ANIMAL COLLECTIVE is playing Merriweather Post Pavillion this Saturday. SHOULD BE a perfect show to roll up and down those hills to. As we’ve covered/interviewed the band MANY TIMES over the years, we figured we’d do a week-long homage to it where we can revisit those BYT/AC tender moments one at a time. First up, a classy September 2009 hockey hang out Jeff did with Geologist.

BYT recently spent an evening at the Washington Capitals game with Brian Weitz, better known as Geologist from Animal Collective, whose new album, Merriweather Post Pavillion just dropped and is currently blowing minds all over the world.

We had heard a rumour that Brian is a big NHL fan and figured what better way to lure him into an interview than with tickets to see the Capitals and a soft pretzel.

He agreed to come watch the Caps lose (big Philadelphia Flyers fan) to the L.A. Kings and to a series of questions.

We figured that rather than wasting our readers time by dredging up all that same old Animal Collective interview crap (do you really want to read the same album leak/where’s Deakin questions, rehashed? really?) it would be best to spice things up and throw some real zingers at Brian.

We reached way down into our bag of questions and asked him some stuff that he’s not used to getting from the Brooklyn Vegans and Pitchforks of the world. (Hey!  I thought my interview with Brian from a while back wasn’t the same old shit!  Pout! -cale)

Here are our questions and his answers and some photos from our night out with the Geo Man:

Question 1:  Name the only two goaltenders to have scored more than one goal in their NHL careers?

Brian’s Answer: (Ron) Hextall was one, and he had 2 before anyone else had one (if you don’t count Billy Smith’s credited goal). Was (Martin) Brodeur the other?

Correct Answer: Ron Hextall and Martin Brodeur

Question 2:  Name two of the four minor league hockey teams that have played out of Baltimore over the last 100 years.

Brian’s Answer:  Baltimore Skipjacks.  That’s all I’ve got.  But did you know that Donald Brashear is a classically trained pianist?  (I didn’t know that).   (Half a point for 1/4)

Correct Answer:
• Baltimore Blades (1975-1976)
• Baltimore Skipjacks (1981-1982) ACHL, (1982-1993) AHL
• Baltimore Bandits (1995-1997) AHL
• Baltimore Clippers (1962-1977)

Question 3:  Since we’re at a King’s game tonight, name the three players on the Los Angeles Kings’ famed Triple Crown Line of the 70’s (this one is for my dad, Bruce).

Brian’s Answer:  I’ve got nothin’.

Correct Answer: Dave Taylor, Charlie Simmer, Marcel Dionne.

Question 4:  Here’s a softball over the plate for you, since you’re a Philadelphia Flyers fan.  Which player was not part of the 1992 trade which brought Eric Lindros to the Flyers?
• Ron Hextall
• Chris Simon
• Peter Forsberg
• Mikael Renberg

Brian’s Answer:  Mikael Renberg

Correct Answer: Mikael Renberg (he corrected my pronunciation of ‘Mikael’ as well).

Question 5:  Name the two NHL teams that currently play in the league that are named after natural disasters.

Brian’s Answer:  Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes

Correct Answer: Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes

Question 6:  Who is the winningest coach in NHL History?

Brian’s Answer:  Scotty Bowman

Correct Answer: Scotty Bowman holds the record for most wins in league history, with 1,244 wins in the regular season and 223 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Question 7:  Who is the first woman to play in an NHL Game?

Brian’s Answer:  I can’t remember her name but she played for the Tampa Bay Lightning for one game in the early 90′s.  (Close enough, half a point)

Correct Answer: On Wednesday, September 23rd, 1992, Manon Rheaume made sports history by being the first woman to play in one of the four major sports leagues in the United States. She goaltended for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League in a pre-season game against the St. Louis Blues.

Question 8:  Name the first player to reach the coveted NHL milestone of ’50 goals in 50 games’.

Brian’s Answer:  Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard

Correct Answer: Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard

Question 9:  Please give the correct pronunciation of at least six of these NHL players’ names:
• Guy LaFleur
• Guy Hebert
• Patrick Roy
• Chris Chelios
• Dmitri Kvartalnov
• Martin Beauchesne
• Matthieu Descoteaux

Brian’s Answer:   All correct except for an absolute butchering of Dmitri Kvartalnov.

Correct Answer:
• GEE LA FLOOR
• GEE ay BAIR
• Patrick WAH
• Chris CHELLY OHS
• Dmitri kwahr TAHL nahv
• MAHR tai boo SHAYN
• Matthieu DAY koh toh

Question 10:  The worst team in NHL history was the 74/75 Capitals, with a record of 8-67-5.  Name the team with the second worst record of all time.

Brian’s Answer: Actually I don’t remember what Brian said on this one, but it wasn’t the right answer.  I’d already had two beers at this point and I forgot to write what he said down.  He was actually a wealth of random NHL knowledge, though, and you’d probably lose in a game of NHL Trivial Pursuit against him.  If they even make that edition.

Correct answer: The Philadelphia Quakers who played only one season, 1930-31, ended with a record of 4-36-4, which stood as the worst of all time until the Capitals broke their record in the 70′s.

Question 11: The Philadelphia Flyers have retired 5 numbers in their team history, name 4.  Extra bonus point if you can get all 5.

Brian’s Answer:  (he rattled them off by number quite quickly)  1, Bernie Parent.  4, Barry Ashbee.  7, Bill Barber.  16 Bobby Clark.  And after a few hints, 99, Wayne Gretzky, who he reminded us holds more records than any athlete in professional sports with 61.

Correct Answer:
•  1 Bernie Parent
•  4 Barry Ashbee
•  7 Bill Barber
•  16 Bobby Clark
•  99 Wayne Gretzky (league wide retirement of number)  Extra Bonus Point

Question 12: Name the last Flyer to score two short-handed goals in the same penalty kill.

Brian’s Answer:  Mark Recchi

Correct Answer: Rod Brind’Amour  (Brian said that getting this one wrong is going to keep him up at night).

Question 13:  Name all of the NHL MVP winners from the 80′s:

Brian’s Answer: Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux

Correct Answer: Wayne Gretzky (every year except for 87-88 in which Mario Lemieux won)

Question 14:  How many designated faceoff spots are on an NHL rink (without looking)?

Brian’s Answer:  (without looking) Nine.

Correct Answer: Nine.

Question 15:  What are the first names of the Hanson Brothers from the movie Slap Shot?

Brian’s Answer:  I have no idea.  Do they even say the names in the movie?

Correct Answer: Jeff, Steve and Jack

If you’re counting, Brian scored an 11 out of 15 on our quiz.  Which is pretty amazing considering I administered the quiz to my friend Corey who only knew the answer to 2 of them.  Actually I only knew the answers to (maybe) four of these questions myself, so I’m pretty impressed.  I had intended to ask Brian one more question, but as I mentioned earlier, we were drinking, and I forgot to ask.  I’ll pose it now, though and he can ponder:

Bonus Question: While we’re talking hockey, a buddy of yours, Syd Butler of Les Savy Fav is known around DC as quite the hockey blogger:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/49911-les-savy-favs-butler-blogs-about-hockey
What about you, sir?  If, say, the Philadelphia Flyers were to offer you a gig blogging for them in your spare time, would you be interested?  I’m just mentioning it because this will be in print and perhaps somebody with the Flyers organization will read this and, you know, who knows?

(Somebody please forward this to the Flyers organization.)

Brian’s band, Animal Collective, will be touring the world once again this year, with a sold out show at 930 club in May.  You can probably get tickets on Craigslist.  Buy the album.  It’s amazing.  We reviewed it.  Here’s the video for My Girls:

If you haven’t been out to support the Caps this year, hop on the bandwagon now.  They are currently 1st in the Southeast Division and have arguably the best player in the NHL, Alexander Ovechkin.

http://capitals.nhl.com/