By design, newspaper column writing is reflective. It's an exercise in exploration, analysis, and contextualization. (When it's done well.) It's not an easy endeavor -- often limited to 750 or so words, required to offer up compelling points, and expected to be executed with some level of rhetorical flair -- but generally column writers are afforded considerably more liberal deadlines with which to file their thoughts than are beat reporters. Which brings me to the motivation for this file: the only column writing we've seen on the Caps this season has occurred (A) outside of Washington's MSM; and (B) on line -- almost exclusively of the blogging variety.

It fairly leads the local puckhead to this conclusion: our local column writers have the most liberal of deadlines for filing on the Caps -- Never.