Syd Butler - Sniff Sniff

Blog 16 - Thursday, May 14

Thanks guys for letting me blab about hockey this last month. I love it so much! You rule.

Here goes... ( sniff sniff)

Despite the tragedy of watching the red ship go down in the DC swamp 
last night, my interest is not in moaning about "THE Game" but in 
looking back and thanking the Caps for an amazing season. This team 
is a real team, and they played their hearts out for themselves and 
for their fans. The latter gave the dejected, crippled Caps a two 
minute standing ovation even though the Pens had dominated for 58 
minutes. I was proud of their elegance and sportsmanship as they took a 
little extra time when shaking hands with the opposing team and later 
turned to the fans with their sticks raised in a salute. There was an 
extra moment for Ovie alone under a spotlight. The committed loyal 
Caps fans chanted "MVP" over and over.

This classy Caps team is now two steps closer to achieving their goals 
and bringing us the Cup to hoist. The Caps and their owners are 
building a team that will be formidable foes in the future, and with 
the right tweaking will become a dynasty that we can all be proud of. 
It took the Chicago Bulls a couple seasons under Jordan to dominate, 
and it took Wayne Gretzky time, too, with the Oilers. Its coming guys- 
don't worry.

Last season I was the only "celeb" blogger for the Caps and was 
thrilled to be asked again. It was nice to see another "celeb" 
blogger in Teddy Sears this year. Maybe we will meet and talk our 
ears off about the Caps. Teddy?

I had friends and support from all over the globe. Thanks Jeremy from 
Montreal! Thanks Mark from Toronto! Thanks Craig from the UK! Thanks 
Bill from Hong Kong! Thanks Julie from France! Thanks Jono from New 
Zealand! All have supported "us" through this series and have become 
new fans of the Caps [Good job TED!], and it means a lot to me that 
I have had their constant support.

These Caps have real fans now outside of DC. They have all taken a 
sip from the Caps cup. And in the not so distant future, I predict 
Ovie and crew will drink from Lord Stanley's.

I'm sad that this season came to an end with such a dreary game.
While I was witnessing this collapse, I thought of the TV show Fringe.
I watched an episode last week in which a parallel universe existed and
the bad guy was trying to get a power cell to find the universe and
enter it to kill the good guy. The sub plot was about 
one of the main characters whose son had died in our universe but 
went into the other and took his parallel son...but I digress. My 
point is: last night I wanted to go into that parallel and grab the 
Caps team that played in Game 6 or 1 and 2 and…

Now I can shave and return to my loving wife and family who have 
supported me through all my superstitions and anxieties: not 
sleeping...over-analyzing everything...talking about the Caps 24/7.

One of the hardest parts for me in saying goodbye to this season is 
I fear this might be Sergei Fedorov's last season. He is one of my heroes and I was thrilled he played for Washington at this point in his 
career. I hope he has good memories of DC. We will have great 
memories of him.

I would like to thank the NHL for having me back. I look forward to 
next season when I will rock the red. Go Caps!

This picture was taken right after the game. I can't imagine how he does it.
































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Author: Syd Butler | Special to NHL.com