Steve Kolbe has been the radio voice of the Capitals for 11 years now and this just might be his most exciting season. He grew up in Baltimore playing hockey in outdoors in city parks on the cities east side or some times at the old “Ice bubble” outside Memorial Stadium and he knows that long before the Caps played in the Southeast Division they used to be bitter rivals with the Flyers.
JW » How about the old days when these two teams faced each other each yearas division rivals?
SK » “They were like the Redskins and the Eagles, the Capitals and the Flyers did not like each other and every time they made the trip to the Capital Centre in Landover it was a real all out battle. The fans didn’t like each, and when we went to Philly they were tough on us as well. It was a good old fashioned rivalry and I am sure fans remember how bitter it was and how much fun it will be to get it going again starting Friday night.”
JW » How has this team come together?
SK » “Well it began with coach Bruce Boudreau coming in at Thanksgiving and really giving the team hope. He really loves the game and the team and it shows. The young guys like Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin and of course the face of the franchise Alex Ovechkin were quick to embrace him. As many as seven of the current Caps players had played for him at Hershey someof them on his team that won the Calder Cup in 2006. The team began to turn things around and the General Manager George McPhee pulled off a monster trade deadline set of deals that brought the Caps three time Stanley Cup winner Sergei Fedorov who came over from Columbus, Cristobal Huet, an All-Star goal keeper from Montreal and forward Matt Cooke from Vancouver. Since those deals were made this team has not looked back and this town has been red ever since.”
NBC analyst Mike Milbury told me “This game will be a bloody one. The Flyers will try to play rough and physical to intimidate the Caps. I have no doubt that Washington is tough team and as a matter of fact Alex Ovechkin is 10th in the league in hits. He is the leading scorer and hits anything in sight. This is going to be the best series of the first round.”
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
