Sunday Smorgasbord 3-9

• I was amazed at the abandoning in droves of the Mr. Donald Brashear Fan Club after yesterday's game. Mr. Brashear isn't on the Caps for his blinding speed, his heavy shot, his deft stickhandling, or his defensive prowess. He's on the team because they feel they need a fighter and his fans love him simply because he fights. So when a player he's been trying to fight because that player has been perceived to be taking liberties jumps into his face what do they expect him to do? Though after today's game if the Caps end up missing the playoffs by 2 or fewer points will these fans descend upon Kettler with professionally made signs assigning the blame to Nicklas Backstrom?
• Adding to the misery of yesterday was the Maryland Women falling to Dook in the ACC Tournament. It seems to me that the more a Maryland team talks about winning the ACC Tournament, the less likely it is to happen. The return of Brenda Frese to the sideline just three weeks after delivering twins didn't help much either. The loss to Dook is likely the excuse needed to deny Maryland a #1 seed in the Women's NCAA Tournament, which oddly enough could help them out when it comes to the draw. Either way, they'll have a large target on their backs when they start play in College Park in a couple of weeks.
• One week after choking away a game to Klempsun and being the consensus "last team in" Maryland is now likely to end up being the "last team out" after losing to Virginia earlier tonight. Maryland has a decent shot to get to Saturday in the ACC Tournament, but entering as the sixth seed after having a first round bye seemingly sewn up will not help matters. Of course the discussion on Maryland Message Boards is whether or not to accept an NIT Invitation. You might recall two years ago Gary Williams wanted to decline an NIT Invitation but was overruled by Athletic Director Debbie Yow. This lead to the embarrassing loss at the Cable Box to Manhattan where the only interested parties in the building were the referees and Manhattan. And as we've been saying here since November, Gary may not survive this season with a 3rd NIT appearance in 4 years.
• You had to act quickly this Tuesday because Nationals Opening Night Tickets went in six minutes. I was glad I got a 41 game plan three weeks ago now which included Opening Night. However, the Nats still have not given me my account information and as a result, I ended up waiting 45 minutes to buy tickets for the bobblehead nights which of course are not in the half season ticket. If I had been given my information I would have been able to take advantage of the season ticket holder pre-sale which was last weekend and wouldn't have been jamming up the ticket website. But I ended up with what I wanted in the end; just don't expect me to renew that 41 game package next season.
• Personally, the passing of Myron Cope means nothing to me as I could care less about the Steelers. But after Leonard Shapiro's tribute to him this week (simply because he joined in the piling on of Redskins owner Dan Snyder) I have to wonder, would Cope have had similarly harsh words for the Rooney Family over their treatment of longtime employees Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm last year or does diversity triumph over that too?
• This week, the Caps are home all week when they host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night and the Atlanta Thrashers on Friday night at 7 pm. NBC decided not to pick up next Sunday's game with the Bruins so that game time of 3 pm will not change. The Terp Men will play Boston College on Thursday in the ACC Tournament's First Round for the right to face Klempsun on Friday. A potential semi-final game with Dook is likely should the Terps make it to Saturday. The Nats continue Spring Training this week with games against the Tigers, Dodgers, Braves, Marlins, and Indians.
• As always, please send all comments, criticisms, questions, suggestions, corrections, and chicken stir-fry recipes to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.