Everyone's stories in this thread are amazing, but the international contingent is truly remarkable! Canadians, Brits, Finns, Russians, even a Mongolian! Thank you all so much for sharing your stories! I find them inspiring.
I'm a native Washingtonian who grew up cheering on terrible mid-to-late '70s Skins teams with my dad & uncles.
I paid vague attention to the fact that hockey existed & DC had a team, but it was the Miracle on Ice that really captured me. I was 9 & Olympics obsessed.
When Joe Gibbs came to town & the Skins started winning, I gobbled up all the sports media possible and paid attention when George Michael or Glenn Brenner talked about the Caps (who started to get a lot better thanks to the Trade right around the same time).
I didn't watch the Easter Epic, but my uncle gave me a full rundown at the family dinner the next day. I was an idiotic teenager, I guess, because the lesson I took away from that story was that the Caps were AWESOME! UGH.
I moved to New York in my 20s & had a hard time following the local teams, what worth life & NYC's glut of local sports coverage. (The only local team I even attempted to keep up with during those years was the Orioles.) I had NYR-fan friends with whom I had a lot of Jagr shit-talking sessions with, though.
And then came Ovi. I moved even farther away, to LA in 2008, but the rise of smartphones & radio streaming allowed me to pick up my old Skins habits, and listening to DC sports radio re-energized my love for the Caps. The 2009 & 2010 playoff runs were devastating, but it was only a matter of time, right?
When I came back to DC at Christmas 2010, I dived into Caps fandom like it was a lake & I was a duck.
I joined this forum after the Tampa sweep in those playoffs because I was too much of a hockey/Caps junkie to let it go for something as silly as "the offseason." Is been that way ever since.
My primary online Caps home is elsewhere, but I enjoy all of your takes here, so I lurk frequently. I don't post much and I stay away when things are going poorly because I don't enjoy wallowing in negativity, but I do value this community's perspective greatly.
Plus, the playoff avatars always rock!