That's fine...they'll all jump off the bandwagon now

the caps had the 7th WORST attendence this year in the nhl, you left out bandwagon when you mentioned hockey town, and yeah that was tasteless throwing trash like that in the manner that they did, theres respect at the end of a playoff series in the nhl that real hockey fans understand but we are talking about caps fans, but they did pay insane prices for tickets to see their team lose on home ice i quess they were upset, Go Flyers

Problem is that since the DC hockey fans are so fair-weather that they dont know how to respect the fact that two evenly matched teams (they were separated by 1 point in the regular season) played their hearts out in a tough 7 game series. I am a Flyers fan, but it was a good series by both teams. Shame on those who felt it necessary to recycle their garbage by throwing it on the ice. Jeff Carter didnt tell the refs not to call goalie interference when Thoresen went for the puck in front of the net and happened to check his man into the goalie. I still think that they called that play right anyway. Go Flyboys!

I must have missed that second "questionable" call.... And that was tasteless, however, I do remember a Flyers fan nailing Buffalo Coach Lindy Ruff in the ear when we WON.... so..... can't quite complain about that. That said...
GO FLYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ Everyone -- The bandwagon comment is legit, but I think it should be noted that the Capitals have sold 3,000 new season tickets during this run. So the fan base is growing.
@Krammer -- The first questionable call was when Huet was knocked over by his own defenseman. The second was a tripping call in overtime when it appeared the refs had put their whistles away. I tend to agree with both calls, but Capitals fans clearly didn't.

Remind to Caps fans, the Flyers sweep you if the refs stop the play in game one when Thorsen was hurt on the ice during the Caps powerplay. The refs also ensured the caps won game 6 with three bad calls in a row at the end of the game. The refs were bad all series, but in the end the better team won. The Flyers should have been on the powerplay because Sami was clearly tripped as he was about to break out at full speed 2-1 a minute earlier. The non-call on the second Flyers goal was correct - at least it was to me cause I love my Flyers!
Hey diver boy AO - FORE! And stop celebrating every goal like you just won game 7 in OT - karma sucks huh.

Don't give a crap about what's best for the NHL anymore, it certainly isn't what's best for hockey..
I think it's great the Caps fans were PO'd and threw stuff on the ice after the game... That means they weren't celebrating a win! Besides, the OV show was getting a little sickening...

two questionable calls?! cmon, grow up you crybabies. both teams got screwed this series so many times. stop acting like you are the victims and who cares anyway, all your fans are bandwagon fans.

There wasn't a penalty to be called on the second goal. Thoreson legally checked the Cap player who then plowed over Huet, how is that a penalty? If the majority of Caps fans would have been watching hockey for more than the last 4 weeks they would know this. And someone needs to remind Poti there is no crying in hockey. You can't blatantly trip players in OT and expect it to not get called.

Probably the most exciting series in the first round. Two evenly matched teams playing some great hockey. Flyers taught the Caps what post season play was all about and the Caps were quick learners bringing the series to game 7 after Philly was unable to hold a two game lead.
Bad calls? We can go through the what-if's all night long. The simple fact is had Federov kept his stick on the ice for the pass from Ovie the game would've been over. Give Biron his due - he played a great 3rd period.
Caps fan classless? Doubtful - a philly fan dumped his beer on Leonsis' kid in game 6. That's classless. All teams have their 10% so don't paint "all" fans with the same brush.
I'm a Caps fan and I wish Philly all the luck against MOntreal. See ya next season!

How can you say that R-rated chants are worse that throwing things? This would have been a lead story if it happened in Philadelphia. Face it, Washington is a lame sports town across the board, 80% of the residents are from somewhere else. The only team they really support is the foreskins. The refs were terrible on both sides in this series. They can cry all they want, Ovechkin is good, but he is a hot dog just like Reyes for the Mets, when guys like that go down either by injury or a game 7 loss...IT FEELS GOOD.

I agree with Leeds # 11 - if those clueless Caps fans watched the replay, they will see that Thoreson never entered the crease, and never touched Huet. Stop crying about the officiating and deal with the fact that the next great one, Alex O, will be watching the rest of the playoffs on TV.

i cant believe caps fans are complaining about the calls, oh my god if anymore went their way they would have won by default. as for the league missing its chance for the dream series it tried like hell in my opinion to get to that series. but the flyers pulled it out so how about just saying congrats on a great series win instead of crying about it. to all my fellow flyer fans congrats and lets go flyers

kcscpa_19064 - not to beleaguer this issue anymore but a similar play happened during the Caps/Lightning's last meeting. Fleischman checked a defenseman into Ramo (didn't even knock Ramo down) and then received a pass and scored. The goal was waived off and the refs explained the call was "the goalie was interfered with and unable to recover". Same play called two different ways (both against the Caps). But it wasn't what lost the game.
Regardless - great series and congrats on the win.

I seem to remember us Caps fans being told we needed to "toughen up" after being shocked at the R-rated chants at the Wachovia Center. So we get tough - and now we're being berated for showing some emotion after such a heartbreaking loss - get over it, this is the NHL and I shudder to think what would have happened to Caps players and fans if we would have won the series there. If you want to talk about classless fans, you don't have to look farther than Philly - at least we don't boo our own players and maybe we should talk about the Eagles?
One more thing - go ahead and talk trash about Ovechkin all you want - you're just jealous and we all know it. I don't see much difference between his celebrations and Briere's fist pumps. Good luck with Montreal - you're going to need it.

goaltender interference was the most inconsistently-called penalty of the series. there were plenty of quentionable calls and no-calls both ways. overall, though, the series was well-officiated and extremely well-played by both teams. and this is coming from a die-hard caps fan.
to the people who keep saying that ovechkin got every single call, please give it a rest. there were points during the regular season where he got an extra one in his favor here and there, but you expect that with a great player (not to say it's justified, it just happens in every sport). during the playoffs, however, he received no special treatment.
the series could have gone either way. caps fans should be excited about this young team, and philly should be excited about moving on. it's nice to renew this once-great rivalry.

I thought the issues weren't the calls themselves (questionable as they were), but the horrid inconsistency and officiating dictating the momentum of the games. Too bad. And seriously, buck up on the beer bottle - first off it's plastic, and second, eagle fans throw batteries for crying out loud. Let's not even get into soccer fans.

Jealous?!?!?!?!?!? Our Flyers are still playing, while Ovie is looking to see if there's still time to join the Russian dive team for the Beijing Olympics.
Philadelphia fans are classless? When was the last hockey game you went to in Philly. F*** Ovechkin is not something I care to hear nor do I want my kids hearing it. But it is not even in a league with throwing trash at your opponents. From the video, it looks like the Caps can track down who did it at least to a seat number. If its a season ticketholder, I hope they yank the tickets and press charges.
Talk about the Eagles - what throwing snowballs something like 20 years ago? Or the Broad St. Bullies from 30 years ago? Philly is the most passionate sports town in the US but visitors still get treated a hell of a lot better than what we saw last night.
By the way, that stinging sensation the caps are feeling today - its razor burn! Have a nice shave and dust off your clubs.

I am sick of Philly fans saying, "We really swept the Caps because our guy got hurt in game one and the refs should have stopped the game so that goal shouldn't count." Uhh.. even if that Goal wasn't scored ,there was still 13 1/2 minutes to go in the game. Still lots of time... This was a great 7 game series which could have went either way. Good Luck in Montreal, and Go Caps in 08-09!!!

There are two bottom lines to this series: (1) there are embarrassing and vulgar fans in every city - Philly is no worse than any other town - and anybody who throws batteries, transistor radioes, iceballs, or beer bottles is classless; and (2) the poor officiating indeed went both ways and did not "give" the series to the Flyers. I can recall several times during the series when I marvelled that calls either were made or were not made on both sides of the puck. I am a Flyers' fan, and I recognize a possible bias, but I sure did see a lot of times where Ovechkin took clear dives that should be beneath a player of his caliber. I remember the first trip on Kapanen last night in OT that wasn't called, and it was a clear scoring chance. The second call had to be made - and I didn't notice any plays of the Flyers that should have been penalized in OT. The bottom line is that two good teams played each other, and either one of them could have won. The Caps are a great team - loaded with talent - and either side would appropriately have breathed a sigh of relief to beat the other. Fans ought to take a lesson from the way the teams shake hands after the game - and you can actually seem the being polite and nice with each other - even laughing, patting each other on the back. That's the way fans with class act, too.

The Flyers outplayed the Caps for the better part of the series. Ovechkin is a diving bum, how you could root for him is beyond me.
The "great" Caps fans could not fill their arena until they hopped on the bandwagon at the end of the year.
Justice was served. The better fans cheered the better team, and they are advancing as well.
As far as "vulgar" Philly fans, give em a break. That is everywhere you go, and it is lazy national sports reporters who continue to conjure up items from the past. Why don't they get off their lazy butts and go write about today, not items from 20, 30, 40 years ago.
As far as the officiating goes - all I have to say to the Caps fans is "kharma". When you fake enough calls for you, some will go against you. Welcome to the playoffs boys, have fun playing golf, it is a nice day out to start your season.

Seriously.... Philly deserved it because the same thing would've happened in Philly if the Caps had won the series there. Philly fans are the worst.... its too bad we couldnt throw trash on the fans because thats who really deserves it. They booed the Flyers at the end of game 6.... i mean come on, there was still one more game to play and they won. Why is this? because Philly fans are classless pieces of ****

Jbeallson - talk about a classless piece of ***? You must be kidding me. The fact is is that it DIDN'T happen in Philly, it happened in DC, where the Caps couldn't sell out a regular season game if they gave the tickets away. You lost, and your fans were a disgrace. Move on.

I can name at least one instance in every city where the fans did something stupid so I'm not gonna call The Caps fans classes, it was a heartbreaking loss and the emotion got the best of them. The Caps are gonna be competitive for a long time and could easily win the Cup in the near future. As for my Flyers it's not gonna get any easier with The Canadians. It helps that The Canadians also had a tough seven game series and are not as well rested as the other teams but unless The Flyers improve defensively and start playing smart hockey they won't last against The Canadians.