All about the feelgood!

So today marks the first time Chris Clark has been back to play since he left the Flames after the 2004 Cup run. Dunno about the rest of you, but I have missed him around here, and it's great to see that he's put together so many solid years out in Washington.

And tonight also marks the first time Ovechkin has ever come to the Saddledome to play (I won't repeat the rant, but really, it's about damn time, and really ridiculous that this is a guy in his fourth season and he's finally getting around to all the rinks).

What else? Well, we'll see Hitmen alum Jeff Schultz (Karl Alzner, sadly has been booted down to the minors by the Caps), and hometown boys like Mike Green and Tyler Sloan.

There's a hell of a tear-jerker of a story about Sloan, and why it's a big deal that he's lining up for the Caps tonight. Much respect for the Caps for making the move, it's a classy move all around. So a big congrats to Sloan, and here's hoping he makes the most of tonight.

Well, not too much. I'm not feeling nearly as warm and fuzzy towards the Flames as I am the Caps, today... so... here's hoping we come out strong, play strong, finish strong and do all that stuff playing hockey entails.

Or I would settle for not embarrassing ourselves. Yeah, I could live with that.

Quickies

I can't resist posting a link to this blog entry about Ovechkin's recent terrorizing of Washington DC on a Segway:

They went down 14th Street, over Pennsylvania Avenue, around the tourists, past the souvenir vendors, with a brief stop by the anti-nuclear protester in front of the White House, who gave her spiel to Ovechkin.

"I'm from Russia," he said. "So, well, have fun."

"No, you have fun," she said, adding something about saving humanity.

"I don't have any money," he said.

"She said 'humanity,' " Green said.

"What does it mean," Ovechkin said.

Ovechkin was easily the loudest Segway rider. He rode the thing backward until it started making grinding noises; "when it makes that noise it's telling you it's not happy," one of the guides told him. He loudly shouted out "anybody wanna ride with us????" to a crowd waiting at a bus stop. He said "Whooooo hooooo" and variations thereof maybe 50 or 60 times. He rocked back and forth incessantly when we stopped to regroup. He yelped "Let's Go Caps" at random businessmen. He attempted to ride without the use of his hands, wrapping his legs around the steering column.

Additionally, it's come to my attention that David Hale now holds the NHL record for consecutive games without a goal: 178. He's never scored an NHL goal, period.

There are 4 active NHL goalies with more goals than David Hale:
Brodeur: 2
Nabokov: 1
Osgood: 1
Theodore: 1