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JoeB roept vanavond spel voor tegenover, dat een weinig kan zijn een verlichtende factor in onze Cabernets (en Winter Ales) voor Crosby. Or not: the first Sid reference occurred at the 19:12 mark, during a stoppage in a play. The second less than 20 seconds later at 18:58.

At Costco earlier I purchased eight bottles of wines for my swanky cabinet back home — the deals there are that good. With seven minutes gone in the first, I asked Marleen, “Do you think we have enough wine?”

At the 16:04 mark, when Viktor Kozlov somehow managed to maintain a deep slot presence despite Sergei Gonchar’s encampment there, we decided to amend our game to include toasts to all Caps’ goals scored with Sergei the matador on the ice. This may be more our undoing than the Sidney speakings.

First intermission tally: 13 Crosby mentions. JoeB has been commendably restrained. At our party we don’t suspect that he’s got OFB up on his computer screen in the broadcast booth but rather that he’s just as fed up with the fawning as we are.

Here’s a surprise: there were two power plays in the first period, and both were Pittsburgh’s.

This second period is so compelling — the action so vacillating, and scoring so frenzied — that the Absent One can’t be referenced by the Versus crew. Michael’s brother Phillip, watching the broadcast from California, telephoned us during a stoppage to share his praises for the game’s entertaining quality. Michael apprised him of our in-game agenda.

“Count me in,” Phillip exclaimed.

It’s a good thing these two teams are no longer in the same division — who’d wanna see this kind of action and drama on a regular basis?

This calls for another toast: courtesy of the Versus studio crew, who relayed the info without referencing the absent #87, Nicklas Backstrom is the first NHL rookie in more than 25 years to notch three or more assists in consecutive games. Wow.

After two periods, there have been eight power plays awarded, and only five of them to Pittsburgh. Obviously, this portends trouble for the Caps in the third.

Gracious: Backstrom’s consecutive 4-assist games are a first by a rookie . . . in NHL history. Yowza.

A few years ago I had inordinately successful Lasik surgery, delivering to me 20-15 vision. I peered intently at the Caps’ third period goal that was disallowed (only one replay showed — too controversial?). I also took at close look at the replay of Tom Poti’s “penalty,” which followed phantoms calls on Matt Pettinger and Brooks Laich. Apparently you need 20-10 vision to find the infractions.

Final: Caps 6, Zebras, Pens 5, in a shootout. We are the Sultans of Shootout!

Brother Phillip in California called again, just as the game ended, to revel with us via long distance.

“That’s one exciting hockey team,” he said.

The Sidney shoutout count: 27 for the game. (28th and 29th — wait, 30th and 31st . . . now 32nd mentions occurred in the post-game.) That’s mild buzz generating.

This isn’t: two shootout Ws in a row. The winning goes on. Someone on the Versus set afterward called the Caps “the most exciting team in hockey.”

On my way home I tuned in to the radio postgame show, sadly without Jonathon Warner, who’s vacationing. One of the final callers of the evening was named Scott, from Manassas.

“I lived my first 41 years without hockey,” the 42-year-old said. Scott is a D.C. police officer, and he phoned in en route to his shift. He explained how his wife is Canadian, and how he relented and finally took a look at the game she was mad about all these years. He sounded hooked.

Scott shared with the studio hosts his thoughts on tonight’s game. Something special hockey is happening in this town, and I was particularly curious to listen to what had caught the attention of this recent convert. Was it Ovechkin’s dynamo performance? The clutchness of Kozlov? Nicklas Backstrom’s record-setting week? Nope.

“This Quintin Laing fella, hurling his body at every puck with the game on the line,” Scott began, “this guy’s a soldier.”

Figures. A man of courage recognizing another.

11 Comments

dmg wrote:

That drinking game sounds potentially fatal

Monday, January 21, 2008 at 7:37 pm | Permalink
WFY wrote:

Outside of the NY tabloids, I think the Pittsburgh newspapers are probably the most provincial out in the country.

Monday, January 21, 2008 at 8:29 pm | Permalink
mattymatty wrote:

How bout that come back, eh? On the road vs. Pittsburgh down with a few minutes to go in the third they tie it up, and then survive (somehow) a 5-3 (?!?) in OT, and then win it in a shootout?

Wow. Just wow.

Monday, January 21, 2008 at 10:34 pm | Permalink
jdug wrote:

I think Laing had more saves in overtime than Olie. Great win tonight. Just a GREAT, GREAT WIN!!!

Monday, January 21, 2008 at 11:06 pm | Permalink
Matt wrote:

Only 32? felt much higher. much higher.

Monday, January 21, 2008 at 11:22 pm | Permalink
Grooven wrote:

I guess I’m in the minority.

I don’t think you should be surprised that Crosby was discussed. He’s a major part of the team. (Much like you’d expect it to be discussed if Ovechkin were out.)

But that being said, while his name may have been mentioned some, he wasn’t really talked about.
It seemed most of the commentary on the Pens was about Malkin. (”Malkin stepping up to fill the leadership left by Crosby” is about Malkin, not Crosby, even if his name is mentioned.) And Darren — Eliot? — emphasized Backstrom and Green much more than Crosby. He and Joe B mostly stuck to players actually playing the game.

It might have been a large amount of Joe B influence, but I thought the game (from the announcer standpoint) was pretty fairly called.

And what a surprising, great win. Very frustrating (holy crap was it frustrating); lots of goals; two premiere players; several young guns… whether we like all of it or not (ie — the shootout), that’s the kind of game the NHL needs to have broadcast if it has any hopes of attacting new tv viewers and new fans. It emphasized six relatively new and exciting players (seven if you count one in the pressbox), instead of marketing just one. I’m glad this one was sent nationally.

Monday, January 21, 2008 at 11:40 pm | Permalink
pucksandbooks wrote:

Grooven - I think you missed the point, or at least the spirit, of this file: it wasn’t that we expected “Mum’s the word” on Sid during tonight’s broadcast, it’s that we were bet-the-mortgage certain we could get drunk before the end of the first merely from sipping to the broadcast mentions of his name. True, it didn’t turn out to be as gratuitous as we expected, but you should have seen our TV room’s well-lubed victory dances circa 10:30.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 12:07 am | Permalink
Grooven wrote:

Nono… I actually got the point of using it as an excuse to get plastered. That’s the whole point of drinking games. We’ve done them for a whole variety of things, like every time one of the coaches did the chin-stroke thing (even without a beard).

But since your filing was about the broadcast, I thought mayhaps part of the discussion associated with it was actually about the broadcast, not merely the drinking game that went with it.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 12:16 am | Permalink
Novaron wrote:

With all the talk about the broadcast, Canadian viewers may have been provided a higher dose of Crosby-mania to judge from at least one message on Caps boards

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 8:47 am | Permalink
amy wrote:

An amazing game, to say the least! My son bounded out of bed this morning dying to know the outcome. He was engrossed with the details of it and excited about the team stats as of late!

pucksandbooks-
On a side note, I do have to ask…if one has a swanky wine cabinet, why are you filling it with bargains at Costco? A cabinet of such description deserves bottled equivalents. And not to be a snob, but they ain’t found there.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 11:01 am | Permalink
David wrote:

Amy, it’s tough to not bound out of bed excited to read the MSM recount of wonderful puck and the impact of 3 of the most exciting break-out players in the game today. Let’s hope they don’t hurt themselves jumping back on the bandwagon. Said son is obviously of good stock; fuel the fire!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 7:19 pm | Permalink