The Hockey Stop

If you have followed The Hockey Stop blog the past couple of years, it is no secret my admiration for Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis. He will be the first to admit the playoff disappointment the Caps and their loyal fans have faced in what has turned into a difficult rebuild in the team's quest for that elusive Stanley Cup. That's why Leonsis and General Manager George McPhee committed to a major overhaul of the roster this off-season after being swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning in round 2 of the playoffs.

But listening to Leonsis speak Wednesday at a luncheon at the National Press Club in downtown Washington, D.C. (and munching on yummy cupcakes, see below), I got the sense that he has felt the pain of three straight years of early playoff exits more than anyone. Leonsis is a big Greek man from Brooklyn who has made millions as an Internet pioneer at AOL and later a venture capital investor and founder of such companies as social media website SnagFilms. But under that tough exterior lies a sensitive kid at heart who, as he explained, cried recently when he saw video footage of the New York Jets Super Bowl III victory over the Baltimore Colts in 1969, which Leonsis attended as a child with his late father.

He went on to say that as the owner of two major sports teams, he is in the business of "making grown men cry." He has said before that if the Caps ever win the Stanley Cup that he will cry like a baby. Well, he won't be the only one raining tears. Count me in and thousand of others with ties to Washington's hockey franchise.

It might not happen next year, or the year after that, or even the year after that. Leonsis has been humbled by three straight years of playoff failure and the tough realization that there are no guarantees in the postseason -- even for a team like the Caps that has been so successful in the regular season. But Leonsis said the window is wide open for the Caps, and that he expects the team will make the playoffs for the next 10-15 years, and if you make the playoffs then anything can happen.

Leonsis is a man who knows and respects history. And the most touching part of the speech was when he paid homage to the late Abe Pollin, who, as owner of the Capitals and Wizards/Bullets, brought the two teams to the heart of Washington, D.C. by financing the building of the Verizon Center with $200 million of his own money. The arena became the catalyst for the revitalization of the entire downtown area of our Nation's Capital. Leonsis said that Pollin deserves a monument for what he did for the city.

Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis is perhaps the model for how to turn around the fortunes of a franchise through the draft and brilliant marketing. The jovial Greek American from Brooklyn went from humble origins to becoming a senior AOL executive and later a professional sports owner. He answers every email, blogs every day on Ted's Take, made the Verizon Center the rockingest and reddest place in Washington, D.C., and most recently moved the Wizards' training camp from Richmond, Virginia, to the George Mason University campus in Fairfax where last Tuesday at approximately 12:01 a.m. the team held the first ever NBA Midnight Madness event at the Patriot Center.

So with all his success both personally and professionally, a gaffe here and there is no big deal. When Leonsis told a reporter at the Patriot Center that the move to Fairfax and the Midnight Madness event were designed to lure more fans from Northern Virginia because that is the team's base, it might have riled residents of the District and Maryland. But no big deal. Fans in Maryland and D.C. will forget those comments the second after No. 1 draft pick John Wall steps onto the court for the first time.

But when on Wednesday Leonsis told a group of Northern Virginia business leaders at a breakfast event on the GMU campus that he expected the NBA will soon have a hard salary cap similar to the NHL's model, well that wasn't taken lightly by the league office and commissioner David Stern, who fined Leonsis $100,000 for the comments.

From the AP story:

"NBA commissioner David Stern said that's not necessarily true -- and the NBA fined Leonsis $100,000 for 'unauthorized public comments regarding the league's collective bargaining negotiations.'

"We're negotiating and that was one of our negotiating points," Stern told The Associated Press, "but collective bargaining is a negotiating process, and that was not something that Ted was authorized to say and he will be dealt with for that lapse in judgment."

But does Leonsis have a point about the salary cap?

In my view, he is absolutely correct that the NBA needs a hard cap similar to the NHL. Professional hockey has never been more competitive and the parity is stunning. Any team can beat any team on any night and that is great for the game and even better for the fans. It is why a smaller market such as Pittsburgh has just as much of a shot as New York.

The LeBron James fiasco is a great example of how smaller markets suffer with no hard cap. Cleveland simply did not have the money to build a championship-caliber team around James and the rest is history -- James went to cash-rich Miami to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and probably get some rings.

Now let's say Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Henrik Sedin all signed with the New York Rangers when they entered into free agency because there was no hard cap and Gotham had all the dough.

That wouldn't be very fair now would it?

Kudos to Leonsis for speaking the hard truth about the NBA's need for a hard salary cap.

Since moving back to Washington, D.C. this summer I've noticed something different in the air. No, it's not the stifling heat and humidity creating a natural sauna every time I step outside. Nor is it the pollen making me sneeze every five minutes.

There is a breeze beginning to blow into the Nation's Capital from places as far away as San Diego, Philadelphia and Kentucky. And it is refreshing the air in this city of perpetual losing sports franchises. There is a cautious optimism in the atmosphere. Some long-suffering D.C. sports fans are whispering that there could be a whole lot of winning right around the corner.

Is this what Boston felt like just before the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Revolution began to dominate?

I can only hope this city will savor some of the success that Boston achieved seemingly all at once.

Regardless, Capitals star Alex Ovechkin suddenly has some illustrious company stealing the local and national headlines in the form of Nationals pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg, new Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb and the Wizards' No. 1 draft pick John Wall.

The last time I visited D.C. was during the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and Ovechkin was still slightly behind President Barack Obama as the biggest star in D.C.

At the time the Capitals were the only winning franchise in town and even Washingtonians who mix up ice hockey with curling could get behind Ovi and the Caps. Dan Snyder was doing everything in his power to anger as many 'Skins fans as possible; Gilbert Arenas was waiting to serve his sentence in a halfway house for gun play in the Wizards locker room after the team's beloved anti-gun owner Abe Pollin had passed away; and the Nationals were coming off two 100-loss seasons in a row.

But my how times have changed in The District. Now in addition to Ovechkin apparel there are Strasburg shirts, McNabb sweaters and Wall jerseys for sale at City Sports next to the Verizon Center in the Gallery Place-Chinatown neighborhood.

And the banners lining the VC proclaim "John Wall: Game Changer." Ovechkin had to win the Hart trophy to nab the keys to the city, but all Wall had to do was arrive in D.C. for Mayor Adrien Fenty to hand him the keys.

Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has said that when one local sports team wins it is a rising tide that lifts all boats.

The Capitals, Wizards, Redskins and Nationals all still have a lot to prove and many challenges ahead to get to that next level.

But having leaders like Ovechkin, Strasburg, McNabb and Wall creates a collective excitement that I've never seen in Washington, D.C. before.

The talent that has arrived or will soon be arriving could create a perfect storm that turns the Nation's Capital into the center of the sports universe. Time will tell if all this talent translates into winning. But either way Washington sports fans finally have a lot to cheer for a change.

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

Whether or not the Washington Capitals have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup this year remains to be seen (Pens and Devils in the East and 'Hawks and Sharks in the West are tough tasks to say the least).

But Cup or not, the Capitals reached a significant milestone tonight in the history of the franchise -- their 5-1 home win against the Ducks was their eighth straight, which is the team's longest winning streak in 26 years.

There is still a lot of hockey left to play this year, including the Vancouver Winter Olympics, but right now the Capitals are the best team in the NHL, or at least the best team in the Eastern Conference. Washington is tied with Chicago and positioned only two points behind San Jose for the league points lead with 76.

All streaks must come to an end at some point, but for long-suffering Washington, D.C. sports fans (think Redskins, Wizards and Nationals) this is a moment to savor.

This lonely Caps fan in the City of Angels is definitely enjoying it.

Saturday night as I sat in a bar at the Verizon Center that Abe Pollin, who died Tuesday at 85, built, and watched the professional hockey team on TV that Pollin founded, and as I sat with my parents who are reliving the city life of their Chicago youth in a condo located in an area of Washington, D.C. that was once as dangerous as Afghanistan but is now the Times Square of our nation's capital, all thanks to Pollin, it hit me that this kind and generous man has touched my life in such a positive way and countless others as well.

Little was I to know that Mr. Pollin would pass a few days later on the day his beloved Wizards were to play the 76ers at The Phone Booth.

When I learned of Pollin's passing today my initial reaction was as if my own grandfather had died. For Pollin had so much influence on the lives of those connected to Washington, D.C. that he felt like everyone's grandfather.

Yes, he was criticized at times for putting loyalty above winning, but his legacy will be nothing less than the transformation of the most powerful city in the world.

This reminder was everywhere this misty, cool fall evening as I left my parent's condo, which again they would not have been living in if Pollin didn't decide to build the Verizon Center in a rundown part of D.C.

As we walked by the sleek new office buildings, stylish restaurants, upscale hotels and condos, lively bars, and the new convention center, they were all vivid reminders of the economic floodgates Pollin helped open over 10 years ago.

And to see the beehive of activity in Gallery Place-Chinatown is the ultimate testament to Pollin's lasting legacy.

As the Verizon Center crowd exited the arena following a Wizards win, a picture of Abe Pollin was displayed on the big screen at F St. and Abe Pollin Way.

At that moment I wanted to simply say thank you.

So here it is -- thank you, Abe Pollin for the Washington Capitals, for making downtown D.C. the place to be, for strengthening my relationship with my father and his wife, and for exemplifying Hope and Yes We Can long before another visionary became a resident of Washington.