Monthly Archives: February 2010

A Word on Trade Deadlines

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This is a fun time for bloggers, for pundits and for fans. Everyone can speculate and think through what they think we need to add to our team; discuss who we should trade; and demand how much or how little we should change up our team. Every pundit always believes a team is just one additional player away from winning a Stanley Cup, guaranteed. That is what is so exciting.

That is all healthy that is all good. There are no issues with speculation and there are no ramifications to the pundits at all with voicing opinions. Even if it hurts someone’s state of play this week or makes a player nervous about trade speculation or if the pundit is just dead wrong. That is the beauty of self expression. Throw it out there and see what sticks.

But there is a human element to all of this, isn’t there? I can’t name a player on our team who would like to be traded. THAT is an amazing comment. We have a happy group. I believe happy teams win.

We have constructed a pretty good team to date by adhering to a plan and by having sound cap management. We have generated good results to date. We have good team chemistry. Our best players are our young players. We are well positioned to compete for a Cup this year but also for many out years as well. And for that I am grateful. A “generationally” great team was one of our promised deliverables to our fan base.

We do have a plan. I see no reason to deviate dramatically from the plan this coming week. We need to keep our core group of young players together.We need to reward young players for their hard work and loyalty.

I don’t see us doing anything dramatic this week. I want to temper folk’s expectations.

We want to improve the team but NOT take risk of trading young assets now for older players with big ongoing contracts that would hinder us from keeping our core together. That would take us off our plan. It is ironic that many players being offered around the NHL in trades are older vet players who recently signed huge contracts. Many deals being discussed around the league are what I call “sucker’s bets” - trade a very good young player in the lineup today, a prospect and a first round pick for an aging veteran. In essence, do to us what we did to teams during our rebuild before the lockout.

We do have a lot of depth. We do have a lot of picks. We do have great young prospects still waiting to make our team. We have lots of optionality.

I would be hopeful we can add to our team without hurting our team chemistry and without crushing our salary cap management. That will be a tall order.

Plan for the best, play to win but manage expectations. We want to improve NOW. We want to win in the short term and the medium term and the long term.

We won’t do anything dumb. We won’t get too far off our plan.

Get excited. No one knows what will happen by Wednesday but I threw out our “stupid pills” a couple of years ago. :-)  I believe in George and our scouts. We will do the right thing the right way. Go Caps!

3 Acts Redux

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As I noted last week in my blog: Act 1 - A participant is expected to win; Act 2 - There is a big fall and public humiliation; Act 3 – Comeback and redemption.

The Canadian men’s hockey team is following the script to a Hollywood-like ending. They beat all comers after their initial loss to the USA team including Russia and Slovakia to get back to the gold medal game on Sunday.

I am an American and I am proud of our team. I offer respect and offer kudos to Brian Burke and Ron Wilson. I am rooting hard for Team USA but the script says Canada wins. And all is well in the hockey world.

If the USA team wins again and takes home the gold it will be an accomplishment of epic proportions. There would be huge celebrations and it would be a win for Brian Burke who deserves it more than anyone.

USA! USA! USA! All of the world will be watching on Sunday. What a game is planned. Good luck Team USA. Break the script.

Forgive my Typing and Spelling

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I do these online chats myself. I read the questions and try to respond to as many as I can in an hour time frame. I type the answers out myself. There are tons of mistakes and typos so forgive me.

I tried to answer as many questions as I could.

I was surprised at how many questions were generated by fans from other cities this session. I had some truly weird questions thrown my way this session, most of which I ignored.

I think in the future when I do such a session I will ask that people introduce themselves, offer up their name and where they live and try to pierce the cloak of secrecy that some people hide behind on the internet. We should all be friend’s here. You know who I am and what I stand for. Perhaps we are owed the same courtesy back?

I also received about a dozen emails post the session. Some that were nice, some that were weird, and one that was name a calling- cuss word which is par for the course.

That is a small price to pay though for the opportunity to hear what is on your mind and for me to try and remain interactive and connected to the community.

I just ask that some folks try to maintain a bit of decorum. I believe that mingling and listening and talking to everyone is the right course of action for an owner. I won’t be chased away by the few of you that for whatever reason take the opportunity to try to push me away from interactivity. It won’t work. Be nice. Try to be happy. You can do it!

Weekend Viewing Pleasure

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Maybe this explains it.

The weather sure is weird lately in Vancouver. It is sunny and warm. In DC it is blizzard city this winter.

Here is an interesting film on the Arctic that tries to explain our interconnected system.

I liked this film very much. It was clear, concise and made me a bit smarter on issues such as global warming and new weather patterns. Watch it this weekend.

The Caps Lock-A Good One

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I enjoyed reading this blog post.

We have played a lot of games on the road and we finally get some home cooking. We finally play some division rivals as well.

All of our players will be back in one piece come Sunday’s practice.

Now to sprint to the playoffs and through the last 20 games of the season. And try to stay healthy with 12 more games at home.Wish us luck come trade deadline time.

Go Caps.

Consumer Confidence Down Sharply in February

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Check out this press release from The Conference Board. Consumer confidence rocketed downward in February.

It seems that the simple answer continues to be lack of creation of employment opportunities. If America isn’t working it can’t be happy. If America isn’t working it doesn’t trust our political system. It can’t pay back its credit card debt, it can’t buy cars, and it can’t buy new homes.

All of the focus of our government right now should be on putting America back to work.

Nothing will raise our Happiness indexes more. It seems obvious to me.

A Nice Review – Thank You

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Click here for a nice book review on The Business of Happiness. I was honored to conduct the talk and a book signing last night at the Politics and Prose sponsored event and was shocked to see so many people lined up with my book for an autograph. It makes me blush and I feel touched and blessed. Thank you again. I am showing “Gratitude.” Read the book. :-)

Another Full Day of Hockey

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I am so tired.

I watched a lot of hockey yesterday interspersed between work and family time.

First, I saw a bunch of the USA game and watched it with Capitalss employees at the office. It was a tense 2 to 0 game and the USA moves on to the next step in its medal quest. The game was played in a very tense environment with neither team wanting to make a mistake. USA!! USA!! USA!!

Then, I got to watch the second part of the Canada vs. Russia game. That was a blow out. Congratulations to Team Canada. They played ferocious hockey and had great goaltending. LOU!!!!!!!!!!

Goaltending and special teams play usually dictates success or failure in big games and Team Russia got neither. It was shocking to see how ineffective Russia’s power play was with players such as Ovechkin, Semin, Kovalchuk, Malkin, Gonchar, and Markov out on the ice during the series. It goes to show that team work, adherence to systems play, and chemistry is as important as pure talent.

Canada was focused, with cheers from a loud and proud home crowd. They deserved to win. They had clearly the better team last night.

We all had a moment of despair when it appeared that Alex Ovechkin was injured during the game. He seemed to be ok after a few shifts and we will learn more today on how he is feeling.

I then tried to watch some of the Sweden vs. Slovakia game but eventually fell asleep. Slovakia moves on and dispatches Sweden. Peter Bondra has built a really terrific team which has beaten now both Russia and Sweden.

Canada, USA, and Slovakia seem to be the teams to beat now and the best teams left in the field. This will be an exciting last few days of Olympic hockey. I can’t wait to watch this weekend.