Leonsis's Invention of Not Lying

There is nothing like watching hockey live. TV really doesn't capture hockey well at all.

I hated hockey.....until I went to a game.

Have you been to a game? Four years ago I would have said the same thing. I hated on the NHL, Caps, and the entire sport.

I went to a game, started learning the ins and outs of it, and fell in love with the atmosphere. It's got the old school grit that football has... there's fighting, and there is the finesse aspect of the game as well (see Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin, etc...).

Plus when your home team has a player that's the football equivalent of Sean Taylor mixed with Peyton Manning, its hard not to fall in love with the sport.

People sometimes accuse me (and somewhat accurately) of hopping on the bandwagon. My response is, "Look. My entire life I've been a Redskins fan, an Orioles fan, and a Wizards fan... I've now been introduced to Hockey as a sport... so please feel sorry for me, and let me be a Caps fan. I will never jump off this ship"

Gotta agree, I used to hate it. I still don't follow the pro game or watch on tv. But i go watch the local minor league team (Hershey Bears) who are the farm team for the Caps. It's a hell of a good time. Even my wife likes it.

It's just not the same owning the Redskins as it is owning the Capitals. Patience is harder to come by for the Redskins community.

It's just not the same owning the Redskins as it is owning the Capitals. Patience is harder to come by for the Redskins community.

True! But then again, we've waited almost 20 years for another Super Bowl Championship and still have not gotten close.

SS makes a great point. This city is a skins city, and we never seem to be willing to just accept a bad team in the name of rebuilding. I think we need to throttle back, go young, reload, and build.

Also, I think part of the reason the Caps were so quiet in this town were two fold.

1) We now have arguably the biggest star in the NHL in DC right now, which is huge, especially in a sport like Hockey.
2) The strike hurt hockey a lot in general, and now the whole sport is rebounding a bit, not just the Caps.

I'll admit, I'm new to Hockey -- but going to a game got me hooked. I love it now!

washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/02/AR2009100204624.html?sid=ST2009100205053)

I'm posting this Caps-Ted Leonis article in the Locker Room, because its what many of us would like to see happen in the Skins Front Office. I apologize in advance for another FO thread, but it's a great article.

A couple of quotes stand out:
"It is very sobering and painful when you look in the mirror and don't like what you see," Leonsis said. "It's easier to go down the 'We're-one-player-away' path. I've been there when I brought in Jaromir Jagr.


"But when you come to that clarity, 'Can this team win a championship?' And if your answer is, 'No,' then you have to do something."
Like tell the truth.

"Of course it was a gamble, because we had a team with brand-name players that fans thought they loved but in hindsight were just familiar to them," Leonsis said. "I said, 'You're going to hate this plan. This is a very hard message for you to internalize. But if you are patient with us, this is the only way we're going to compete for the Cup.' "
Risking losing even his loyalists by waving the white flag, he directly communicated "rebuild" instead of "reload," trotting out an on-the-cheap outfit for two years while promising eventual rewards from the draft and farm system.

It's just not the same owning the Redskins as it is owning the Capitals. Patience is harder to come by for the Redskins community.

Smoot you took the words right off my fingertips. Not only that, but Hockey/baseball with their draft and farm system work far differently then the NFL. If DS seriously did what half the fan base says it wants - to blow up the roster, bring in scrubs for 2 years while the real team learned the ropes - the other half of the fan base would be screaming to blow up the FO. (figuratively of course, this isn't New York) And of course after the first 2-14 season, there would be no way that the HC would have any chance with the fan base. So by the 3rd week of the 2nd season you would see threads like HC on the hot seat, New coaches named who? or players would be scrutinized, and anyone defending the FO and saying that they have a plan would be called blind followers of the owner.

Of course, I could be wrong, I really have no reason to believe that any of the above would happen. Maybe DS could just hold the press conference today "Skins fans -- see ya in 2012, we will be ready to compete then"

Smoot you took the words right off my fingertips. Not only that, but Hockey/baseball with their draft and farm system work far differently then the NFL. If DS seriously did what half the fan base says it wants - to blow up the roster, bring in scrubs for 2 years while the real team learned the ropes - the other half of the fan base would be screaming to blow up the FO. (figuratively of course, this isn't New York) And of course after the first 2-14 season, there would be no way that the HC would have any chance with the fan base. So by the 3rd week of the 2nd season you would see threads like HC on the hot seat, New coaches named who? or players would be scrutinized, and anyone defending the FO and saying that they have a plan would be called blind followers of the owner.

Of course, I could be wrong, I really have no reason to believe that any of the above would happen. Maybe DS could just hold the press conference today "Skins fans -- see ya in 2012, we will be ready to compete then"

I don't think so. I think if you brought in a smart FO-GM type guy and a new coach who develop a plan and implement that plan I think Skins fans would be more patient than you think. I think we just want a plan. A good plan. I think a "new" plan and FO structure could do wonders for this organization. A new approach. With that being said we've got alot of good pieces here already that could be part of that new plan.

I don't see it as giving up on the next couple of years but i do see it as getting rid of dead weight w/ older players who aren't going to be around for too much longer anyway.

Who cares whether everyone is happy next year or the year after? They won't remember it so much if we can put together a good 10 year run.

And after year one of the "new plan" those same fans would be saying Snyder is interfering, whether there is proof or not, they would scream that the GM is in Danny's pocket, and that the Skins qb can't get it done.

Sorry, I have very little faith in the patience of the fanbase.

Any time a draft pick doesn't start right away we're calling him a bust and wondering why the Redskins wasted a pick on him. We've done it with Taylor, McIntosh, Rogers, Campbell, Kelly and so on

The NHL also has the advantage of having a minor league system. There is no Hershey Bears for us to send Colt Brennan to to get game reps