Notes and Observations From The Season Ticket Holder Party

Last night the Caps held their annual Season Ticket Holder Meet The Team Party at the Phone Booth. Here's a few things I noticed.

• As usual, popular players were paired with the less popular, though the A.O. - Bryan Muir pairing was short-circuited because Muir wasn't there.
• Doors opened five minutes late and there wasn't the usual sprint/stampede to the stations where the players would be appearing.
• One thing I didn't need to see was after getting my free kids pack of a hot dog, bag of chips, and soda, I saw a mother feeding her baby the "natural way" if you know what I mean, (I'm trying to avoid certain Google searches) at the top of Section 112. That's always a pleasant sight to stumble across in public.
• What had to be the oddest table was the one set aside for the player's wives and girlfriends. They even had the generic autograph poster and sharpies at the table. Every time I went by there were at least a couple of skeevie looking guys hanging around.
• Hanging by the showers in the locker room were some very nice black bathrobes that had the team logo along with the player's name and number embroidered on them. What was odd though was that Jaime Heward's and Dainius Zubrus' were hanging up in full view.
• Joe Beninati informed us fans that he won't be missing anymore Caps games this season for work on Versus. Joe explained that his contract allows him to miss up to five games a season and that this past Tuesday night was the final time we would be stuck with Al Koken. Joe also said that he would be calling the Caps Monday night game in Atlanta with the Thrasher's color commentator, Darren Elliot, on Versus and that he would be working a Conference Final this spring for Versus. Congrats to Joe!
• The Norris, Vezina, and Calder trophies were on display on the event floor (which was covering the ice). The crates that they were delivered in were tucked away on the visitor's bench. I looked at the labels and was amused to see that these trophies were shipped to the Caps via UPS. I would think that the NHL or the Hockey Hall of Fame would personally deliver them to prevent any kind of shenanigans.
• That's not a bad picture, Mike Green's haircut really is that FUBAR and reminds me of this guy.

I bugged out before the player introductions and the taped message from Ted was shown. The crowd didn't seem to be as big as in recent years which made sense because of the doom enveloping D.C. at the time and the Caps just don't have as many Season Ticket Holders as they did a few years ago.

However, the mood was rather subdued compared to years past. I kind of got the feeling that most of the people that were there came because they felt like they had to for some reason.