Mike is on a tear and the Caps increased their lead in the SE division over Florida to 14 points.
I was so happy with the way the fans all stood and cheered loudly for the last 5 minutes of the game as we tried to kill a 5 on 3 power play.
In the locker room afterwards, Alex Ovechkin noted to me that the “crowd was sick”. He then gave me a hug as he is so happy when the fans are rocking.
I was concerned about the conditions of the ice last night as it was unseasonably warm and there was a Georgetown basketball game that went into OT in the afternoon. The building staff has to really hustle to get the ice in game ready condition when this happens.
I asked our coaches about it after the game and they weren’t as displeased as I would have thought although I just read Tom Poti’s comments and am very concerned.
We are truly working these matters. We are very detailed about what we need to do as to temperature, timing, humidity and the like.
One of the things we will have to consider doing is not having any activities on the ice between intermissions. That extra 2 to 3 minutes may help us treat the ice. We are looking into this as a development now as well.
We are on it as is the building. We are looking at issues such as the building scheduling basketball games on our afternoons too although Georgetown has a schedule and is a tenant in the building and pays rent. And while the building tries to schedule their games before Wizards games, coordinating NHL, NBA and NCAA is an art not a science.
We are doing our best. We are making progress but we want to have great ice NOT acceptable ice and I hear Tom Poti loud and clear.
