Happy Birthday, Ovi

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The Season Has Begun; Caps Win Preseason Opener 4-3 (SO)

The Caps traveled to Stirling-Rawdon in Ontario, Canada to take on Winnipeg (them again?) in the Kraft Hockeyville game. Both teams got off to a slow start, with the first period going by scoreless. In the second period, the Jets jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but goals from Jack Hillen and Stanislav Galiev (yes, that guy, the 'disappointment') tied the game going into the third. Both teams scored a goal in the third (the Caps via Troy Brouwer), and the game went into OT.

OT went by scoreless, so we went into the shootout, where the deadlock continued. Neither team scored in the first three rounds, then Phillip Grubauer made a save in the top of the 4th round to give the opportunity to win the game to Mike Green. After 7 talented forward were unable to score, it was the as-talented defenseman Mike Green who finished the game with a beautiful shot upstairs off the crossbar and in.

So the Caps win 4-3 in the shootout. A good start, technically, but it was not that great a game from the good guys. I personally found the effort throughout the game a bit underwhelming. Albeit the Caps were playing with mostly prospects, but I would have expected a tad better performance in the preseason opener.

Other notes...

• Yes, that was Alex Ovechkin taking a stick under the visor, falling to the ground in pain, making his bleeding way to the locker room to get patched up, then coming back a few minutes later. Russian Machine Never Breaks.
• The prospects showed some good skills, especially on the second goal, where defenseman Nate Schidt made a nice play to pass it to Stan Galiev, who redirected it into the net. The Caps have a good future, folks, with or without Filip Forsberg.
• Phillip Grubauer was arguably better than Braden Holtby in the game. Although Holts is undoubtedly the starter for the Caps, Grubauer's great performance could lead to either him or Michal Neuvirth  getting traded for a good value.
• How about those Jets? They are drastically underrated, expected to be last place in a strong Central Division, but only the old Southeast Division rivals know just how strong this team is. Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler are both extremely talented, and the team has a lot of potential. Good luck, Central Division, and welcome to our old nightmare.

So what do you think? Did the Caps live up to expectations? Fall short? Surpass? Tell me in the comments. 

The Most Annoying Penguins Fans

The Pittsburgh Penguins are Washington's arch-rivals. Along with the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and Tampa Bay Lightning, they have tormented the Caps in their 38 year history.

But what really separates the Pens from the rest of the pack is their fans. Most of these fans have only gotten on board in the last 8-9 years, maybe even later. I'm guessing if you asked 10 fans where the Penguins were planning to relocate 10 years ago, at least 5-6 of them would have no clue what you were talking about.

Here is an official Penguins-fan-hater's take on the most annoying Pens fans:

5. Anybody who does not know anything about hockey before Sidney Crosby. This is the majority of Pens fans today, as I said earlier, and the only Penguins player pre-Crosby these guys may know of is Mario Lemieux. Ron Francis? Who is that? Paul Coffey? Never heard of him. These are also the most vocal Penguins supporters, which makes them all the more annoying.

4. The NHL on NBC crew. I know they are technically not Pens fans, but it's hard to watch them when they are gushing over Pittsburgh and/or NYR all the time.

3. Anybody who thinks Evgeni Malkin is better than Alex Ovechkin. The argument can be made that Sidney Crosby is better than Ovechkin (I would agree with that for now). But anybody who thinks the Pens got a good deal when they chose Malkin in the 2004 draft instead of Ovechkin, who went one spot ahead of him at number one, is delusional. Other than two and a half subpar years, OV has been one of the best players of this generation, and is definitely better than Malkin.

2. Anybody who thinks Mario Lemieux is the greatest NHL player in history. Lemieux is definitely one of the Top 10 NHL'ers of all time, but there is no way he was greater than Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe. Lemieux may be the most influential NHL'er of all time, but he is not the greatest.

1. Whoever writes the Pens blog on Bleacher Report. They must have their head in the clouds, because they have no idea what's going on outside the Pens world. If you want to know what I mean, go on their Bleacher Report page.

So here is my extremely biased and Penguins-hater opinion of the most annoying Pittsburgh fans. Thoughts? Rants? Put them in the comments.