How will you remember the 2010-11 Capitals’ regular season? I ask because at least one prominent person in town – the team owner — thinks that to date I’ve judged his team too harshly on the campaign. My critique began near the end of last summer, when I observed management execute a largely passive approach to roster improvement in the offseason, while East rivals Pittsburgh and Philly aggressively improved. Not that I’m a throw-mad-money-at-free-agents kind of guy; never have been, never will be. But if you’ve just been vanquished in round one, as the Caps were last April, and you sit on your hands all summer, rest assured your conference peers will gain ground on you.
Through about 50 games into 2010-11, there was plenty of ground-gaining, you’ll recall. For instance: the Caps, having won the Southeast division title just a year ago by 40 points, trailed the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Southeast in late February. That’s ground-gaining alright. And it’s not as if Tampa in the offseason acquired Bobby Orr and Mr. Hockey in their prime.
Also filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Brooks Laich, Bruce Boudreau, Dennis Wideman, Front Office, George McPhee, HBO's 24/7, Jason Arnott, Marco Sturm, Marcus Johansson, Mike Green, Mike Knuble, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Scott Hannan, Washington Capitals
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In the interest of hockey, making fun of ourselves, and just promoting good diplomatic relations up north, OFB was pretty stoked when one of Detroit’s hockey blogs, The Production Line, reached out last week and suggested doing a Q&A between the two blogs in honor of the Caps/Red Wings showdown on Wednesday. TPL is run [...]
Back in January 2010, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, speaking of his team’s American League affiliate in Hershey, told the Patriot News (Pa.), “The excellence with which that organization is run washes up on us.” Umm . . . not . . . quite. This season in Washington, it’s as if the Capitals barricaded Kettler with [...]
This morning I am trying to imagine the slogan of resolve and defiance and unity Capitals’ players will brandish on team-issued t-shirts at the start of training camp in September. They are quite good at looking tough and determined, via fashion, and of expressing steely-eyed determination after abject failure. Out on the ice, it’s a [...]
Being on the new media beat for hockey here the past five years has meant exchanging warm hellos to others with an extraordinary passion for our great game during the long calendar of the hockey year, and above everything else for me, it has meant making extraordinary friendships. There is no easier person to befriend [...]
It’s hard to fathom the possibility that Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder could manufacture an even lower regard for himself in Washington these days, but he’s managed to do it: yesterday he had lawyers file a lawsuit against the parent company for Washington’s City Paper, whose Dave McKenna published a tour de force tally of Snyder’s [...]
The few (very), the proud, the *very* brave — Caps’ fans attending a game in Philadelphia against the Flyers . . . while wearing their heroes’ colors. Yes, they exist. Tuesday night I saw them, spoke with them, and most especially, asked them if they had escorted passage back to their cars at game’s end. [...]
A political bumper sticker of some years back read, ‘If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.’ “Outrage” by local hockey fans may be too strong a term to apply with respect to the 2010-11 Washington Capitals in this most unexpected, most irregular regular season tour of duty, but I think if you’re not at [...]
Also filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Jeff Schultz, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, NHL All Star Game, NHL Trades, Pittsburgh Penguins, Southeast Division, Tampa Bay Lightning, The Red Army, Tom Poti, Tomas Fleischmann, Washington Capitals, Washington the hockey town, Winter Classic 2011
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More than 500 members of the media representing more than 125 outlets descended upon Pittsburgh for the Winter Classic last weekend; we were fortunate enough to be included among them. This was a monumental moment in Washington Capitals history, and we couldn’t have chronicled it as we did absent the proactive and pioneering assistance of [...]
Also filed in Atlanta Thrashers, Hartford Whalers, hockey blogging, Media, National Hockey League, New media, OFB, Pittsburgh Penguins, Quebec Nordiques, Quebec the Very Serious Hockey Town, Southeast Division, The Great Old Patrick Division, The Red Army, Washington Capitals, Winter Classic 2011
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It did not suck, slow shuffling out of Heinz Field late Saturday night, basking in the knowledge that Eric Fehr had fairly ruined the 2010 holidays for our friends in tattoos and mullets. This was no mere spectacle two points tucked away before moving off to the next tilt; for an entire generation-plus of Capitals [...]
