I posted another excerpt! This one's in honor of the Stanley Cup Playoffs

The final round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs is set to begin on Monday, May 27, between the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues. Eliminated in the previous three rounds were: the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Las Vegas Golden Knights, Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, and San Jose Sharks.

That’s a lot of sad hockey teams!

This excerpt is one of my favorite chapters in Seeking the Center. I’m posting it in honor of all the teams that have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs—or from tournaments anywhere, of any kind. You can find it here, or go to the “excerpt” page of this website.

I hope you enjoy it! And I would love to hear about your experiences in elimination tournaments in the comments below, if it’s not too traumatic for you ;) … and no matter what your experience is, you know it’s more impressive than mine—I was eliminated before I even began!

Thanks for reading and responding!

P.S. I plan to post an audio version of this excerpt within the next week or so.

I saw Stanley!!!

On June 7, my team, the Washington Capitals, won the Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League's championship trophy. It was the first time the team has won it in its forty-four-year history. It was a big deal. 

The Stanley Cup itself is amazing. It was originally commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup by Lord Stanley of Preston, then Governor-General of Canada, making it one of the oldest, if not the oldest, existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise. (Incidentally, the championship trophy of the National Women's Hockey League, the Isobel Cup, was named after Lord Stanley's daughter, who played the game herself and encouraged her father to commission the Stanley Cup. The Metropolitan Riveters won the Isobel Cup this spring.)

Another thing that makes the Stanley Cup special is that the league does not make a new one each year. Instead, the winning team keeps the trophy over the summer, and each player gets an opportunity to bring it to their hometown or another special place to share and show off with their fans, friends, and family. In addition, the names of the winning team members are engraved on the Cup, so they are forever part of its history. Adding all these names - and the silver to accommodate them - means that the trophy is quite large: about three feet high and thirty-five pounds. The Cup is legendary - the chants "We Want Stanley!" and "We Want the Cup!" are de rigueur among NHL teams. During the playoffs this  year I saw fan carrying a sign that read, "My cup size is Stanley." Uh, LOL.

The Stanley Cup is extremely difficult to win. After a grueling 82-game season, the top sixteen teams duke it out in the playoffs. The winners ultimately make their way through four best-of-seven rounds, or up to 28 additional games, in order to win the trophy. After all that hockey, most players are injured to some degree. 

When the Washington Capitals won the Cup a week ago, they carried it around the city to share it with fans - on sidewalks, in bars, on rooftops, in fountains. Yesterday the team paraded down Constitution Avenue and I was there, with, I don't know, probably 100,000 or so of my closest friends. Weather-wise, it was an uncharacteristically gorgeous day for DC in June. Here are a few photos.

DC looked amazing! The streets were festooned with banners and flags.

Um, a lot of people showed up. Most of them were wearing jerseys or t-shirts in the Caps' color, red. Or as we say, they were "rocking the red."

Fatima al Ali, a hockey player from the United Arab Emirates, was befriended by Caps alum & former star Peter Bondra and has come to Washington more than once as part of the Capitals' "Hockey Is for Everyone" program.

There were Capitals dignitaries, including beloved television play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati and color commentator (and former Caps player) Craig Laughlin. These guys make every broadcast a treat!

Philipp Grubauer, one the Capitals' goaltenders, hopped off one of the busses and ran a lap draped in the District of Columbia's flag, high-fiving fans.

And finally, bringing up the rear, the save-the-best-for-last bus. Seems like we waited forever - you could see the tantalizing gleam of silver when it was still blocks away.  Atop the bus: (L to R) Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik pointing at the crowd, beer in hand; center Nicklas Bäckström; and Captain & winger Alex Ovechkin holding Stanley above his head in iconic fashion. Caps owner Ted Leonsis is visible through the crook of Ovi's arm.