Abe Pollin | RMNB

On this date in history, the Capitals played their inaugural game in Washington DC at MCI Center. They beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 in overtime.

Twenty-three years ago to the day, the Washington Capitals officially left USAir Arena in Landover, Maryland, and played their first game at the MCI Center in Washington DC. Vice-president Al Gore and his wife Tipper were among the 19,740 in attendance.

The Capitals defeated the Florida Panthers 3-2 on December 5, 1997, after bottom-six forward Jeff Toms scored unassisted in overtime. The game marked Toms’ sixth with the Caps since being claimed that November from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“We got a bounce at the blueline and then I used my speed to beat Laus,” Toms said to a much-younger Mike Vogel after the game. “Being picked up by Washington is the best thing that’s ever happened in my career.”

(more…)

By Ian Oland 2 years ago

0 Comment

Horse Named After Alex Ovechkin Gives Former Bullets Owner First-Ever Champion at 92

Horse Named After Alex Ovechkin wins Maryland Millions

Sylvia Heft poses with jockey Sheldon Russell and her husband Arnold Heft in the winner’s circle. (Photo credit: Karl Merton Ferron)

Craig Brownstein of PuckBuddys writes for Russian Machine Never Breaks.

Next to the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, the biggest day on the Free State’s racing calendar is a championship series for horses who claim a pedigree connected to Maryland stallion.

Eighttofasttocatch, the horse named after the Russian Machine, is shown here before the race. (Photo credit: Kim Hairston)

In its 26th renewal Saturday, the feature race, the Maryland Million Classic, was won by a runner who claims Russian ancestry. Eighttofasttocatch, a four-year-old chestnut gelding, was named after Caps Captain Alex Ovechkin. “Catcher” is a well-regarded race horse campaigned by Arnold Heft (an NBA ref back in the day), former co-owner of the Bullets who purchased the team along with Abe Pollin in 1964.

According to the official chart of the race, he dragged his feet a little bit in the early going, only to thunder down the stretch to win by nearly two lengths. He “gathered momentum leaving the half mile marker, moved to collar the leader approaching the stretch, kicked clear in upper stretch, responded to solid right hand pressure (a.k.a. the whip) leaving the eighth pole, drifted out slightly near the sixteenth pole and held sway.” That sounds an awful lot like the last half of the Caps 2010-2011 regular season and playoff run, all except for the holding sway part, of course.

(more…)

By Craig Brownstein 11 years ago

0 Comment