Blame Canada

This is applicable to DC sports because it involves the US, which kind of revolves around this town. I never thought I would stick up for Ryan Miller, but here we go. He got a new goalie mask painted especially for the Olympics. On it he has the American flag, the Olympic rings, a picture of a tough-looking Uncle Sam, and some red and blue stars. It looks cool, but there are two other things that make the IOC kind of mad.

The first is that he also has "Miller Time" on it, not as an endorsement, but because that is his nickname, which my family in Buffalo loves to remind me over and over again. That has already been ordered off by the IOC for commercial considerations, even though the Olympics are the biggest beggars for commercial money other than Dick Ebersol. To my knowledge, Miller is not receiving a dime from the fine people at the brewery, that is just is nickname and every hockey fan already knows that, they don't need to look at his mask.

The second thing they are considering is ordering off Miller's "Matt Man" that is scrolled across his dome protector.This is for his cousin Matt Schoals who died from cancer. You have to be kidding me to take this off. The French aren't this bad, I think they let Lance Armstrong wear his bracelet in the Tour De France. I know the IOC is international but I blame Canada. They can't even get snow right in Vancouver, what do they know. Let the man wear his mask, especially with a tribute to the cousin who he was close to.

The Caps kind of fizzled at the end, but that was a great streak. There is no need to panic, we got two points out of three games, and currently lead the league in points, and I think we all would have taken that back in October. Plus two of those games were in Canada, and they can't seem to get anything right there.

Only two more days until pitchers and catchers report. Strasburg is there already and throwing around 100. There is something to look forward too. Hopefully we don't play Toronto this year. I also hope to look forward to seeing "Matt Man" on Miller's helmet tonight when the red white and blue go up against the Swiss.

In addition, Miller's backup Jonathan Quick is being forced to take the "Support the Troops" off his helmet. It violates section IOC rule 51 of the IOC code involving propaganda. Ridiculous.