It's Nice to be Important, but It's More Important to be Nice.

Game one went well.  Alex Ovechkin demonstrated a little more of his MVP-ness, Marcus Johansson did that really cool break-away thing, Jason Chimera was bear-hugged into the boards by Karl Alzner, oh and Holtby--and the crossbar--made a few great saves.  That's all fine and dandy if this were a post-game analysis, but that's not my intent.  I'd like to talk to you today about manners and hockey etiquette.

I was lucky enough to attend game one, and it was a very fun time for the most part.  Sure there was an annoying Rangers fan sitting a few rows ahead of me, and sure he danced when they scored their one goal...but he wasn't hurting anyone.  Cue the obnoxiously loud guy a few rows back.

I'm not trying to say that it's wrong to yell during a sporting event, or that fans shouldn't encourage a rivalry with each other--I myself shouted "Rangers Suck" across my college campus at a guy in a blue sweater--but it is wrong when the vocabulary takes a hurtful, if not hateful, turn.

I won't say the word that this man was shouting, or allude to it, but it was used very liberally.  He threw it around like Brock Lesnar throwing around 3MB.  He is a very vocal and obnoxious minority of Caps fans, and of hockey fans in general.  He wanted to be noticed and he wanted to make the entire game about him.  As the cool-minded majority, we need to report that kind of abusive and hateful commentary when it springs up.  It's fans like him that give hockey fans everywhere a bad name.