All Caps

I learned to watch, and admire, hockey in the sixties when I was in high school and covered my school's hockey team for its press club and called in the results to  the failing fake-news NYT.  I didn't know anything about hockey but I soon gauged what a shot on goal was, and a save (the puck didn't go in), could note scores and penalties (those are pretty obvious) and got a general idea about hockey's rules (hockey has a much better offsides rule than soccer and thus is a much better game).

In the seventies, I enjoyed watching NHL games and could see that the game was dominated by shots, of any sort, on goal and saw pucks settled and bombed in from long or midrange or flicked in from closer in on rebounds off the goalie.  Lately I was confused by all the passing and the lack of bombing, until I read an article on how bigger goalies and equipment and defensive walls in front of the net have stifled shooters and now the puck is passed around and around in the offensive zone until a magical moment presents itself to the offense by puck movement when a goalie is momentarily out of position as he switches from pole to pole and a rocket is launched towards the goal off an unsettled pass that has about a one-in-five chance of going in.

NHL games, especially Stanley Cup playoff games that mean so much, are a joy to watch again now that I understand the deliberate choreography of all the puck movement and it doesn't matter that you still can't see the tiny blur of the whizzing puck actually go into the net in real time because the excited voice of the announcer alerts you to the fact that a goal has been scored and they'll show it to you again very shortly, in isolation or slow motion, on instant replay.  "Goal!" or "He scores!" is a much more exciting summons to the magnitude of the fast contest than the lame and hyperbolic cry of "Gooooooaaaaaaaaaalllllll!" that accompanies the infrequent soccer score (do you like watching 90 minutes of 1-0 ineptitude on the soccer pitch?).

The Washington Capitals have overachieved in the regular season for the last decade and stunk up the playoffs for the same period of time (the Washington Nationals have adopted their template).  Now down 0-1 in the playoffs to their nemesis the Pittsburgh Penguins and having thrown away the home ice advantage, we'll see what they're made of this year, when their superiority window is rapidly closing (just like the Nats).