Book cover art courtesy Potomac Books

Look I might be an intellectual, but I’m not much of a reader. Hence why when I go over to Redskins Insider for my daily visit, I generally get bored after the 6th straight paragraph about how much Carlos Rogers sucks. I just can’t help it, you know? I guess it’s ADD.

But there are some things that I will force myself to sit down and read. And one of them is the new book written by both Tim Leone and Capitals Head Coach Bruce Boudreau called “Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer.”

Over the summer, our friends at Japers Rink pretty much sold us on the book after the first teaser. But then JP shared with us 4 more (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) , and we pretty much wanted to drive to the nearest Barnes and Noble and rip through all the bookshelves until we found it. But alas, the book wasn’t going to be released until the upcoming October, so I decided to play the waiting game and just get it then.

Well months passed by, and I tried to keep the book in the back of my mind, but I kinda just forgot about it. Well, that is until our other friends at On Frozen Blog mentioned that Bruce Boudreau was having a book signing on December 21st after practice at Kettler.

Oh, if I didn’t work in Columbia, I could just drop on by during lunch!! But taking a 3.5 hr lunch break wasn’t going to fly especially with having to have 6 websites done by the end of the year. Sigh.

Well, a few days ago, I posed a question to my Twitter Followers. I asked them “What’s the Best Thing About Caps Fans?” And here are some of the responses:

• mcognac: @russianmachine the best thing about Caps fans are the pub crawls before the games!
• savvymomo5: @russianmachine caps fans are always energentic
• jessicalim: @russianmachine they aren’t Pens fans.
• enf1: @russianmachine How long we have suffered and how much we appreciate Ted, Ovie, Nicky et all: and winning! WE REALLY BELIEVE!
• hahahahbutt122: @russianmachine best thing:SOME ALMOST fail a semester in college by skipping class, studying, so they won’t miss a game!

These are all great reasons, but I thought this one really epitomized what Caps fans are really all about:

• natashajasso: @russianmachine Caps Fans R like a close knit family. Accepting to all who know hockey & those who are just discovering it for the 1st time.

Caps fans have always been nice to me. Like bend over backwards nice. When my family would take me to a hockey game at the old USAir Arena as a kid, I could strike up conversations with complete strangers. If you had a sweater and had up-to-date information about the team, it was easy to make new friends. And games at Verizon now, whenever Ovie scores, I have to high five everyone, even the guys to the left and right of me.

So after I saw the tweet from On Frozen Blog, I just threw it out there… Can anyone get me a signed copy of the book? Not only would I pay you back, I’d get offer you a free t-shirt from our T-Shirt Store. I really wanted the book bad, and a signed copy would be incredible!

Well, I got a few responses seconds after I put the tweet up.

The first person to respond was Addison Huber or @ahwahoo2006 on Twitter. So I thought it was only fair to let him do it. Anyways here’s his recap of what happened that day:

“I woke up late on Monday the 21st, and almost missed the tweet from @RussianMachine asking for help in obtaining Coach Boudreau’s book and autograph. I hadn’t actually heard anything about the event, but since I live a very short distance from Kettler, I immediately jumped on the opportunity. I told my roommate about it and he was all about getting some Christmas shopping done. So we strapped on our boots and headed out into the slowly melting leftovers from the Great Pre-Christmas Blizzard of Aught Nine. We arrived to Kettler just after the start time of 1230 and trudged upstairs to the signing area. BB was already hard at working signing books and other items and the line stretched almost to the back of the upstairs area. The mood was jovial and the line moved quickly. Soon we were in front of Coach and he gladly signed multiple copies of his book and my jersey. He was as nice as could be and easily conversed with fans as they had their items signed. I was afraid a lot of people were going to be there, since basically everyone was off because of the snow, but due to a lack of publicity there weren’t nearly as many people as I thought there were going to be. The result was that we got a lot of face time with Bruce and a good chance to see his softer side. ” – Addison Huber @ahwahoo2006

Addison priority mailed the book to me so that I got it before Christmas. And it was the best Christmas gift I got this year (don’t tell my girlfriend). Just an incredible gesture. Make sure to follow him on Twitter and Check out his Photos from the event.

So I hope you know that not only are you rooting for an incredibly wonderful hockey team and owner, you also are part of one of the best caches of fans in the entire Country. Make sure you realize that. Ted would never make your grandma cry!

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