It was mid-March and Karl Alzner was on the Internet. Like most twentysomethings, he looked up silly videos on YouTube to kill time. He stumbled across one from early last year — it was of Peter Dill, a basketball player for Seton Hall. Dill scored a single basket in his two years playing for the school, but he did get very excited when his team scored. Alzner played the clip for Mathieu Perreault.

“The guy would just go crazy, pretend he had Thor’s Hammer and he’d be smashing the ground,” Alzner told me Saturday afternoon. “Perry, I could just see his eyes, like ‘this is awesome!’”

“We should do that after we win games,” Perreault responded.

A couple weeks later, Alex Ovechkin put the puck past Jhonas Enroth during a shootout in Buffalo, ensuring a 4-3 victory for Washington. Perry followed through on his agreement with Alzner, letting out a primal scream, pumping his fists, and shaking on the bench. CSN’s cameras zoomed in, GIFs were made, and a meme was born — all within about 20 minutes.

“I didn’t know if he was gonna do it or not — but he did,” Alzner said.

“I get excited when we win!” Perreault added. “It’s just fun.”

A few days after Perreault’s inaugural freakout, the Capitals won another game in the shootout, this time over the New York Islanders, and Matty P. reacted with a manic windmill thing. The Internet took note again. But according to Alzner, he was also going wild at the time, doing some air-archery, a nod to one of Dill’s moves at Seton Hall. No one saw, though, and Alzner gave up trying to match Perreault.

“He’s doing it good — and I haven’t been,” said Alzner.

In the final game of the regular season, Perreault brought back his original convulsing celebration after the Caps beat the Bruins in overtime. Then, when Mike Ribeiro tallied nine minutes and 24 seconds into OT on Friday, Perreault went insane for the forth time.

“He’s a funny dude, so it doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Joel Ward, Perreault’s linemate, said. “For us that’s just a normal episode for him. He’s quite the character.”

There have been parodies, t-shirts, and perpetual replays, but the player at the heart of it has been largely oblivious of the reception the celebrations have gotten. Perreault’s not on Twitter and apart from a few videos, he was unaware it’d now become synonymous with him.

“I didn’t think it was gonna be that big of deal,” Perry said. “I mean, if people like it then it’s good.”

Alzner, though, knew he had something interesting from the start.

“I’m not too surprised,” Alzner said with a wry smile when asked for his reaction to the reaction. “I’m pretty happy about it actually.”

For Perreault, the celebrations are an illustration of his progression this season. It’s silly and it’s funny, but the scene would have seemed foreign back in February. The Caps were awful. Perreault was skating on the fourth line, only getting a few minutes of ice time a night. He hated it. As Adam Oates promised, though, Perreault got his chance. Now Matty P skates on the Washington’s superb third line, part of a Capitals team that hopes to win a Cup.

When that team wins, he celebrates more than anyone.

Video via @dcsportsbog

Mathieu Perreault finally gives the people what they want: a playoff #PerryCelly. It’s a short and sweet celebration, just like MP85. What. A. Win.

Get the shirt here.

Photo credit: @AmandaReportsDC

GIF by welshhockeyfan

Photo credit: Scott Levy

I don’t know how you guys are coping, but I am doing poorly. A playoff series between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers seems constitutionally incapable of being stress-free. Game three’s penalty problems continued in game four, and the Caps struggled with special teams and other complex ideas such as shooting and passing. The Rangers seemed to be able to summon a lead on a whim, leaving the Caps to mount a comeback pretty much throughout.

Despite the Caps getting better (and more desperate) as the clock wound down, the Rangers won another game on home ice.

Rangers beat Caps 4-3. Series is tied 2-2.

• Braden Holtby dun goofed. Handling a loose puck, Holtby eyed a saucer pass to neutral, but instead found Pyatt Pree‘s stick hanging in the air. Brad Richards got on the puck and scored on a mostly vacant net to make it 1-0. Holtby’s been both lauded and criticized for his eagerness to play the puck, and he’s been burned more than once for it. This was the worst of al. This was worse than what Jonathan Quick did last week. Because it happened to real people.
• The Capitals’ first period power plays were rancid. The Caps allowed three shorthanded chances, the third one leading to total troublefunk in front of Braden Holtby. Martin Erat and Alex Ovechkin closed in on Derek Stepan– Erat reaching from behind while Ovi was picking up steam. The three collided in a tangle, with Erat landing wrist-first in the net and Ovechkin skating back to the bench before getting beckoned to the box. A hooking penalty for Erat was reasonable, but — inconceivably– Ovechkin was given the old wild-card penalty: charging. Pierre McGuire, who has yet to master the name Oleksy, proclaimed it an obvious headshot. It was not, but the Caps still had to kill a 5 on 3– which they did excellently, but the penalty was more fuel to the Gee willikers! These refs are atrocious! fire. Erat did not return to the game, replaced on the second line by the similarly awesome Eric Fehr.
• From the circle, Carl Hagelin got a knuckley puck past Holtby’s glove side halfway through the game– at which the Caps had just 5 shots on goal during even strength. D’oh.
• But thank goodness for Joel Ward and Mathieu Perreault, who teamed up to put the Caps on the board. Ward had some pretty moves to put the puck on net, and then Perreault crashed it like a tiny French Canadian Knuble.
• The Caps tied it before the end of the second period with a nifty Troy Brouwer backhand while the Rangers got a bit indolent on the breakout. Brouwer was due, and it was greatly appreciated.
• After the Caps improved their possession (as measured by even-strength shot attempts) through the last three games, the Rangers stole it back decisively on Wednesday. Even with a man-up, the Caps were unable to generate offense as the Rangers refused to take the bait of Washington’s fancy passes. The Caps were thus kept on the outskirts and generated no real power play chances.
• A Charmin soft interference penalty on Jason Chimera at the buzzer of the second period led to a Girardi PPG in the first minute of the third, putting Caps back in their one-goal hole, but only temporarily as Marcus Johansson’s inability to clear the zone gave NYR’s Stepan space and time to make it 4-2.
• Ovi was pretty much nullified. Most of his (scarce) shot attempts were blocked, and he — and this is weird– seemed to get hit more than he hit others. I’m not really used to that, but hats off to the Rags for sticking it to him. I’m not sure they’ll be able to do that back in Verizon Center, where the Caps will get last line change.
• Karl Alzner kept it close with an outside slapper (that have got a piece of Perry) with just a bit over 12 minutes left. Because apparently this series was too relaxing for some people.

Joe B suit of the night

Aaaalright, the Caps may have gotten a bit off their game there.

You can chalk some up to the refs, but we can’t pretend like this game was stolen from the Caps. Mysterious decisions on defense and some bad moves on the breakout sort of doomed the effort. The Rangers won the physical game and seemed to have figured out the Oates’ power play. That might make the rest of this series difficult. Or at least interesting. It’s as if the gauntlet has been thrown.

That doesn’t mean it’s undoable. The Rangers have no advantage whatsoever. All they have done is restored the series to neutral. The Caps own on home ice, and they’ll have to flaunt it to win this series.

Friday. Be ready.

Okay not the psyche-up song I wanted. I’ll try again later.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” (Photo credit: Patrick McDermott)

Jason Chimera hasn’t scored a lot of goals this season — so few, in fact, that’s it’s become A Thing. Chimera markers are special occasions to be celebrated– like a John Carlson backcheck. But Thursday, in game one of the 2013 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, we got another special occasion.

Just 46 seconds after Marcus Johansson took Steve Oleksy‘s divine saucer pass and put it behind Henrik Lundqvist in the second period, Chimmer added another goal to Washington’s tally. Taking a pass from Mathieu Perreault, the Bald Bullet swept the puck towards the net from the blueline. It seemed as if Chimera was trying to set up a play for Matty P, who by then had parked himself in front of net. Instead, Chimera’s puck trickled lazily past King Henrik.

“He’s had some struggles as far as the regular season goes,” Troy Brouwer said of Chimera. “To see him score early on, get confidence, play well [is good]. He loves helping the team out, he loves playing hockey, and he did a great job tonight.”

2013, so far at least, has been a crummy year for Chimera. In 47 regular season games, he registered just three goals. Last season, in a full 82, he scored 20. But, as many players are quick to point out, everything starts over in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And in that case, Chimera is now tied for second in the league in goals.

In the most beautiful moment of childlike joy I’ve ever seen, Chimera threw his hands in the air after the puck crossed the line, screaming as he skated towards the Capitals bench, which was ready to welcome him into their grasp. Karl Alzner then skated in from behind, wrapping his arms around Chimera’s waist, and lifted the 213-pound, newly-minted 34-year-old off the ground.

Alzner bearhug vine.co/v/bQnteBQeVjg

— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) May 3, 2013

“I think he strained his back trying to pick me up!” Chimera said after the game. “It’s fun. This is what you live for as a young kid: playing the New York Rangers, scoring a goal. You can’t beat that.”

On this very special day, we’re releasing a bunch of new shirts to the RMNB store– and we’re sure you’ll love at least one of them. If you’re into Perreault’s post-game celebrations, The Wagon, or meteors, we’ve got a shirt for you. And if you hate Pennsylvania (and who doesn’t?), we’ve got you covered as well. Seven new shirts in all, in men’s and women’s cuts, all printed on the finest natural synthetic fabrics available.

Wwith Mother’s day coming up, all Women’s tees are 15% off. Just use the coupon code MOTHER2013 during check-out.

We’re real proud of this new batch of shirts. Take a look and let us know what you think!

#PerryCelly T-Shirt

Emotions run high when hockey goes to extra innings. Anything can happen in sudden death overtime, but it seems like one thing always does: Mathieu Perreault freaking out. The #PerryCelly shirt, illustrated by RMNB’s own Rachel Cohen, is your way of commemorating and celebrating along with him.

Buy Here | Full Size Graphic

Wagon T-Shirt

Carrying the Caps like a rickety Conestoga, there’s the ever-reliable Matt Hendricks, whose name has fallen out of fashion in favor of this new one: The Wagon. He’s sturdy and well-worn, like your mom’s Buick Estate, except Hendy does somewhat more more punching and goal-scoring than grocery-getting.

Buy Here | Full Size Graphic

RMNB Space Logo T-Shirt

We’re proud of our ties to space. Sorry: spaaaaaaace. There was the time Igor found ice on Mercury, and then the whole meteor thing that nearly melted our servers. Hockey is now just a side project for us, something to fill the hours before our next space adventure. Wear this shirt if you’re boldly going with us.

Buy Here | Full Size Graphic

The Ten Train Brings the Pain T-Shirt

Tom Wilson wears the #10 jersey in Plymouth. The Whalers announcers dubbed him “The Ten Train” for his railroading hits, which along with grain and dry goods, also bring the pain. Rock The Ten Train shirt so you can tell your friends you were onboard with Wilson first.

Buy Here | Full Size Graphic

Hip-Check 3D T-Shirt

Dmitry Orlov and hipchecks go together like milk and pasta. Also like milk and pasta, Orlov’s hipchecks can be devastating to your health. And while this shirt probably isn’t 3-D even when you wear the glasses, it looks rad in any situation. Disorient your friends all day long!

Buy Here | Full Size Graphic

Pennsylvania Is The Worst State Ever T-Shirt

Pennsylvania is awful. Why is is there a town named Intercourse in PA? Why does driving over the Mason-Dixon Line feel like traveling back in time to an era before pothole-filling technology was invented? Pennsylvania hosts two of the Capitals’ most heated rivals, the Penguins and the Flyers. Let your enmity be known in this lovely shirt, which comes in two variations: retina-burning Philly orange or Pittsburgh powder blue. Also appropriate for ironic or self-loathing Pennsylvanians, because we call agree on point: Hershey rules! (As noted in the small print.)

Buy Here | Full Size Graphic

I Survived The Chelyabinsk Meteor T-Shirt

The Chelyabinsk meteor injured over a thousand people, but most of those were from broken glass and the like. Everyone made it through okay, and now it’s just a wild story with lots of concomitant property damage. And because The World is Wrong, your humble hockey blog was first to cover it all. The “I Survived the Chelyabinsk Meteor and Read About it First on RMNB” shirt is part solemn remembrance of a crazy time and also a really nice way to help us pay for the ridiculous bandwidth expenses that came out of it.

Buy Here | Full Size Graphic

It’s becoming a tradition — one that I truly enjoy. When the Caps win in overtime, Mathieu Perreault freaks out like a 5-year-old who has inhaled one of those giant pixie stick straws and starts flailing around erratically. Perry started the celebration thing after a shootout win over Winnipeg, and he did it again after the Caps beat the Islanders. When Eric Fehr scored in OT to give Washington a win in their final game of the regular season, Perreault delivered.

Yes. (GIF by welshhockeyfan)

The Capitals win in the shootout. The Capitals take first in the division. The tiny French Canadian freaks out on the bench. Everything is right in the world. (If that ain’t loading, check out Danny’s vine)

Thanks to pckhdsthghts

Perreault goes crazy, Chimera does not.

The Washington Capitals pulled a huge shootout victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night. Alex Ovechkin was superb, Braden Holtby was solid, and Mathieu Perreault was pleased. Very pleased. After Ovi clinched the 4-3 win in the skills competition, CSN’s cameras panned to Washington’s bench. The Caps were happy. Perry stood out, pumping his fists manically while letting out a primal scream.

Hockey is great.

Would not surprise me to learn Perreault has an upper body injury.

— Neil Greenberg (@ngreenberg) March 31, 2013

Nineteen seconds, one goal. (Photo credit: Greg Fiume)

The Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres are neck-and-neck in a battle for playoff position. The Caps are just one point behind the Sabres as the lockout shortened regular season begins to come to a close. One problem, though: the spot they’re fighting for is 13th place in the Eastern Conference.

This season has been pretty abhorrent for fans in Buffalo and Washington. The Caps, however, still have time to salvage this year. Playing in hockey’s weakest division, the Caps came into Sunday’s game nine points out the the Southeast-leading Winnipeg Jets with 21 games left to play. But if Washington want to be playing hockey in May, that drive has to start now. Maybe it did. Thirty hours after the start of their deflating but fight filled 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, Washington showed no St. Patrick’s Day hangover (I’m sorry).

Caps beat Sabres 5-3.

Nineteen seconds into Sunday’s game, Alex Ovechkin unleashed a quick wrist shot off the draw. His goal from the slot was the fastest tally to start a game for the Caps this season, putting a some life into an otherwise late arriving and somewhat inebriated Verizon Center crowd. They went back to sleep during the rest the lazy first period.

Speaking of asleep, Braden Holtby was the next tally. Just 12 seconds into the second frame, Holts let in a weak marker from Cody Hodgson from the circles. We’ll forgive him because he’s pretty good sometimes.

A little less than five minutes after Buffalo’s goal, the Caps pulled ahead once again. With the Sabres Tyler Myers in the box for holding, Troy Brouwer fired a shot past Ryan Miller. The marker was set up by a delicious pass from behind the goal line by Mike Ribeiro. Ribz backhanded it through the legs off a Buffalo defender to Brouwer, who was waiting at the hashmarks. It was pretty.

A few minutes later, it was Jason Chimera‘s turn. Yes, Jason freaking Chimera! Chimmer snapped a 486 year — err – 27 game goalless streak with his tally. Logically, this means Peter was entirely at fault for the dearth goals from #25. He should stay at that Drive By Truckers concert where he belongs. Forever. Seriously, Peter, don’t leave Rams Head. Not if you care about our oft-screaming bald brother.

Anyway, less than a minute after Chimera’s first of the century, another player who has struggled this season got on the board. Marcus Johansson executed an expert poke of the puck while Miller was playing beached whale, putting the Caps up 4-1.

The goal crazy second period continued when Washington’s defense completely disappeared for a play, leaving Buffalo’s Brian Flynn wide open in front of the crease as if he had an infectious disease. Flynn took the pass out of the corner from Marcus Foligno and popped it past Holtby. 4-2 after two.

The third period got off to a slow start, in that it didn’t start. With some of the lights out at Verizon Center, the beginning of the period was delayed for a few minutes. Despite the outage, the game finally got going again — albeit with a yellower hue.

Joe B. Suit of the Night

With the lights finally came back to full power, Buffalo got within one when Hodgson put a rebound off Holtby’s left pad right back where it came from for his second goal of the game.

In the waining minutes of the game, Mathieu Perreault got on the board with a beautiful goal that would make Ovechkin jealous — all alone and with a lot of weaving. Wings for everybody and two standings points!

The Caps have a lot of ground to make up and just six weeks to do it. I still don’t think they can make the playoffs. If they do, Washington is going to have put together performances like this against teams that don’t come into the game in 13th place. On that high note, Peter will be back with you Tuesday when the Caps head to big bad Pittsburgh!

Ovi’s smiles are getting progressively weirder as the night goes on. (Photo credit: @ovi8)

With Alex Ovechkin scoring his 700th point and the Capitals escaping Raleigh with a win over division-leading Carolina, the players were in a festive mood. That might explain why half the team started tweeting after the game, shooting congratulations to Ovi (#respect), describing the victory with a three-letter word, and posting… well… other weird things.

Take a look for yourself.

Big win for us tonight!And was excited to wear the new Bauer skate APX2. #caps#bauer twitter.com/backstrom19/st…

— Nicklas Backstrom (@backstrom19) March 15, 2013

@mayhockeycsn @laughlin18 haha.. I think me and @laughlin18 will have good chemistry:)

— Nicklas Backstrom (@backstrom19) March 15, 2013

Lol “@backstrom19: Big win for us tonight!And was excited to wear the new Bauer skate APX2. #caps#bauer twitter.com/backstrom19/st…”

— John Carlson (@JohnCarlson74) March 15, 2013

Big win boy!big 2pts we back on track!!!!

— Alex Ovechkin (@ovi8) March 15, 2013

Great win for the @washcaps. Check out this picture yesterday, Matty P got some new furniture. twitter.com/JohnCarlson74/…

— John Carlson (@JohnCarlson74) March 15, 2013

Huge W for us tonight #caps

— Michal Neuvirth (@mneuvirth30) March 15, 2013

Great character win 4the @washcaps !!! & a follow from @johncarlson74. Does this mean we are putting our 2 touch battle to rest? #Frenemies

— Steven Oleksy (@StevenOleksy) March 15, 2013

Congrats to my mom and my brother team Dynamo wommen basketballl club to win a big tournoment!!! twitter.com/ovi8/status/31…

— Alex Ovechkin (@ovi8) March 15, 2013

Big win for the caps!!!!

— mike ribeiro (@ribz9) March 15, 2013

@greenlife52 @mjohansson90@backstrom19 boys goes to boston and mike almost breaks his neck bc he wants to be in pic twitter.com/ovi8/status/31…

— Alex Ovechkin (@ovi8) March 15, 2013

Also a huge congrats 2 @ovi8 hitting the 700 point mark but making it 701 a few minutes just 2make sure the milestone was reached. #Respect

— Steven Oleksy (@StevenOleksy) March 15, 2013

Ovechkin with his 700th career point tonight. Amongst all the criticism, no doubt still one of the best players in the league #respect

— Tom Wilson (@tom_wilso) March 15, 2013

We need to get @jrandalward42 horizontal. He is fading on the bus…fast. twitter.com/tbrouwer20/sta…

— Troy Brouwer (@tbrouwer20) March 15, 2013