Photo credit: @typicalsquirrel
On September 15th, Gary Bettman and NHL owners locked out its players. One other prominent item began a lockout of its own: Sam Wolk’s horn.
Sam, a Washington Capitals superfan known for his loud tooting during games, left his famous prop at home for the entirety of the 115-day labor impasse. On December 6th when the Hershey Bears took on the Norfolk Admirals at the Verizon Center, Wolk came out to Verizon Center to support the Capitals’ minor league affiliate. The horn did not.
“It just wouldn’t be right to do it during a Bears game,” Wolk told me on the phone at the time. “It’s only for the Capitals. The day the NHL lockout’s over, the horn will end its lockout too.”
Well this morning, Washington’s Fox 5 had Sam, his horn, and several other Caps fans on their morning show to help promote the Capitals first home game of the season against the Winnipeg Jets. There was even some horn blowing.
Tonight will mark the first time in 258 days — or 36 weeks and 6 days — that Capitals hockey will be played at Verizon Center. Unfortunately, there will be no tooting tonight.
“I regret that I am unable to attend tonight’s home opener, but I’ll be back in action on Thursday against the Habs,” Sam told us. His message to Caps fans was this: “Be loud, be proud, and enjoy the return of hockey.”
Excuse me while I go have an existential crisis. Anyways, we can all overcome this. Everybody just play the below video at the same time tonight at random parts of the game, and it’ll be like he’s there!
LETS! GO! CAPS!
