The Caps are about to have their season wrapup meeting here at K-Plex. The lights are on here in the media room and upstairs in the Caps' offices, but the rest of the place is dark. It is an eerie setting.
Today should be interesting. There are a lot of unresolved questions and plenty of work for general manager George McPhee to do this summer. There were a lot of what ifs from last night, but it was a crazy, fantastic series and a crazy end to a wild season.
My question is, since this was my first go-round, are they all going to be like this? I know I probably wasn't expecting to cover 94 hockey games coming into this season (6 preseason, 81 regular season and 7 of the postseason variety). It does feel like the Caps crammed about three years worth of news, amazing performances and just other weird stuff into one season.
There is one bit of news already today. The Caps have sent Eric Fehr to Hershey. He will play for the Bears tonight in Game 4, but his stay could be short since they are down 3-0 to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
One thing from last night that we couldn't get in the paper, this quote from Danny Briere:
"Another thing that favored us was the condition of the ice," he said. "It was so bad that it was tough for guys like Semin, Backstrom and Ovechkin to get anything going, the ice was so bad. That was another thing that went our way."
Comments (5)
Briere is a poor winner. I'll be interested to read what else happens in the meeting.
Posted by Melinda | April 23, 2008 1:33 PM
Actually, Briere's comment about VC's poor ice might help. Might.
He's not whining, just stating a fact that has been mentioned throughout the season. Caps players have said it, Ted Leonsis spoke about it on his blog, players on other teams have said it. VC's ice is bad. Until VC's management is able to come up with a solution to maintaining good ice while simultaneously using the VC for other events, everyone involved will have to suffer.
Kinda like NHL officiating.
Posted by Focality | April 23, 2008 2:38 PM
Corey,
Good coverage and this isn't a criticism, but the title of your article about Game 7 - "Over and Out" - is the same title used by the Post five years ago regarding the Caps loss in 3OT to Tampa in Game 6 of those playoffs.
Posted by Monty | April 23, 2008 3:48 PM
sitting high up in 423, it was pretty easy to see the ice go from bad after the 1st intermission, to worse after the 2nd intermission, to kiddie pool before the ot. it was ridiculous.
Posted by served_cold | April 23, 2008 6:17 PM
I had some email discussions with Ted and I basically informed him that the goon flyers are benefiting from the lack of good ice allowing skilled caps players to thrive. He basically repeated that caps have #11 ranked ice in the NHL, and that it is monitored in every game. He made no mention of any plans to address the issue at the end of the year.
Posted by amine b. | April 23, 2008 7:45 PM