Sunday Smorgasbord 1-4

• All four home teams in the NFL Playoffs this weekend were underdogs and two of them still won. It goes to show just how much Vegas knows but is also a clear indication that the NFL has pretty much achieved the parity that it longs for. Oddly enough, it was the six seeds Bhawlmuher and Philly that lived up to the expectations and now face the number one seeds next weekend. However, all four home teams are the favorites and don't expect all four to win next weekend either.
• And speaking of playoffs, if it is the New Year, it must be time for the "unbiased" media to once again complain about the College Bowl System, more specifically, the BCS which it played a large hand in creating. We feel no sorrow for Michael Wilbon or any other media type who couldn't watch the Orange Bowl or any other Bowl game on New Year's Day because it was "meaningless" when we know that Wilbon was a part of the "unbiased" media chorus who complained up and down the street about games like the Orange, Rose, Sugar, and the Cotton Bowl failing to give us a matchup of the two top teams in College Football year after year. When the Bowls got together with the schools and attempted to achieve that, it wasn't enough, we now need a "Playoff" in order to validate a College Football Championship. However something tells us that even if a playoff were established, it still wouldn't be enough for some of these guys. They would still find a way to complain about how unfair it is. Hades, you see College Basketball Coaches and media mouthpieces advocating the expansion of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament from 65 to 128 teams. Here's an idea (because we're heading down this road anyway), why don't we just crown every team in every NCAA sport National Champions?
• From the "No We Won't Let It Die" file we couldn't help but notice that Darwin's Waiting Room now has an official sponsor. But the Ice Girls...er...Dance Team...er...Spirit Squad still doesn't, in spite of the sponsors insisting upon it during the offseason. No point being made here other than, just pointing it out for all to see.
• And by the way, we noticed in addition to the endless list of Caps Fans blogs, the Caps Media Relations Team launched their own blog. This is in addition to Senior Writer Mike Vogel's Blog and Ted's own blog for "official news" from the team. We have to ask, why? Why do the Caps need three official blogs? We get that Ted's isn't just about the Caps, but is Vogel leaving at the end of this season? Did the On Frozen Bozos go completely rogue and finally burn all bridges with the organization? (We wouldn't know, we've been banned from reading that blog) Seriously folks, with all this coverage on the Internet and in the "new media", how in the world could the Caps seriously complain about being under covered especially with Ted lustily documenting the fall of "traditional media"? And how much more coverage is needed? We tip our caps to Kate Carrera over at the (Com)Post for picking up our slack and posting Morning Reading lists over at the (Com)Post's Capitals Insider like we used to do with the Game Previews and Recaps. However this whole thing is just becoming entirely played out here and is falling into the category of "too much information."
• While everybody is talking about the Caps and their record through 40 games and noting the 9th "sellout" of the season, are any of the NHL Media types who decried Washington as a hockey town undeserving of a talent such as A.O. going to offer mea culpa's to Washington D.C. now that attendance is at 95.9% capacity or are we still undeserving rubes? We know which one it is which is why we're not holding our breaths either. And since we're on the topic of attendance, we feel obligated to point out that after insisting on a more "balanced" schedule that included more inter-conference games and fewer intra-division games, because in part, it just wasn't fair that players like A.O. would only visit rinks like Los Angeles, Anahiem, Phoenix, and Columbus only once every three years; that this year the Caps played in front of 92.4%, 93.6%, 84.1%, and 96.2% capacity in those rinks respectively. Of those averages so far, only L.A. and Columbus had higher than average attendance so far this season when the Caps rolled into town. There are many different reasons for this but the idea that that the schedule was "bad for business" is downright hogwash. Chalk up another victory for the "unbiased" media who created a problem that nobody else noticed.
• And speaking of the "unbiased" media, we love columns like this which easily lead one to believe that the the Washington Redskins, not the Detroit Lions, became the first team to ever finish a season 0-16. Since when was 8-8 with a rookie Head Coach who had never handled play calling duties before a bitter disappointment? Furthermore, we welcome those who finally figured out what we did a long time ago that the Redskins can only expect to hover around .500 with those excuses for an offense and defensive lines. Now that it has become glaringly obvious, let's see what Dan Snyder and Vinnie Cerrato do this off season. We've heard people yelling and screaming for years to build through the draft and yet, clowns like Feinstein insist that one good draft class and some shrewd free agents will make the Redskins an elite franchise. This isn't the case folks and we're sick and tired of Snyder getting dumped on for the one smart move he's made in the ten years he's owned the Redskins, namely getting rid of Norv Turner as Head Coach (who continues to underwhelm at every Head Coaching stop he's had since then) and Charlie Casserly (who created the mess that the Houston Texans still haven't been able to get out of). Finally, we found the talk of firing Jim Zorn after one season entirely unfounded and unhinged. Problem was, it was all generated by the "unbiased" media and there wasn't a single source cited in any of the talk surrounding Zorn's future. The closest we came to getting a "source" on the talk of Zorn being fired was Cerrato not commenting on Zorn's future a week after the rumor mongers started talking. Is all right in Redskins Nation? No, but the circus atmosphere is greatly exaggerated by a press with an ax to grind against an owner they bitterly dislike.
• We've all seen Miracle and heard the famous Herb Brooks quote "more like a couple of monkeys trying to hump a football" describing a fight. Well, that is exactly we think of Canadian Diving Team Captain, Low Blow Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby's latest attempt to fight. At least this time, Low Blow Cindy kept her hands above the belt and didn't go all Andrew Golota on McLean. However, what do you expect from Mary-OH's protege? Mary-OH! learned quickly to attack from behind when they aren't looking when it comes to fighting in the NHL. And before you Penguin Scum fans get your mullets out of whack, we're all laughing at "Slappy" Semin ourselves instead of defending him the way you are with Cindy so put a sock in it.
• And since we've sunk ourselves into talking about fighting, we feel we should mention that the Caps are currently fourth overall in the NHL, and are currently tied for second fewest fighting majors in the NHL (Detroit is third overall) once again disproving the "link" between "toughness" and "winning" in the NHL.
• This week, the Caps host the Flyers on Tuesday before starting a twin set of back-to-back games. The Caps host Columbus on Friday before visiting Montreal for another Hockey Night In Canada appearance on Saturday night. The Terp Men have one more Non-Conference tune up at home against Morgan State on Wednesday night before opening up the ACC Schedule at home against Georgia Tech on Saturday at Noon. The Terp Women open up ACC play too when they host Wake Forest on Thursday night
• As always folks, please send all comments, criticisms, corrections, suggestions, questions, and shots to the gonads to "CapsNut" over at gmail dot com.