My parents (avid Caps fans and season ticket holders – at least for now) pointed me to the “Owner’s Corner” on the official Washington Capitals homepage where the owner attempts to explain without “spin” the moves that he has taken over the past month. It may not be obvious from my original post on the subject, but I agree with most of his deals. Jagr wasn’t worth the money, Lang and Nylander were recent free agents and I hear Gonchar wanted to leave. Most of all, they just weren’t getting it done. I agree with Ted when he writes that he’s “not committed to … a $50-million payroll for a team that is last in its division.” Especially when the division in question is the worst in the league. Tampa Bay might be good, but the reason are in the race for the President’s Trophy is because they get to play the other four teams in this wretched division the most. (Of the six teams under .500 in the Eastern Conference, four are from the Southwest Conference. That’s every team except Tampa Bay)

However, he glosses over so many ugly details but I can’t help but see spin.

• He refers to Kolzig, Halpern, Witt and Zubrus as “a strong core of veteran leaders”. However, Kolzig and Halpern sat out the last game before the trading deadline – a pretty sure sign they were being shopped around as trade bait. Zubrus has been injured off-and-on. So they are more like “a strong core of veteran players we couldn’t trade”.
• He explains that Konowalchuk was traded since he would have been an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. That’s a great reason to trade a player – even the captain. I can see trading the captain as part of a fire sale at the end of a losing season. However, that’s not what happened to Kono – he was traded back in October when the season wasn’t even a month old. He wasn’t traded because he was going to be a free agent. I’m not sure why he was traded, but the rumor mill is that he and then-coach Cassidy didn’t get along. Which brings me to…
• How come there’s no mention of the utter failure the Bruce Cassidy head coaching experiment was? Cassidy lasted all of a year and a half – getting fired in December of this year. Word is the players didn’t like him (see bullet above). Leonsis has thrown his support behind now-head-coach Hanlon, but he did that before firing Ron Wilson a few years ago (Ron’s now leading the San Jose Sharks to the Pacific Division championship). In the end, all of this talent wasting comes down to be the coach’s fault – and the hiring of that coach is the GM and owner’s fault.
• Finally, he totally glosses over any explanation of the Bondra trade. For all the other traded players, he detailed the hot young prospects or high draft picks we got in return. For Bondra, he writes of “ensuring” Bondra was “comfortable” on a team with “a legitimate opportunity to win the Cup this year”. The truth is that Bondra was “comfortable” where he was and had no interest in leaving, even for a “legitimate opportunity to win the Cup this year”. Also, while Leonsis is technically correct when he writes that Bondra was in the last year of his contract, the fact is that Bondra’s contract had a team option for another year. Given that his contract wasn’t really ending and that Leonsis acknowledged that they didn’t save a significant amount by trading him (the Caps had paid 70% of his salary already), why would you trade “Mr. Capital”?
• Even if he couldn’t produce (which he could – he still leads the team in power play goals), Bondra was the perfect mentor for Alexander Semin. Semin is a gifted 19 year old Russian who the Caps picked up in last year’s draft. He’s a little undersized for the NHL at this point, but he sure can skate and shoot. He had a gorgeous rebound goal against Atlanta the other night. The announcer even said something to the effect of “I’ve called his name so much that I thought he’d had 10-15 minutes of ice time so far. Turns out he’s only had seven”. Semin’s story is very similar to Bondra’s, who came over from Slovakia as a 19 year old. Who better to learn about America and the NHL from than a five-time all-star who started out exactly like you did?

Sorry Ted, we can all see you spin. The most depressing part of the Owner’s Corner for me is that you are still the owner and that doesn’t look like it’s changing anytime soon.

Fellow ‘softie and Washington Caps fan Dan Fernandez feels my pain. I called my father the other day and chirped: “Any new ex-Caps today?” and was very depressed to hear “Yeah, Gonchar’s gone”. I know I SAID my favorite Caps were on one way tickets out of town, but it’s depressing to be right. Between the fire sale and the upcoming CBA quagmire, I wonder if the Caps will sell ANY season tickets for next year.

I have a coworker who used to work for AOL in general and Ted “Hockey Abomination” Leonsis in particular. He’s watched a game from the owner box. I told him to give Ted a message for me : “Sell the Team”. Of course, I’m guessing he’s hearing that message on several fronts these days.

Update: Raymond Chen enjoyed a Seattle Thunderbirds game recently. Also, the annual Microsoft Hockey Challenge is next weekend. Traditionally, we played rival IT companies like Sun and AOL, thrashing them soundly on the ice (the one time I went, we been Sun 8-1). This year, there are a variety of intra-MSFT games and a series of MSFT vs. Customer games, but no industry rivalry games. Bummer!

(Note – As usual, my normal disclaimer applies. However, let me add to that by saying: in this post, any negative comments regarding AOL executives has nothing to do with the competitive relationship between my employer (Microsoft) and AOL. For the purposes of this post, I’m a sports fan, not a b0rg. We will return to our regularly scheduled technical blogging shortly.)

Ted Leonsis is an abomination to the sport of hockey. He has transformed a Washington Capitals team that had gone to the Stanley Cup finals the year before he bought them into little more than a minor league hockey team unable to escape the basement in the standings. And to top it off, he has somehow managed to alienate the fans and lose $30 million dollars a year doing it.

His AOL bio claims that Leonsis “has employed state-of-the-art consumer and interactive initiatives to dramatically boost the Capitals’ attendance and revenue.” Really? Then why is he losing $30 million a year? Note to Ted: the best way to dramatically boost attendance is to actually field a competitive team.

His WashingtonCaps.com bio claims that Leonsis is “[k]nown for his fan-friendly approach as an owner”. At least, he was until he got into a fight physical altercation with a fan who had the nerve to criticize Leonsis in the wake of the Jagr trade. Note to Ted: don’t include fisticuffs with fans who actually paid to come see your team in your “List of 125 Ways We Are New and Improved”.

And now, he has traded Peter Bondra for a bag of old pucks minor leaguer and a draft pick. In the world of sports, trades aren’t usually a big deal. But this is not a normal trade. Bondra was “Mr. Capital”, having spent his entire 14 year career with the Caps. He is the Caps all-time leading scorer. He was on the verge of having played more games for the Caps than anyone in their history. And even though the team was in the cellar, he wanted to stay and help them rebuild. When he was talking to the press, he cried. In this age of multi-million dollar athlete salaries with the rampant “me first” attitude, a five-time all-star cried because he wanted to stay with the team he loved rather than be traded to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Yet Leonsis even tried to spin this: “allowing [Bondra] the opportunity to win a Cup is important.” Of course, it’s important, but having a player who loves where he plays and fans that love him right back is much more important.

Of course, if Bondra is expendable, then so is anyone else with any talent whatsoever. Only Kolzig, Gonchar and Witt remain from the ’98 Stanley Cup Finals team. How long until they are dumped to reduce salary allowed the opportunity to win a Cup with some other team? (rumor mill has it Gonchar is next on the trade block, going to the Devils)

Suddenly, I am looking forward to an extended lockout in the wake of the expiring Collective Bargaining Agreement. Watching the pitiful product Leonsis has foisted on Washington area hockey fans is a disgrace.

Since all my favorite players are on one way tickets out of town, I actually hope that the Capitals continue to suck until Leonsis has lost so much money that he has no choice but to sell the team.

I’m not sure which of the post-game analysts said it, but the 2003 college football season is summed up with these words: “Any coach who doesn’t vote USC #1 is crazy”. Congrats to SC for their 28-14 victory over Michigan @ the Rose Bowl and for winning at least a share of the national championship. Now, my Sunday night is clear since I don’t need to watch the Nokia “Battle for Second Place” bowl (which I blogged a month ago).

Update: I added a link to a picture my son all decked out in his Trojan gear and smiling wide after winning the national championship (actually, his mother is making faces off camera).

Another Update: I found a great post on the subject of the BCS by Jason Salas via Bryan’s Weblog of Stuff. Jason is a .NET developer and a sportscaster, so his views on the BCS from both sides are facinating (though he did mix up the AP and the Coaches poll).

…but to really screw up, you need a computer. Or in the case of the BCS, you need seven of them.

I’m sure the Nokia Sugar Bowl officials are really excited about hosting “The Battle for Second Place”