"My opinion: You don't want to see your team get trounced the day after beating the East's best team on the road? Fine, leave early. No complaints there. But to boo what's been by far the best team during a massive dry spell for D.C. sports, a team that had virtually clinched a second straight division title by late February, a team that is acknowledged as one of the most exciting in the league, just seems like a strange move to me. Maybe that's just the hockey way."
- Steinz. Buy or sell booing the Caps?
11 months ago
J.P.
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Just silly
With this attitude we shouldn’t be booing the ‘skins because they have won Super Bowls in their past. Same for the Wizards, because well, they made the playoffs last year (year before I don’t actually know?). Booing is because the current effort/game/play is worth booing and shouldn’t/doesn’t have anything to do with the big picture.
It should be embarassing and it should hurt the players. Just like cheering should garner a response from the team, leaving the ice after a period to a chorus of boos should cause a gut check as well.
by Sct112 on Mar 5, 2009 3:54 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I tend to agree (I think).
Especially In this economy, when you’re shelling out in some cases a couple hundred bucks to watch this team, you have every right to boo poor effort. Poor results? Probably not as much.
But if you bust your tail to be able to buy tickets and make the game your chosen form of entertainment for the evening, the least you can expect is that the guys on the ice can put forth a decent effort as well.
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
by J.P. on Mar 5, 2009 3:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I personally never boo, but that’s me.
I agree with you, JP. Booing a loss is silly, but booing poor effort I can deal with. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who can’t tell the difference.
by David M. Getz on Mar 5, 2009 3:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I also don’t boo. But I’m not going to tell someone else how to cheer/jeer.
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
by J.P. on Mar 5, 2009 3:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
You are currently playing like absolute garbage. I am currently booing to show my displeasure with the garbage you are displaying.
I am not booing at the beginning of the next game ’cause you sucked last game.
by wittcap79 on Mar 5, 2009 4:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Totally legit to boo poor effort. Which is largely what caused the last two miserable defeats.
Big money, time spent getting to the game (and I should know — traveling 3 hours each way by train to go to a home game, which I do 5-10 times a year), and a fan expects effort. Not a result, but a hard fought game.
I fully appreciate that athletes aren’t machines and have off days as we all do at work. But I think if one were to, say, attend an arena concert, and spend $100 or more, and some dude forgets the lyrics or another how to play the guitar, would it be inappropriate for the paying public to, um, voice its displeasure?
There is a fine line between fairweather fandom and having heightened expectations, like Hershey Bears fans have and earned.
by Stephen Pepper on Mar 5, 2009 5:03 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Nicely said. I will never boo a team that I perceive as as working hard but losing to a superior opponent. I will always boo a more talented team that appears to be mailing it in. I don’t care what yoru record is, I pay for every game.
I know they are not machines, but that does not mean displeasure at a porr performance should not be expressed.
by urhockey22 on Mar 5, 2009 6:04 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Sell.
"Good crowd out there tonight, boys, let's really try to win this one."
by Bald Pollack on Mar 5, 2009 3:55 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Buy or sell criticizing the team on a blog?
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
by J.P. on Mar 5, 2009 3:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I was about to comment that what we do here is probably worse than booing at a game… :)
We loose the forest for the trees here at lot. “The sky is falling, two bad losses in a row.” Booing a bad period is the same thing as clapping for a great goal, its part of the heat of the moment. Our responses here about how terrible the team has been (while definitely in the heat of the moment) are more one sided than booing.
by Sct112 on Mar 5, 2009 3:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Oh most definitely buy. ;)
At the risk of bringing in (gasp!) soccer for a second, if DC United lays an egg (and God knows they laid plenty last year), the singing and chanting still goes on. You bitch about a missed opportunity, but you move on and pull for the next one. If it’s 90 minutes worth of crap, so be it. It’s the same for $20 MLS tickets or whatever the friggin’ cost of an English League game is now ($75ish?).
If you couldn’t tell, I don’t boo, but I’ll toss a cynical remark every so often, in between profanities at the opposition (I’m fun at games).
"Good crowd out there tonight, boys, let's really try to win this one."
by Bald Pollack on Mar 5, 2009 4:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Booing is bad form.
We all do it anyway.
Hypocrisy reigns supreme.
There is no “holier-than-thou”.
Pick SPG for your chance to win probably nothing.
by xiix on Mar 5, 2009 3:57 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Booing the refs, however, is always in style.
by Scott in Shaw on Mar 5, 2009 4:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
You can always boo bad effort. It’s one thing to lose because the other team is just “on.” It’s another to look like you don’t care.
by Gould Old Days on Mar 5, 2009 4:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
If the team didn’t show up to play, I don’t mind people booing to show their displeasure. They paid the money, they can do it.
What I DO mind are the people who boo when a power play has a bit of trouble or doesn’t score, or the team isn’t ahead as much as the fans think they should be. I mean, fans are booing a power play that doesn’t do anything when the Caps are up 2-3 goals! What the hell?
by Toddra on Mar 5, 2009 4:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I felt bad for the fans who maybe have come to one game, paid exhorbitant scalper prices and then got stuck with these last two stinkers. I never boo but I understand (I guess) why some feel the need. What I don’t like, in fact, what I hate is when they boo the first minute of the first powerplay because they’re having trouble keeping it in the zone. It’s right up there with yelling “shoot” everytime someone touches the puck.
by b.orr4 on Mar 5, 2009 4:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I agree with his assessment in part. I’ve been a Caps fan for a long time. This is undoubtedly the most exciting and promising era this franchise has ever had. For the first time, Capitals fans expect to win every game and realistically hope that we’ll win at least one Cup in the next few years. It’s awesome – we’ve waited a long time for this.
I sat in the stands Sunday and watched Florida take us apart. I booed a few times, too. I paid a lot of money to support a team and be entertained – money I shouldn’t really be spending right now. I booed because my beloved team was putting forth a bad effort. If I had been there and witnessed a hard fought loss, I wouldn’t have booed.
I love the Caps, but I hate this sentiment you hear from sportswriters, bloggers, etc. that criticizing or booing is somehow bad form. These aren’t Pop Warner football players out there for the ‘fun’ of the game. These are adult millionaires being paid with our hard earned money. I hate to sound like some whiny leftist class warrior here, but this is a business. As long as this club gives maximum effort, I’ll live and die with them and be entertained. I’ll give them a standing ovation if they give their all and are simply outclassed and fall in the playoffs. But a poor effort should always be booed and criticized. Especially now, when the team and the fans are so close to realizing the dream of a Cup. The Capitals earned the image of a hard-working club through years of doing things a certain way. Finally we have the world class talent to translate effort into a title.
Otherwise we can be Toronto, where the house is packed every night and the money is made, and mediocrity is accepted by both management and fans alike. Boo.
by Cap74 on Mar 5, 2009 4:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I'm buyin' on booin'
I agree with earlier commenters. If I spent all this money to buy one of the hottest tickets in town and the team is going play half ass and roll over and play down to a team they should be smackin’ around, I’m gonna let them know my displeasure. Besides, if we don’t boo and/or otherwise let this Caps team know that we expect better well then…I was going to say maybe they won’t get the message but I’m sure Coach B will not mince words to let them know they’ve been sucking.
We should hold this team (indeed, organization) to the highest standards, always. We should expect and demand nothing less than 100% effort in every game.
by ecouls1 on Mar 5, 2009 4:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
allowed to boo
it’s perfectly acceptable to boo for lack of effort or energy. i don’t buy the monetary aspect of it, the amount you pay to support your team isn’t as important as your effort to support your team. as a fan, you put out efort to cheer and be involved witht he game. if the team doesn’t live up to their end of the bargain, you have a right to acknowledge that fact.
i echo the sentiment that booing poor effort is vastly different than the neophtye fans booing lack of success on any given random power play, etc.
by CAPS NEWS NETWORK on Mar 5, 2009 4:27 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Sell
Personally I don’t boo my teams, and as someone who attends quite a few wizards games it isn’t cause I haven’t had good reason.
I really agree with this from Steinz:
Boo the NFL team when 6-2 turns into an 8-8 offensive morass. Boo the NBA team or the MLB team when they compete for their leagues’ worst records. I just think, after weeks and weeks of electricity, this particular hockey team deserves the benefit of doubt before the boos rain down. We all have bad days.
The caps are on the verge of doing something a team from this area hasn’t done in a long, LONG time. If a lack of effort continues past these last two games that’s one thing, but booing a few slip ups after the season they’ve given us seems a bit Philadelphia to me.
by Jay Jay on Mar 5, 2009 4:29 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
BUY! BUY! BUY!
These aren’t 7-year olds that need positive reinforcement to help their self-confidence. These are million dollar athletes paid for the sole purpose of entertaining us.
Win and the fans will go crazy with appluase, whistling and screaming themselves hoarse. They will chant your name. They will make clever signs about your heroics. They will shell out hundreds of dollars to buy shirts and jerseys with your name on their back.
Lose….and that’s what you get. Boos. Lots of them. From all sides. When you make a living performing a difficult task in front of 19,000 people, thems the stakes. If you don’t like it….find another job that will pay you $100,000 every two weeks for hitting a piece of frozen rubber with a stick.
And the boos will come for all aspects of play. Lose 5-1 to the last place team on your own home ice? Boo. Fire 2 shots on goal in 3 power plays? Boo!! Let a 10th place team score two consecutive short-handed goals while the defense is standing their watching? BOOOOO!!!
If I see a fan at a game when we are playing great sitting there not cheering, I assume they are not that into the game, team or both. So what about the fan sitting a game when we are playing poorly and not booing?
by Wisper on Mar 5, 2009 4:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I don’t buy booing on the basis of performance alone. The most common explanation for booing is that people want to get their money’s worth, and while I certainly understand that sentiment the fact is that if you’re forking over your money for a professional sporting event, you’re forking it over to watch the game, not to watch your team win. If someone wants something where the good guys always win they should spend it on a movie or a video game.
The reality is that every team is going to have games where they make a honest effort and lose because that’s just the way the world works. Ergo, as a paying customer and long time supporter of the team, I don’t think they owe me any more than an honest effort.
by David M. Getz on Mar 5, 2009 4:50 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I don’t think they owe me any more than an honest effort
Exactly, the time to boo is when the effort isn’t there. (1st against Florida, 2nd against Canes)
They have come to expect the fans to provide a certain atmosphere at the VC, and if 18000 of us showed up flat they would make a comment. When they show up flat, the only comment we can make is boo.
I use my boos sparingly, but there are definitely occassions that warrant it.
by Sct112 on Mar 5, 2009 4:55 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
But I expect that effort. Every game. I don’t expect to go undefeated, not even at home. But I do expect 100% effort 100% of the time. I’ve been to several of our losses this year that I still thought were great games (Jersey comes to mind). Entertaining as a spectator and respectable as a fan of the club. But you skate around lazy like you are doing us a favor by putting on that sweater with the eagles on the shoulders while Car-o-fucking-lina passes you like a bad raisin on their way to a 2nd Short-handed goal and you. deserve. to. be. booed. If not benched.
They earn their cheers with strong play. They earn their boos with laziness. (The refs don’t need to earn any of their boos… those are on the house)
by Wisper on Mar 5, 2009 5:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
We are definitely on the same page.
Perhaps someone needs to put up Joe DiMaggio’s famous quote in the Capitals locker room.
by David M. Getz on Mar 5, 2009 5:14 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
April 4th, 1951
“There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.” -Joe DiMaggio
Or did you mean:
I’d like to thank the good Lord for making me aYankeeCAPITAL.
by Wisper on Mar 5, 2009 5:19 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I was thinking of the first, but hey, they both work.
by David M. Getz on Mar 5, 2009 5:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I never boo although I sit 7 rows behind the bench and during one of these crappy games recently, I yelled “Stop sucking!”. I immediately felt bad about my less than constructive feedback but if I performed like this on a consistent basis, I’d expect to get fired! The Caps aren’t there yet but they need to pick it up. No one expects a win every night but focus and effort aren’t too much to ask.
by Lisita on Mar 5, 2009 4:34 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
We can't get our money back
I’m as excited about this Caps team as I have been about any professional sports franchise I’ve followed in the past 40 years. But they are young and have to learn that good fans pay good money to come to the rink and see a professional effort, whether its game 7 of the finals or Monday night against the Islanders (and that, btw, is how you get to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals). I didn’t boo, because I dropped $200 bucks to see the Caps w/ my kids and didn’t want to rain on their parade. But I was pretty p*ssed. It’s like my dad always said, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. If you’re team isn’t playing the game, boo.
by capsrus on Mar 5, 2009 4:39 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I have a pretty high booing threshold but given the past two games (4 goal periods against featured in both), I think it was merited.
And to comments like “Maybe that’s just the hockey way.” Well, thing is DC hasn’t had a true winner for years, so there is no comparison. But that’s still just an ignorant and stupid thing to say. Teams play like crap, they get booed. That is universal.
Russian Machine Never Breaks
by macvechkin on Mar 5, 2009 4:57 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Oh and this tripe:
But to boo what’s been by far the best team during a massive dry spell for D.C. sports,
WTF? Because the Redskins and Wizards suck we shouldn’t boo the Caps? What the hell does that have to do with the price of vodka in Russia? I don’t go to any Redskins or Wizards games because I don’t care about the damn Redskins and Wizards. Maybe they are winners. Maybe they are hard-working losers. Maybe they are bunch of degenerates. I have no idea. So what?
We are at a HOCKEY GAME. Why? Because we are HOCKEY FANS. And we cheer/boo what we feel deserves to be cheered/booed.
by Wisper on Mar 5, 2009 5:07 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Had Pho today
My co-worker got tripe in hers…ick.
by wittcap79 on Mar 5, 2009 5:17 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Well there are two ways to show displeasure with a sports team..
Boo or don’t buy tickets.
I’ll take the first one.
by CapitalsKremlin on Mar 5, 2009 5:19 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Kinda makes you a masochist, doesn’t it?
"Good crowd out there tonight, boys, let's really try to win this one."
by Bald Pollack on Mar 5, 2009 5:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Looking on the bright side, if you go, you will likely get to see some amazing players on other teams. Just ask Wizards fans who watch the Cavaliers come to town!
by CapitalsKremlin on Mar 5, 2009 5:41 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
OMFG!!!! You're not a real fan if you boo!!!
It’s touching how so many of our new fans have become hockey/fan experts in the last six months.
Recap:
—“1-2-3-4 IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT” is apparently tasteless
—Calling out/jeering individual players is an ignominious manifestation of disloyalty
—Booing the hometeam is a no-no
Stick it in your ear, assholes. If you actually gave a shit, you’d have been a fan through the hard times as well, but that’s just not fun, is it?
tictactoehockey.blogspot.com
by turnituptoeleven on Mar 6, 2009 6:27 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Who are you talking to? It seemed a pretty rational and reasoned discussion.
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
by J.P. on Mar 6, 2009 6:41 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Fandom itself is irrational; one follows the other.
I’m not directing the above vitriol at any one person, and certainly not anyone who’s commented on this thread. It’s like voting: You lose your right to complain when you don’t vote.
tictactoehockey.blogspot.com
by turnituptoeleven on Mar 6, 2009 6:49 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
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Southeast Standings
| GP | W | L | OTL | PT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Washington
|
59 | 41 | 12 | 6 | 88 |
|
Tampa Bay
|
57 | 25 | 21 | 11 | 61 |
|
Atlanta
|
57 | 25 | 24 | 8 | 58 |
|
Florida
|
58 | 24 | 25 | 9 | 57 |
|
Carolina
|
58 | 21 | 30 | 7 | 49 |
(updated 2.9.2010 at 9:00 AM EST)
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