Capital Spirit

One thing which always plagued me back in my college days was a really bad case of test anxiety. No matter how well I knew the material, I would always get antsy when test time came. Some of that was a good thing–it kept me on my toes and helped me do my very best–but in hindsight, I don’t think it was entirely beneficial to be a basket case on every single test.

Now, I know that’s a head-scratcher when you consider that I did so well at my community college that I ended up getting an academic scholarship to Towson (which I hadn’t even thought to ask for, but that’s a whole other story). And, OK, I graduated from Towson summa cum laude, so it’s not like it was bad for my results there, either.

Still, I think I might have actually had some fun in college if I weren’t constantly sweating over my next test, my next paper, my next presentation. I might be able to look back on my college days and say I had more fun than I did. As is, what I remember more than anything else is the academics, and not much else. (Not that there WAS much else, but that, too, is a whole other story.)

Here’s what I’m getting at. Perhaps if I hadn’t been so uptight about needing to get every next thing perfect, I might have been better able to simply enjoy the experience of being an undergraduate. You have to be able to be in this moment, and this one, and this–you can’t always have your mind twenty miles down the road, lest you miss the LEFT EXIT 1 MILE.

When they interviewed me for Red Line Monday, one question they asked was, Where do you see yourself in ten years? I hope this one ends up on the cutting room floor, because my answer was that I’m not thinking that far ahead. I believe God will see to it that I’m where I’m needed, when I’m needed, and I trust His plan for my life, no matter how many windows He has to open when different doors close.

I wasn’t thinking that way in college. I was thinking, “Oh, my gosh, if I don’t ace this test, I won’t be able to get a good job after I graduate.” Yes, I really did put that much pressure on myself for every single test.

I almost always did well on my tests, but I never once liked taking them.

This weekend is a test for the Capitals. We’re hosting the defending Stanley Cup champions tomorrow, and then coming right back the next day to look for some payback against the Ottawa Senators. How we do against the Wings will be a very good barometer of how we’ll do down the stretch and into April and (I hope) May and June.

So I hope that the players don’t get the same test anxiety that I did in college. On the one hand, it’s certainly worthwhile to be prepared for the test, and performing at a high level. It’s quite another to be going, “OH NOES! DEFENDING CUP CHAMPION! MASS HYSTERIA! SEASON OVER IF WE LOSE!” Preparation is desirable; overanxiety is not. This should be basic stuff, but sometimes the basics need to be re-stressed.

Enjoy the Now, guys. You’re hosting the defending Stanley Cup champions in front of a sold-out home arena. Win or lose, it’s sure to be a great game. So while you’re out there beating the stuffing out of the Red Wings, make sure you soak it all in. Games like this don’t happen often during the regular season.

As for the Senators, well, if you didn’t enjoy the All-Star break because you left for it on a losing note, here’s your shot at redemption.

Two games, two days, two wins. That is the test before you, gentlemen. Do your best, and Godspeed.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
THIS IS A TEST

I’m not sure if my readers have been following the tragic tale of the Lupoe family, but it’s something I need to write about–if for no other reason than to get it off my chest.

A couple of days ago, a Los Angeles father murdered his entire family before turning the gun on himself. Man, wife, five kids–gone. Both parents had lost their jobs at an LA hospital, and the note that Mr. Lupoe faxed an LA television station was, on balance, one of utter despair.

How much despair must a father be in, that he ends the lives of the very family that he is bound to protect?

Consider the Book of Job, from the Old Testament. The beginning of the story is almost eerily similar to what happened here: Job essentially lost everything he had, to the point where even his wife told him to curse God and die. Job would have none of that. But after three of his friends had been sitting with him for a week in compassionate silence, Job cried out, and cursed the day he had been born. After a speech by one of his friends, Job eventually said the following (Job 7:1-6, NRSV):

“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth,
and are not their days like the days of a laborer?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like laborers who look for their wages,
so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’
But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn.
My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out again.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and come to their end without hope.

Does it get any lower than that? Worms and dirt? Job was experiencing pure, unbridled despair, and his friends weren’t helping much in what they were saying.

Now, I’ll grant you that the Lupoe family wasn’t in THAT dire of straits. Still, both parents losing their jobs at the same time, five kids to feed, and no idea where to turn…that may, perhaps, be the modern equivalent of what Job was going through.

And yet, the responses were completely different. Job continued to press God for an answer. (He did eventually get one, but it probably wasn’t the one he wanted to hear.) He could have just folded up and called it done, given in to despair, and quit on this whole Life thing. He didn’t: he kept pressing for a Divine answer. And he wouldn’t have kept at it unless he were sure there really WAS an answer. If the loss of his family, possessions, and health were really just a freakish act of random chance with no greater meaning, Job might not have hung in there. Why ask for an explanation if you’re convinced there isn’t one? Even in his despair, Job did have faith that there really was a reason for his misfortunes.

The response by Mr. Lupoe was the exact opposite: he gave in to his despair, called it quits, and murdered his entire family. His response was despair without hope. Worse, he made a media event out of his crime–a crime against his own flesh and blood. How deep his despair must have been to have done so!

It reminds me a bit of the end of Lamentations (5:19-22, NRSV):

But you, O LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
Why have you forgotten us completely?
Why have you forsaken us these many days?
Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored;
renew our days as of old–
unless you have utterly rejected us,
and are angry with us beyond measure.

And yes, that’s exactly where it ends: asking for Divine mercy, but wondering in print if that mercy will ever come. I’m pretty sure Ervin Lupoe wasn’t reading Lamentations, but the same spirit of hopelessness hangs over the whole tragic story. I’ve read that there are going to be ten grief counselors standing by at the late childrens’ school, and I suspect that they will all have their hands full for several days.

One family’s despair is now a community’s mourning. How much more sadness will yet come of this?

My thoughts and prayers go out to the neighbors, families, loved ones, and community that have suffered such a tragedy in the glare of a national spotlight.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
GRIEVING

There are a couple of questions I’ve been thinking about lately. In no particular order whatsoever…

1. What was up with that loss in Ottawa? We took too many penalties, and we paid for it with three PPG’s by the Sens and took another notch in the L column. The Sens are currently the worst team in the Northeast. Why did we let that one get away?

2. Have Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin really patched things up? And if so, can they keep it that way?

3. I’m looking at the photo of Alex in this morning’s Washington Times, and I see that he’s got a cross around his neck. What’s the story on that?

4. The trade deadline is getting ever closer. Will the Caps be buying, or standing pat?

5. How long before the rest of the Caps’ home slate gets completely sold out?

6. How much more am I going to be paying for my tickets next year?

7. Who’s going to give me more lip at the game this Saturday–Wings fans, or Caps fans? More importantly–and more depressingly–why do I even have to ask this question about the fans in my home arena?

8. Can the Caps figure out where that extra gear is right now, or are they going to wait until the playoffs (again) and (again) find it too late?

9. How bad will the Blues and Islanders get this year?

10. Can anyone stop the Bruins or Sharks?

11. Will the Blue Jackets FINALLY make their first playoff appearance this year?

12. Will the Maple Leafs ever get around to rebuilding their team the right way? Or are they just going to settle for becoming a permanent also-ran? Fans in hockey-mad Toronto deserve better than what they’re getting, I should think.

13. What is the future of fighting in the NHL?

14. Will Wayne Gretzky ever win another Stanley Cup, this time from behind the bench?

15. When will the NHL wise up and start promoting Ovechkin over Crosby?

16. Will the Hurricanes disappoint again this year?

17. Will the Panthers surprise the East by making the playoffs this year?

18. Olie Kolzig in Tampa Bay…how’s that working out?

19. What the heck happened to the Thrashers?

20. And finally…when it rains, why don’t sheep shrink?

CAPITAL SPIRIT
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS!

I hope not.

For those who don’t know, 94 is the number on the back of my jersey. There’s a story behind it, but that’s not the point of this post.

The point is, there’s been some talk about President-elect Obama attending a Capitals game. The chatter got started when Mr. Obama was touring the Post’s newsroom. Not the Times, I noted–either he’s attending the friendlier paper first, or he’s not being quite as bipartisan as perhaps he could be. But I’ll leave that discussion for the current-events crowd in this town, who will do a much better job of it than a hockey blogger with a mystical bent.

But while Obama was touring the Post, he asked about the Redskins, Nationals, Wizards, and…whoops, not the Capitals. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he merely had an innocent on-the-record brain cramp, merely forgot the Capitals unintentionally, and meant no slight to our team. At least, I certainly hope that’s the case.

Regardless, the chattering started about whether Mr. Obama would ever attend a Capitals game. While it would certainly put the Capitals on the map, I’m not so sure I’d attend if I knew in advance that security was going to be extra-jumpy. Even if the Secret Service did know in advance what I look like, I’m not so sure they’d let me in the building en grande tenue. While it would be an incredible bit of history to be able to say that I was at a hockey game, in the same building as a sitting President, I wouldn’t want there to be any misunderstandings about my attire. So I might think twice about showing up if we’re told to allow extra time to get past security.

If it’s unannounced, and turns out to be unobtrusive, great. But if the attendance of a high-level guest such as Mr. Obama ends up disrupting the normal game-night experience, I’ll have none of it. It’s not personal–it’s just that I don’t want to be viewed as a possible suspect the second I set foot in the Phone Booth. I won’t enjoy the game if I feel like I’m being treated as a threat. We could whip the Penguins 10-0, but it’s not going to be any fun if I think I’m being observed like an amoeba on a Petri dish the whole time.

If I can, for lack of a better phrase, “be me” at the game, and get the same level of scrutiny as other fans, it would be an honor to be there. But if I’m going to get singled out for a GEICO-money stare the whole time, I’ll pass.

On another note, I am going to be offline for all of next week. The Magic Number Countdown–which not many are reading, if my stats are any guide–will be updated once I’m back online.

Caps host the Bruins tonight, in a #1 vs. #2 showdown. See you all at the rink.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
LET’S GO CAPS

A couple of interesting notes about the standings math.

The only really glaring discrepancy between the NHL standings and the teams’ top-end scores is the Rangers. They’ve already played 45 games, and they are barely hanging onto the 3 spot. The Flyers, with 2 games in hand and only 1 point behind, could very easily win the Atlantic by doing nothing more than keeping pace with the Rangers the rest of the way. Montreal takes a jump when you rank the teams by top-end score, but they can’t finish in the top 3 if Boston wins the division. Mathematically, they have a lot of potential, but they have to get past Boston, or they’ll be seeded 4th at best. After that, the East has been obscenely quiet: I didn’t have to move any teams around, so it’s been a procession since my last update.

The Western Conference, on the other hand!!!

Minnesota and Edmonton have identical records, and take a similar jump in the standings when you rank the teams by their top-end score. Meanwhile, Phoenix and Vancouver take a horrific standings hit when you consider that they’ve got fewer games left to play. They’re barely above the playoff cutoff, and they don’t have much wiggle room as we head into the All-Star break. They could very easily find themselves booking April tee times unless they start winning more of the fewer games they have remaining. The Canucks, in particular, need to right their ship soon, as this 3-5-2 swoon they’re in coming into tonight’s games is taking a huge toll on the amount of points they have left available.

As for the Capitals, they know what they have to do: win tonight in Pittsburgh, win Saturday against the Bruins, and try to get some of their momentum back. I didn’t like seeing some of the cards that came up for the Caps when I did my predictions for January, and I felt like an idiot when they rattled off 4 straight victories to start the month. Well, they’re now 4-3 this month, and they’ve got no small test tonight in the Steel City. Ready for more? How ’bout hosting the Bruins on Saturday? Fortunately, they have a couple of away games at Ottawa and on the Island to (hopefully!) get a few road wins headed into the All-Star break.

All eyes will likely be on Pittsburgh tonight, for what could very well be described as an All-Star game that actually means something. The puck drops in about 30 minutes. Warm up the pizza and cool the drinks, Caps fans–this one will be a good one, no matter what the score.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
RIVALRIES ARE SO MUCH FUN…

Lots of interesting stuff happened in the standings while I was out watching the Caps get shut out. At home. By a .500 hockey team. (Moi? Grumpy? Whatever gave you that impression?)

First, and most important. Carolina and Calgary are now doing the mathematical splits. That is, they both need the same number of points to clinch their respective 14 seeds as they do to be eliminated from President’s Trophy consideration. Rather than gunk up the grid with a two-way scenario, I’m going to list only POSITIVE Magic Numbers in the event of a mathematical tie. I’ll be adding that to the legend over on the grid page once I’m done here.

For the Caps, their loss to Columbus knocks them back to third because of their lower MPP (Max Points Possible) score. The Habs are lower in the standings, but have enough games in hand to have a very nice MPP. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to catch Boston or not, but they’ll make it interesting.

Speaking of Boston, they did take a very brief President’s Trophy lead on Thursday night, only to see the Sharks win last night and reclaim the lead. That race could actually be fun to watch, but I’m probably the only NHL fan who cares about it.

Pittsburgh just got passed by the Panthers. Last June, did anyone see THAT one coming? If I had predicted, after the Pens lost the Stanley Cup Finals last year, that they’d be fighting to stay ahead of the Panthers at the All-Star break, I don’t think anyone would have believed it. Not even ME.

It’s busy out West. For one thing, I had to shift a lot of rows around on the grid: there’s a lot of movement, up and down, for a lot of teams out West, almost on a daily basis. Also, look at how high up the Clinch 14W/Elim PT cutoff is compared to where that same cutoff is in the East. In the West, there are playoff-position teams who are closer to being eliminated from the top spot than they are to being assured of a top 14 spot. In the East, it’s the opposite: half the teams in the conference are closer to the top 14 than they are to getting bounced from the President’s Trophy race.

Wait, I get it–the New York Islanders aren’t playing out West. That explains everything.

Games to keep an eye on today:

Carolina at Boston. As a Caps fan, I want to see this settled in regulation, no matter who wins it. A Boston win would give the Caps a chance to extend their lead in the Southeast, but would also move the Bruins a bit further out of reach. A Carolina win would check Boston’s standings momentum, but would close the gap on the Capitals. If it’s a three-point game, I might end up with a bad case of autoalopecia (if you’ll excuse the really bad medical humor.)
Washington at Montreal. Can the Caps bounce back, on the road, against the Habs? A win by the Caps would put them back in 2nd place on the MPP standings, but a loss could find them fighting to stave off the Flyers.
San Jose at Vancouver. This one has President’s Trophy implications, as both the Bruins and Sharks are in action today. If San Jose wins, they hang on to the top spot. A San Jose loss coupled with a Boston win would complicate things considerably.

The Islanders and Blues are both off tonight, so that should make things a little easier when I do tomorrow’s update.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
MY, THESE NUMBERS ARE CRUNCHY

As it was written in Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” The Jackets are in town tomorrow night, and I think it might be worth a look back at what’s transpired since the last time they were in Washington.

The last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, some Russian kid named Alex Ovechkin was making his NHL debut. It’s been three hockey seasons since, and it’s been quite a life’s season since, as well.

That year, you could pretty much walk up to the box office on game night and pick your seat. I know, because I was doing it a lot. You can forget that this year: it’s been a rare night when all of the seats at the Phone Booth haven’t been spoken for.

The last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, we were playing to be better, someday. I think “someday” is about a year in the rearview mirror, give or take.

On a personal note, the last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, my father was still alive, and my nephew was yet to be born.

The last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, Tampa Bay was the defending Stanley Cup champion.

The last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, Jeff Haleprn was the Caps’ captain. He wore the since-retired #11.

The last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” would have been a punchline. Last year, it was the emotional anthem of a Cinderella stretch run to the division crown.

The last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, I had yet to see my first live NHL game.

My, how things have changed since then.

The last time the Jackets played Verizon Center, my life was different; the Capitals franchise was different; the NHL was different; the whole world was different.

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

But seasons change, and life goes on. The mournful, icy gray of winter melts into the colorful, fresh breezes of spring. April showers bring May flowers, but almost before you know it, it’s suddenly the 4th of July. Suddenly the leaves are turning, the pools are closing, and the school buses are chasing away another all-too-short summer. And then, in what seems the twinkling of an eye, the ground is dressed in white again. In the end, you always come back to where it all began.

How can it seem like only yesterday, yet at the same time seem so long ago? It’s quite a paradox, isn’t it?

There was a story I read in, I want to say, Guideposts, several years ago. It was about a demanding basketball coach, who, after every game, would tell his players, “The season starts tomorrow.” While that was backhanded comfort after losses, it put the wins in perspective. Past wins mean nothing: every game is a new beginning.

So, in a way, a season has ended. And, in a different way, a new season starts tomorrow.

Hope to see you all at the Phone Booth tomorrow night.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
IT’S A NEW SEASON

Well, since it is almost time for the All-Star game, I think we can now start looking ahead to counting down who needs how many points to do exactly what as far as the postseason goes. I already have the results up on a new page–it would have been too clunky to leave it stickied up front. Feel free to check it out, and if you have any questions about it, feel free to comment.

There are no predictions on there: it’s just cold, hard, inescapable arithmetic. Kids, stay awake in math class, or you’ll have a very hard time doing something like this when you grow up.

A couple of notes from Monday and Tuesday night’s contests:
The Islanders’ setback in Edmonton helped pretty much every other team in the Eastern Conference. A couple of teams (Carolina, Buffalo) who were closer to being knocked out of President’s Trophy contention are now suddenly closer to securing at least 14th in the Eastern Conference. It’s not a lost season on the Island yet–mathematically, at least–but Islanders fans may soon find themselves wiping tears off their calculators.

San Jose lost to the Flames, and that made things a bit more interesting out west. I had to rearrange a whole bunch of rows on the West grid, which shows you just how wide-open the West is right now. After you get past San Jose, Detroit, Calgary, and Chicago, the West is pretty much wide open, although some of those St. Louis ribs might have a bit more salt on them than usual come March. Yes, March. The way the Blues are playing, they may already be mathematically out of it by March if they keep playing like they have been lately. Of course, if they do keep it up, that means there will be a whole lot of teams clinching 14th in the West awfully early. As with the Islanders, the Blues could mathematically finish anywhere from 1st to 15th right now, but at this rate, I wouldn’t bet on the Blues to make the second season.

Only two games on tap tonight, and none of the teams are chart-rattlers. I’ll update the grid tomorrow once I’ve seen the final of the nightcap.

CAPITAL SPIRIT
STAYED AWAKE IN MATH CLASS–BARELY