Thursday Caps Clips: Flyers @ Caps Game Day

Lovely phrase, isn’t it?

Gracias.

You did a nice job resisting the urge to correct Chad when he called Belly’s deal a “verbal agreement”.

Excellent — it’s so great to have hockey talk on local sports radio!

By the way, I have to disagree, I think King will spend quite a bit of time on the first line with Ovechkin. (Ok…I shouldn’t make fun…I do want the trend of those guys covering the Caps to continue).

It’s obvious that Washington is where he wanted to be, and it’s a shame the two sides couldn’t have come together to work something out. The thing is, even if the Caps front office had zero contact with him regarding the status of his deal, his agent at the very least should have been looking for opportunities for him elsewhere.

Worth noting for those who feel that the “oral agreement” was an underhanded thing to do – it’s not. It’s normal practice in certain private sectors, namely government contracting. It is standard practice to hire a worker for a government contract “contingent upon award”, which means that they’re hiring for a contract they’ve bid on but haven’t actually won yet. They do this so that when the contract is awarded, they have a staff ready to go. The job offer disappears if they don’t win the contract. That’s known and understood by all sides, and it’s common for both the workers and the recruiters to keep several irons in the fire just in case.

I don’t really fault the Caps – don’t ever plan until you and they have signed on the dotted line – but Belanger’s agent is an idiot.

There’s two sides to every story dude. Just b/c Ted Leonsis says something doesn’t mean its true. If an employer sends me a training schedule and a moving company I would feel pretty confident they are offering me a contract.

About Belanger and Phoenix.. NHL Home Ice had audio of him on some talk station saying that he was replacing Lombardi in Phoenix. Good luck with that.

I think there’s something to be said for that, for sure. But on balance, they must have felt that the need to get some portion of their version of the truth out there outweighed the couple of knocks they’d get for producing it internally.

Ted has no obligation – he’s not negotiating Belanger’s contract. Maybe Ovie and Nicky’s and (I hope) Semin’s this fall.

What remains is that there COULD have been a contract, and at least one valid offer was made, the 2 year, $3 Million deal prior to July 1. The Caps were serious and negotiated in good faith. They are guilty of nothing but trying to accommodate his request for one year, $1.85 million, which was a contingency deal. He ran the risk of the market drying up for the services of mid-range players (we’ll miss his faceoff prowess), and suffered from gross inexperience/acumen of his “agent”. It’s sad.

Not surprised at all. The one thing the Caps did not want to do was issue a response under the club’s masthead. It elevates the issue to much, to what might be a “league-level” matter. Better to do it this way; it isn’t unlike what you see in a lot of political campaigns where a spokesperson might issue a response to a charge.

Yup – Sasha’s out there, too. It instantly put me in a better mood to hear our Russians are back where they belong :)

Yikes.

That looked just like the Richards hit on Booth.

That was an absolutely despicable hit. I hope Florida holds Clackson out of today’s game.

Nothing but a cheap shot. There was plenty of opportunity to skate across the middle and make contact anywhere but the head. That hit has no place in hockey. I hope he receives very serious discipline.

Total bush league hit by Clackson. That’s no different than the awful Richards and Cooke head shots.

Time will tell if GMGM dropped the ball, but maybe he didn’t think the Caps needed Belanger as much as many of us did. Belanger is a depth guy, not any sort of cure. If GMGM really thinks he can get 2 Cs out of Flash/MP/Mackan then the analysis changes quite a bit. If we look back at this in 6 months and Mackan is playing well in the NHL and Flash is a credible 2C then the entire narrative will have to change.

The Caps signed extra guys last year, probably assuming they could move one, and it never happened. I understand the “we can always make room later” aspect, but you need another team to take the guy or you just waive an asset for nothing. Last year having all those NHL D is a big reason Carlson and Alzner didn’t come up. Maybe GMGM learned from that.

What a great read. Thanks for drawing attention to it. And what a courageous article to write. He’s going to piss some people off with that, but in the end it may do some real good.

And if Nyls had listened to his agent instead of his wife perhaps he would have ended up in Edmonton. Women…

Honestly, I got the impression that Nylander isn’t able to play in any system. He didn’t exactly light it up in the Finnish league last year.

There’s a reason the guy isn’t coming to training camp this year, despite having no NMC and still having a contract in the organization.

YES. Please. :)

Meee toooo. I’m in Florida trying to watch, so I thought it might have just been me.

Including the hit that ended a guy’s hockey career. And when he walked into Chicago’s locker room and got into a fight as GM, sticking up for his players.