Bruuuuuuce!

Sometime in 1975 or thereabouts my dad took me and some other Cub Scouts to the Cap Centre to watch Washington's hockey team play the Atlanta Flames. It was not memorable except that it was a giveaway day, and the team doled out wooden hockey sticks with the old Caps logo on a red stick. I think I broke the stick that week playing street hockey in the alley with Bobby Blanchard and Rusty Strasburger and it's now just another bric in the brac of my memory.

I'm not into autographs or collectibles, and most of the stuff they give away at pro sports games is cheap junk anyway. What we get out of going to games is that opportunity to be at a communal event with thousands of others. While the hassle of getting to sports venues often taints the entire experience (Redskins at Raljon), going to the Verizon Center on the Metro is by far a great journey, both bland in routine and giddy in anticipation for the event, lately the event being a Caps game.

So when I'm not lucky enough to get a ticket from my friends/family (thanks Kurt, Bill, Tim, Justin, and the boys at Meridian Construction), I get to watch it at home with the fam. And while we pretend to be knowitalls about a game NONE of us have ever played, we are unmatched in our knowledge of the nuances of the DC metro areas most talented dramatic actor, Bruce Boudreau:

Notice the timing as he leans back when he sees the "cup holder" here. OK for his first attempt.

Since he's a Canuck, listen for the "eh" here, at about 0:21. This one in particular is pretty lame, since there's not enough Bruce.

"There just aren't the words". Much better.

"I'm what you call 'fiscally conservative'." Definitely on the upswing.

and of course, "You HAD me at no problem." When we start mixing in pop culture references to popular movies, we're definitely trending upward.

The rest of his ads are nothing to shake a stick at.

Karen thinks I watch too much TV. Yathink?