My son and I went to the Olympics in Atlanta. We saw one of the greatest athletic events, China played Korea in badminton. The competition was other-worldly. The athleticism was mind-boggling and the crowd was super charged. I am not kidding. I was shocked at how fast paced and muscular the competition was. Badminton is a great sport to watch when world class athletes are involved.

When you are rebuilding a team, you often times don

Etan Thomas. Gilbert Arenas. Caron Butler. A team can

I am now on the board for this Vero Beach, Florida-based company. I know the management and have worked with several people on the board. They are friends and have built a spectacular company. Check them out.

I was surprised to see Google’s stock price today at $470 per share. It once traded as high as $747. It is amazing that the company has reached a revenue mark of more than $16 billion annually and makes more than $4 billion in earnings but now only has a market cap of $111 billion. If you can believe it, I believe the company is way undervalued.

Check it out.

Here is a good write-up on a fun night and a big win. Go Caps!

Here is a great new blog network on the scene. Check it out.

I think we helped ourselves without hurting our team’s future. We entered the sessions with a list of “must NOT do’s”:
1. Do not trade any young players in the lineup that we count as core.
2. Do not trade any first round picks.
3. Do not pick up any major salary requirements in the out years that make us NOT re-sign our young players. If we could add to the team without “blowing our brains out”, we would do so and we did.

I think we helped ourselves without hurting our team’s future. We entered the sessions with a list of "must NOT do’s": 1. Do not trade any young players in the lineup that we count as core.2. Do not trade any first round picks. 3. Do not pick up any major salary requirements in the out years that make us NOT re-sign our young players. If we could add to the team without "blowing our brains out", we would do so and we did.  We needed a talented center because of the injury to Michael Nylander. We got a center that should have good chemistry with the likes of Alex Semin and someone who can win big face-offs; be smart on the power play; and provide some leadership in big tough games. I am hopeful that being around young truly talented skaters like Semin and Ovechkin and feeling comfortable with Kozlov will re-ignite Fedorov’s game a bit. He has always been a big game player and we need that right now. The move will also probably help us to move Kozlov back to the wing on the first line with Backstrom centering the Ovechkin-led first line. We needed some additional jump on the wing. The team always developed and respected Matt Pettinger. He played a lot of minutes and played on the power play at times. He has been very productive in the past but was truly struggling this season scoring only two goals. He grew up in the Vancouver area so moving him to the Canucks may jump start his game. I always liked Matt and we will miss him. In return we received Matt Cooke, a left wing who is an agitator, a tough sandpaper-like player, who can chip in goals; has lots and lots of energy; and really wanted to play here. The fans and his fellow players will love the way he plays. He is honest, hard-working and cares deeply about his teammates. A change of scenery will help his game and outlook as well. I think this is a win-win trade scenario. And we added a goalie in his early thirties who can perhaps help us this year. He led Montreal to one of the best records in the NHL this season. He is a #1 goaltender and he can co-exist with Kolzig and Johnson now. It will be a tougher management challenge but when you can pick up a #1 former All-Star goaltender for a second round pick – who is in the prime of his career – you have to make the deal. At no time did we consider trading Olie Kolzig. He has never asked to be traded and we believe in him. However, Olie is 37 years old and we needed additional insurance in the goaltending area as we develop two young goalies of the future. Perhaps Huet can provide a bridge. He is a UFA this off season and perhaps he won

Thank you to Gary Bettman, "the hardest working man in show business". He was in DC yesterday and he conducted about a dozen media interviews helping us promote the game of hockey. He then met with about 100 partial plan holders; gave a speech; moderated a Q&A session; and then sat with us in the owner