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.

Sell.

Booing is bad form.
We all do it anyway.
Hypocrisy reigns supreme.
There is no “holier-than-thou”.

Booing the refs, however, is always in style.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Well there are two ways to show displeasure with a sports team..

Boo or don’t buy tickets.

I’ll take the first one.

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?

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.