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Peter’s favorite things of 2023

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I don’t know what the Washington Capitals’ record was in the calendar year of 2023, and I’m not going to look it up. Okay, I looked it up; it’s 31-35-11.

Thus it is true that 2023, like all years, was a bad year, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t contain happy things. I’d like to know what happy things there were for you. I’ll start by sharing my favorite things of 2023.

Favorite Caps Player

I was in anguish about this for a while, but then it came to me with perfect clarity. It’s Dylan Strome. Putting aside that he led the Caps in goals this year, by a lot (five more than Ovi, jesus), Strome is a great sports story: wasted in Arizona, unappreciated in Chicago, and then blossoming in Washington. He ranks 11th among all forwards in expected goals above replacement, and if not for hilarious shooting luck he’d be lighting up the boxcars too. Strome is only 26; he’s got a lot of great years ahead of him, and I’m so glad he’s on this team.

Favorite Non-Caps Player

This is maybe too edgy, but give me Joe Pavelski. The 39-year-old still plays, nominally but not entirely, on the top line of the Dallas Stars, next to Roope Hintz and the sublime Jason Robertson. Pavelski has had lots of peaks and valleys in his career, but his golden years have been tremendously effective – defensively reliable and a points factory for his partners. To me, Pavelski is proof that older players can still be difference-makers when given the right support. Yes, that’s subtext. Err, now I guess now it’s just text.

Favorite Caps game

Unfortunately, Washington’s 9-2 win over Montreal with Ovechkin’s hat trick came last New Years Eve, so I can’t count that. Ironically, the game I’ll remember most fondly was from the middle of the team’s terrible January. They went down three goals to the Islanders, and then – because they have an ounce of self-respect – kept pushing. They scored four unanswered goals to win, but look at who scored those goals.

That was Nicklas Backstrom, one week and change returned from injury, assisting Tom Wilson, one week and change returned from injury. And the tying goal in the third period came from TJ Oshie. It’s really really unlikely we’ll ever see a game with goals from both Oshie and Backstrom again, so I’ll treasure this one.

Favorite Caps play

I suppose I could pick any of Ovechkin’s goals from the Ovi Spot, all of which came in the first four months of the calendar year. There was also Oshie’s ridiculous stick-handling skills or Kuznetsov’s silly shootout goals. But I’m going to pick a play that made upset in the moment, but knowing it turned out alright I’m fine with it now. In April, at the very end of the season, Charlie Lindgren tried to make a save with his bare hands. Typically, in ice hockey, goalies have protective equipment over their hands. Lindgren did not. If I lost my equipment in a situation where vulcanized rubber might come at me at 100 miles per hour, I’d call my mom. Lindgren didn’t call his mom; he put his naked hand in front of a speeding puck.

Reckless, unwise, and pretty bad-ass. Don’t ever do it again.

Favorite RMNB Story

I cannot pick any of my own stories because I’m in capable of feeling accomplished. Still, this one was easy. Evgeny Kuznetsov still does two things well: shootout goals and pullquotes. Kuznetsov’s pace on shootout attempts is glacial, and he knows how annoying that is for goalies. “When you drive slower, you troll (the goaltender) a little bit,” he said earlier this season. That’s a translation, but I like to think he specifically used whatever the Russian verb for troll is. The fact that Kuznetsov is such a compelling player even with everything else going wrong makes me appreciate him all the more, and it frustrates me extra when I think we are near the end with him.

Evgeny Kuznetsov on his slow shootout move: ‘It irritates the goalkeeper and everyone, right? By the time it’s banned, I’ll be retired.’

I also want to add that I’m continually impressed by RMNB’s news coverage, which I have little personal involvement with these days. The writers always go a step beyond what I expect. There’s added context and history and perspective that I think is really valuable. I could go on and on about this, but I’ll spare you.

Favorite RMNB Tweet

No explanation needed. Explore the replies. RIP Twitter.

Favorite Podcast

In the hockey realm, it’s You Can’t Do That, who show us that being a sports fan doesn’t mean you have to participate in the same, tedious, cliche-ridden, sport-talk-radio discourse all the time. They won’t say this on the pod, which is mostly stupid jokes, but I know they know it: you get to choose how you want to be a fan. The predominant sports culture will try to enforce its norms and postures, but you can resist it and find whatever the right thing is for you. Also, I like the stupid jokes.

Outside hockey, I loved Blowback, who this year detailed America’s project in Afghanistan from like the 1950s until now. (The “now” part will knock you out.) Like most my age, I’ve lost people I care about to that adventure, so I think of it as kind of my obligation to understand it better.

Favorite Music

There were two excellent rap albums this year: Earl Sweatshirt’s Voir Dire with The Alchemist, and JPEGMAFIA’s Scaring the Hoes with Danny Brown. On the heavy side, Tomb Mold’s The Enduring Spirit was a lot of fun. Sleep Token’s Take Me Back to Eden has to be up there; they’re fascinating. But my favorite is Periphery V: Djent is a Not a Genre. P5 sounds fantastic – the drums were recorded at Peter Gabriel’s studio – and the riffs are solid as always, but what I really love is how the band always pushes against the edges of their sound. “Fat Dracula” has a bass so deep and powerful that it needs loud speakers to totally experience, “Wax Wings” has more of the wonderfully inventive guitar work of Mark Holcomb, and “Atropos” is one of the most interesting songs they’ve made so far.

(My musical project, Late-Night Delivery, released five EPs, one full-length album, and one Christmas single this year. My favorite song I made was either “Our Horrible Home” or “Follow That Butterfly.”)

Favorite Movie

It sure wasn’t anything from the MCU, which aside from Guardians was a huge letdown. I had a blast at Barbie, and I wish Hollywood made more movies like The Holdovers. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a big surprise and delighted me. I saw Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse four times. But my favorite is Killers of the Flower Moon, also the longest movie I’ve ever watched in a theater, and I didn’t have to get up to pee even once.

In a few years, people will look back at Killers and say it’s Scorcese’s meanest and most-unflinching examination of American evil. It fits perfectly into the canon beside Goodfellas and Casino, except these criminals here are even dumber and even crueler.

Favorite TV Show

I’ve been a fan of Boots Riley’s work since I was in high school, so I was a perfect target for I’m A Virgo. I don’t know if it’s brilliant that Riley snuck such an anti-corporate message onto Amazon Prime or if it’s just that capitalism coopts and commodifies its own criticism. I hope it’s not the latter or else we’re all screwed. Virgo is funny and sweet and weird. Jones is my favorite character.

Honorable mentions to I Think You Should Leave (“I actually want go to Haunted House more than I want to go Aqua”) and The Bear, whose “Forks” episode was the most inspiring half hour of the year – and it had as much to say about the theory of alienation as Virgo did.

Favorite Book

I’m really bad at reading new books. I’m always a couple years behind. I’m burning through the Chronicles of the Black Company series, and that’s like 40 years old. On the non-fiction side, I think Easy Money by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman was the best, most human telling of the historic scam that is crypto – and infinity times better than Michael Lewis’ pitiful offering. On the fiction side, I loved Translation State by Ann Leckie. State is a surreal space adventure, but it’s also an unsentimental examination of what it means to be human, and how our identities aren’t ever fixed.

I also really enjoyed the new Murderbot book and the bits of Amber A’Lee Frost’s Dirtbag I’ve read so far.

Favorite Video Game

With apologies to Tears of the Kingdom, I have to give the crown to Baldur’s Gate 3, a one-of-a-kind gaming experience that I didn’t think was possible.

My forest gnome / college-of-lore bard was named Craeg, and he had the face of Alex Ovechkin with black-and-white face tattoos so he looked like he was in the band Ghost. He was a whiz outside of combat, but he needed Wyll’s eldritch cannons and Astarion’s twin daggers to survive a fight. Craeg had a romantic relationship with Shadowheart, but he was BFFs with Karlach, and he would follow her into the gates of Avernus if he had to. What a special game that was. Thanks to all the Crashers in the RMNB Discord who shared their BG3 journeys with me too.

I’d like to formally wish you a happy new year. What were your favorites of the year that was?

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