Capitals Lose

I’m generally a positive person, and I hope that my posts reflect this. Sure, I may complain about the Metro or the Pittsburgh Pirates on occasion, but I tend not to write discourteous posts about sports teams and their fan bases. However, to paraphrase the great E.U. in their classic 1988 hit, this post got a big ol’ butt (oh yeah). As a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, I’m happy that the Washington Capitals lost to the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night. This is schadenfreude at its best.



I don’t know why it is, but I generally dislike Capitals fans. Perhaps it’s the fact that I attended several Caps games a year earlier this decade, and except for games against the Penguins where Pittsburgh fans took up half the building, there were a lot of empty seats. Maybe it’s because the majority of DC sports fans and media only started talking about and following the Caps 2+ years ago. No, I think it’s the way Caps fans think the Caps are the best team ever (though they won’t admit that today) and like to disparage the Penguins at every opportunity.

I’ll give you an example. I know someone who was born in Western Pennsylvania and is a huge Steelers fan. She is also one of the most rationale and intelligent people I know. However, she is also a Capitals fan and openly mocks Penguins captain Sidney Crosby by referring to him as Cindy.

In full disclosure, as a hockey fan, I would have loved to see a Capitals-Penguins Eastern Conference final this season. Each game would have been the lead on SportsCenter and the most talked about story in sports. The Crosby-Alex Ovechkin match-up is always awesome to watch. However, as a Pens fan, I’m happy that the Pens now have home-ice advantage for the next two rounds (not that this helped Washington much).

If any Caps fans are reading this, I’m sure that if the situation was reversed and the Pittsburgh Penguins won the President’s Trophy for best team in the NHL and then lost in the first round to a team that finished 33 points behind you in the standings, you would feel the same way. I guess the difference is that even if Montreal defeats Pittsburgh in the next round, Pens fans can always look at the Stanley Cup and see the names Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin & Mike Zigomanis on it from the 2008-2009 championship.