What do you think of Wes Johnson yelling at you?

For the most part, I think Wes Johnson does a great job and has a great voice…but I have to agree with you a bit. They do a great job at providing us fans with a great experience at the Booth, but as someone who is there regularly, it does border on overkill quite a bit.

I’m also done with the whole “Rock the Red” campaign. I thought it worked great for the playoffs last year, but it shouldn’t have been carried over to this year, IMO. It seems kinda silly, for instance, when we play a team like the RED Wings.

Again, just my opinion—I’m overall very pleased with the product the Capitals are selling right now.

Rock the Red is A-OK with me. But I hate being yelled at by some guy with a microphone. And cheering during TV timeouts is the apex of silliness.

I (heart) Goat & Sam.

(But not nearly as old as the opening “Rock Concert” video. Anyone else notice they edited out Semin’s cameo shot on guitar?….probably because it was a bit, um… omo-hay looking)

We need something new for the Playoffs. Wes gets a bit loud, but what I don’t get is the CONSTANT calls to “Get on your feet!”. Dude… look around. No one is going to stand the whole game. At most some people stand while he is yelling and then sit as soon as the puck drops. I fail to see the point.

We’re paying through the teeth for these seats. Outside of penalty shots or the last minute or so of a one-goal game or something we plan on sitting in them.

Am I missing something? Do they stand for 10 minutes of game time at a stretch in Detroit or Montreal or something? I’ve never seen this. Why are we asking people to do this in DC?

I don’t like being told how to be a fan. I don’t like being told when to get excited. And I don’t like being yelled at.

There was a time, perhaps, that some of it was needed, but I think that time has passed and the atmosphere would be even more impressive if you simply let enthusiasm beget enthusiasm rather than manufacturing it.

That said, the place is loud as hell and creates a real home arena advantage (notice how hesitant I am to say “home ice advantage”), so it’s hard to argue with what they’ve got goin’.

Sad but true, a lot of fans in the stadium now are either new or fairweather. I don’t mind Wes helping them out. However, I do understand how a nationally covered game on NBC would warrant Ted wanting loud and crazy for the telecast. I don’t know if it’s so much being yelled at as it is how Wes speaks, but I wouldn’t trade him for any announcer in the world. Besides, it gives me chills knowing that when I play Oblivion and I’m fighting in the arena, he’ll be there.

I like cheering during the TV Timeout breaks for:
A. An upcoming powerplay
B. The Victory video
C. The unleash the fury video
All the other times I feel like Wes is yelling at me but I don’t really care. The whole “let’s rip the m’fer roof off this place beee-yayaaaaa” Howard Dean thing gets a little old though.

I also REALLY miss the opening video from last year. The Pretender video was awesome and that song got me pumped up for the games. This new song isn’t that good.
Anything beats the Mission Impossible video though. Jesus, what a terrible song to play for your fans and team before starting a game. Not to mention having the Ted cameo where he unleashes a briefcase from a fat pocket.

last year’s Foo Fighters opener still gives me goosebumps when i watch it on you tube. Everytime I hear it on the radio, I mimic Steve Kolbe’s “Mike GREEEEEEEeeen” call.

Wes has a great voice. Sure making us “yell” when the cameras are off is a bit silly, but he’s also a damn good events announcer. I love when he goes nuts after the “Unleash the Fury” video or the way he announces our players names after goals. It’s not a matter of toning it down, but choosing the right moments to turn it up.

Wes has a good voice and is a goodgame announcer but by home game #30, it gets really annoying to constantly be yelled at to cheer fo the Caps. I’m actually glad that Michelle is doing the games, like the Verizon Cell Phone Shuffle, so that it is not only hearing Wes this year. I like this year’s opening videos and don’t mind seeing the same ones over again this year, but I miss the Foo Fighters song. I also liked it better last season when they picked the most appropriate video (Inches, Victory, or Unleash the Fury) for that game’s situation and didn’t do Unleash the Fury followed by Wes screaming at us at just about every single game. You know that you have seen Unleash the Fury video way too many time when you can quote all of the dialogue.

As someone who doesn’t go to a ton of Caps games (but I’ve been to at least 30 during the Wes era), I gotta say this guy annoys the crap out of me.

And I actually do have to disagree a little about the Caps fans not needing any inspiration to be loud. Caps fans definitely can get crazy loud, especially with that unleash the fury nonsense, but the baseline volume in the Verizon Center can be deafeningly quiet. There was a time in the Flyers game (while the Caps were leading) where there was a stoppage in play during a power play in a close game, and you coulda heard a pin drop. Wes gets on the mic and screams something about the Caps being on a power play, and the crowd responded. But before that there was nothing. In other arenas I’ve been to (Philadelphia obviously, and Montreal and San Jose too)

The Caps crowd seems to operate on a call and response basis more than any other crowd I’ve seen, with the airhorn guy and Wes and Slapshot banging stuff together and the “Goat” (Jesus did that guy look embarrassed by the interview). It would be an interesting experiment to take these four away and see how the crowd was.

ITS TIME FOR A PEPCO ENERGY SERVICES POWWWWWWWWWWWWWERRRR PLAYYYYYYYYYY!!

I wrote to Ted about 8 years ago asking him if they could stop that “Make some noise!” clip. I said, we know when it’s time to make noise, don’t need to be told. He wrote back saying thanks, but I guess it didn’t have much effect.