bunchofgrapes

The Caps fired their coach, Bruce Boudreau, today. I liked Bruce. In his first year as coach he led a pretty pathetic team into the playoffs. And it was a gritty, fight-to-the-bitter-end, slide in backwards entry into that last playoff spot. In their run to the playoffs, when the team won, there was no one more excited than Boudreau. The sight of him jumping up and down was hilarious but I loved his enthusiasm. That first year he won the Jack Adams award for coach of the year. Just recently, as in the last couple of weeks, he got his 200th NHL win. But his players betrayed him. They quit playing. They got tired of him telling them what they were doing wrong and stopped responding to him. When your team quits, what else can you do? You can't fire the team so you fire the coach. I get it. I do. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Bruce was a great coach. After that first year Bruce's enthusiasm after a win started to wane. He was much more professional, shaking hands with his assistants or maybe just giving them a nod. Just recently, during the current slump, when the team finally pulled out a win, Bruce once again showed that burst of enthusiasm that made me love him. I know that it was probably because he knew a win meant his job was safe for another day but in the end, it all caught up with him. I love my hockey team but right now, I'm really disappointed in them. They cost a good man his job and that makes me pretty angry.

So thank you, Bruce, for giving Washington a team to believe in (the rest of them suck) for the last four years. I know you'll find another coaching job but please, not in the Eastern Conference. Any team you coach will kick our butts.

Caps unleashed the fury all over the Red Wings! The most amazing part? The Caps went two men down the last minute and a half and still kept Detroit from scoring.

I love Caps hockey!

I'm off all of this week. I'm calling it my Spring Break because it always irks me that people with kids take off for Spring Break while those of us without kids don't. So I am. It's raining today--one of those perfect spring storms with rolling thunder and thankfully, no cloud to ground lightning. I love it! It's supposed to do this tomorrow too. Fine with me. I still need to do some yard work but I got the grass mowed yesterday so the yard looks so nice and green with the rain. I'm meeting a friend for lunch and have a couple of errands to run tomorrow but other than that, I have no plans during this break except maybe do some stuff around the house and yard, watch hockey and CSI (yay for Brass and Drops!) and write. It's the perfect vacation.

( Caps Hockey )

Caps played the Bruins tonight. Final score? 10 to 2, Caps win!

Going into the game, Alex Ovechkin had been in something of a scoring slump. Sure, scoring slump for him means 49 goals this season but he had a rough stretch of no goals for something like seven games. Tonight he had a hat trick in the 1st period and the Caps played like they were on fire, scoring 6 goals before the horn finally blew. Of course this means they'll suck wind when they play the Sabres Wednesday night.

So now not only does O-V have the most goals in the league with 52, he's now the NHL scoring leader with 90 points. Oh, and Cristobal Huet? He needs to start every game. I love Olie but both games Huet has started, the Caps have been unbelievably good.