Booed on Oct. 11?
With the news that the Caps will be playing the Blackhawks in the season home opener, it figures that the next potential hurricane could be churning it up in the Atlantic soon. And the name of that storm? Just think of a recently departed goalie whose time in Washington was a brief tumultuous whirlwind, not unlike a hurricane. Oh, if only he went to Carolina, the irony would be complete.
Wednesday’s post about the season opener generated a good amount of discussion on whether Huet should be booed or cheered when he’s back in town. On one hand, he backstopped the Caps to their first playoff run in five years and breathed new life into a tired goalie corps. On the other hand, he turned down a good offer to stay in Washington. Should fans thank him for his service with the Capitals, or let him know what they think about his rejection of the team? OFB reader VT Caps Fan has the right idea: “I say cheer him when the banner drops; as soon as the puck drops we boo him.” Sounds fair to me.
6 Comments
Just like any former Cap, Huet deserves respect when he enters the phone booth. Regardless of the free agency situation, the fact that he wore a Caps jersey and played a large factor in reaching the post season, means that fans should be respectuful of that. We WILL boo the Blackhawks for the full 60 minutes - we are Caps fans afterall, but we should always preserve gratitude to those have worn Caps colors at some point in their career (well, there may be some exceptions, thinking about it…..but still).
Once the puck drops, the past is history. But history is good, particularly when it repeats itself, with OV hitting Huet for 4 and running him out of the net.
Not gonna boo him any more than any other opposing player. Definitely not going to “whoop” him. (Which, I gotta say, has got to be one of the stupidest things fans do. Aside from very specific circumstances — i.e. Jagr — I don’t get it. Why in the world are people whooping Gonchar? He didn’t ask to be traded and probably would prefer to have stayed. Are people gonna do it with Emminger? Just because a player no longer plays here doesn’t mean he deserves extra booing.)
I hope Huet gets a good handshake from the boys and huge cheer from then fans….and then we beat on him! That’s the beauty of sport! Let’s go Caps!
Looks like this will be an unpopular comment, but I see no reason why this guy should not get roundly booed early and often. He helped get us to the first round, obviously a great thing. That said, his run of quality starts at the end of the season was not as unbelieveable or heroic as it is now remembered, though he put up some strong numbers.
Let’s not forget that we took him out of a situtation where he was losing/had lost his #1 job and gave him an opportunity for a new start. He took advantage of that, and then gave this team and this town the shaft. He turned down our offer to overpay him to take a bigger overpayment for a #2 spot behind a better goalie. His conduct in the offseason shows that he is all about the money and he really did not want to be here. He had no interest in this town, and his negotiation with the Caps were Bush league. I don’t see why we owe him anything but the grief he deserves. I have seen former players on any number of teams get booed for far less.
I’m afraid I have to agree with Chris. What Huet and his agent did to GMGM was bad faith negotiating tactics (if you name a price and your employer agrees to match it, you’re expected to take it, that’s how salary negotiations work). I’ll cheer when the banner drops, then when the puck drops, let Ovie light him up early and often, and I’ll cheer every time he does.
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