Category Archives: Sports Fix

Adventures, capitals hockey, History, Special Events, Sports Fix, The Features
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Road to the Winter Classic (Part I)

Goin' to the Winter Classic!
‘Goin’ to the Winter Classic!’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

“Hey, you interested in tickets to the Winter Classic?”

It was a question I never actually thought I’d hear. Sure, the answer was a no-brainer – of course my wife and I wanted to go to this year’s outdoor matchup between our favored Penguins and our hometown Capitals. Need more be said?

Since that simple back-and-forth flurry of emails with my friend back in August, I’ve been on pins and needles in anticipation for the game coming up this Saturday at Heinz Field in our old stomping grounds of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Long-time readers here obviously know of my acute love of hockey in general and the Penguins in particular. Through the last few years, I’ve developed a grudgingly healthy respect of the Washington Capitals as well and it hasn’t hurt being able to cover the team for this site over the last year, either. Attending the 2011 Winter Classic, however, goes beyond a simple hockey game or even the intense rivalry between the two teams. It’s a chance to enjoy hockey in its nearly purest form – outside on ice – and the fact it includes the two teams of my adult sports fan life is simply a bonus.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Wizards Top Pacers Without Coach

Photo courtesy Patrick Pho

It maybe the holidays for many of us here in DC but for the Wizards it was all business as the team was close to full strength after a holiday road trip in Texas. After losses to San Antonio and Houston, the team remains win-less on the road perhaps a return to Chinatown to take on the Indianapolis Pacers would turn things around. The Pacers traveled to Washington, DC with a road losing streak of their own- a six game stretch without a road win.

Well it looked like the home cooking helped. With John Wall, Andray Blatche, and JaVale McGee back on the floor the Wizards topped the Pacers 104-90.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Military Bowl Forecast: Terps, Pirates and Offense

Photo courtesy of
‘_MG_6286’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

The third annual Military Bowl (slash Eagle Bank Bowl) will be getting underway within the next few hours, and if you’re either planning on watching at home or actually at RFK Stadium on this balmy December day, you are in luck for the best game in the short history of the bowl. We reviewed some of the cultural background of the two schools involved – University of Maryland and East Carolina University – earlier this month. Now it’s time to get down to the gridiron preview to take a look at what’s in store and how the squads match-up on the field of play.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Week 16 Recap – Skins at Jaguars

Photo courtesy of
‘Santana Moss – Skins’ FIRST DOWN!’
courtesy of ‘Tony DeFilippo’

There are little things to cheer for when your season is all but over. For example, a good one is “ruining any chance your friends’ rooting interest can make the playoffs.” In that sense, you can consider Sunday’s 20-17 overtime victory over the Jaguars a success in the event any of your Florida friends were thinking about January postseason action. Ok, so, technically the Jags aren’t eliminated yet, but, come on, little victories. Skins fans need that.

Click through for a look back at the good and the bad of yesterday afternoon’s action in Jacksonville.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Wizards Break Losing Streak In A Bobcats Blowout

Photo courtesy of
‘Nick Young’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

Last time the Wizards took on the Bobcats they were outplayed in a 93-85 loss. Tonight the Wizards had their revenge in a 108-75 blowout.

In the second game of the post-Arenas era, Nick Young continues to score points in his new starting role. He took shots from all over the field and went 8-13 for 21 points.

Kurt Hinrich also looked great tonight as he weaved through the Charlotte defense. With 11 assists and 18 points he knew when to facilitate and when to take the shot. I asked Kurt about an expanded role with this new team and he replied, “I’ve been playing a lot of minutes, I feel comfortable playing as a point guard and the guys have just been doing a good job moving the ball.”

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Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: Darkest Before the Dawn Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Sexy Rexy Lost the Ball’
courtesy of ‘Tony DeFilippo’

DC Sports teams are all of 3-19 for the month of December. That’s the sort of Chekhovian winter we’re in for, I’m afraid. But it’s not all bad news.

Redskins
Record: 5-9
Last Two Weeks: 0-2
Place: Tied for third in the NFC East

Down 30-14 at the end of the third quarter, it looked like the benching of Donovan McNabb was the sort of thing that the Skins wouldn’t live down. In the fourth quarter, though, Rex Grossman came alive and put up a pair of touchdowns and a 2-point conversion while shutting down the Cowboys offense to tie it at 30. Sadly, Grossman’s efforts wouldn’t be enough, and an INT inside the 2-minute mark put the ball in Dallas’ hands and they converted for the win. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Week 15 Recap – Skins vs. Cowboys

Photo courtesy of
‘Santana Moss catch, tackled’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

A stirring comeback against a hated rival would have been a great early Christmas gift for Redskins fans. Alas, the burgundy and gold stocking by the fire appears to contain coal this morning instead of Tickle Me Elmo, and the Redskins move to 5-9 after the 33-30 loss to Dallas. You may now start mapping out replacement quarterbacks and targeting draft prospects. Positives and negatives from yesterday’s game in Jerryworld after the jump.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Wizards dig for ways to lose, dropped by Heat in final seconds

Photo courtesy of
‘Kirk Hinrich’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

Drama of the magnitude seen on Saturday at Verizon Center does not often happen when the Wizards are involved.

First, Gilbert Arenas, the enigmatic scorer and chaotic former face of the franchise (hello John Wall) gets traded to Orlando. Then the feel-good story of beating LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and the Heat after the histrionics of the afternoon gets snapped away in the final seconds as Washington blows a five-point lead with 18.4 seconds left to lose to Miami 95-94.

What it boils down to is that the young Wizards really have no idea how to close out a game.

And the Heat do.

“Get down the stretch and we did just about everything that you have to do wrong to lose a game and they did everything right,” head coach Flip Saunders said.

That just about sums it up.

Washington was in tenuous control over Miami for much of the game. The game was a see-saw that the Heat were never able to quite balance in their favor until the final seconds. The Wizards would go up by six or eight only to have Miami climb back to tie it before Washington would do it again. It looked like Washington had finally gotten the better of the Heat in the fourth period, jumping out to an 80-72 lead, a margin they would hold more or less until the final two minutes or so.

Then, as it so often is in the NBA, the drama started.

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News, Sports Fix, The Features
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Adios Gilbert: Wizards swap Arenas for Lewis

Photo courtesy of
‘Arenas lets it fly’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

The Wizards have made a trade with the Magic that will send Gilbert Arenas to Orlando in exchange for small forward Rashard Lewis.

“We traded Gilbert Arenas to Orlando for Rashard Lewis,” general manager Ernie Grunfeld said. “We think that Rashard will help our front court with his experience, his versatility, his ability to stretch the defense. He is a 39 percent career three-point shooter and when you have a point guard like John (Wall) who likes to penetrate and distribute, you need people who are going to stretch the defense and be on the outside.”

It is reportedly a straight-up swap with Arenas and Lewis both having hefty contracts that their franchises would like to be done with. Arenas is owed $60 million in the end of his deal while Lewis has a few years remaining on the gargantuan $118 million deal he signed with the magic heading into the 2007-08 season.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Video: Ron Artest Talks About Meeting Obama And Wiz’s Nick Young

Photo courtesy of
‘Lake Show!’
courtesy of ‘Jason Rosenberg’

Last night a streak was broken in basketball. Unfortunately  I’m not talking about the Wizards’ current losing streak. Their sixth loss in a row (13th on the road) ended an eight-game losing streak for the New Jersey Nets. The 97-89 loss did have one silver lining: another great game for backup guard Nick Young. Young scored 22 points in the losing effort and now has back-to-back games of 20 points. Young is having a strong season as an offensive spark off the bench and in a conversation with Laker’s forward Ron Artest I talked to him about Young’s improvement while he spoke about his recent meeting with President Obama. I also got a chance to get a quote from Young about his play in a game where his team is often behind.

Watch the video after the cut.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nationals trade Willingham to Oakland for prospects

Photo courtesy of
‘Nationals vs Mets 08’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

Josh “Alabama Hammer” Willingham and the Nationals parted ways this afternoon as the left fielder recovering from knee surgery was sent to Oakland for two prospects.  Willingham’s return to the Nationals has been doubtful for some time, with much speculation about his recovery and the arbitration hearing he’d be facing.  The trade wires started buzzing around noon today, and by 3:30pm the deal was finished and Willingham was heading West for two prospects from the A’s: OF Corey Brown (late of AAA Sacramento) and RHP (and Fireballer) Henry Rodriguez.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Nationals introduce Jayson Werth

Photo courtesy of
‘Show Your Werth’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’

Jayson Werth put his Curly W yesterday afternoon, assisted by three students from Amidon-Bowen Elementary school in Southwest Washington, in front of a room packed with journalists and Nationals front office and ownership staff.  Since the signing on December 5th, more bad puns have been published, more hands have been wrung about the length and amount of his contract, and more questions about the future of the Nationals have been asked than at just about any point in the Nationals’ history.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Kobe And The Lakers Dominate The Wizards

Photo courtesy Patrick Pho

It was challenging enough that both John Wall and Andray Blatche were listed as inactive prior to Tuesday’s game against the Lakers. The starting line-up of Thornton, Yi, McGee, Arenas, and Hinrich were quickly depleted when McGee picked up two fouls and Yi left the game with a knee sprain that will now keep him off the court for 2-4 weeks. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Week 13 Recap – Skins vs. Buccaneers

Photo courtesy of
‘FedEx seats’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

The weather conditions on Sunday matched the Redskins mood following the 17-16 loss to the Bucs. Key mistakes hurt the Skins despite the rejuvenated run game and solid defense. After having a 10-3 lead at halftime, the Skins gave up 17 unanswered points to Tampa Bay in the 2nd half. Donovan McNabb then led the Skins on a two minute drive and capped it off with a touchdown to Santana Moss with 9 seconds left in the game. All they needed was an extra point to tie the game and send it into overtime, but Nick Sundberg snapped the ball too high for Hunter Smith to recover and the kick was not even attempted. The Bucs escaped with the victory. The Skins are now 5-8. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Washington buried by Avalanche; Caps lose fifth straight


‘DSC_9186’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

There were a few snow flakes in D.C. on Friday, the first of the season and a reminder that Father Winter is just starting his yearly torment.

On Saturday, Washington was hit by an Avalanche.

The Capitals dropped their fifth straight game on Saturday, losing 3-2 to Colorado before the 78th consecutive sellout at Verizon Center.

To be fair to the Caps, they actually played pretty well.

Washington outshot the Avalanche 42-26. Hits were tied at 25 each. The Caps had a solid 13 takeaways. In the third period, attempting to climb out of a 3-1 hole, they dominated the Avalanche zone, forcing Colorado’s young team to hold on for dear life in the last ten minutes of the game, barely squeaking away as the Capitals repeatedly banged on netminder Craig Anderson’s door.

It was a solid effort.

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Stoudemire Puts On Shooting Clinic As Wizards Drop One At Home

Photo courtesy Patrick Pho

The Knicks  entered the Verizon Center Friday night riding a seven game winning streak on the road.

In other words they were exactly the team the Wizards are aspiring to be after starting the season 0-12 on the road. The Wiz came back home after a long stretch away from DC, playing the last five out of six on the road.

However the home cooking wasn’t as sweet as Knicks fans filled the seats inside the Phone Booth, making some wonder if this should be counted as an away game. Of course when you play a local big market like New York having a few extra fans cheering for the away team should be expected.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Better Know An Alma Mater: Military Bowl Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘_MG_6239’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

On December 29, the University of Maryland and East Carolina University football squads will tangle at RFK Stadium for the Military Bowl. Leading up to that game, we thought it’d be fun to look past the gridiron and try to take a look at some of the culture of the two institutions and areas. Naturally, College Park is probably more familiar to DC residents than Greenville, but hopefully we can still share some interesting stuff you may not know.

Join us after the jump as we play “Better Know an Alma Mater” with these two schools.

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Sports Fix
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Sports Fix: The Cold of Winter edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Washington Capitals Defenseman Mike Green’
courtesy of ‘marc.benton’

Capitals
Record: 18-8-2, 28 points
Last Two Weeks: 4-3
Place: Three-way Tie for the top of the East

The Caps are on top of the East, have just acquired a big piece of what’s missing in their arsenal, and are continuing to dominate many games. So why is this columnist a little bit down on the Caps? It’s hard to put my finger on it, but I think Dan Rowinski had something yesterday when he said that this was an erratic team with equally erratic coaching.

While early in the season, you can cope with some shakedown play, there’s a point at which you have to settle into your rhythms and start to push past the awkward stage. The Caps have yet to do that, and their losses to Dallas and Atlanta this week were indicative of a failure to play rough-and-tumble hockey up in front of the net. Here’s hoping they’ll be able to push past looking for the finesse goals and into the hard-charging hair-on-fire hockey we’re used to seeing. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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Week 12 Recap – Skins vs. Giants

Photo courtesy of
‘flag’
courtesy of ‘littlerottenrobin’

Everyone knew the Redskins had to play a perfect game in order to beat the Giants. That didn’t happen. The Skins had 6 turnovers in the 31-7 loss. The game may have been over in the 1st quarter much like it was against the Eagles. The Giants scored touchdowns on their first two drives while the Skins offense could not move the ball. Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw scorched the weak Skins run defense for a combined 200 yards and 4 touchdowns. Donovan McNabb struggled, throwing for 2 interceptions and losing a fumble. The loss puts the Skins record at 5-7 and may have ended their playoff hopes. Continue reading →