Glory Days Grill runs a promotion at Verizon Center where they give all fans in attendance a free order of Buffalo Wings every time the Capitals score 5 or more goals at home. For those keeping track of free chicken (and we are), the Capitals have done it three games in a row, following their 5-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets this evening. Sure they clinched the Southeast Division and Ovechkin added to his league leading goal scoring pace, but cmon, FREE WINGS!
Ok, so maybe it’s not the free wings exactly, but what they represent. The Capitals are scoring goals again, and lots of them. In the Capitals 22 home games so far, they have supplied fans with free wings on 7 occasions, and of course 3 of those have come in the past three games. That means the Caps are scoring 5 goals in more than 30% of their home games. We haven’t seen this level of appetizer giveaways since early in the 2011 season.
You may remember that the Capitals started the 2011-12 season on fire, and they scored 5 or more goals in 3 of their first 6 home games, including a signature 7-1 trouncing of Detroit. Chickens were losing body parts all over the city, and free wings were just one more expected perk to being a Caps season ticket holder. Then the bottom fell out on the season and Bruce Boudreau’s coaching tenure here in Washington. After Dale Hunter took over as head coach on November 28th, 2011, the free-flowing buffalo wing sauce came to an end. In fact the Caps only scored 5 goals at home once more during that entire season.
Sure we could give you Fancy Stats on goals scored per game, and we all know road games count equally to home games, but that’s for more serious sites. Here at Capitals Outsider, we measure team success by how many times our home team gives us free food. It’s a measurement of excitement at the arena, and how much fun the fans are having. Dale Hunter may have taught this team to play some defense and win some games 2-1, but we like the way the arena rocks when our Young Guns put up 5 goals instead of trying to put us to sleep. Adam Oates has brought that back to this city.
So Glory Days are back again, the Capitals are on a roll, and Verizon Center is once again the most fun party in town. Who wants to eat some free wings with me?
