It has been a thrill and an honor to be involved in this playoff series. As I have noted, both teams are evenly matched and both teams have great and passionate fan bases that are deserving of a long and entertaining series. The TV networks; the media; the blogosphere; the sponsors; the city fathers; and the ownership of both teams are blessed to witness this series. As my teenage daughter said to me this morning, “That was epic!” And it was.
Both teams have won 2 games at home and 1 on the road.
Both teams have now won an OT game.
Every game but one has been settled by a single goal.
This has to go down as one of the best second round series in NHL history. I think everyone can agree on that. Yes or no? The NHL Network referred to it this morning as “Drama Central”.
It is amazing that on a night when the big stars combined for dozens of points and goals and Sidney Crosby scored the goal that tied the game on one of the most talent laden scores I have ever witnessed, it was little things such as face offs won and that a role player David Steckel tip in wins the game in OT.
We now move to Game 7 as I predicted at home on Wednesday night.
We worked long and hard to hold home ice advantage. I am hopeful that that tiny advantage pays off for our franchise and our fans.
As I noted, it is just an honor to watch these games and see this battle of the titans unfold. May the best team win Game 7. It doesn’t get any better or more fun than this. Keep positive. Stay calm. Onward. Go Caps!
Great season Caps! However it appears defense and coaching philosophy must be addressed to get these talented young men to the next level.
Thoroughly enjoyed the season Ted but I’m old school and it’s all about the “W”.
Hello Ted,
I think that you are one of the classiest owners in all of sports, I have the utmost respect for you and what you have been able to achieve. I have been a season ticket holder now for two years. I have been to 41 regular season games and all but one playoff game since last year’s game 7 loss. I am very tempted to give up my tickets for football. I am so very dissapointed with the NHL and the officiating that I really would rather watch a sport that at least you would know that they police the officiating. This has been horrible. How can you have a playoff game and not one penalty gets called on a team when the infractions were obvious. The Pens were good tonight and we were obviously not even close to being as good as we could have been or have been in the past. But to allow so many non calls is appalling and I truly hope that you have a voice in this towards the NHL and I hope that my voice is heard as well. I look forward to your response.
Thanks,
Tom
Congrads on the awesome coverage in today’s Post!:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051302446.html?hpid=artslot
That cancer patient is the kind of guy it would be cool to send a personal get well video to from a player – or owner – of the Caps
As a fan who watched our playoff failures of the 80′s & 90′s in person at the old barn, I can state without a doubt that these guys are different. They have the heart of a champion. They may be young, they may struggle, they may get outplayed at times, but they play their hearts out, they give it everything they have, they believe in themselves and they *never give up*. And those qualities pay off tonight. Caps Win! Caps Win!!!
So very true, Ted. Everyone, everywhere deserved a game 7 of this series. Whatever the outcome, it has been impressive for both teams, and for hockey overall. I trust that our guys can do it “Again” tonight however!
First to Andy Pens fan, we have had your fans sitting next to us at the VC and they are obnoxious and rude so, don’t talk about Caps fans until yours clean up their act! Great game on Monday but, when it went into OT I thought “Oh, know here we go again” thank goodness the boys pulled it out.
Will be in Sec 418 “Rocking the Red” as always, GO CAPS!!!!
Need Tickets:
Will work for free!
Go Caps!!
Hey Ted,
How about the team sponsoring something for fans who can’t get (afford) tickets to the games? There is no room downtown to do a big screen, but what about at Kettler or out on the roof of the parking garage there at KIC? I know they do this with a lot of success in Pittsburgh and Buffalo.
This is in response to Rick’s comment. The officials haven’t been as big a factor as everybody in Capital land would like to believe. The fact is that you get PP’s when you control the puck, and the Penguins have the puck much more than the Caps do. This is exactly how the Pens made it through the East last year, by controling the puck and making the other team take penalties to get it back. If you watch closely, when the Caps have had the puck for significant portions of time that’s when they get PP’s. This is the Detroit gameplan and we felt just as Caps fans do last year in the finals. Game 7 Final Pens 3 Caps 2
Same ol’ Capitals, just different names.
STAY CALM!!!! I feel sick to my stomach and excited all at the same time.
CALM is not in my vocabulary today
Caps fans on Maui will be cutting out of work tommorrow as the start time is 1:00pm HST.
Ovie for President!
Aloha
Ted, YOU deserve a Game 7 – Game 7 ticket revenue. I believe it was in 2001, you responded to one of emails personally and said you were losing $20-$30 M per year. I hope those losses slowed over the “post Jagr” years. More importantly, I hope this year is profitable, as you deserve it more than any owner in all of sports. Thank you for all you’ve done for my favorite franchise. LET’S GO CAPS!
Ted,
This is just a suggestion, so please take it for what you will. With Hershey having closed out their Game 7 series over the Baby Pens tonight, IF there is a box available, a section behind the pens bench, or something that is publicly available for the team to come down and support the Caps tonight and help cheer them on, I say would be one of the best ties seen between organizations in quite some time.
Sincerly,
M
I’ll be partying at a bar in chinatown somewhere during the game.
I’ll bring the confetti in case we win… a bag of feces in case we don’t
I’m with nistl up above. I could really use a game where the Caps win 6-1. My blood pressure can’t stand much more of this. Good luck Caps. I’m POSITIVE you will win this.
I think Caps fans whine too much about the officiating. The “ref you suck!” chant is overused. We make everything into a conspiracy against the Caps because some think it makes sense for Gary Bettman to conspire against his League’s biggest star.
All that being said…
Last night’s officiating was disgusting. We are lucky that the phantom call on Laich with 2:02 to play did not cost us the series.
Ted, I agree that this has to go down as not only one of the best second rounds in NHL history, but is an historic round overall of any playoffs we have seen in a long time. This is a clash of the young guns and the new powerhouse franchises of the NHL. Thanks to you, I am proud to recognize Washington as quite possibly the fastest growing franchise in the NHL and we will hopefully prevail in Game 7. I will be watching. Let’s go Caps!
Pens fan here.
Finally, all the talk about who is to blame for the Caps dispair is OVER! No way you can blame the refs, and nice work to overcome that last PP.
This is a great series, and is igniting, and hopefully uniting (glances at Ted…) the hockey world. This is the kind of series that you talk about for months after its over.
Take it easy on us Pens fans at the VC, ok? Just because you haven’t attended sporting events since College doesn’t make it ok to act like you’re still there…
LETS GO PENS!
It worked against the Rangers….so once more,
And dying in your beds many years from now,
would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance,
just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that
they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… game 7!
LET’S GO CAPS!
Teddy, The game last night took ten years off my life but I knew my Caps would do it! I got a glimpse of Coach Brucie when he realized Steckel’s goal went in. His face just lit up! Way to go caps. I will be doing some serious meditating sending all those GOOD VIBRATIONS your way. I am looking forward to game 7 on Home Ice. Rock the Red and Lets Go Caps!!!!!!!!
here’s a playlist for the series’ efforts and the quest for the SC silverware:
http://www.flashwidgetz.com/playlist/view/SB5I5D09EIN6H93U
GO CAPS !!!
I have waited years for this. The whole city and hockey world is a buzz about this series. The tags on my car read “4MyCaps” and I have people driving by me blowing their horns and giving me the thumbs up like crazy.
This is awesome. VC will be rocking on Wednesday and if the Caps pull this one out the roof will come off VC Wed. night.
It’s great to be a Caps fan!!!!
The matadors get flowers, the mesa sopranos gets flowers, three goals begets hats… yet none of those performances, even at their most scintilating matches the performances of the Penguins and the Caps in this series. One of the most enduring images of RFK is the seat cushions flying through the air as a salute to the Redskins’ performance. Verizon Center, the Caps, the Penguins deserve an image for the ages to celebrate their performance. This time, when we “litter” the ice, let’s do it with towels, pom-poms, and hats, let’s make it rain on those boys so they know we Washingtonians know a legendary performance when we see one. After what Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Varlamov, and company have done, they deserve to kind of appreciation only given to the greatest matadors, gladiators, tenors, and rock stars.
dear mr ted..I guess Iam still a caps fan..what a game…what a series..9 more wins..game seven..has the makeings to show how great this team really is to play caps hockey just one more time..these type of wins are history in the makeing..lets go green we need you to have a huge game 7….go caps.98caps
Ted, I just want to say thank you for staying the course over these long tough years as team owner. I have been following the Caps all season long from way down here on The Gulf Coast in Mississippi. Yeah that same Gulf Coast where one Bruce Boudreau used to coach a team by the name of the Mississippi Seawolves. Sadly, that team is gone from the ECHL now. It folded this past season. I had the pleasure of attending a Caps game earlier this year on the night of December 26th. I was home visiting family for Christmas. Kudos to your guest services staff for exchanging my two tickets for me. I had purchased lower level tickets not realizing my brother who has M.S. would not be able to make it down the stairs. They gave me seats right next to your owner’s box. I was able to witness one of Ovie’s most spectacular goals that I have ever seen. I am sure we will see a lot more of those in the future (hopefully tomorrow night)! I will once again be on the edge of my seat all the way down here in Mississippi tomorrow night. The same night where I hope The Caps season continues on into June!
Ha Edward you beat me too it. Posivite- check. Calm-just not a posssibility.
Lets Go Caps!! We will be rocking the red from section 118 Row Q!
Ted,
Great win for the Caps. Wednesday night should be incredible at Verizon. Cant wait!
GO CAPS
That was awesome. This team is capturing the hearts and minds of everyone – all ages. My kids are saying that everyone at school is talking about the Caps, everyone’s facebook message is referencing the Caps, and they want me to buy them a Caps shirt to wear to school.
Mr. Ted – you have built a great franchise – one that is now building its next generation of fans.
STAY CALM???? you’re kidding, right?
Exactly right Ted. This is when home ice pays off!! Can’t wait for game 7! I live in Oxford, UK, but will be up at midnight for the drop of the puck. Go CAPS! Those back in DC, rock the red!!!
I’ll say it for you:
Too bad the officiating has to ruin it.
It’s just unbelievable! Is it too much to ask to just call it the same both ways??? For one game at least!
See everyone Wednesday! =)
It has been a great series. Sometimes I think that fans who are personally invested in one team or the other may have more difficulty fully appreciating what is transpiring here. We are too wrapped up in rooting for our team, despising the other team, and agonizing over little details to truly see the big picture as well as a dispassionate outside observer who simply watches to appreciate the game of hockey. Tomorrow night when the game ends and the handshakes begin, we owe both teams the best ovation we can give for a true clash of titans.
With that, I would like to make one comment. In my own personal view, given all the scintillating performances we have seen in this series, there is one candidate for MVP in my mind, REGARDLESS of who wins tomorrow night — and that is Varlamov. I feel this way because everyone has been talking about all the principals and many of the role players, evaluating in detail, throughout this series. Except one. The one key player whose play I have heard very little discussion about is — Fleury. People have been asking whether or not a particular goal Varly allowed was soft or not, whether he was tiring or cracking, etc. But his play has so put Fleury in the shade, it seems to me, given the pressure he has been under, that there is no way this series gets anywhere near game 7 without him. Meanwhile, about Fleury there simply is not much to be said – he’s just there. Varlamov is the reason this series is playing out as a series for the ages, period.
OMG ted! drama central is right! light candles and say a novena! GO CAPS!
there were some very happy cap fans on my plane from dc to california when the news hit of the ot win. go caps
I think my heart stopped when the Penguins hit the crossbar in overtime. I’m praying for a nice boring 5-1 Caps blowout. I’m sure the game will be 3-3 going into the last 4 minutes….:)
this is a great series and a testimony to the strategy of both teams building both solid, exciting teams and caring about their fan base.
Looking forward to Game 7. I’m skipping my poker night to watch on Versus! It will be a great match-up, one in which I know our fans will play a huge role. Rock the Red!
time to change Steckel’s jersey to $teckel instead. get us some more top players Ted! I disagree that we are evenly matched…this is pure team effort to get this far against a team with many more legitimate marquee players. GO CAPS game 7!
It is a great time to be a hockey fan, Ted. This is one playoff season that no one will soon forget.
LETS GO CAPS!