I have been involved with the NHL as an owner for 11 years.
I think I am actually getting up there in years as to seniority in ownership as there has been a lot of turnover in ownership in the NHL.
I am on the Executive Committee of the League.
I am probably one of the most transparent and interactive owners in the league. I embrace the media and the blogosphere. I respect all of the people that cover our great sport. I went to my first hockey game with my father as a birthday gift he gave me in 1961. I still remember that day. I actually did see many of the great old great players play as a child at Madison Square Garden and The Boston Garden. My favorite player was Bobby Orr.
In all of that time and all of those interactions, I honestly can’t ever remember meeting Jim Kelley or seeing him at a Caps game here in DC. If I am incorrect in that statement I apologize in advance.
I would like to invite Jim to a Caps game here in DC where we can meet, discuss and exchange ideas. We can talk about the game and history. He can come and Rock the Red. He can put a human face on the name that he writes about. We certainly didn’t connect or talk about what he was writing in this piece. He certainly didn’t call me to talk or send me an email to discuss.
So Jim, consider this an open invitation to come on down to Washington DC to talk some hockey. You can get out of the office, have some fun and meet some people. I think that would be a terrific idea. What do you think? Thank you.
Tags: Alex Ovechkin, Ted Leonsis, Ted's Take, Washington Capitals
Ovechkin is dirty in his knee to knee hits. Just because your Capitals rose colored glasses don’t allow you to see it, doesn’t mean it’s not true. On the other hand, Jim Kelley is a hack journalist who gets many facts wrong. I’m a big Ovie fan, but stop sticking your knee out!
I admit I didn’t know who Kelley was at first either. I don’t read SI. But after discovering that he’s a highly credentialed and honored hockey journalist and commentator, I find myself even more baffled by his poorly researched, tabloid-style of writing, and reputation destroying cant. If he does know the rules of hockey and the way the game is played, why would he make such a gross factual errors, such as misrepresenting Ovi’s “rap” sheet and misleading comparison such as the Ovi/Kaleta boarding call to the Bertuzzi/Moore notorious fighting incident. Even If he does have bias because he covers the Sabres and columnists are not reporting news but write opinion pieces, he should be held to appropriate journalist standards and show a degree of fairness and objectivity to his topic. I guess even the best journalists can turn into hack writers at the twilight of their career.
BTW–I commend you Ted on inviting him to our barn. I hope he does accept your invitation.
Maybe if Kelly come by you can show him the correct spelling of your name Ted, since he misspells it at one point in the article
I am a journalist and I can safely say that Jim Kelly really did a poor job writing this story. Any time a reporter makes such accusations against someone (Leonsis), it’s his duty to at least call the subject and offer him a chance to respond.
Just gotta say, a poorly factually backed-up article by Kelley followed up by a poorly factually backed-up response by Ted.
It doesn’t surprise me that those who are not Caps fans would say “right on, Jim!” and those who are Caps fans would say “right on, Ted!”
We’re all homers and/or haters. The main thing is this is an opinion piece on a website that (someone already said it) is not primarily a hockey booster.
I would encourage everyone not to slam Mr. Kelley for one article they disagree with. Just as we would not want people to slam Mr. Leonsis for one thing he says.
Again - opinion piece. Not everyone will agree with it.
Just my humble opinion…
Even though I don’t think that Jim Kelley deserves the invitation since the column is written just to garner attention, I applaud Ted for taking the high road and making lemonade out of the incident. Bravo.
Yet more proof I was right. Shortly after I discovered hockey was the greatest sport on the planet (25+ years ago) I simultaneously discovered how woefully inadequate SI was to my hockey coverage needs.
I canceled my subscription to SI almost on the spot and have never looked back. “Coverage” like this pretty much ensures I never will.
Unfortunately Jim will not accept the invitation as he is now fighting cancer & is on hiatus from his co-hosting duties on Prime Time Sports with host Bob McCown on the Fan590 & Sportsnet.ca
SF4 is the best series to ever happen to competitive arcade gamesreally, if we didn’t have it I think the genre might no longer exist…Not that I dislike other fighting games, I just think street fighter is in the hearts of the community forever.