We won our first game back in Buffalo 3 to 1 last night.

We gain ground in the standings and we have 92 points with 19 games left to play. We now play 12 of 19 games at home to end the regular season.

A very smart exec in the NHL once told me “When your players go to compete in the Olympics they often times start to shut it down about a week before the tournament begins. They play the two and half weeks in the Olympics then they travel home and it takes almost a week to get back at it in the NHL. So be prepared. You may lose your best players for about a month”. I hope he isn’t right as our Olympians did look a step slow last night trying to regain their footing with their team mates.

I was relieved to get the two points on the road through the overhang of trade deadline day as well.

As we entered the trade deadline we truly articulated a plan.

First- “Do no harm.”Add to line up without moving young assets in the lineup for vet players for a short term return. I told you all about our plans on my blog to be transparent.

Do not take on long term contracts that will play havoc with our salary cap situation next off season.

Improve the team to get us ready for the playoffs. Throw out any stupid pills that may be hanging around .

We wanted to add 1st… Veteran help on defense, 2nd…a veteran center with size, 3rd… a gritty playoff tested winger.

I am pleased with how we threaded the needle and added 4 players to the lineup. Unfortunately, we did have to move Brain Pothier a long term vet player in our line up to Carolina. And we did have to include Oscar Osala a young prospect in our Hershey lineup in the trade for Joe Corvo.

We added Joe Corvo and we welcome back Milan Jurcina. That improves our defense.We added Eric Belanger a defensively oriented center man who is terrific in the faceoff circle.

And we added one of my favorite players Scotty Walker who is just a pros’ pro. A player who you hate playing against and playoff tested winger who is tough, gritty and plays best in big games.

I think we made the most trades in the league.

Time will tell if they help us or not but we stayed true to our plan and strategy. We added new oomph to the lineup and we won our first game back last night.

From my stand point it was a good day’s work. Thank you. Go Caps.