Auf gefrorenem Blog

Zuerst. Usually I find the onset of unrecoverable withering in my committed relationships attendant to talk of children, and specifically my insistence that at 12 they be dispatched to billet families in Manitoba, and that loving aunts and uncles take up charge of raising the soccer-preferring of my progeny. Can I be blamed if my progressive thinking is a moderately difficult match? Some men dream at night of hot tubbing with triplets; I fantasize about the children of Washington Post editors clamoring for expensive hockey gear from their parents every autumn, and signing up for travel hockey. I call it Leonsis’ Revenge.

But to get back to this landmark work complex. It’s two levels, with ice level housing the team’s plush and posh penthouse-feeling locker room; a cavernous therapy area, adjacent to which are sets of state-of-the art aquatic and steam immersion chambers; a Redskins’-sized weight and training room; coaches’ and training staff offices; and a mini-theater seating perhaps 30, within which the players will obviously view opponent film. I joked with Sean and Mike that one Friday night we might be able to sneak in for a digitized screening of ‘Slapshot’ with popcorn.

My favorite part of this level is a glass partition separating an entrance hall from the team lounge, and within this wall the team has managed to arrange facsimiles of Caps’ playing cards from seemingly every season, replicas so true to the originals in appearance that even the closest scrutiny will fool veteran collectors, I wager. The original cards were donated to the team by a long-time season ticket holder. In one room I was staggered to encounter a brand new, never before used skate sharpening machine, which featured a marble table. A really top-of-the-line sharpening unit can fetch over $15 k, but I’d never seen one with a marble top. Near the tour’s end I asked Vogel if there was any rival to this architecture anywhere in the league. “Just LA,” he told me.

Immediately above this athletic oasis resides the organization’s sales, communications, and management staff offices. These folks are distinctly young and bright-eyed and busy. Many of them can be found working very late. I’m sure that’s because of their commitment and their passion, and of course the significant challenges the team today faces. But I also think that for more than a few their labor environs invite an association not unlike that of the visiting outsider’s: a home, of the heart, away from home.