A friend of mine has season tickets to the Capitals and when her date bailed on her at the last minute, I got to pinch hit (I know, I’m getting all my sports metaphors wrong) and go to the opening game on Saturday night. I do not follow professional sports, generally I find it all a little odd that people spend so much time and energy following wildly well-paid people throw a ball (puck) around. But I’m also a good sport and my friend is insanely excited about hockey and the Caps are coming off an amazing season last year, so I went out and spent $5 on a red T-shirt from Target and booked it to the Verizon center with 18,000 other fans.
The final score was Caps 6 – Maple Leafs 4. I stood up and cheered enthusiastically for each goal and high-fived people I did not know all around me (which was incredibly painful) and it was a lot of fun. I ate the $9 pizza slice, got the Mike Green bobblehead, I learned about many things including all the cheers (C-A-P-S, Caps!, Caps!, Caps!), the horn guy, and that if the Caps score more than 5 goals in a game, one wins 10 free buffalo wings. Oh yeah, I learned a little bit about hockey too.
Metro got me there and back and was filled with people with the red jerseys.