this is a hockey post.

NHL is back, baby! I'm super pumped. I love being the best team in the league, although it is a very strange feeling. I am not used to all this success!

Speaking of success, I must first address Team USA's amazing performance in Vancouver. Sidney Crosbitch's goal in OT was heartbreaking, especially after the full on seizure-inducing goal by Zach Parise in the last few seconds of regular time to tie it up. (Seriously, I spazzed out hardcore.) That being said, before the start of the tournament I never dreamed we'd be going into the gold medal game undefeated, having already beaten Canada once, so it was kind of a dream finish. The boys deserved silver at the very least--well I thought they deserved gold, but I am slightly biased--and they should be so proud of themselves and their performance. Not quite a miracle finish, but they'll always be winners to me.

But now that the Olympics are over, I have to deal with my new lover being on the wrong team--not only that, but the team that is second in Eastern conference, creeping up all sneakily trying to steal our spot! Well okay, the Devils are a ways behind us, but I still have to hope you suck for a little while Parise, sorry.


Moving on to tonight. The Caps kicked off their season restart with a 3-1 win over Buffalo and MVP of the Olympics Ryan Miller, who I now have a total hockey crush on. (Just to be clear, a hockey crush is different from a normal crush...I don't find Miller hot, but his skillz are sexy.) Jose Theodore (who, by the way, I do find hot) had a great game, and I am liking him more and more. I also feel like a total ass for getting pissy at his inconsistency over the past few months, because I had no idea about this. I cried reading it.

Mike Green got his 15th goal of the season when he scored the game-winner in the third period. Another reason I want to win the Stanley Cup: Greenie didn't get called up to the Canadian Olympic team (bitches!) so 1. he deserves some glory, and 2. then he (and Ovi) can rub it in Crosby's face.

I think that's about all I've got for the moment, considering it's 12:30am and I have to finish a book, write a short paper, study for a midterm, and pack before I go to bed.

I leave you with David Steckel bitchface:

(go here for more awesomeness)

finally, something good.

First off, let me say that hockey in high definition makes me very happy.

Big scary toothless Russians make me happy too.

Last Saturday the Capitals lost to Philadelphia 7-1 on the road. They went to the Wachovia Center looking for payback for last year's playoff series that I don't like to think about. And left with...well, something less than that. Let's go ahead and stick Saturday night's game on the list of games I'd like to forget too. Tonight they went to Madison Square Garden to face the Rangers, who are sitting in second place just ahead of the Caps in the Eastern Conference, and when they went down 4 goals by the beginning of the second period, I was all ready to write a depressing entry moaning about how much my sports teams are ruining the holidays.

Cue an Ovie goal. Then Fleischmann, Kozlov, and of course Ovechkin again. Each time we scored one more, my dad was all "oh, it's only one goal, they're still behind, they won't catch up." And then, at 4-4 it was "I don't believe it! These guys are amazing!" My dad clearly doesn't watch enough hockey to know that this type of game is the norm. He also kept trying to change the channel to watch the Illini/Mizzou game. He didn't seem to realize that watching your college basketball team win by 30 points is not nearly as exciting as watching your hockey team pull off a great come-from-behind victory in New York. But I digress.

Morrisonn got the winning shot a mere 59 seconds into OT, which kind of made me think why couldn't he have just done that a minute ago at the end of regular time? But better to let the other team get a point than not to get any yourself. We're still way ahead of Carolina in the Southeast Division, so I'm happy with the result.

What I'm not happy about is Mike Green being on the injured list again. Without him and Poti our defense is shaky, and without Alex Semin our offense kind of turns into a one-man show. Gah, I'm plagued with injury woes, every which way I turn!

[Also, sorry if I jinxed RVP with my injury comment earlier. If it makes you all feel better, I did knock on wood after I typed it. And if he shows up to training with like a broken toenail that will keep him out for the rest of the season or something, then you all have my permission to send me hate mail.]

team ovie > team sidney

Capitals 4 - 3 Penguins

In Pittsburgh, no less! Woot.

Pitt got all of their goals out of the way first, and we were down 3-1 by the start of the third period. That's when things got crazy. There was an intense, frantic few minute span in which Washington dominated most of the possession, and it finally paid off in goals by Semin and Nylander to tie the game up.

Then there was a bizarre moment when the Caps got the winning goal--Gordon shot, raised his arms in celebration, skated away...and play continued on like it never happened. Initially everyone thought the puck had hit the post, but the telltale "ping" was never heard. We were all waiting for an official review, but it took over a minute for play to stop. Meanwhile, the CSN announcers had reviewed it on their own and "didn't want to ruin the suspense" but were dropping hints that we'd "like the results". Very strange stuff. And poor Gordon never got to properly celebrate his goal!

Green had an awesome hit on Malkin in the last minute or so. He also had some beautiful shots during the game, but Fleury was just too good. Speaking of beautiful, um, Kris Letang anyone? Oui, s'il te plaît! I'm still super jealous that my sister lived in the apartment next to him all summer. And she totally didn't appreciate her situation! She didn't even know who he was, silly girl.

Am I a dirty whore for lusting over the opposition? Better question, do I care? Of course not! He's certainly better looking than Ovechkin. Much as I love Ovie, even I can't say he's anything resembling attractive.

Nerve-wracking end when the Pens pulled Fleury out for the extra man, but we managed to hang on.

*sigh* Man, I've missed hockey season.