The Alexander Ovechkin show comes to town...Thrashers vs Caps

I was excited that Washington was coming to town, I had yet to take pictures of them. Our first game was against them, but I couldn't be in enemy territory on opening night! They were here March 16, but I had a special St. Patrick's Day Moose sign and wouldn't miss being in the Thrashers end for warm ups. So finally, I'm down in the Caps' side for warm ups.




I was most excited to see Mike Green, the NHL's leading scoring defensemen. I saw him on NHL Network's Day In the Life and had been crushing on him ever since. He wasn't here in March either.






Mike Green rocking the mohawk.

Getting ready to shoot some pucks.

More warm ups.

Looking a bit like a mouth-breather.

Down fall of tracking Mike Green???? I missed Steckel. I really wanted to get some pictures of him because he's HOT! I was too caught up in the Mike Green show and this was all I got :(

Of course there is no doubt who most people were here to see, some Russian guy named Alexander.












Oh wait, no not THAT Russian guy named Alexander. So they have this dude and he's supposed to be pretty good. Maybe you've heard of him. He does really bad commercials.
http://thrashers.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=656&id=39118






Supah-stah








Ovie doing a skate by.






Stretching











Waiting for the puck in warm ups.







In addition to making bad commercials, Ovy can't seem to keep his tongue in his mouth. I wonder if that is his "hot stick" he's using.








It's a well documented fact that Shauna loves Russians. I call her Mother Russia. Mother Russia is in heaven here. V. Kozlov, Ovechkin and Semin all at her feet.










Boys are yucky. Ovechkin proves here he's just a yucky boy. Mother Russia approves.











Ovie cleaned himself up for a respectable picture with Mother Russia.










I see you seeing me, Moose. Don't worry, it's just for the pictures. I'm still your #1fan and not in a creepy "Misery" way. No need to be jealous.











Hi. I'm Jose Theodore and I'm smoking hot.






In addition to starting goal tender Jose Theodore, Washington brought along Simeon Varlamov to mind their net. Simeon has been getting a lot of praise lately and is thought by many to be a possible bright spot in Washington's goal tender woes.

Our starting goalie, Kari Lehtonen is out with an injury. My Moose has been playing and has done a great job. They thought it would be a good time to bring up Ondrej Pavelic and see what he could do. The Kari vs Ondrej vs Moose debate has split fans in to various camps the last few seasons. Pavs was up earlier in the season while Kari was out for injury (unrelated to current reason). Pavs wasn't stellar, but neither was the team in front of him. With the Thrashers playing better, maybe Pavs would have a better time.

So we had Battle of the baby goalies!!!



Simeon Varlamov
6'1''
183lbs
Age: 20






Ondrej Pavelic
6'2''
200lbs
Age: 21







I was in the Capitals end for warm up, so I have more pictures of Simeon.
Varlamov facing some shots.











Minding the net.










I'm not sure if it was because Moose had the night off or what, but he looks like he is up to something here. It was very funny. First he is shooting the puck like normal. Then he starts to wince, then he has that "oh shit" look on his face. Maybe he hit someone.






Peverley: Is that your girl over there in the Washington zone?
Moose: Yes.
Peverley: Why is she over ther.
Moose: She just likes to take pictures of the different teams.
Peverley: Seems if she was such a big fan, she'd always want to be over here.
Moose: Shut up.

Ex: Is that your girl over there?

Moose: Yes.

Ex: Why is she over there?

Moose: To get a better shot of me.

Ex: Oh...cool. That's not what Pevs said.

Moose: Shut up.

So the warm ups are over. That is the fastest 16 minutes in the history of the world. I'm lucky enough to have my company's corporate seats. Not only are they great seats, you get to eat the premium food! I head over to the Buckhead Life Restraunt's Nava, an upper scale southwestern place. My favorite is the smoked chicken nachos. How I will miss you in the off season!

We are getting ready for the National Anthem and the youth hockey player for the game comes out. He is so teeny tiny he can barely skate. The ref guides him out and props him up next to Colby Armstrong. The little guy can barely stay up. Colby helps him the whole time and then guides him off the ice. In the last picture he is practically carrying him by the shirt. SO cute.

Face off

Pavs waiting for some action

A shot of Hainsey, Bogo and Bobo in the box.

Funniest sign EVER! Our Thorburn has grown quite the fro lately and I've been wondering if he's trying to give Scotty Hartnell a run for his money.

Pavs taking a break between play.

Capitals taking some action to our end.

For our first intermission, we had a group of kids who were doing sled hockey for the first time. Instructing them was a member of the Bronze Medal Team USA. Very cool!

Varlamov waiting for the action. We were great in the 2nd period and we would actually make him work.

Action

Dear God, please let me get a goal.

Hainsey doing his third period stretch. Same time, same place every single game.

Pavs is back on this end.

Slava Kozlov

So we are down 4 to 2 and we try the last ditch effort of pulling the goalie. Pavs and Moose are watching the team scramble to try and score.

Moose: See Pavs, after a few seasons, the pain starts to numb.

Pavs: I see now.

So Thrashers lose 4-2. Battle of the baby goalies didn't go so well for Pavs. He had a very awkward first period, but seemed to warm up. I thought it was a little unfair to "see what he could do" in front of Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green along with the rest of the Washington Capitals, one of the best teams in the east. Hopefully Pavs will shake it off and live up to our hopes.

Varlamov was great. He seemed very confident and made some key saves.

Go Thrashers!