dem would have been told to move back up to Row P, but no, I was told I had to return to Row A lest I incur the wrath of the ushering gods.

But I digress. After flipping through the Caps’ yearbook I provided, Alex Ovechkin, Olie Kolzig, and Dave Steckel joined Pettinger on my friends’ “Hey, he’s cute” list. As the game progressed, though, they seemed genuinely enthralled by the action on the ice rather than just by the attractiveness of the players. During one of my brief and stealthy visits to their seats, I explained the red light that indicates TV-timeouts (”Oh, that’s why they stopped playing!”) and a couple other tidbits before the usher’s evil eye forced me back to my own seat. So other than running over for post-goal high-fives I didn’t get as much in-game opinion as I’d hoped.

While disappointed by the lack of fightsâ€â€after the Kovalev high-sticking on Ovie to open the game I was convinced, incorrectly, that at least one fight would ensueâ€â€they loved the bone-jarring hits and the laserbeam goals.

The Capitals obliged by providing a thrilling finale to a game many hockey fans hoped would have ended in regulation  but as another friend said (one whose last in-person Caps game was at the US Air Arena), “It was worth that goal in the last thirty seconds for such an exciting win.” While I would have preferred a 4-3 victory to the ulcer-inducing end of the third period, I won’t argue with the excitement spawned by Ovechkin’s fourth goal of the night.

Donald, Johanna, Namrata (photo by Mike Rucki)Later, as we sat sipping Guinnesses (Guinni?) at the Irish Channel after the game, everyone expressed their happiness with the evening’s experience, as well as a strong inclination to recommend the live hockey experience to friends. The mood was bouyant, with all in attendance waxing rhapsodic about the game, and their intention to attend another one again, soon.

The next day, as my friends learned of Ovechkin’s broken nose, they were even more impressed. “That game was a blast! But [Ovechkin] scored four goals with a broken nose? That guy is amazing.” Or, as another put it, “He’s a beast!”

I couldn’t agree more. The game was a perfect introduction to hockey (and to the Capitals); Ovechkin’s heroic performance and an inspired team effort helped convince these hockey first-timers of what we already knew: that nothing compares to seeing a hockey game live. Welcome to the sport, friends; I hope you enjoy the ride.

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Posted at 8:46 am. Filed under Alexander Ovechkin, Brooks Laich, Dave Steckel, Guinness, Hockey Heartthrobs, Matt Pettinger, Washington Capitals.
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13 Comments

  1. vt caps fan wrote:

    Earlier in the week, I was telling some coworkers, that are on a business trip up here for a few months, about how fun a hockey game was. Of the 4, 3 of them have never seen hockey at all, the last 1 hadn’t been to a game in 15 years.

    Yesterday morning, one of them stopped by my desk and told me he’d never seen a more exciting game in his life. And really wants to go to a game in a few weeks. I warned him that Hockey is contagious.

    But we already know that.

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 9:10 am | Permalink
  2. Capital Fanatic wrote:

    A very nice story. This should stand as a message to all Caps fans. Get your friends involved and take them to a game.

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 10:31 am | Permalink
  3. Whiskey Run wrote:

    Friends and I were enjoying a post game brew Thrusday at Clyde’s, decked out in our Hockey Finest, and discussing the game, when the Englishman at the bar leaned over and said “Just what is the facination with ice hockey?” What could we say? How can you sum it up in a few words, especially with the amazing game we had just watched? I think we went with the “speed of the game” and the “fights”. But there’s so much more and it starts with Alex and the Caps awesome fans.

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 10:38 am | Permalink
  4. Andrew wrote:

    Guinnae?

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 10:59 am | Permalink
  5. dmg wrote:

    Hockey is indeed contagious and I’ve always felt that one of the problems was that the league focused too much on changing the product so people would like it more rather than trying to get people to go to a game. It’s very much anecdotal, but I’ve found that while everyone has been to a baseball game or watched football on tv, not to many have really been exposed to hockey and once they are they want to go to more games. I’ve even had people here in Atlanta who I took to a Thrashers game* and liked hockey so much they started coming to my games and trust me, my league isn’t very good good (though maybe that makes the entertainment values higher…)

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 11:02 am | Permalink
  6. DC Sports Chick wrote:

    The ushers at VC are such a joke. Either they don’t do a damn thing when opposing fans are harassing Caps fans, or they get the Caps fans kicked out. Not to mention that some of them are really bad about preventing people from coming back to their seats during play. So I’m not surprised that the usher was surly.

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 11:22 am | Permalink
  7. Gustafsson wrote:

    Andrew wrote:
    Guinnae?

    I guess it depends on the gender of Guinness, eh?

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 12:33 pm | Permalink
  8. Paul wrote:

    You had more success than I did at getting some fans hooked on hockey live. But the last time I tried, it was pre-Ovechkin, and the caps still had Jagr sitting on the bench with a broken thumbnail or something.

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 2:29 pm | Permalink
  9. vt caps fan wrote:

    With regards to the ushers at the VC; The ushers upstairs check EVERY ticket stub. The ushers downstairs don’t care (for the most part).

    I find it funny I can walk down to the lower section at the first intermission, sit down in an empty row and not be bothered.

    My brother took his 5 year old god-son who had a ticket 5 rows behind my brother’s seat, and the usher told my brother the kid couldn’t sit there. After the usher took a few choice words from my brother he let the kid sit with him, but told him ‘he may have to move’.

    I don’t get the ushers in the VC. They don’t make sense to me.

    Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
  10. Roger wrote:

    I had my own experience with an usher at the game on thursday. At 6:15, I attempted to walk through the 118 portal. I told the usher that although my tickets were in 114, I just wanted to walk through (the entirely empty section) to check out warmups (which didn’t start until 6:30 anyway).

    The usher told me warmups dont occur at this end of the rink and I had to watch from the sides. Obviously in warmups they caps shoot at the net right in front of that section, and people do come down to the first few rows to watch it.

    Two weeks earlier in 119 with 5 minutes left in the game after the scoreboard exhorted everyone to stand and “unleash the fury” the usher told people they had to sit down as the people behind them couldn’t see.

    Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 1:47 pm | Permalink
  11. pepper wrote:

    Great story! Thank goodness you didn’t take them to Saturday’s game.

    Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 10:53 pm | Permalink
  12. OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki) wrote:

    Agreed, Pepper — it’s always a crapshoot bringing someone to their first game, and the two days separating Thursday and Saturday made for very, very different experiences.

    Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 11:02 pm | Permalink
  13. amy wrote:

    Great story…I went to my first game, gosh, 18 years ago (am I that old?!?) at USAir (I’m not even sure what it was called then) and remember having a great time, even though I knew nothing of the game except that they had to get the puck in the net. The pace was/is exhilarating and I am still a sucker for a good fight. As I am learning more about puck and feeding off my best friend’s and my son’s enthusiasm for the sport; I am wanting to invite friends to go with us to games! As I saw on a commercial yesterday, “There are no fans like hockey fans…” Hope your friends return to the phone booth!

    Monday, February 4, 2008 at 8:56 am | Permalink

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