Tuesday Caps Clips: Election Day Links

I’d hate to see another thread blow up over this. Caps are all over the radio today, but the one I’m happiest to see getting air time is Neuvy.

If I understand f_d and D’oh correctly, it’s not that they have a problem with anyone talking to the media. It’s that they are tired of what they see as empty words. And while I chuckled at the loose cow quote yesterday, I agree completely. The record, IMO, is not very indicative of the type of play they’ve brought to the table, and we’re tired of what seems to be all talk and little action from a team that we all know can be a whole lot better.

I’d like to see something from him that bears some resemblance to objective reality, for a start.

And not stuff that ends up as bulletin board material for Toronto and Boston, for another thing.

I agree. There’s nothing wrong with what he said. He didn’t say that Toronto or Boston or Philly weren’t good teams. He just said that the Caps were facing two of those teams on their second day of back-to-back games and the third team they want to avenge their two worst losses of the season.

Sounds like good stuff to me, and certainly nothing that would be taped to lockers.

Thanks for saving me the trouble. ;-)

Thanks for saving all of us the trouble.

It must be sad to be so full of envy.

The good news is Cox just keeps shooting himself in the foot with these articles.

Leonsis went nearly as far as Cox did to discredit the book. And isnt it Bradley who’s notoriously thin-skinned?

At least he still managed to keep throwing barbs at Ted

Still, it’s next spring’s playoffs, and not this regular season, that will define the Caps, although a 24.2 per cent increase in ticket prices by the club means they’ve got to keep being a compelling hockey show to watch.

Ted Leonsis’s club, which accepted more than $10 million in NHL revenue sharing last season, is 10th in NHL attendance. That’s about where they were a year ago, which means fans haven’t revolted despite being hit in the wallet.

No, Damien is well aware that Ovi won the Pearsay Trophy from his peers. He’s saying it doesn’t matter, and that AO has broken the hearts (and wallets) of Caps fans one too many times, who are apparently lined up ‘round the block at the VC to return their season tickets, causing Evil Ted to once more raid the League coffers (and prolly take all the mints from the NHL lobby reception desk while he’s at it. Again.)

Two suspensions, a weak Olympic showing and spotty personal production in Washington’s first round playoff collapse at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens last spring were failures too significant for even recognition by his peers as the best player in the sport to overcome.

Translation: The Pearson/Lindsay award doesn’t overcome the other stuff.

And he said AO had 52 goals last year. Fact-check, Cox.

I love how he is mad ticket prices are going up and mad that the Caps are part of revenue sharing in the same sentence. Higher prices = less sharing, so a sane man against sharing would be glad for higher prices. Of course, if you are against high prices, a sane man would not mind sharing.

Basically what I’m saying is Cox is not a sane man.

I did too—think it wasn’t too bad until his Ted diatribe. Something tells me Ted won’t be inviting him to his box. Cox also leaves out inconvenient facts such as that the arena has a mortgage and was built using private not public money, which factors into the revenue sharing calculations.

I find it amusing that Caps fans keep reading his drivel and giving him page hits.

I assume that means he’s going on vacation for a week.

You just made me picture high heeled shoes with skate blades on them…

It always seems to be on a week day, and I can’t stay out that late with work the day before.

I haven’t done it yet, but I have a friend who’s a newly minted Caps fan. I think I’ll go with her.

I went a couple of years ago. It was fun. And I’m the oddball who finds the information sessions more interesting than the on-ice stuff, although that’s fun, too. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I think I’m going to go (or attempt it, given the 30 minute window they sold out in last year).

That’s why I like the information sessions. Bruce talked about some very specific strategy which totally lost me two years ago. I think I can follow it now. I’m also looking forward to hearing about the conditioning. My son is majoring in Kinesiology, so maybe there’s a job as a Caps’ trainer in his future. :-)

That’s sort of what I thought when I was reading the HnH agenda. I also don’t have $65 though.

Funny you should say that. I was hesitant to sign up until I saw some positive posts above. My fear was that it would be like the time that someone sent me a subscription to Women’s Golf magazine and most of it seemed to be about how to choose the best looking outfit or where to convince your husband to take you for vacation golf – not something I’m into. However, in one issue I saw a piece on putting that I still use to this day. So, if I can glean a few pieces of information first hand that I might not get elsewhere, then I’m willing to invest the $60 for a few hours one night (which is less expensive than my season ticket seats)!

It’ll be ok, Olli.

not really, just trying to help out the single ladies in the area know if they need to go blond to get Nicky’s attention

It’s the Junkies. "Nuff said.

By the way, The Fan is really quick to get their podcasts up, so if you missed it (I did), it will probably be there in an hour or so.

It’s the Junkies, that’s their style. They were being typical men talking about hot blond Swedish women. They actually said someone they worked with (I didn’t know him because I don’t listen to them) would dump his blond girlfriend if she dyed her hair. But Nicky said he would still love her.

Nicky actually laughed at the question that he would bring his own pillow. Well the Junkies guy was complaining he couldn’t sleep with strange hotel pillows of the wrong thickness. Then Nicky laughed because he had no trouble. Actually at the nicer hotels they seem to have a variety of thin pillows and bigger pillows.

At the end they just basically told Nick that his favorite Halloween candy must be Swedish fish.

I like them because they admit they don’t know the first thing about hockey most of the time.

I’d be way more supportive of the CSN dummies if they just said “Bear with me, I don’t know these names..” before doing highlights.

Junkies forget that Columbus is a big College town. It’s actually got a pretty good night life.

That is an excellent point.

Keep this in mind about goal scoring…

Steve Yzerman scored at least 50 goals in five seasons, and in those seasons:

- only twice did they finish above .500
- four times they made the playoffs
- only once did they advance past the first round

I suspect Ovechkin will never top 60 goals again. I think he will be a formidable goal scorer for most of the rest of his career, but eventually (as in, by the time he is 30) that will mean more in the 45-50 range, not the 50-plus range. But by the same token, he should be a better all around, more nuanced player, even in light of his physical edge (like a player he is often compared to — Mark Messier).

Thanks for shaking that snow globe to give an equally valuable perspective. I also felt depressed after reading Peerless’ piece. Good to be reminded that goals aren’t everything in Ovi’s bag of tricks and hopefully he adds what the Caps’ need to that bag.

While I agree that we will likely never see 65 in a season again, and that goal-scoring ability does eventually decline with age, I also think that using data from players whose careers began in the late 80s or early 90s is going to badly skew the results.

That is true if you are comparing the early Kovalchuk career with the early Recchi career, but we’re not. The functions are of each player to himself (and the differences even among players are not all that great. All seven had a peak 82-game window over 50 goals, except for Kovalev. The big generational difference is that the portion of the function over 50 goals tended to be longer among more recent players).

A player, individually, generally expresses a function in which his production goes up (usually to about age 25 or so) then shows a more steady decline through the rest of his 20’s and into his 30’s (with a few exceptional spikes).

We’re not making the argument that player “A” is a better goal scorer than player “B” (which would entail generational effects), but rather that despite generational differences the track of fheir goal-scoring careers are remarkably similar and offer a hint at where Ovechkin’s goal scoring production is likely to go.

even if it’s not the 90s anymore, I’m quite excited my tickets for Avs-Wings at the Joe later this month arrived today!

I agreed with that part of the argument. What I found odd was his suggestion that he advised MAF, whom he consides an “economy of movement” goaltender, to play more like Thomas after 10 paragraphs of describing why Thomas’ style was not conducive to long-term success.

He does seem like a major head-case. Talented as all hell though.

I’ve had that problem, too, but now just right click all links just in case then I can open in new window.

In Firefox, if I click a link by clicking it w/ the middle mouse button (mouse wheel), it performs the same as right click/open in new window.

Yup. Should have realized that points trump GAA. I think they got it backwards, and not because Stamkos plays for Tampa.

Has to be an upgrade over Fahey.

I’m there, too. The cap hit would be so low that the only question for me is, “Does he push either Sloan/Erskine down the depth chart?” and I think the answer is, “Yes.”

We don’t have a roster spot for him, at least at the moment. Not unless Tom Poti is moved to IR retroactively. He’s a few days away, but I doubt more than a week from being back. Marcus Johansson is close to returning and probably won’t go to IR. And when either or both come back, someone will have to go to the minors, and it’ll probably be Valabik.

Often enough, if you put a guy like him on waivers, he probably won’t clear due to the 300k cap hit. But if he does, then it sucks for him to get buried in the minors in Hershey as opposed to buried in the minors in Chicago.

Besides, there are plenty of teams before us who would be more likely to put a claim in. Vancouver’s defensive depth has been decimated by injuries (Ballard, Hamhuis, Alberts, Salo, and Parent are all injured). The Devils are playing an AHL defense with a top pairing of Andy Greene and Henrik Tallinder (and they barely have any cap space, so Valabik might fit). The Islanders just lost Juice 1.0 for 2-4 weeks, along with Andrew McDonald, so Valabik might be a good fit there.

I don’t see him falling to us.

@alanhahn (of Newsday)

Garden undergoing massive renovation. During cleaning of attic above ceiling, asbestos-related debris fell into the arena. Issue NOT floor.

Since it’s asbestos-related, very possible Garden may not be available in time for Friday’s game against the Wizards. No announcement yet.

This is the seventh time in franchise history a home game had to be canceled. Most weather-related. Last non-weather: Great Blackout of ’65.

Yes—the making sure he doesn’t bump into Laich while near the the crease part. I appreciated how quickly he realized that he had to choose when to drive the net when on the same line as Laich but he doesn’t whine about it. He just adjusts his game and says he’ll keep trying to create his chances to score to earn his spot back on the top. He’s such a grownup about it all. I hope a lot of the players are listening to him.

Vaughan Cunningham: You always seem to be deep in thought. Tell me, what are you thinking right now?
Karl: I was thinkin’, I’m gonna take me some of these taters home with me.
Vaughan Cunningham: How about before that?
Karl: Well, let me think… I was thinkin’ I could use me another couple cans’o that potted meat if ya got any extree.