Wednesday night I saw a memorable Capitals’ playoff game while chowing down on seriously tasty pizza at famed Bugsy’s in Old Town.

When you first step into the old brick building you know this is not your standard sports bar. The place is littered with old time hockey photos, framed newspaper clippings, and other distinctive puck memorabilia. There’s a classic black and white image of a noggin-battered Mr. Hockey that’s worth making the trip for. It’s locker room cozy, and immediately you know you are somewhere special.

Bugsy’s is a bit of homage to an area far north of here, and a time that is long past. One of indoor smoking, hockey players without helmets, and of course tailored to a sports bar crowd for whom hockey reigns supreme. It is like a little slice of Saskatchewan or Manitoba in our own backyard.

Established in 1983 by former Capitals’ defenseman Bryan Watson and Lindy Waston, Bugsy’s was an immediate staple in the region. Coming from an NHL career of more than 17 years with the Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings and the Caps, it was clear Watson’s business venture would be dedicated to the sport of hockey. In fact, more than a decade after the pizzeria itself was opened an upstairs bar area known as the Penalty Box was opened. While it is now known as Bugsy’s Sports Bar, the place still holds true to its former hockey past, with walls lavishly littered with hockey mementos.

Wednesday night was my second experience in the hockey friendly bar, and it was even better than the first. Not only is the food down right solid, but the all-important beer selection is something almost no one else in the area offers. There should be a law that mandates watching playoff hockey with a Labatt Blue in your hand, and Bugsy’s has it. Sure, it’s not the best beer in the world, but it is a very hockey beer.

Obviously the food, drink, and atmosphere is good, but the real draw  of Bugsy’s is the devotion to hockey, and that’s  why I went there again, to eat well and take in a big game in an establishment where hockey is revered.

Bugsy’s has an assortment of about 20 flat panel televisions throughout the one floor bar area. While baseball was on when my party first arrived at about 6:30, it certainly was not on at 7. The Caps’ game dominated the family of televisions, but I was also able to slightly turn my head to the right and watch Buffalo beat Philadelphia and Tampa Bay fall in double overtime. Heaven. And piping hot pizza and cold beer was ever at the near.

The fact that I could watch three hockey games at one time I found remarkable at a D.C.-area tavern. Any other establishment in D.C. may have had the Caps on, but I guarantee you at least one of its TVs would have featured the NBA. Their playoffs are going on too, you know. But not at Bugsy’s, not on Wednesday night.

The only downside to the entire evening was the presence of a few Flyers and Penguins fans, one of which went home quietly wile the others were drowned out by everyone else watching the Caps’ thriller. That said, it wouldn’t be a worthwhile and distinctive outing if the enemy wasn’t heckled a little bit right?

Between the second and third periods there was a roar coming from the bar that immediately caught my attention. It was clearly a siren but I could not figure out where it was coming from. Not long after the siren started a red light sprung to life above the bar, and it was then I learned that the siren was not from an Alexandria fire engine, like I originally thought, but instead the bartender controlling a goal siren. While the Caps had yet to light the lamp in the game, that didn’t stop a Bugsy’s bartender from trying to send a few good vibes the team’s way.

Those good vibes certainly paid off too, as the Caps clawed their way back. During the comeback Bugsy’s felt like Madison Square Garden or the Phone Booth with its crowded passion and siren and light that was finally lit on Alex Semin’s goal. In fact, as Washington began to pile up the goals in the 3rd, the combination of the siren and the patrons made it seem louder than MSG itself. Maybe it was the building that made it seem that way, but whatever the reason it sent shivers down my spine.

The evening concluded with the place erupting into an explosion of cheering and high fives as Jason Chimera concluded the “Miracle on 34th Street,” as Steve Kolbe so accurately called it. Five hours after I had entered the little outpost of hockey heaven, I left victorious and feeling like I had just been to Canada and back.

Bugsy’s is certainly a gem in Virginia and a regional treasure that should be held dear by the region’s puckheads. It is clear any hockey fan is welcome, although if you’re from Philly or Pittsburgh don’t be surprised if you’re not shunned a little. Your pizza might even be delivered to your table slightly cool. If you are looking for a place to hold up for an evening of postseason puck, or puck at any time of year, look no further than Bugsy’s.

[For a wonderfully detailed look at what Bugsy's is like be sure to check out Mike Vogel's video tour of the place.]

And this is something to cherish and celebrate about our sport. Game 7s in hockey are extraordinary events. We don’t particularly like them when they occur as they have with circumstances such as those in this Caps-Habs series, but once the decisive game arrives, it affords an aura unlike anything else in our sport.

Game 7 bounces and deflections are unlike those for any preceding game of a series. Its officiating is uniquely under the microscope. Star performers carry a distinctive burden in a game 7. Role players can become lifetime heroes for a city from but a single shift.

Ticketholders are especially privileged for a game like tonight’s. It’s been special all season long to hold a ticket to a Capitals’ game in Chinatown. To possess one for game 7 against storied Montreal tonight . . .

* * * * *

What was most striking about Kettler Capitals Complex at Tuesday’s lunch hour Caps’ skate was that media far and away outnumbered fans in the stands. It was as if vultures had arrived upon a carcass. The press were four and five deep around Bruce Boudreau near the skate’s conclusion, and being at the back of the pack, I could make out only about 40 percent of what the coach said. But in that moment I became convinced that there was a remarkable irony associated with covering hockey on this particular springtime Tuesday.

There was a unique confluence of concern among media covering the Caps and the fanbase following the team yesterday: just what was the mental makeup of the club in this most dire of circumstances, they all were wondering? Dozens of microphones and cameras were pressed before a dozen different Capitals’ voices at midday Tuesday, but the pursuit of this storyline seemed to me a wholly hopeless endeavor. There are 20 or so individuals earning impressive paychecks for their involvement with a winter’s game in our city at this moment, and their collective experience at the end of this April is uniquely isolated. Even the team’s owner and general manager are to no small degrees isolated from the fate soon to befall the Washington Capitals. If they are genuinely nervous or apprehensive or giddy with glee at the challenge of tonight, most assuredly they are not sharing such sentiments with the outer world. Not even with their spouses. That’s the room within hockey’s culture.

I understood why the media were assembled Tuesday in the mass of humanity and equipment it was, but I wondered how many of them realized how pointless their storyline pursuits were on this particular day. I couldn’t help but notice that the Capitals’ Mike Vogel was most often apart from the media scrum enveloping Bruce Boudreau, and instead fixing his gaze on the handful of players remaining on the post-practice ice. He knew.

* * * * *

Tonight is special most especially for Alexander Ovechkin, our still-new captain. If the Capitals fail tonight a most unwelcomed association will cloak the Gr8 like a wet blanket in a blizzard. It wasn’t that big a deal when his Capitals lost game 7 against the Flyers here two springs back — that game had officiating issues, and that series followed a late March and early April standings surge (the Capitals were literally in a lose-and-you’re-out whirlwind every night they played for weeks) that largely overshadowed the loss to the Flyers. Something special on ice was forming in Washington then.

In the opening round of last postseason it was Sergei Fedorov who delivered game 7 heroics for the red-sweatered against the Rags. And then in the very next round in another game 7 early on Alexander Ovechkin had a clean breakaway against Marc-Andre Fleury, one he missed. Many of us today still wonder if the outcome that night against Pittsburgh might have been different had Ovi put that puck past Fleury.

Alexander Ovechkin doesn’t want the experience that awaits him with North American media were his team and he to fail tonight. He’ll want to return home to Moscow on Thursday and remain there. Bruce Boudreau would have it tough, and the remainder of spring and all summer for George McPhee would be supremely sour, but their experiences would pale in comparison to those of the captain anointed hockey’s Savior in this town.

* * * * *

More than a few Caps’ fans last December expressed support for Brooks Laich’s candidacy to be the next captain of the Caps once Chris Clark was dealt. I thought about that yesterday moments after he met media after practice, and asked about the pressure associated with a game 7 said, “Fate loves the fearless.”

That’s most definitely the attitude I’d have a warrior-leader take into tonight.

And, how’s that Caps’ defense look right about now?

For a team that was rather thoroughly maligned for its defensive play upon arriving in Montreal on Sunday, the Capitals in game 3 gave a doozie of a debunking of that slur. Did you notice how seldom Habs’ forwards were able to get off shots off of the rush and instead often peeled back looking for trailer help? That’s prima facie evidence of exceptional defender positioning but also deft stick defending of additional attack space.

A great road team all season long, the Capitals on Monday night may have saved their best effort to date in ’09-10 on enemy ice. Knowing that 22,000-plus would welcome them in “Ole, ole, ole” fashion, but not necessarily with a booing of our national anthem, the Capitals as a team limited quality chances against youngster Semyon Varlamov in those vital first five to seven minutes of the opening frame. Then they executed the remainder of the period with textbook road hockey: by chipping pucks short and crisply off near boards and out of harm’s way, preventing Montreal from establishing its dazzling cycle game down low.

• By chipping pucks out of harm’s way as successfully as they did Monday night, the Caps were able to establish speed on the puck in the neutral zone, in counter-attacks, and when they have that, they’re lethal.

• Montreal played superb road hockey in games 1 and 2, and nearly left D.C. with two victories. Washington, unlike Montreal, has difference-makers throughout its lineup, and their heroics in game 2 got the series squared. Their compliments — the Capitals’ third- and fourth-liners — blew open game 3. Boyd Gordon got things started by persevering in tight on Halak and getting the Caps on the board short-handed. Matt Bradley’s final-minute tally Monday added, for this blogger at least, welcomed added rudeness by the guests for having been treated so shockingly inhospitably.

• Speaking of great grinding, Jason Chimera authored a perfect pest’s effort in game 3. Like Mike Knuble and Brooks Laich, he’s driving hard to the net, and using his size there to great effect. He’s also employing that get-under-your-skin ethos in tight (Knuble is magnificently as well) that drives the opposing defense and its goaltender bonkers, and like last night, draws penalties. Chimera right now is looking like the savviest of trade deadline acquisitions by George McPhee.

• Monday night’s second period reminded me of the third period in Chicago on St. Patrick’s weekend, when the Caps imposed their will on the Hawks, silencing cold a throaty throng and swiftly reversing a game’s momentum. It’s a thing to behold, when this Capitals’ team gets it MoJo going and goes tsunami, line after line, on quality clubs on their home ice. No other NHL club can do it with the lethal and spirit-sapping swagger that the Caps can.

• No game this season could have prepared Semyon Varlamov for what he would face in Monday night’s opening 20 minutes, and yet he authored what was easily, given the stakes and circumstances, his most impressive outing of his young career.

• Mike Vogel noted during the game that the Caps’ 4-0 lead represented the largest enjoyed by any team thus far in the 2010 postseason.

• Eric Fehr has spent a fair portion of the past seven years listening to critics question his selection in the first round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He had a goal and assist Monday night hard on the heels of a pivotal tally against Jaroslav Halak when the Caps were down 2-0 in game 2 on Saturday. He sure seems to like playing the Habs, and Washington’s hockey fans ought to freshly celebrate Fehr’s perseverance in overcoming a remarkable litany of serious injuries to emerge as a productive power forward, one who is likely to improve even more in the years ahead.

• You know, most every memorable postseason run has a defining moment relatively early on, and John Carlson’s series-saver in game 2 may prove to be that for these Capitals. Where would they be this week absent his precocious last-minute heroics (again)?

• The much lauded Bell Centre crowd chose to boo the American anthem. Comcast Sportsnet’s Lisa Hillary, on the air live in the postgame: “I was embarrassed to be a Canadian.”

• What’s so jarring about this attack on our anthem — and Monday was hardly an exceptional outburst; the attacks date back some years now, and they’re most venomous in this Canadian city — is that 98.9 percent of Canadians are warm and genial and American-loving neighbors. Something profoundly sinister occurs up in Canada with a distinct and vocal minority seemingly in the isolation of the contemporary hockey rink. You want to approach these attackers, place your arms on their shoulders, look them square in the eye, and ask, ‘Is it really the case that you detest my nation and me, neighbor? No nation more aided my citizens on September 11, 2001. Would you do it again?’ The guess here is that the silence from Canadian media on this matter will be defeaning on Tuesday. The warriors on the ice in the NHL’s postseason surrender their hate at series’ end and honorably line up at center ice to shake hands. Some level of leadership up North is badly needed to suggest that hockey fans in Montreal follow this example.

• The Capitals killed four of five Montreal extra-man advantages Monday, but the first three Habs’ power plays — all killed by the Caps — were terrifically important, as the game then was very much still in doubt.

• The power play remains in a power outage — it’s in serious blackout, at 0-for-14 on the series — and a lot of that has to do with Alexander Semin’s struggles thus far. The LA Kings lead among the 16 clubs in the postseason operating at an amazing 58 percent efficiency. Two other clubs have like the Caps taken the collar a man up, Nashville and Buffalo. Right now, though, winning is what it’s all about.

photo by Peter Lockley

When I think of the two most significant advances/evolutions in Caps’ hockey over the course of 35 years, and their impact on hockey culture here, I point to the rabid red atmosphere enveloping the team at home in Chinatown and the team’s new-age approach to cultivating media coverage.

Ron Weber on Saturday night told me that the Caps were the “In-thing” in D.C. sports today, and obviously he’s right. By virtue of having the best hockey player in the world, and winning a ton, the team was sure to enjoy sold out dates at home, night after night. But Verizon Center, dating back to March 2008 and the launching of the ‘Rock the Red’ campaign, has become far more than just crowded for hockey. It has a distinct and consuming culture to it, in a way Caps’ hockey never had before 2008. To be in Chinatown these days on a game night for puck is to traffic in pedestrian-clogged sidewalks, cafes, restaurants, and bars, the patronage for all overwhelmingly attired in red. It is to ride Metro cars arriving from every suburban outpost teeming with red sweaters and red ballcaps and red jackets. The Capitals are perhaps a Stanley Cup away from achieving a nickname (“Redshirts”) much as the Rangers have with their primary color. That would be a remarkable accomplishment.

On Saturday I was able to eavesdrop a bit on an interview Mike Vogel fulfilled for an upcoming edition of ‘Redline Report,’ in which he provided an engrossing assessment for the rise of the team’s web site as a go-to source for information and analysis, as well serving as an e-community for the team’s rabid fanbase. There was a moment in the interview that particularly resonated with me, when Vogs alluded to the basic premise of the team’s interest in richly developing the site: for all too many years local television and print media couldn’t be counted upon to cover genuine news related to the team and sport. With technology affording individuals and non-traditional media entities the ability to make their own news, the Caps seized upon it. Hence their full embrace of committed local bloggers. Hence the growth in personnel and resources devoted to the development of the team’s site. In a real sense Vogs is more a beat reporter than many who cover NHL teams for big outlets all across the league, insomuch as he, along with Brett Leonhardt, is on the road for every game with the team.

The breadth of media product the Capitals today generate also speaks to their being ahead of traditional media in coverage of the team. This is the future. And the future started in Washington. A vast information void greeted Ted Leonsis when he purchased the team in 1999, and gracious but has he filled it in the years since.

• Initial reaction to the debut spins of the Capitals’ new goal song, ‘Rock the Red’ by the Sandbox Kings, has been, well, cool. Quite chilly, actually. Maybe it will grow on folks a bit. There was some sentiment expressed by readers here that perhaps that track was played at an insufficient volume in its debut Thursday night. This afternoon NBC broadcasted the Wings-Hawks game from United Center, and the Hawks’ goal song, ‘Chelsea Dagger’ by the Fratellis, I found quite fetching: it seems to have a pacing suitable for the celebratory spirit of the occasion, and a nifty melodic hook.

• While the Capitals’ trade deadline achievements were universally praised by hockey media this week, here and there could be heard snipings at the status quo to be found between the team’s pipes. It’s generally acknowledged that the Caps have two good goaltenders in Jose Theodore and Semyon Varlamov. The sticking point for some in media is whether either can be counted upon to rise to a level commonly associated with Stanley Cup victors. Fair enough. But how consistently excellent was Marc-Andre Fleury in net last postseason for Pittsburgh? Wasn’t he rather quite good most often, and something approaching pedestrian-to-rotten at other times?

• I’ve been hoping for a Washington-Chicago Stanley Cup finals for months now. Two great cities, two great young and exciting and up-tempo teams. Two cities experiencing a remarkable love affair with hockey. On the goaltender-as-vulnerability theme, you may want to check out Cristobal Huet’s data points from earlier today — most particularly his second period labor against the Wings.

• Two nights now I’ve been back at the rink since NHL play resumed, and on both nights I’ve heard chatter from a variety of directions and sources related to an Atlanta Thrashers relocation. Soon. There’s no smoking gun anywhere to be found, of course, and the predictable spirited denials from league leadership, but this isn’t an idle time in the calendar likely to breed outlandish whims. When you think about it, the jettisoning of Ilya Kovalchuk and a likely $100 million contract by the Thrash would seem to make the club more marketable to potential buyers. Anyway, in case you’re interested in tracing a bit the smoke trail, some links for you.

• Alexander Ovechkin has gone six games now without a goal, and the team’s big guns in general have endured a relative power outage of sorts among them. In the middle of last night’s game I asked a new media colleague if he believed in an “Olympics hangover.” But as I thought about the term and what it meant a bit more, I wondered if it weren’t possible that Ovechkin, Semin, and Backstrom might be suffering from some on-ice cognitive incoherence of sorts, what with all three having been asked to move from Bruce Boudreau’s system to that of their national teams, and back. Would make sense, no? In last night’s postgame Boudreau suggested precisely this. What were the odds, he wondered, of those national teams using his exact system? Nil, of course. His big guns are “a half second off,” he noted. More practice time would help, and time by itself without another interruption in system deployment will cure the moderate malady. Meanwhile, the team keeps winning.

• One of the most incredible hockey stats I’ve encountered in a long while, and certainly this season: The Capitals and Hershey Bears have played a total of 27  games at home between them in 2010. Their record in those games? 27-0.

If you don’t know already, McErlain is the fella who really got new media a VIP invite to the Capitals’ party. He pioneered the presence of bloggers at Caps’ games, beginning his blog in 2002 and being not only the first through the credentialed door but also the drafter of the seminal blogger’s bill of rights, which the Caps use to evaluate individual requests for creds.

In Leone’s piece McErlain offers numerous important, big-picture observations about the rise of new media in Washington, and its impact on broadening the appeal of hockey here.

“If anything, the rise of blogging has shown that there’s a tremendous amount of talent and interest in the game that simply didn’t have an outlet because of the limitations of publishing technology. But that’s all in the past now, and the playing field has been leveled forever. The game and sports journalism are all the better for it.”

A second star performer in the feature, which when joined by a sidebar piece on the Capitals’ remarkable web coverage of the team commands fully four pages, is the Washington Post’s Tarik El Bashir. To his credit Tarik frankly acknowledges the awkwardness and uncertainty in the early days of the Capitals’ experimenting with broadening media access, and it’s a recollection that rings true.

“We were kind of like, ‘Oh, my goodness, what’s going on here? Are these guys going to take our jobs?’ But three, four years into the experiment, we all coexist. They do their thing, I do my thing.

“We’ve kind of become friends with them. They link to my stuff. I link to their stuff. They sometimes use a level of snarkiness and opinion that I can’t get into my stuff as a reporter. I read their stuff, and I enjoy it.”

The relationship between old and new media today on the hockey beat in D.C. truly is one of the most rewarding aspects of pursuing the coverage that we do. We aren’t just friends as Tarik noted but supporters of one another’s work. In so many respects bloggers are pursuing different coverage angles from conventional reporting, and I think they deserve credit for showing deference to their professional colleagues in print and broadcast who need timely access to athletes. The dichotomy is healthy, our co-existence at training camp and on game nights now is seamless and in synch. All the credit must go to Leonsis and his team’s communicators for their faith in the experiment.

The descriptions of individual D.C. hockey blogs are another strong-suit in Leone’s piece. Japers’ Rink, he notes, started by attorney Jon Press, “is a phenomenal aggregator of Caps-centric news and analysis spiced by opinion bon mots and reader posts.”

I especially appreciated how Leone referenced an important moment for hockey in Washington during a Redskins’ game this past season. He noted that when the Burgundy and Gold got throttled by Dallas in their final home game NBC’s Al Michaels took note of the conspicuous enthusiasm for the Capitals in the football stadium that night. Michaels isn’t just any TV sports talking head, and when he got a bit of ‘Ah so what’ from his booth-mate Chris Collinsworth he pushed the matter more pointedly. Visiting media just driving through town for a single game couldn’t help but notice the change in passion here. Something special really is happening. And Leone draws the conclusion — correctly, I think — that the Capitals’ investment in new media has played a role in it.

As you might imagine, Capitals’ owner Ted Leonsis has a few important things to say on the matter as well.

“Getting the newspaper 24 hours after the trade just doesn’t cut it anymore. The news is out, and the analysis has already been done in other media forms.” Leonsis goes on to tell Leone that in order for the Washington Post to survive “it will have to become a web/print company rather than a print/Web company.”

I loved being in Hershey and encountering this terrific read, which warmed me well on a dreary January day, and the Capitals’ owner made a point of lavishing praise on our remarkable partner in the American League.

“The excellence with which that [Hershey] organization is run,” Leonsis said, “washes up on us.”

nateewell Who will be the first ice-level TV guy to jump out and help his home team? I got $ on Bob Errey.

dcsportschick What’s funnier, that the Caps are up 7-1 or that Crosby is resting his groin?

JohnMKeeley Department of Homeland Security needed in Philly: #Caps going Al Qaeda on Flyers

cmasisak22 Oh my god — a referee just got hit in the face with the puck and this place erupted in cheers. Pathetic.

brettleonhardt Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Not Dec. 5th 2009

kaaaali I bet my neighbors wonder what is going on in my apartment when I’m clapping and screaming “Yesssss!” or ”Noooo!” during a #Caps game. #NHL

JapersRink Semin’s biggest defenders like to martyr themselves and think everyone’s out to get their guy. It’s simply not true and not that simplistic.

jwaltonhockey Bears win 5-4, Chris Bourque number one star of the game with two goals and an assist. http://bit.ly/8y8uYN

VogsCaps Anyone remember a rash of “Gordie Howe must change” or “Mark Messier must change stories back in the day? Yeah, me neither. Grab a tissue.

dcsportsbog GMGM on Ovechkin: “I’m glad he’s not pulling back. He’ll learn to pick his spots a little bit…but I’m glad he’s defiant.”

brettleonhardt Shout out to @akeesee820 for being my 80th follower. If @akeesee820 can tell why 80 is so important you got two tickets to an upcoming game.

nateewell Don’t look now, but @GreenLife52 has 25% more points than any other Canadian d-man

timleone Caps just announced they reclaimed Chris Bourque and assigned him to Hershey.

DanaWalker_chat Will Joe B. & Locker FINALLY discuss food and/or their moms tonight? I think so… #caps

dchesnokov Bengt-Åke Gustafsson is considering coaching a KHL club if he doesn’t carry on coaching Team Sweden. A few KHL clubs show interest.

bmcnally14 Matt Bradley in 81 games last year: 5 goals. Matt Bradley in 28 games this year: 5 goals.

cmasisak22 Crosby: “You can’t judge guys on one hit. Some guys see suspensions as something they learn from. Other guys brush it off and do it again.”

dchesnokov A rare sighting. Too rare. RT @SlavaKM I just saw M.Nylander practice alone at Rockville rink wearing full NYR gear and Jagr jersey.

nateewell All lies. This interview is making him look even more deceitful, dishonest, biased and wrong.

nateewell I think I might have lost a Dick Dillman vote today.

HockeyWashington, alighted in vigil, needing good news about a Russian knee

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How would you rate McPhee’s roster and salary management this summer? He had a large number of new contracts to negotiate, and he had unexpected breakout seasons from the likes of Mike Green and Brooks Laich driving up his payroll. He also may not have anticipated Sergei Fedorov making the impact he did in just a couple of months’ time, making a new deal for him a wise idea. Lastly, he endured player agent mischief from Cristobal Huet’s representative. When all was said and done, he managed to ink every player he wanted from last season, save Huet, and do so before August 1. How many GMs can make that claim?