OT: Your Board Activity/Introduce Yo'self

[Raikkonen]

Hi, I'm Mike, and I'm Capsoholic...

I mean I didn't play hockey on skates at all. So I don't know much **** because of that. I live in the warm part of Russia so there is not much ice here unfortunately.

Always loved to play hockey on consoles and eventually managed to like Caps uniform around 2006 with Ovechkin in roster. Then there was an opportunity to watch some NHL action with 300kbps Sopcast laggy streams and via torrents... Just around BB appearance, a little earlier.

Soon enough I've decided that russian hockey community in the internet isn't much knowledgeable/friendly and discovered this place while looking for another info source. You guys are good! Lurked for some time and eventually registered to spam roster/acquisition thread with my Kulemin proposals.

Now I know more, still don't play hockey and don't understand many things a hockey player would do. Had some luck to watch Boston series in 2012 and even managed to get a photo with Orlov at G7. Waiting for another Pens-Caps series to visit USA again

In the end, I will wait for Capitals Cup as long as needed (OK, as long as there is at least one Russian of the star caliber

I don't care what Milbury says. He's a moron!

 

[ReggietheSavage15]

Got in to hockey in the late 80's because one of my friends played. I picked up the sport shortly thereafter. Played hockey in the DMV for a short while and realized there were better opportunities/competition in New England. Got noticed at a camp in Massachusetts, and made the jump to prep school. Prep school led to playing in college.

It's my favorite sport, and I've been a fan of the Caps since I was young. Remember going to games at the Caps Centre and seeing Scott Stevens, Kevin Hatcher, etc. all patrolling the blue line.

 

[Babe Ruth]

I grew up playing hockey in the 70's in Southwest Virginia of all places..

Do you remember the minor league hockey, Roanoke Valley Rebels (?)

 

[maacoshark]

Started following the Caps when they selected Greg Joly first overall in 1974. Joly was my favorite player for my hometown Regina Pats who won the memorial cup just before he was drafted. Since then there have been plenty of former Pats in the Caps organization. Including Barry Trotz and Chandler Stevenson. We also have 3 prospects in Hershey that played for the Regina Pats. Although Hobbs is the only one that has legitimate shot at making the Caps in the future.
Being a fan since 74 has seen a lot of disappointments. The team struggled for the first decade and Washington almost lost the team.

 

[hockeykicker]

where the heck this come from?

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

I used to post regularly on here, mostly in the Skins thread, but I got annoyed with the Skins thread being hijacked by talk of that ****** Kapernick so I went elsewhere to talk about the Skins. Now I just lurk on here to keep tabs on Caps news from time to time. I hope to come back here one day and comment on a much anticipated Cup win or, God forbid, a Skins SB win. Won't hold my breath though.

Happy New Years to everyone and I hope all have a fantastic 2018.

 

[Capitals40]

Do you remember the minor league hockey, Roanoke Valley Rebels (?)

Oh yes..this is why I played hockey..Dave Schultz "the Hammer" played for the Salem Rebels.. my younger brother was a mascot for the Roanoke Rebels..as a kid I attended hundreds of games over the years..and played hundreds of games.

Wayne Mosdell
Pierre Paiment
Jack Chipchase

Mike Keenan was their coach for a couple of years.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

This is getting creepy....no more sharing.

 

[g00n]

I used to post regularly on here, mostly in the Skins thread, but I got annoyed with the Skins thread being hijacked by talk of that ****** Kapernick so I went elsewhere to talk about the Skins. Now I just lurk on here to keep tabs on Caps news from time to time. I hope to come back here one day and comment on a much anticipated Cup win or, God forbid, a Skins SB win. Won't hold my breath though.

Happy New Years to everyone and I hope all have a fantastic 2018.

Uh, hog...nobody's talking about CK anymore and in fact it hasn't been discussed at all here since early October when EVERYONE was talking about it including the President, and owners were on the field kneeling with players. So nothing was "hijacked".

 

[hb12xchamps]

Didn't really become a huge hockey fan until the first year of the Caps/Bears affiliation. Went to a ton of Hershey games that year including the epic OT game where Eric Fehr scored the winner and BB jumped into the pile of players with that huge grin on his face. That was the loudest the Giant Center has ever been (some say that the folks at Hershey Park could hear the cheers it was so loud) and it's a memory I'll never forget. From that moment on I was hooked on hockey and my family purchase season tickets the next year.

I really got hooked on the Caps when a lot of the Bears started getting called up. Went to my first NHL game and saw Eric Fehr score his first NHL goal and got to see Ovie in person from the lower bowl of Verizon Center and that sealed the deal that the Caps were my NHL team. I happened to come across HFboards when the Pennlive Bears forum started to really die out and I was a lurker here for awhile. Now I'm somewhat of a part-time Bears correspondent and will chime in with some prospect updates from time to time.

 

[philip]

I'm an Englishman, as such I've had no exposure to hockey at all. Not even a brief mention of the scores, or who happened to win the Stanley Cup even on the national sports news channel. I found hockey initially through NHL '98. I bought it out of a bargain bin because it was cheap, and I got hooked. Initially I liked the Anaheim Ducks, mainly because they were the first team I ever played on the game (1st alphabetically - I was a lazy kid - and I loved the Kariya/Selanne pairing). I fell away from hockey in my later teens but fell back in love when I got mates with another lad who was into it and we got chatting. When I came back and properly chose a team, I chose the Caps. I couldn't tell you why. But now I stop up to 3am-4am in the morning to catch the games. Yes, I am crazy.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

As most of you know, I'm French and I live in Montreal. I became a Caps fan because my favourite players were Semin and Ovechkin, that's how I started following the team. I posted anywhere and everywhere and I spend far too much time here.

I traveled to Washington twice last year and got to see a playoff game. I love the city, I really love the team and I won't let some playoff losses get in the way of my interest for this team. I'll always be a Caps fan

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I'm an Englishman, as such I've had no exposure to hockey at all. Not even a brief mention of the scores, or who happened to win the Stanley Cup even on the national sports news channel. I found hockey initially through NHL '98. I bought it out of a bargain bin because it was cheap, and I got hooked. Initially I liked the Anaheim Ducks, mainly because they were the first team I ever played on the game (1st alphabetically - I was a lazy kid - and I loved the Kariya/Selanne pairing). I fell away from hockey in my later teens but fell back in love when I got mates with another lad who was into it and we got chatting. When I came back and properly chose a team, I chose the Caps. I couldn't tell you why. But now I stop up to 3am-4am in the morning to catch the games. Yes, I am crazy.

No, you sir, are awesome. That’s a true fan.

 

[bur and 666 others]

I'm an Englishman, as such I've had no exposure to hockey at all. Not even a brief mention of the scores, or who happened to win the Stanley Cup even on the national sports news channel. I found hockey initially through NHL '98. I bought it out of a bargain bin because it was cheap, and I got hooked. Initially I liked the Anaheim Ducks, mainly because they were the first team I ever played on the game (1st alphabetically - I was a lazy kid - and I loved the Kariya/Selanne pairing). I fell away from hockey in my later teens but fell back in love when I got mates with another lad who was into it and we got chatting. When I came back and properly chose a team, I chose the Caps. I couldn't tell you why. But now I stop up to 3am-4am in the morning to catch the games. Yes, I am crazy.

Here is my story lol. I'm from Russia, so hockey was my favorite sports along with soccer. From watching hockey, I became interested in the NHL - the best league in the world. Back then I barely knew English, so I learnt English to be able to read the NHL news . No kidding, back then for me NHL.COM was everything . Then I decided to choose the team and chose, of course, .... the Pens They had two young exciting budding superstars: Russian and Canadian which sealed the deal for me. That was in the 2007-2008 season. You remember what happened in that season: the caps were dead last in 2007, fired their coach, hired BB and made that cinderella run. I found myself reading only about the caps and not about "my team". I got crazy about the caps and this Ovechkin guy. Why had I thought he was arrogant before? He is exciting! And this Semin guy, our magician long before Kuzy... So I moved to the US to be able to watch the games in person and not needing to woke up at 4am to catch the games on TV ... and yeah, about soccer, now I have only one favorite sport which is also only sport i follow now

Forgot to write: Happy New Year, caps fans and I salute everyone of you who bravely defended the caps honor in this pesky jersey thread!

 

[philip]

No, you sir, are awesome. That’s a true fan.

Having a young baby helps, I must admit! My partner is always pleased by my willingness to get up for the night feeds - little does she know!

 

[txpd]

Here is my story. The Caps entered the league when I was a kid. The Cap Centre and the practice rink were close and most of the team moved into my neighborhood or close. I never had to buy a hockey stick or tape and such. The players knew we played street hockey everyday and ice when we could get ice. The WaPo beat writer, Bob Fachet, lived near and we got to be friends. He helped and I became the beat writer for the County Journal Newspapers at 16. Press box, locker room and all. I played hockey at Towson St. It was a club level sport but we played Navy, Penn St and Pitt. I have the stick that Ron Lalonde scored the first hat trick in franchise history on my office wall. I tried to send it to Ted, but he said he didn't want it

 

[AtNightWeFly]

This thread is from 2015?
Anyways, I'm not a sport fan at all. I remember a bunch of boys on the school bus talking about Iverson so I watched a few games out of curiosity. Well curiosity killed the cat. It was the most boring shit I've ever seen and didn't last more than 2 games. Fast forward - my brother died tragically in 2006 and the next few years were a haze. I don't remember much from those days, but I do remember watching Ovechkin highlights on youtube and it felt like sparks flew off the screen. I've been a die hard Capitals fan ever since. Young Guns, The Cursing Snowman, the siren-horn, etc made me smile once more! Even with the disappointments I just remember how I became a fan in the first place and I come back every October. The Gift and The Curse I call it.

Lets go Caps!!!

 

[ovikovy817]

Well, I will write my little story too

Fan of the Red Wings because of my brother (like 99% of russian fans that followed the NHL in the 90's). Big brother buying sports news paper to see the results and scoreboard.
First hockey competition (and all sports combine) that I saw (and remember) on TV (Olympics in Nagano 98) I was 7 years old. I remember the game against Kazakhstan in round robin (9:2), the semifinal against Finland with a wonderful performance by the Russian Rocket (5 goals). And that cruel final against the Dominator, that cruel faceoff and that cruel shot by Svoboda.
Then, I moved from Russia to Belgium in 2000 (where ice hockey is sport number 298353534 ) after the worst IIHF Championship for Russia (at home) They have finished in 11th place. I was a little bit angry with hockey. I didn't follow hockey closely, watching few games like Olympics in 2002 and in 2006. And knowing some results like the Cup in 2002 for Red Wings or the first title of world champion for Slovakia in 2002 against Russia . I remember the lockout and everybody talking about Ovi's famous goal against Phoenix.
And they day I finally came back for real in hockey, it was the 2008 playoffs (like always because of my brother). He told me there is a russian superstar (Ovechkin) in NHL playing in playoffs. But what moment I remember in first place from that sereis, is the Huet save on Upshall, like a football goalkeeper

So since that playoffs and because of Ovechkin of course. I'm a Caps fan.

BTW, need to thank Caps management for bringing Fedorov to D.C., few weeks later that Ovechkin-Fedorov-Semin line would play their best hockey together and bring the first gold medal in 15 years for the national team. (Came back in hockey at a very good moment lol)

And another thank you to Caps management is to choose Ovechkin at the draft. Because
1) If he would play for a western conference team, I wouldn't be able to watch games in his younger years lol (before subscribing to nhl.tv, I do it since 4-5 years) Before, I was watching games in live on my computer and was jumping on my walls like he was jumping on the glass
2) Caps is the only team (or one of few) that I didn't dislike in the NHL before the Ovi era.
Didn't like the canadians teams, hated Sabres and Flyers (for their dirty reputation), didn't like the Pens, Rangers, Isles and Devils. (It's a sign lol)

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

Uh, hog...nobody's talking about CK anymore and in fact it hasn't been discussed at all here since early October when EVERYONE was talking about it including the President, and owners were on the field kneeling with players. So nothing was "hijacked".

I stopped posting in the Skins thread before the regular season started so that Kapernick talk went on for another 2 months? Yeah, no thread hijack.

 

[g00n]

I stopped posting in the Skins thread before the regular season started so that Kapernick talk went on for another 2 months? Yeah, no thread hijack.

No, it died out quickly in September and was barely mentioned the first week or so of October. Search for yourself.

It was a NATIONAL STORY, dude. It went all the way to the top. Everyone had a take on it at the time. Come on. Stop blaming people on this board for discussing it like everyone else was.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

No, it died out quickly in September and was barely mentioned the first week or so of October. Search for yourself.

It was a NATIONAL STORY, dude. It went all the way to the top. Everyone had a take on it at the time. Come on. Stop blaming people on this board for discussing it like everyone else was.

People discussing it wasn't my issue. It was where it was being discussed.

Regardless, its in the past. Time to move on in the new year.

 

[g00n]

People discussing it wasn't my issue. It was where it was being discussed.

Regardless, its in the past. Time to move on in the new year.

Well sports shows everywhere were talking about it. We did our best.

 

[Ridley Simon]

Who is CK?????

Lol. I kid. I kid.

 

[Roshi]

It was mid 90´s in the far and cold Finland when NHL-hockey started to take its place in the everyday-guys homes.
There was a magazine-show called "Power week" that introduced us the highlight reels and players of the best league in the game. It came once a week, every saturday morning.
Little Roshi was a bit over 10 years old and had been a fan of the local hockey product for 5-6 years before that happened.

NHL was so cool. Those players were just so good, and the game was so quick. And was always a fan of hockey fights too. There was a lot more fighting going on there than in the FEL.
So I jumped in. First couple years it was the new team for me, they had a nice logo in eyes of a little boy. Florida Panthers. They did it to the SC finals too, to get swept by Avs.
But there wasnt much more than the logo and John Vanbiesbrouck and couple goons. It was sort of like the first love. You will always remember it, but you know it doesnt last unless you marry it right away.

At the same timeline I also found an article however about the Washington Capitals somewhere (cant remember where), and there seemed to be some interesting players aswell and interesting takes. It was also a team from the capital city in the U.S.A, a country that I was sort of idolizing from all the Hollywood movies and other pop culture. The team were not doing very well though, and research showed it had been a sort of a failure from the day they had entered the league in the 70's.

The kind of team I have always felt for, for some miserable reason, underdogs. It sucks.. Most of my life as a hockey fan ive been going from a disappointment into another (exception: the local team went a full cinderella story to win the championship few years ago).

So it started by looking the results. Mostly losses. I didnt log in to see spesificly the results for the Caps, but always checked how they were doing. Didnt really get in the wagon, but was keeping an eye on it. Until it was 97-98 deadline and a season when they were finally doing reasonably well, they also had a lot of guys I had learned to like. Some just from hockey cards that had been a big thing for couple years and some from the highlights from TV. Bondra, Kolzig, Oates, Juneau, and the mean guys Dale Hunter, Craig Berube and Chris Simon.

And then they acguired Esa Tikkanen too. Finnish guy, exactly the kind of player I have always liked. The kind of guy your opponent loves to hate. We all know how that storyline ended though, lol.. But they almost went all the way. Beating Buffalo in OT at game 6, huh.. Cinderella sort of story that ended up in tears. Exactly the kind of drama I have always felt for. For some miserable reason. After that it was already plugged in and got serious. When they went out to get Jagr at the start of the 2000's, thats when it seemed there was no turning back from this wagon.
Well, Jagr sucked and the team went down fast. But as it has always been my thing, it made me bond with the franchise even more. Those were some long years of waiting and hoping anything would happen, something would be different next season..

A 'thank you-note' goes to upstairs that we got the Great Eight out of those years.

Up to this day even most of our own fanbase dont understand and appreciate this guy enough for what he has been for us. I hope some day he will get the respect he deserves. Getting there just in time to see the miserable years of the start 2000's, im one of the guys who is in no hurry to do any sort of rebuild for this team. Those are long years, and those dont give you any sort of guarantee of getting back to being a perennial contender ever again, or even close. Its better to be a playoff team with a fighting chance to go all the way, than not to.

It still wasnt easy to see games here back in 2000-2009, but I did manage to spy every highlight and roughly a 20(+) whole games per season through different routes.
From 2010 when they made NHL-hockey easy enough to have to your couch, Ive seen roughly 70-82 regular season games from the Caps per season + every playoffs matchup.

Watching the local team as much aswell, and big national tournaments, and some random games from other teams/leagues, my high number for a season of watched games was close to 300 at the best year. Thats freaking 750 hours of hockey for a year, over a month of just hockey.. Obvisouly not able to do that kind of hours anymore as there is family and work and all that other things you call "life", but still the overall number is a bit over 150 games per year.

I got married in 2012, and our honeymoon was to NY.
I forced my wife to take a one and a half day stop at Washington D.C before going to NY so I could see Verizon and The Caps.
I did get to see the Verizon, but thanks for the lockout I missed the chance to see The Caps and The Ovie live. That sucked. But I admit that the rest of the trip did make out for it!

Finally in couple of weeks im coming to D.C again, and I have tickets for the Caps vs. Canadiens match up.
Im going to be suspicious about some weird occurance to stop me seeing the game until im there at the Capitol one and puck is alive, or atleast Ovie will not play, or something, but it is close this time!

Im not very active writer in this forum, and most I produce is carbage, as ive come to conclusion that writing in internet forums isnt too much of 'my thing'..
I do scroll in few times a day to see "whats new" though and like to keep track on whats going in here.

PS edit. Up to this day, I still collect hockey cards of Washington Capitals. I have 5400 different Caps cards and about 670 of those are Ovechkin's. How lame is that!

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Good stuff Roshi. I always wondered what the NHL looked like to European hockey supporters who had not seen it much.