Benjamin's First Caps Game

The Caps played the Calgary Flames today at Verizon Center. Today also marked a very important milestone: Benjamin's first live Capitals game. He's four and a half year's old and has been following the Caps with me and has been really into it this year. He loves listening to the goal horn when the Caps score on TV, his favorite player is Alex Ovechkin and he's got a couple red jersey shirts plus a cool Caps hat. When it comes to gear, Daddy will take care of him.

We got to Verizon Center before warm ups so I was able to take some pictures from the Club Level, section 215. Both of us liked watching both teams practice skills and Benjamin was thrilled to see his hockey hero in person for the first time.

The experience was great despite the Caps losing the game 5-3 to the Flames. He got to meet a couple of my friends who are regulars at Caps games. He saw the sea of red jerseys and shirts the Caps fans were wearing all over the arena. Plus, for the first time he got to experience "UNLEASH THE FURY!", which is the Caps rallying cry on the video screen.

Despite the Caps loss, Benjamin had a blast and wants to go back. We got our tickets from a friend of ours. I've also purchased tickets off the Caps Season Ticket Holders Exchange. We will probably do that again next year as this is the hottest ticket in town. The Caps have sold out over 50 straight home games and there is a season ticket waiting list. That's great!

Here are some of the 125 pictures I took from Section 215. Click for a larger image.

Benjamin hanging out before the game.


Caps goalie Jose Theodore during warm ups.


Alex Ovechkin, Mike Knuble and Alex Semin share a laugh during warm ups.


Alex Ovechkin: Benjamin's favorite player.


Alex Ovechkin practicing a tip drill before the end of warm ups.


Pair of Captains: Jerome Iginla of Calgary and Alex Ovechkin of Washington


Caps on the move...


This sequence led to a Calgary goal. Caps D was nowhere to be found


Caps Defenseman Joe Corvo decides to try to pop Calgary RW David Moss but it led to a goal for the Flames.


Caps Mike Knuble being surrounded by three Calgary Flames.


Couple scraps here. Game got chippy when the Caps were down 4-0.




Caps Mike Green and Flames Eric Nystrom collide.


Mathieu Perreault, called up from Hershey, faces off vs Calgary's Mikael Backlund


Traffic in front of Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov.


Caps Head Coach Bruce Boudreau is not pleased with the way the game was going. Final score was Calgary 5, Caps 3.


Faceoff


Calgary on the move...