Well, I went tonight- the crowd seemed sparser than usual, but maybe that's because this year it was for full season ticket holders only. Had my usual good time, and did my usual early disappearing act (for which Bean was picking on me- oh, well).
Went in through the entrance at Drinx, and was among the first on the concourse, away from the main entrance; so I started looking for the Owner's Box line- turned out there wasn't a line, and I was the first fan in there. Zubrus and Laich were the players at that station, so I had a real good chat with Zubie, who said he's feeling fine and thinks he'll be back for the next game (Friday). Laich didn't say much, but seemed to be taking it all in stride. One of my friends came in in the first batch of auto seekers, so she took a picture of me standing behind Z & L as they signed for people.
Went back out on the concourse looking for directions to the Press Box, and ran into Sam (Smiley), William (Goat), and Bean- Goat and Bean were in line for Halpern, but I mentioned the Press Box to Sam and he said "Oh, we're right here at the elevator- I want to get Joe B. and Locker to sign my horn!" so off we went to the 6th floor, and the press area. Had a nice talk with JB, congratulated him for his work on OLN, and he said he's got 5 more regular season games on OLN, plus the playoffs through the Conference Finals, but "Then it gets political." Guess he meant he doesn't think he's got much of a shot of doing the SC Finals on ESPN or the network, but we shall see- he's a great guy, and a better broadcaster. Didn't say much but hello to Laughlin, and there were two older ex-Caps there, too- I think one of them was Hunter, but to be honest I wasn't looking that closely. Talked to Steve Kolbe about my lousy radio reception last night, and asked him how Kevin Colley was doing.... sad news, broken neck (I think SK said 2 vertebrae) and a concussion from head-firsting into the boards last night. Let's hope he gets well and back out on the ice soon.
After that, I was going to head for the locker room, but I've been there before, and ran into my seatmate Donna on the concourse, standing in line for a couple of the players. We stood and chatted for a few moments when, lo and behold, Jill Sorenson walks up, asks if she can butt in line in front of Donna (her photog was doing some video of her "waiting for autographs"), and interviews us about the team, and how the evening is going. Asked us a bunch of stuff, wrote down our names- guess we'll be a head shot on Comcast later this evening! As she left, I asked her who was the brain behind the "courtroom" opening for the Ovechkin house tour on Comcast last week, and she admitted it was her and the photographer- she asked me how it went over, and I told her the diplomatic "Some liked it and some didn't" without mentioning which camp I was in.....
Headed down the concourse further, past the table with Hanlon and the coaches, ran into Dick Patrick and congratulated him on the team's effort the night before; we talked of the Colley incident- DP seemed genuinely concerned for the guy, told me he tried to throw a check on Heward and missed, and that it was "just tragic" for a young player like that to be so seriously injured on a fluke play.
Further down the concourse, and ran into CRC, so talked to him for a few; looked in on the arena, where the line for Ovechkin was a snake wrapping around the ice several times, looked around for old friends like Cilla and Deb (couldn't find them in the crowd, if they were there, and to be honest I don't know if they have full season packages any more), and decided I had seen enough for the evening- just like at the games, I decide pretty early whether it's a good night or a bad one (this one was good), and like to leave on a positive note. With the announcement that "Caps' fans, it's 7:00, and you have one hour before the players have to head for the stage", I decided it wasn't worth 2 more hours of my time to see the same guys introduced as the "2006......WASHingtONNNNNNN CAPITALS!!!!!!!!!".
Hit the street and the Metro, was home just before 8.
Fun evening.
