And we wonder why some sports figures aren’t considered great role models? Or why high priced veteran free agents can sometimes disrupt team chemistry. Imagine complaining about making $13 million a year after coming out of an injury marred season and being on the highest paid team in baseball that underperformed.

How about saying "thank you" to the owner for picking up the option year negotiated into your original contract?

Here is a great post by Mike on the Caps most recent game in Colorado. Interestingly, Mike notes that Alex Ovechkin is on a pace now to score 51 goals compared to 52 goals last year – answering the question "what is wrong with Alex?" Nothing.

Also of interest, are Mike’s comments about going to Lowell, Mass. to see Jack Kerouac’s grave. This is where six degrees of separation comes to play and I will need meet and talk with Mike to fill him in on a bit of kismet. My mother is buried less than 100 yards from Jack Kerouac and our families were very close when I was growing up in Lowell.

The AP is teaching people how to pronounce my last name.

I said in preseason that all I expected of our team was to be better than last year and to see some progress. After the first couple of weeks–it is progress we are seeing. Continue after the jump.

I said in preseason that all I expected of our team was to be better than last year and to see some progress. After the first couple of weeks–it is progress we are seeing. 

While we are 3-2-3 on the season so far–we have 9 points. This is our best record since 2002. We are 8th in the Eastern conference in points–but if you consider points earned to games played–we are 5th in the East.

I am very pleased with our offense–we are now 3rd in the NHL averaging 3.62 goals per game. We have miles to go before we sleep–but I do see incremental progress to date and for that I am grateful.

Sometimes I marvel at what the rest of the world thinks about Alexander Ovechkin. I only hope our fans and the city of DC understand how fortunate we are to have a young superstar right here in DC–blossoming before our own eyes–night in and night out.

For those of us who stayed up late last night–we saw a fun game.

For those of us who stayed up late last night–we saw a fun game.

Our first line played very well with Clark, Zubrus and Ovechkin all scoring key goals. Alex had an unusual play where he checked an Avalanche player so hard into the boards that the glass shattered and delayed the game by about 5 minutes.

Mike Green’s end to end rushes and highlight reel goal reminded me of a young Bobby Orr. I explained to my son that what Mike Green did–Bobby Orr did on a nightly basis back in the 60′s with the Boston Bruins. Can you imagine a defenseman leading the NHL in scoring the way he did?

It was interesting to see Joe Sakic score his 1500th point with the Avalanche. He has been a great player and a great captain for a long, long time. We must remember that the Nordiques, who then moved to Colorado, got Joe Sakic via a trade with us. We received Dale Hunter.  We traded them our first round pick and they drafted Joe Sakic with the pick.

Good trade for both teams but also shows that there is a cost for trading a high pick for a veteran player. We never won a Cup–Colorado won a couple.

On Saturday  evening, the Shrivers will host the Best Buddies Ball at their home in Rockville, Maryland.  I have been involved with them on this great charity for 11 years, and Anthony Shriver and I cofounded Ebuddies – an offshoot of Best Buddies- 6 years ago.  It is how I met my great Ebuddy, Big Ken Holden.   This year’s gala will celebrate the opening of Best Buddies in Israel, and one person I’m really looking forward to meeting at the event is Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of israel, and a member of the Best Buddies Israel honorrary committee.  You can read all about him here.

Is it bad that I cannot wait to see this film?  Almost a million hits of this trailer in less than a day on YouTube. Wow.

Is it bad that I cannot wait to see this film?  Almost a million hits of this trailer in less than a day on YouTube. Wow.

Earlier this week, AOL launched our KOL and RED areas out onto the web. 

KOL has been around for three years, and it’s a great product.  Aimed at kids aged 6-12 years old, KOL offers a segmented welcome screen that serves age and gender appropriate content to kids.  It offers easy to understand navigation, and includes AOL@School, which provides educational search and grade appropriate homework help.

RED is a really great portal aimed at teens.  On Oct. 31st, RED will become the first web site to launch a first run movie online – “Incubus” starring Tara Reid.  They’re currently running their annual Scary Movie Contest, Be a RED star – that provides teens with the opportunity to win their own reality show.

If you’re a parent – or if you know someone who is a parent – you should check both of these sites out.