AUDIO: Mike Knuble Calls Caps Fans Bandwagon Fans On WIP Philly Radio Show

Former Washington Capitals player Mike Knuble was on a Philadelphia radio station on Friday afternoon discussing the different hockey towns he played in. On the on 94 WIP Afternoons with Anthony Gargano & Glen Macnow show, Knuble didn't really take a shot at DC fans, but did mention how it is not as big a hockey town as some other cities.  He also threw in the word "bandwagon" when describing Caps fans.  Audio Below, Starts around 8:50:

Here are a few quotes:

"Washington you see like everybody's a new fan, nobody is from there really, there kinda just jumping on the bandwagon" 

"But the cities like Boston, NY, Philly, Detroit, its like, My grandfather was watching, my grandfather was a fan, he passed it to his son, then passes it to his son, ya know its all the way down"

Knuble played over 200 games with the Caps over the course of 3 seasons, and at one point was honored by the Caps with a Silver stick for his 1,000th career game.  I once wrote something about his declining production and Washington Capitals fans crushed me for days via Twitter and email.  They really loved Mike Knuble.

It didn't seem like Knuble was "taking shots" but I'm pretty sure that plenty of people are "from DC".  Just take a look at all the Redskins name changing controversy news that is currenly happening.  Tradition, passing on from father to son, etc...

The Sports Junkies In The Booth With Joe B And Locker

During Friday night's Washington Capitals vs Philadelphia Flyers contest, the Sports Junkies Eric Bickel and Cakes joined Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin in the booth to promote their new show Table Manners that is going to be on CSN.

Caps fans, to say the least, were outraged, voicing their anger on Twitter.  There were hundreds.  Here are a few:

EB started off by putting his arms around Joe B during the interview.  He then screamed into the mic:

"WE NEED SOME OFFENSE WHERES THE OFFENSE WHERES OVI!!!"

EB Puts his hand around Joe B's neck

He then grabbed the mic out of Joe B's Hand and talked about why he was underdressed:

"THATS BECAUSE IM WEARING A DIAPER...YOU SEE HOW HIGH THESE GUYS ARE!"

The Junkies stayed in the booth for the game call.  While Cakes tried to do his best announcer impression, EB continued to think outside the box talking about the best part of their new show:

"AND WE DRINK, DON'T FORGET THAT, WE'RE DRINKING!"

Locker tries to get back to real life, but EB doesn't let it happen.  After talking for a second about the show, EB brings up drinking again.

"I WAS COMPLETELY HAMMERED BY THE END OF THE TAPING!"

EB Grabs the mic from Joe B's hand

Cakes threw in some zings while Joe B sounded upset and disappointed saying "Ay yi yi"

"I HAVE OFFERED TO MASSAGE BROOKS LAICH'S GROIN JUST TO GET HIM BACK!"

Joe B kept saying "Easy, Easy" while he was telling the story afraid what would come next.  Then Locker had a few comments semi-jokingly.

"I'm also glad you guys have about 30 seconds on the air" and We just lost some viewers".  

Then Joe B brought the subject of wine back up, all while throwing in some Junkies lingo "sillies".

"Have you tasted any sillies at the Palm"

Then when closing it out, the Junks talked about how they may not be perfect on camera, to which Locker threw in a zing.  "Don't worry you guys have already proven that" Then EB finished with:

"THERE ARE NO RULES, JUST DRINK MORE!"

Overall, it probably did not turn out as well as it could have.  I'm a big Junkies fan so I'm biased.  I loved it.  But as seen above and by Twitter searching, not many did.  I'll still be watching Table Manners. LOVE THE JUNKS!

Matt Hendricks Fights Rinaldo, Both Ejected

Here Is the Flyers Zac Rinaldo throwing about 12x as many punches on Matt Hendricks who barely gets a shot in while Rinaldo goes into turbo mode.  Both player were ejected as this took place before the puck was dropped on a faceoff.

I counted about 12 thrown punches by Rinaldo, not sure if anything landed anywhere besides the back of the helmet. Probably hurt his hands worse.

The fight stemmed off an elbow from John Erskine to Wayne Simmonds face that left the Flyers player bloody on the ice.

What's The Deal With 100 Year Hockey Contracts

I was first introduced to the insanity involved with NHL contracts back in 2006.  That was the season that my fantasy hockey team "I Don't Watch Hockey" won the championship and earned me a $150 prize.

Because, as my team name stated I didn't watch hockey, I had to rely on looking at different fantasy websites and articles to try to come up with some kind of draft strategy.  During my research on goalies, I came across a story that caught my eye.  The title was something along the lines of

"Rick Dipietro Signs 15 Year Contract With New York Islanders" 

What the What!?

I thought I was reading the story wrong.  A 15 year contract?  That couldn't be right.

Well it was.

The Islanders signed a goalie of all people to that deal.  Back then that didn't mean much to me, but after hearing about goalies coming in and out of Washington over the years, it sounds pretty insane to me now.  (I also recall the words "injury-prone" thrown out a bit and looking at some brief game-logs...what a terrible deal)

Fast forward to 2010...I still don't watch hockey.

That year I came across another interesting story while perusing around the internet.  It caught my eye because it looked familiar.

"Kovalchuk gets 17-year deal from Devils"

There it was again.  Another insane NHL contract.  This time however, the NHL decided that the deal was too long, and they rejected it.  Interesting...

Fast forward to 2012...I watch hockey now!

Just last night someone tweeted "The Flyers Are Insane"


According to reports the Flyers offered the Predators Shea Weber a 14 year deal for around 100 million bucks.

I have a question.  The Kovalchuck deal was rejected because at the end of it he would be 44 and the NHL didn't think he would be playing still. (NY Times)  The Weber deal would put the defenseman at 41 years old at contract end.   How is that much different?  Why are the Flyers allowed to do this?

The Predators can still match the deal, and they have the money to do so.  However, Philly went creative and front-loaded the contract which could make it hard.  (Rotoworld)

So can someone explain to me what is up with these long term contracts.  As an NBA and NFL fan my knowledge of contracts is that they are meaningless.  If you want more money you can just cry like a baby and refuse to play or request trades.  Basically do whatever you want.

Do these contracts exist in hockey because it is more honorable.  Is it because of the CBA.  Leave me some answers in the comments!

Ovechkin Impresses Then Disappoints In SO Loss

The Caps played hockey the same way I play my girlfriend.  She comes in all excited.  She is ready for a lot of quality minutes from me.  I have passion in my eyes.  I'm ready to go, and go long.  I'm all amped up, she's all amped up.  And 26 seconds into it I score then roll over and go to sleep for an hour...Disappointing...and sad...

Alex Ovechkin scored his 6th goal in 5 games only 26 seconds into the game to give the Caps a quick lead but the rest of the game the Caps played back, and didn't really attack.  When the Caps did have good offensive looks they missed the net or hit the post and they just couldn't put in that 2nd goal that they needed.

Holtby saved 27 out of 28 but it wasn't enough as Humangus Bridezilla was just as good saving 30 out of 31.  Marjo missed a penalty shot where the Flyers goalie just stuck his stick out and tripped him, but there was no call.

The Caps ended up losing in the shootout, but gained an important 1 point to finish out the road trip with 5 out of 10.

One of the things I noticed was the difference between Hartnell and Ovechkin.  Hartnell I can tell does not have the natural skill and talent that Ovi has, but he plays hard.  Ovechkin on the other hand scores many of his goals with talent, but he takes off certain plays and doesn't always have the killer instinct.

In the OT period Hartnell seemed to refuse to come off the ice.  He was going to fight as hard as he could to score.  He didn't care he was supposed to line change, he knew it was OT and he had to be on the ice.  On the Caps end of the ice, Ovechkin decided to just dump the puck in with 13 seconds left and head for the bench instead of going hard for that time to try to get the game winner.  Hartnell has more goals than Ovi, but is less talented.  That OT period showed me the reason why.

Big game tomorrow night at the V-Center...Jets...7pm...Beefalo on our tail...

Like Me In High School, The Caps Can't Score

The Caps lost to the Flyers on Sunday night at the Verizon Center after another game where the opposing goaltender shut out the struggling Caps.  Also the Panthers won, moving another 2 points ahead of the Caps and it is looking like Winnipeg is going to be the team to beat...It isn't time to panic yet, but things aren't looking so good with the Caps offense.

The Caps now have been shut out 2 games in a row and aside from about 4 minutes in the game against the Islanders, they haven't really scored in 173 minutes.  Not ... good.

The Caps seem to have terrible stick handling on any zone entry, typically have a one on one break instead of an odd man rush, and they can't put the puck in the net when the goalie is the only person in the way of the goal.

Neuvirth had a great game, saving the Caps on several great Flyers shots, but with zero offense giving up only 1 goal isn't going to pick up a win.  The fact that Humangus Bryz playd Humangus Big didn't help much either.

Two more games at home starting with the Hurricanes on Tuesday night ... I'm gonna close my eyes, cuz I can't watch anymore...

Game Notes:

• Ovi only played 16 minutes
• The announcers sucked, also they referred to Jagr's 2 years in DC as "memorable".  They also believe the Flyers are the greatest team in NHL history and have the greatest GM in the world.
• 17 games left, the countdown and 8th seed watch is kicking into full swing now

Let's Go Flyers?

Washington Capitals 1, Philadelphia Flyers 5

"Let's Go Flyers!"

A chant that started after the first goal, got louder after the 2nd goal, and so on and so forth until it reached its peak after the Flyers scored their 5th goal.  At that time even the "Flyers Suck" chants  Caps fans added at the end of the Philly chant  were completely out-decibled (yes I made up that word).  By the time the final buzzer sounded the chants were much softer as even the Flyers fans had enough of the game and left early.

The Capitals were blown out by the EC's first place Flyers on Tuesday night at Verizon Center 5-1 giving the Flyers their 6th straight win..  Even without their best player Giroux (concussion) the Flyers looked quicker, more intense, and more focused than the lackadaisical Caps whose play seemed to get worse as the game went on and the lead grew.

The Caps only ended up with one less shot than Philadelphia but you couldn't tell from watching the game as the Flyers dominated.  Vokoun played poorly and two of the Flyers goals came on long shots with only 1 player in the O-Zone.  Ilya Bryzgalov was the anti-Vokoun, in position for just about every scoring attempt the Caps had saving 31 of 32.

With around 4 minutes left in the first period, Scott Hartnell for the Flyers came down the ice with nowhere to go and fired a shot from a poor angle right at Tomas Vokoun.  The puck hit Vokoun in the arm and went right into the goal, a shot that should have been saved by a professional goalie.  That was an energy killer for the Caps going into the first intermission.

The 2nd period was all Philadelphia.  Marc-Andre Bourdon scored seven minutes in for the Flyers on a deflection off of Matt Perreault's stick followed by a Wayne Simmonds tip-in seven minutes later.  Max Talbot finished the period off with another "nowhere to go I'll just shoot it" shot from close to the blue line that went right past a dejected Vokoun.

Dale Hunter benched Vokoun in favor of Neuvirth in the 3rd period but 5 minutes in Jakub Voracek scored on a nice deflection that really changed the direction of the puck and was impossible to stop by the goaltender.  In front of a half empty building Jeff Halpern ended the flyers shutout on a rebound goal in garbage time.  It was all too late as the Capitals fell to 15-14.

Winnipeg Thursday...far far far away...

Game Notes:

• The line with Ward on it always gets the puck in the offensive zone and keeps it there.  However, they don't have anyone who can score on that line.
• Alex Semin had 2 amazing stick moves.  The first one he decided not to shoot, it would have been an awesome goal.
• Almost 1 fight in the upper deck, but an old woman stopped it before it started
• I don't think half the fans at the game even know the rules of hockey (Another post to come)
• Who is Valery Vladislav.  This was written on the back of Bryzgalov's helmet.  From a Google search I saw that 2 Russian players from the 70's had those names.  Is it them, or the artist who designed the mask.
• Joe B with 2:41 left said "if you are just joining us".  Nobody was just joining, everyone had their TVs off already.

Flyers Come To Town Hot

Tuesday, Dec 13th:  Illadephia Flyers @ Washington Capitals (7:00pm)

On Tuesday night at Verizon Center, the Washington Capitals (15-13, 31) will host the Flyers (18-10, 39).  The Flyers are the #1 team in the Eastern Conference and the Caps are hanging around the 8th seed.  Philly has won 5 games in a row but the Caps are on their own 2 game mini-streak, and the game should turn out to be a good one.

The last time these two teams met, the Capitals defeated the Flyers in Philly by a score of 5-2 to start the season with a 6-0 record.  The circumstances are different this time around as the Flyers are now the hot team and the Caps are struggling, but possibly starting to turn the corner on their new identity under head coach Dale Hunter.

The Flyers will be without Chris Pronger and Claude Giroux which is an added bonus for the Caps.

It should be a nice little evening at the V-Center with all the Philly fans that show up.  I'll be going for my 2nd Caps game of the season.  Let's see if Ovi can step it up for this one...

• The Philadelphia Story
• Caps 5, Flyers 2:  Recap

Caps Take Down Bridezilla & The Flexible Flyers

I want to start with the Caps record, but if you are recaping this game you have to start with The Vokoun. That guy was Money like Pink Floyd. He was Everywhere like Michelle Branch. He was Amazing like Kanye West. Remember in game 2 when everyone was all worried...

The Caps are now 6-0 for the first time in history as well as undefeated since I started watching regular season hockey. Now they have even decided to stop giving opponents OT pity-points.

Thank You Moment: If you subtract a segment of 2 minutes and 30 seconds from this game, the game is in overtime right now, and my DVR is making me choose hockey or Jersey Shore...

Thoughts & Questions:

• Only like 5% of the ice is trapezoid-less. Is it even possible to get that penalty?
• I often find myself doing a expressionless, soft, slow clap in my living room. Hockey intensity...haha
• What is the opposite of the Penalty Kill
• I thought interference was only on the goalie, can you explain the Ovi penalty when he smashed the guy
• Jeff Halpern...is that the guy from the office or a hockey player?
• Did they say Ross Perot scored a goal?
• I like the hat trick wall in Philly
• Why don't 2 minors make a major. Are there double majors?
• Why was there still 4 on 4 after a goal during a penalty, box doesn't clear when sides are even?

And with today's news that the NBA is not lookin' good, I may be around awhile...

The Philadelphia Story

This is not the story of Katherine Hepburn as Tracy Lord trying to find true love in Philadelphia...Nor is this the story of Tracy Lords trying to find false love in the "movie" business...This is the opposite of both of those...

Love In The Streets Of Philadelphia

Once upon a time there was a guy. He wasn't from the city. For some reason he took a job in the city. One day that guy met a girl in the city. They guy and girl went out a few times in the city and despite the fact that he was bald and had a mustache in the city, the girl married the guy in the city. After they got married they had a baby in the city. A handsome baby in the city. Sadly, the city was Philadelphia, and sadly the baby was me. Yes, I was born in Philadelphia...

But don't stop reading or unfollow me (@TheDugsMusic) just yet, this story has some redeeming qualities...

I Would Do Anything For Love, But I Wouldn't Get Phillies Tix

When I was too small to remember, I went to lots of Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers games. I probably was wearing Philly gear and throwing up on it (subconsciously on purpose). But it wasn't my fault! I wasn't dressing myself! In fact I should sue my parents now that I’m old enough. They were doing something to me against my will!


My poor sap of a dad, an Orioles/Redskins fan, even mentioned something about having a season ticket plan to the Phillies *cringe*. (I have no father!) I guess guys will do anything for a girl. Thinking about it, once I even pretended I only mildly disliked, not hated, the Steelers in an attempt to make out (fail).

Luckily we moved away from Philadelphia before I was even 3 years old.

Semi-Escape From The Ills Of My Illadeph Halflife

Growing up I learned from a famous Philadelphian who taught me that parents just don't understand and parents basically suck. I took a rebellious stance and hated all teams Philly (as well as the Skins and O's). However I often found myself watching games at the Vet or the Spectrum as all my relatives lived in Philly and often had box seats. Once I even found myself super excited to be face to face with Mike Schmidt signing my purple Phillies glove. (Hockey blog?) I couldn't escape the land of my birth...

Philadelphia Freedom…I Love You…


One magical day I became somewhat of a non-child and was now given the option on whether or not to travel to Philly for certain events, and I just said no! My days in Philly were over!

What Was The Point Of This Story, And Where Is The Hockey?

That is a very good question. Oh, right. Tonight the Caps are traveling to Philly to take on the Flyers. When I started this blog everyone told me that I need to hate the Flyers as they are a rival. Hopefully Caps fans realize that my hate goes deeper than some recent playoff games. My hate goes literally from the moment I was born…

It's NEVER Sunny In Philadelphia...sorry had to get out one more terrible headline that is used all the time...