Canadiens are so disappointing

Hockey, with no winter jacket involved. In my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine such a thing existing. From pre-season to the playoffs in Buffalo you try to squeeze a jacket over your jersey when heading to a game. If you're hard core and you attend bar league hockey games, you tried to squeeze a jacket over the five layers of clothing you were wearing, because you know the overhead heaters in the spectator area were broken. Plus when the game lets out at 2 am it's about 10 below outside. Even if you were attending a little league or school hockey game, you still had on at least 3 layers of clothing and were searching for the hockey booster who brought the beer. This is not how hockey is done in the nation's capital.

Thanks to a brush with global warming, it's been practically spring like here for the past week or so. So when we headed out to the Capitals - Maple Leafs game on Friday there was no need to wear a jacket. Being from an old-skool hockey town, I was still wearing two shirts and a sweater under my jersey [yes, I wore a Buffalo jersey, only to get attention from potentially cute hockey lovin' guys, I mean really, I was wearing a jersey for a team that wasn't even playing. Of course, so were 4 out of 5 of our group, we even got noticed by the Capitals mascot for being slightly out of touch]. This of course was a poor choice considering the fact that it was still near 60 when I started walking to the Metro. 20 minutes and one rush hour trip on the Metro later I was regretting adding that extra layer. It is a very odd experience to sit and watch hockey without having to reach for your jacket or gloves halfway through the first period.

This said, Buffalonians are practically Maple Leafs fans, i.e. we'll cheer for them unless they're playing Buffalo, so I was practically foaming at the mouth waiting for the game to start so that people in DC could see how hockey should be played. Yeah, was I disappointed. Not only did the Maple Leafs not score during any power play, they had one goal the entire night. Pathetic, it was like they were already on the Olympic break. The shitty, lazy, sloppy, my 12 year old cousin can play better than that, Capitals actually won the game. WTF. Of course, the Capitals fans not knowing how to handle the situation could only muster up half hearted heckling of Eddie Belfour. Nothing compared to the decibels of heckling you'd hear at home. At home, where real hockey is played, you can't hear the announcment of who scored the goal because we're heckling Belfour so much. Plus it's practically mandatory that someone in every section has an air horn or one of those trumpet things.

I miss hockey, more precisely, I miss hockey in Buffalo. I miss the screen that goes all the way around the HSBC Arena, with the cool effects, I miss Sabretooth, the goofy mascot, I miss the steam coming out of the Buffalo's snout when we score a goal, I miss the people shooting the t-shirts off the zambonis in between periods, I miss Rick Jeanneret announcing the game. The only spark of light in all of this was the Sabres winning tonight, in a shoot out, Vanek beat Hasek. That's right, the traitor, Dominic Hasek. [That's a whole different post on goalies and American Express commercials.] I miss vodka tonics and beef on weck for less than $10. [Can you believe I paid $7 a beer for Yuenling? Me neither, what's even worse, is I spilled about $3 of it on my poor friend sitting next to me.] In Buffalo you can get good food at a decent price at the arena and the nice bar isn't limited to the people sitting in the club levels.

So now that you all know why hockey in Buffalo is the best anybody want to go to the Capitals Maple Leafs game in March? I know you can't wait to hear me expound the qualities of Buffalo again!