Sunday Smorgasbord 12-10

• The Bullets got the job done against the 76ers Friday night, the Caps did their part last night, but alas, the Redskins playing at home couldn't complete the Washington weekend sweep of Philly. The fans seem to be beside themselves over the play calling, but the Redskins inability to punch the ball into the end zone inside the five yard line once again was their undoing. This folks has nothing to do with play calling or who is running ball. It boils down to the fact that the offensive line on this team stinks and until those players are upgraded, things are going to change very much for this team. Jason Campbell's two INT's didn't help matters (though the tip returned for a touchdown wasn't his fault) but you aren't going to win many games with 4 field goals in the NFL.
• The Chicago Blackhawks are 10-17, have already fired their coach and now they go out and sign Peter Bondra. I cannot think of a situation where these types of mid-season signings have ever worked out for the team or the player. Calle Johansson's run with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the spring of 2004 only vindicated Butch Cassidy's (and the Sundance Kid) benching of him the previous spring. This is a situation where it is tough to tell who is the more desperate party and therefore most deserving of pity and who the sucker is, the Blackhawks or Bondra.
• Yesterday I gave you my thoughts on Barra Brava "invading" the Caps game against Anaheim on Friday night. Let me once again state for the record that I think a group like Barra Brava for the Caps wouldn't be a bad idea. However, after making the trip to the Wachovia Center, I NEVER want to hear how lame and quiet us Caps fans are. Yes, most of it has to do to with the Flyers only having 8 wins on the season, but when I am sitting in the second to last row of the arena and I can hear the defenseman making a back door cut calling for the puck, the arena is quiet. And mind you, this is on a Saturday night, in the much ballyhooed Wachovia Center, with a matchup of two former Patrick Division rivals. The place was stone cold quiet and the worst it ever got for me and my fellow Caps Fan Club members was after the first Flyer's goal. There was some taunting and then some clown yelled "How about them Redskins" I mentioned 3 Super Bowl Titles and I never heard that again.
• And let me take the time here to give a Thank You to the Flyers Fan Club who hosted us before the game at a local pizza place for dinner. It was good pizza (the neighborhood spots are where to go for good pizza) and they gave all of us snacks for the right back to D.C. Though I did find it a little odd that they gave us mini-First Aid kits. Were they expecting trouble for us?
• One final thought on last night, I understand that it is the Christmas season even though I haven't had the chance to watch my favorite Christmas Movie (it takes place on Christmas Eve so in my book, it counts as a Christmas Movie) yet, but did the Wachovia Center HAVE to play Wham!'s "Last Christmas" last night before warmups? Instead of going after Nativity scenes, can't we get the P.C. police do something about this? Seriously folks, this is a hockey game, in Philadelphia no less, and we are subjected to Wham!??? There's no bleepin' excuse for that. At listen they didn't break out the Mariah Carey...
• The Maryland Men's basketball team is going to be falling out of the rankings after their loss at Boston College to open their ACC Schedule. The Terps freshmen played like freshmen and some of their Senior leadership didn't show up. Make no mistake though; this is better basketball team than what they've had the past two seasons, but there is still a long way for this team to go.
• The Maryland ticket office is once again looking for Bowl Ticket donations for the members, crew, and the families of the U.S.S. Maryland which will be in their home port of Jacksonville when the Terps face Perdue in the Tangerine Bowl. Tickets are $60 and Maryland is looking for 1,000 tickets to take care of everybody from the U.S.S. Maryland. The Terps did this for their last Bowl game, the 2004 Gator Bowl, when they beat West-By-God-Virginia. The U.S.S. West-By-God-Virginia was also in port at Jacksonville but the West-By-God-Virginia fans didn't even come close to donating enough tickets for that submarine. If you want to help out the Maryland Athletic Department reach their goal of 1,000 tickets for the U.S.S. Maryland, click here and note that your donation is for the U.S.S. Maryland crew. Tickets are only $60.
• This week, the Caps host the Canadian Diving Team Captain (Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby) and the rest of his Penguin Scum team mates at the Phone Booth tomorrow night on Versus. The Caps then travel to Atlanta for the much ballyhooed return bout with the Thrashers on Friday night. The Caps are back home on Saturday night to face the woeful Flyers once again. The home games this week start at 7 pm and the road game starts at 7:30 pm. The Terp Men will start finishing out their cupcake schedule by facing Missouri-Kansas City on Wednesday night before they break for final exams. The Redskins, now completely shut out of the playoffs at 4-9, try to play spoiler to the New Orleans Saints in the Big Easy next Sunday at 1 pm.
• As always, please send all comments, corrections, suggestions, criticisms, questions, and bad Christmas Carols to "capsnut" at gmail dot com. If I can Jerry-rig my printer and get Word Perfect 12 to cooperate, I might just add you my Christmas Card list.