Perhaps it's overkill, as there are already two threads that address this game (Sloan/Laing/Varly & GDT), but I thought it would be nice to have a place for the Japers' road crew to brag gloat share their experiences.

First and foremost, THANK YOU to beta and Addison H. for making this happen.  There's a lot of steps between "We should do this!" and "We've done it!" and they followed them all.  Thanks kids, and well done.

Secondly, I owe everyone an apology for not quite getting anyone the John Walton experience I was hoping for.  I hope we get a chance to go up to Hershey again - I'll strive to make it go a little more smoothly.

Thirdly, this experience was teh awesome.  From the flashing "Bears Game SOLD OUT" sign in the Giant Center parking lot, to the Coach Boudreau book signing line stretching 'round the GC concourse for two and a half periods, to Matty Perreault's FOUR goal game, this night was special. 

I must say, however, the alternate Caps jerseys kinda freaked me out.  Looky! There's #10 Matt Brad...er, Andrew Gordon.  And hey! That's #17 Chris Clar...no, that's Chris Bourque.  Over there, #22 Mike Knuble is stretching out.  Except it's really Francois Bouchard.    Hey #28...are we getting Good Sasha Semin or Bad Boyd Kane tonight?  And finally, who are the jokers in the Laing and Sloan jerseys? Prolly some clowns up from Charlotte.

A few observations on the game -

• It was better that Varly didn't play this game.  He would have been bored silly.  The final shot differential was 50-24, and it wasn't really even that close.  Plus I came up to see Holtby.
• The Bears' 10-11-12 top line flying down the ice must have been a terrifying sight to the Sound Tigers, as they froze in their tracks every time it happened.
• Related: when I'm looking up articles in the Swedish press, googletrans does something goofy with whatever the Swedish word for "defenseman" is and translates it as "crate."  Bridgeport brought a lot of crates with them tonight - they must've left their actual defensemen at the hotel. Or possibly they were still drying out at Sheetz.
• Where do I go to look up the faceoffs?  I'm not sure the Tiggers won any.
• I'll think of more later but am done for now.  Thanks again to the organizers, and it is always great to meet my Rinkbuddies.  Go Caps, go Bears, and GO USA GO!