Monthly Archives: December 2010

Another Road Loss and Another Injury

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As noted, if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger.

That was a tough road trip – back to back games – with more injuries. No Andray Blatche and no John Wall last night.

We take the red eye back and land early this morning. The guys have a day off to sleep and then report back on Friday to practice and play Friday night at home against the red hot New York Knicks.

No rest for the weary.

Don’t despair.

This is all a part of a very tough process.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Hopefully we can get energy from our home crowd and get back on the winning note come this Friday. See you all at the game.

NOT Splitting Hairs…

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Dan is right. We are wrong. We have to be transparent here. This is a “gotcha” moment.

This isn’t what I want to do to market the team. I find it unacceptable.

This is a teachable moment for us. This is not how we market and I must take accountability here and say we are wrong. I will find out how our systems failed us and am hopeful that this would never happen again.

I can’t point fingers. The buck stops with me and I am sorry that this happened.

Even worse, I just found a Caps-related direct e-mailer that mentions a player on another team too. This shouldn’t be happening but as majority owner, I have to take the heat and I understand that and accept that as a responsibility. We have hundreds of tickets that are available on a last minute basis for some Caps games as the other team turns back their tickets or a media partner and the league don’t use their tickets and I learned that we do some select e-marketing to a selected list and one of the mailers mentioned a player on the Florida Panthers. Arrgghhh.

I apologize.

No one is getting yelled at. No one is being terminated. Everyone knows how I feel. We have enough stars and offer enough value to our fans to never have to mention another team and or player to get fans to come into our arena.

I am hopeful it won’t happen again. I can’t sign off on every piece of material that we generate so I am hopeful that my belief system and point of view and voice are being heard on this matter. But I take full responsibility for this gaffe and I apologize.

Intersections

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New hot stuff. “New rules and new media.”

Take identity and location.

Add high speed wireless connectivity.

Think real time data.

Add cool new devices like the iPad and smart phones.

Mix in new revenue streams from tens of millions of local merchants. And local advertisers.

Add 2 billion consumers as an audience and let them act as sellers and buyers. Around the globe.

Create easy and cheap currency and payments options.

Mix together. With video which is standing side by side now with communications as killer app. Think utility. Make it fun and viral too.

Create a new economy.

Build value.

Grow new businesses.

Zynga. Twitter. Facebook. Groupon.

Who is next? Are you?

Identity

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Be hard to play against; have upside; be tough; be fast; and have fun.

We played well last night in LA. We didn’t back down from the defending NBA champ. Our young players got lots of minutes. Our three first round picks this past off season were all on the floor late in the game and played well together.

I am not happy that we lost. I am happy that our team played with “no quit” and that they pushed LA to take us seriously.

We get a player back from IR and another one goes down. We need to show fortitude. We need a win on the road. No rest for the weary as we play yet again tonight in Sacramento.

Thanks for staying up late and watching the game. I did and I am paying the price this morning. I am groggy but satisfied with our effort.

No Excuses

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We let our fans down last night.

Great teams don’t lose a 4-1 lead at home in the third period and then lose in the shootout. We get one standing point but it doesn’t feel good in any way, shape or form. As noted, Toronto is a tough team to play against and they didn’t wilt. They took advantage of their breaks and they played a great road game against us. Shame on us for letting that game slip away.

On top of it all, we lose Jeff Schultz to injury. Jeff is one of our most efficient defenders and his loss is a big blow.

I feel like you all do today – not happy. Time to regroup. Every point matters and how we play is as important as the results these days. We all understand that set of facts. We fall out of first place today and deservedly so. I am hopeful this lack of intensity in the third period serves as a reminder of how fragile success is and that the team rallies from this failure in front of our fans.

Weather the Storm

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A new Winter Classic television ad is now available. Click here to see it on NHL.com.

Don’t look now but the Pens, the Flyers and the Caps are all tied after 28 games each with 38 points. The East is bunched up now. I believe that is good for the NHL; for fans; and for us.

We play a tough one at home tonight against Toronto, a team that knows how to earn power plays. They have more than us this season - that is for sure - and more players on the All-Star ballot; and more power play opportunities to date. Go Caps!