction of the shot, but still get the goal without even looking. I couldn't believe it. Two different guys stepped in and nailed tip after tip into the net.
"I don't know who that goalie is...but he is terrible"
I stood on the 2nd level of Kettler Iceplex overlooking the ice behind the goal. There was a man in a Caps jersey next to me who was making very strange sounds. He was oohing, ahhing, and making whatever un-spellable noises one does when a player does something wrong. He was clearly very involved in the unofficial Caps practice that he was observing.
I started a conversation with the man, who was in town from northern Maryland to dispute a speeding ticket. He actually didn't even know that the Caps were practicing, he just was in the area, showed up, and "got lucky".
Now, when I first arrived at the rink something immediately jumped out and caught my eye. One of the goalies was a monstrous figure, and the one in the other net looked like a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz.
Luckily, another Caps fan tweeted me and let me know that one of the goalies was the team's video coach Brett Leonhardt aka "Stretch", (read about him here) who was filling in because the guys needed a 2nd goaltender. "Ahh...that explains it" I responded. Now I knew why the goalie was so small. It was some nerdy web guy.
So back on the 2nd level, in order to be a know-it-all (despite being the know-it-none just an hour before) I asked speeding ticket guy if the goalie on the other end of the ice, the smaller one, was the video coach.
"I don't know who that goalie is...but he is terrible"
I laughed and told him it wasn't an NHL player, but it was a guy that worked for the team. BAM! Hockey Expert. He was impressed with my knowledge!
I began to film all the saves that the goalie on my side (presumably Braden Holtby) was making for a video I was going to run after practice. And while I am a noob, something about his performance just wasn't right. It didn't seem like he was playing like an NHL goalie.
Then it hit me. That goalie isn't Holtby! Holtby was on the far end! The "monster" was the video coach. Turns out he is 6'7" Now "Stretch" makes sense!
He actually played pretty well. Check out this video of some of the saves this Video coach made.
Oh and Holtby wasn't terrible like the guy said by the way...so don't get scared...And when you see me at Kettler this season...please...come up to me...tell me who is who...and stop me from spreading false rumors. That is all...thank you.
Alex Ovechkin's Very Very Very Blue Car
