Heckling is one of my favorite parts of professional sports.  It’s my opinion that pro athletes should not only have to perform at the highest level of their sport and be in the best physical condition of their lives, but they should also have enough mental toughness to endure some good (clean) verbal criticism from the fans in the stands.

Out in the bleachers at Camden Yards, I perfected the skill of heckling from a young age.  I come from a family of hecklers.

Tonight in Washington the stakes are high.  As everyone in the sports world knows, the seventh seeded Capitals are tied 1-1 with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins in the best of seven series and the fight will resume in our nation’s capital tonight.

My favorite Capitals blog, RussianMachineNeverBreaks.com, understands just how valuable the 18,506 fans can be and that’s why they are asking for everyone’s help this evening in some major heckling of Bruins netminder Tim Thomas.  The 2010-2011 Vezina Trophy winner has shown that he can be rattled.  Thomas punched Nicklas Backstrom after the whistle was blown late in regulation during game two and when Nicky fired the game winner past him in the second overtime, Thomas skated off the ice and headed to the locker room just as the puck hit the net.

Only this time he didn’t fall on his face.

Back in January, the Bruins were invited to the White House after winning the Stanley Cup and Thomas elected to stay home.  That is the inspiration for RMNB’s heckling tonight.  Pop on over to their website to download your President Obama posters and masks and get in Thomas’ head early.

This is a huge game for Washington, if you have a ticket you need to be a part of the mind games.