The home team are the Washington Capitals and their division is a group of death with the teams all neck and neck to qualify for the finals. Their opponent tonight were the Minneosta Wild.
We had the standard pre-game entertainment at the Verizon Center (we're getting to know this place pretty well by now-the Wizards play here as well), and the National Anthem.
It was then time for "Hockey 1, Hockey 2, ..."
This was my first experience of Ice Hockey at any level, and I loved it. The action is quick and you can hear it all, the sliding of the puck and the thud it makes when it hits something, as well as the thud of players being checked into the side. It is a quick game at the NHL level, and though it appears the players are making lots of mistakes, they are the elite. We appreciated this more when some old guys came on for a demonstration game at one of the breaks and it was like watching the game in slow motion.
It also helped that the Capitals scored twice in the first 11 minutes of the game. They celebrated by playign various cheers on the screen, tonight's theme being Will Ferrell (you'd have loved that Matt!)
And it took a while, but eventually a fight broke out. It was amazing how everyone just stood back and let them go for it. The other players kept well away and the refs did too until one took the other to the floor. At that stage, a big cheer went up and both players were removed from the game and it went on.
As you can see below, the home team had a big win which was sorely needed after some recent overtime losses.
We had a great time and I'll be back next week with Alyssa to see another game!
