Monthly Archives: July 2011

Dalai Lama and World Peace

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Verizon Center becomes peace and happiness central with the Dalai Lama coming to town for 10 days: July 6th to July 16th.

If you have read his books or heard him speak before you should come out to listen to his talks; a true scholar and a beautiful human being.

This is a wonderful event for all. Click here for info and thank you. Peace be with you.

Accountability?

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134,000 results in 0.13 seconds. Type in “Varlamov signs with KHL”.

This is how media works today. Instant- fast – unaccountable.

A Tweet is generated and recycled.

It leaps to become a story. The story is then recirculated.

It goes from online sources to great and established media entities; to newspapers, to cable to local television newscasts. The headlines morph from rumor to fact.

It thus must be true. Just look at the headlines and see how rumor morphs to facts.

The media gets manipulated by an overseas agent; and a freelance media rep. That was too easy wasn’t it?

But news moves so quickly. The media is off to the next story and rumor. So who cares?

Who cares if the old pixels are incorrect? The monster was fed and the stories are disposable. The media awaits the next tasty morsel from the blogger. In the old days the generator of bad news would be put into the penalty box. In the new world there is no accountability and we await the next feeding.

“Ted Leonsis’s deleted blog post”– 30,700 listings in 0.09 seconds.

In the old days an established media journalist would call or email and ask “What is up?” What just happened with the blog post going down? What does this mean?

But not today. There is an algorithm awaiting feeding. Controversy sells and being first to post matters. Being second to recycle is important to listings into Google crawlers. Deleting a blog post is BIG NEWS. We want our links to be linked back from 30,700 sites. Who cares if it was because of a typo and an editing process?

Who cares if what was posted in my blog post turned out to be pretty accurate and transparent. It was more important to be first with the big news of a “deleted blog post”.

And so it goes.

Jagr to DC-2011-71,000 listings; Jagr to Pittsburgh 2011-2,470,000 listings; Jagr to Philadelphia 2011-2,510,000 listings. All in less than a second. Permanently glued into the algorithm.

Media have a big responsibility. A tough job; but a higher standard to execute against I believe.

Being accurate and trusted is important. Providing context is crucial. It is more important than being “first to post”.

Off of my soap box now. Thank you.

Safety and Security

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It is something that we focus on and spend quality management time on.

I believe that trust safety and security are the first priorities we have as venue owners and managers for the benefit of our fans.

This is a thankless job. I appreciate the great work our folks do in hosting more than 2 .5 million people into our arena every year. I would like Verizon Center to be the cleanest, safest and most family oriented and fun environment in the world. That is a noble goal.

Our fans are passionate but well behaved. We are blessed by that fact.

We have sold out every game for the Capitals. We have seen incidents decrease year over year. We have added to the training of our staffs and we are very focused on maintaining high levels of security so our fans can enjoy whatever event they are attending in our building.

We have also increased the policing of our streets outside the arena. We have invested in technology and cameras to make sure we document and help protect our building in the most modern of ways.

We are in this together. Read this article if you have a moment and rest assured we understand the issues here and that we are focused on it. F street is FUN street. It is a safe and nice neighborhood. The arena is safe and we are focused on security.

Recent Grads Seek Employment

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It is tough out there for recent college grads. Finding work is a challenge. Developing a career harder still.

Here is a powerful new film on this issue called “Jobs for Rent”. It is easy to watch. Click here on SnagFilms.com.

Hire a recent college grad today and give back. Help these young adults prove that their education and college degree matter! Thank you.

Good Grades

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We received high marks and kudos for our work in free agency this past weekend.

I am very happy with the performance of our front office and professional scouting department.

I think they really delivered.

I wanted to take a quick moment to thank Matt Bradley for all he has done for our franchise. I am happy that he received a great two year deal to serve in the Florida Panther organization. Matt is a great guy. A good and tenacious player and really contributed to our team. He will be missed by our community. Thank you Matt.

The Panthers now have added several players to their lineup that played in Caps jerseys not too long ago. Also they added a bunch of ex Blackhawks too. They greatly improved.

I read that we are the favorites now in our division because of how we improved our team this past weekend. I don’t agree with that at all. I believe Tampa is the team to beat. They finished this past season a few points behind us and they beat us in round 2 of the playoffs. They are the team to beat in the division with the Boston Bruins the odds on favorite to repeat in the East as defending Stanley Cup champs.

We have work to do and we have only improved on paper. Tampa is the favorite coming into this new season.

Read this one on NHL.com; thank you.

Injury Bug Hits Again

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We just have to fight through it. So many injuries. This time our leading scorer is out- Crystal Langhorne.

No Crystal. Still no Alana Beard and of course Monique Currie is out for the season.

We are so shorthanded. But we can’t use that as an excuse. We have to fight on and find ways to win games.

Onward Mystics! A tough home loss on Sunday night sad to say. Read about it here.

Tomas Vokoun is a Capital

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Did we deliver on our promise to shake up the team so far this off season? A veteran goalie; a center; a wing; another wing; and a D man plus a first round and second round pick all this off season plus Brooks Laich re-signed with us as well. Very productive, don’t you think?

Isn’t cap management a good thing to handle well and to be able to do just about whatever we wanted this off season? I am also pleased that I basically told you all what we were going to do on my blog. Transparency is a good thing too! Who are you going to believe by the way in the future?

Note that every one of our signings was for a player that took a bit less money to come and play with us because of their respect for our fan base and our constant ability to qualify for the playoffs and be considered a contender for a Stanley Cup.

Players want to be comfortable in a stable and high quality environment and play with teammates that are committed to winning and to play for a loud and proud fan base and within a stable franchise. Real winners want to compete for a Cup and aren’t afraid to play on a team that is deep with talent.

I credit our great fans; the buzz around Kettler Capitals Iceplex; and the understanding that we want to win and we are focused on doing the right things the right way here in Washington with making us a have a team that can retain and attract top talent now. Thank you. I credit our fans with this great evolution of our franchise.

Read these blog posts from Capitals Insider. Read the quotes from these great players and why they wanted to come to DC. Then pat yourself on the back. You are fantastically supportive and we are very grateful. Go Caps!

Enjoy the Long Weekend

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My family and I went to the Nationals game last night. What a wonderful game with a walk off home run for the win by the Nats. It was a beautiful night with a great crowd cheering on a young team that is now at the 500 level after half the season has been completed.

The Nationals are doing it right. They will be a very good team for a long, long time. Kudos to the Lerner family.

I thought we have had a very productive off season to date at the Washington Capitals. As noted months ago in my blog we were quite disappointed after losing in round 2 of the playoffs. We would have to let time pass. We would have to be analytic and then become firm in our moves to make. No emotions. Just trying to calmly change the team up and manage the cap well.

Yesterday was busy. As noted.

I think we have been one of the most active teams in the NHL in recrafting ourselves. Hopefully in the right way. Time will tell.

We will be able to resign Karl Alzner and Troy Brouwer so everyone who is amped up, please try to relax just a bit.

We will enter the new season with a very good team and a team that is changed in terms of personality from last season.

We will look to make some trades in the off season maybe even sign another free agent. We will continue to look at all of our options. We may not be able to get anything done. We may be able to do something. Time will tell.

I want to thank the players that have played for us and are now free agents and may end up on other teams. I am grateful for their service and for their contributions to our community. I can thank folks individually later – for now – I am quite happy for Boyd Gordon. He received a great offer and I am sure he will prosper with his new team. Thanks Boyd from everyone here in our community. You were a terrific person and player. You will be missed.

I intend to spend some quality time reading and relaxing and being with family this long weekend so I think this will be one of my last blog posts until next week. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the fantastic weather here. Go Caps!