The Hockey Stop

HALAK TO BLUES

In the biggest trade of the offseason so far the Montreal Canadiens have dealt wunder goalie Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for prospects Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. This is one of the most baffling trades in recent memory. The Canadiens today almost gave away the goalie that single-handedly defeated the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins and was being compared to Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden by Montreal's media and fans.

The Habs will now go with 22-year-old Carey Price in net and after this move it looks like UFA Chris Mason will be playing between the pipes for another team next year.


MACLEAN TO COACH DEVILS

The New Jersey Devils named former player and assistant coach John MacLean to lead the team behind the bench next season. He replaces the retiring Jacques Lemaire. MacLean was a first-round pick and played 14 seasons with New Jersey and spent eight more seasons on the coaching staff.


DONOVAN'S HOCKEY ROOTS

World Cup fever is not only sweeping South Africa but is also starting to catch on here in the U.S. after the American team tied England 1-1 in the opener.

Why you ask am I writing about soccer on a hockey blog? Because star player Landon Donovan could have easily laced on skates instead of cleats when he was growing up in Ontario, California. Donovan's dad Tim is from Nova Scotia and was a semi-professional ice hockey player in Canada.


OVECHKIN'S NEW BOOK

A book on Caps superstar Alex Ovechkin will be released this fall. "The Ovechkin Project: A Behind-the Scenes Look at Hockeys Most Dangerous Player" tells the story of his meteoric rise from Russian athlete to NHL powerhouse. Writers Damien Cox and Gare Joyce reveal a side of the Great 8 most fans never see, including how the death of his older brother impacted him. It should be an interesting read.


LEONSIS REASSURES CAPS FANS

After officially taking over the Washington Wizards and the Verizon Center, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis felt compelled to write an open letter to Caps fans who might be worried that Leonsis will devote more time to the Wiz and neglect the Caps. Here is the letter followed by a video of Leonsis speaking at the National Press Club in Washington. He talks about his "moment of reckoning" when he thought his plane was going to crash and how it changed his life and the way he does business. Fascinating.

Open Letter to Washington Capitals Fans

Thursday, 06.10.2010 / 1:00 PM / News

By now you have probably heard the news that my partners and I have completed our purchase of the Washington Wizards and Verizon Center and created a new company – Monumental Sports & Entertainment – that owns those entities as well as the Capitals and the Mystics. You’re likely to see and hear more from me on this news in the coming days – in the media, on my blog (tedstake.com), at the NBA Draft. It’s big news, and something my partners, my family and I are very excited about.

But I’m here to assure you that even if you hear me talking about the Wizards a lot, I haven’t – and never will – overlook the Capitals and our commitment to bring a Stanley Cup to Washington. I will continue to be focused on your well being and happiness.

A few people have asked how I expect to juggle these new responsibilities. I believe I’ve always been someone with great “bandwidth” to cover a variety of interests, including different companies, film projects and, foremost, my family. The Wizards will have a place in those interests, no bigger or smaller than the Caps – just as I don’t choose between my son and my daughter!

The creation of Monumental actually creates opportunities that I hope Capitals fans are excited about. We now program Verizon Center and we hope to be able to offer terrific new cross-marketing opportunities to our fans. We plan to continue to improve the fan experience at Verizon Center and will count on your feedback to do so. And we will over-index on scheduling and maintenance-oriented projects related to all of your teams.

Thanks as always for your support, and I will see you at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the Caps Convention and Verizon Center in the upcoming months. And I’m always available to you at washingtoncaps@aol.com.

Sincerely,

Ted Leonsis

Félicitations! Congratulations to the Montreal Canadiens! As this legendary franchise revives the Montreal Magic on its 100th anniversary by defeating the Washington Capitals in the first round and Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round -- both in Game 7 -- the question must be asked: How did this team sneak into the playoffs as an eighth seed?

Montreal's mediocre regular season left nearly every sane person on the planet believing that the No. 1 seed Caps would destroy the Habs in four games in the first round. It must have been one of the biggest spreads in the history of Vegas odds makers.

But the Canadiens and their Super Slovakian goaltending wonder Jaroslav Halak and heavy hitter Hal Gill frustrated and confounded Alex Ovechkin and his band of scoring machine gunners to claim the series and become the first eighth seed to come back from a 3-1 deficit to beat a No. 1 seed.

So they upset the Caps and moved on to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. So every sane person on the planet said, OK, so they beat the Caps, but Washington was horrendous on the power play, relies too much on its offense and there is no way Halak can stand on his head for another series, especially against the playoff-built Pens.

So when Pittsburgh scored four times on the power play in four tries in Game 1 and brought Halak down to earth, it seemed to vindicate all those pundits and critics who blamed the Caps' "system" for the epic fail.

And so Sports Illustrated in their latest issue decided that Sidney Crosby is the better player than Ovechkin, after all he has a Stanley Cup and a Gold Medal. Of course everyone conveniently forgets that team Canada and team Pittsburgh won those championships. Ovechkin has collected tons more individual awards than Crosby has. So I ask you -- to all those Pens fans who jumped on Ovechkin after the Caps lost to Montreal, where was Crosby tonight besides watching Montreal score from the penalty box? I hear crickets chirping. Only silence.

Sorry but Sid the Kid could not save the Pens from Les Habs. Not tonight in Game 7. So let history be the final judge. When their careers are finished, let's see who has more individual and team triumphs and I'll bet it will be Ovechkin.

But again, congratulations to the Montreal Canadiens on their unbelievable run in these Stanley Cup playoffs.

Vive les Canadiens de Montreal!

In no other sport is there as much of a difference between the regular season and the playoffs than hockey. And in no other sport is there as much parity in the playoffs as in the NHL.

Just ask the New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres and the best team in the regular season -- the Washington Capitals. They will all be sitting at home watching the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens battle in the Eastern Conference second round.

But put aside the Devils and Sabres, I'm going to focus on the one area the Caps are sorely lacking in, and it wasn't the atrocious one-for-30-something power play. The biggest lesson of all? DEFENSE wins championships, not offense.

Offense gets a team 121 points, a 50-goal scorer and a Presidents Trophy in the regular season ... and a first-round ticket to the golf course.

This is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn in all of sports, because defensive, er, deficiencies can be easily masked in the loosey-goosey regular season when it is easy to simply outscore other teams night after night if you have Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, Fleishmann and Green on your side.

But oh how the playoffs are a different story. Things tighten up more than the Republicans in Congress, and every little mental or physical error is magnified a hundred times.

For example, Mike Green is a Norris Trophy candidate and has been compared to Paul Coffey as the one of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL. But Green was left off Team Canada because of his penchant to turn the puck over or take a stupid penalty at just the wrong time. Of course his lack of defensive skill and smartness is forgotten quickly in the regular season. But when he takes a cross-checking penalty in the offensive zone near the end of a first period in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and Montreal scores to make it 1-0, well then Green is really exposed.

And Ovechkin was bottled up the whole series by Hal Gill. He did an amazing job of containing Alex the Great during the series. And let's get this straight, I love Ovechkin but he is no Sidney Crosby. I was at the Caps-Habs Game 2 and I heard a Caps fan behind me chanting "Crosby Sucks!" What? What planet are you on buddy? Crosby sucks? Is this the same Crosby who scored the game-winning goal for Team Canada to win the Gold Medal in Vancouver? Or maybe it is the same Crosby who took the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals two years in a row and won the Stanley Cup last year? Is it that Crosby? And what has Ovechkin accomplished team-wise? Nothing. Until he does, it is painful for me to say, but Crosby is King and Ovechkin is an Imposter.

And what is the biggest part of defense in the playoffs? Goaltending of course. And Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak was nothing short of brilliant and deserves the comparisons to Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden. The Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov was great too, but Halak was better and that was the difference.

So what do I hope the high-flying Caps learn from this Game 7 loss, and last year's Game 7 loss to Pittsburgh, and the year before when they lost in Game 7 to the Flyers?

DEFENSE WINS STANLEY CUPS.

Dear Washington Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau,

Please start Jose Theodore in Game 7 against the Montreal Canadiens. Theo deserves one more chance to defeat his former team and what better chance than a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Following the tragic premature death of his son Chase, Theo had his best regular season since the 2001-02 season and is a big reason the Caps had their most prolific regular season in franchise history.

And while Semyon Varlamov played exceptionally well in replacing Theo in Game 2 and then in Games 3 and 4, he played average the past two games, letting in two first period goals the past two games that forced the Caps to play catch up against a hot netminder in Jaroslav Halak.

Theo is also nominated for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy this year which honors a "player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey."

While I understand if you go with Varly, I ask you please consider Theo for Game 7. I believe he deserves a chance at redemption.

Sincerely,

Caps fan