A couple weeks ago the Washington Capitals were shut out against the New York Rangers in a game that brought my eight year old daughter to tears. Her experience touched me pretty deeply and prompted me to write a post in quite a bit more detail than I normally go into. It seemed that quite a few others were moved by her experience, too.

The Director of Game Entertainment for the Capitals, Michael Wurman, extended an invitation to her to sound the horn at the next game she attended with me. That game was yesterday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks. During the first intermission, one of the Red Rockers came to our seats to escort my daughter to the control center for in game entertainment. My daughter’s eyes lit up and she smiled and off we went, also joined by my wife and our younger daughter. When we arrived, Mr. Wurman greeted us, gave us a run through of their command center, and showed my daughter how to operate the horn…to stomp on the pedal switch.

We waited out the rest of the intermission trying to stay out of the way with Daddy taking a few photos that were, um, less good than they could have been. With about a minute and thirty seconds remaining, the Capitals made their way from the room to the ice for the second period and my daughter put her foot down and the horn blared. In another lesson for my daughter, I think she found that it was a lot simpler than she may have thought it would be, but from the look on her face, it was just as exciting and as big of a deal for her as she had hoped.

It was an experience that I don’t think she will forget anytime soon. The gesture from the Capitals to allow her that experience is one that my family greatly appreciates. And as an extension of something I wrote in that earlier post, it must strengthen the bond she (and the rest of my family) feels with the Capitals organization. Once again, my sincere thanks to Mr. Wurman and the Capitals for inviting my daughter to do something a little different and make her feel a little more special.

For the game, she got to home even happier with the Capitals overtime victory. My sole comment on the game isn’t really about the game at all, but… The Caps haven’t lost since that game against the Rangers. We all know it’s not true, but it’s kind of fun for her to pretend it’s because they don’t want her to cry again.

Like always, I suggest you visit places like Japer’s Rink and Russian Machine Never Breaks, and Ed Frankovic’s blog for recaps and Capitals Outsider for the box score. You come here for the photos, and I’ve got some below or on flickr.