End of the Year Retrospective

Well, wish I could say the end of the year was going well for me. I wrecked my car so I’m holed up for awhile until either my car is fixed or I somehow get a new one. I guess with the new year fast approaching, we should do a quick retrospective on a lot of the events that have occurred here in DC with sports over the last year or so.

On Field/Court Moment of the Year

There were some that could take this spot, Ovie’s brilliance, Wall’s emergence, DeAngelo Hall’s fumble return. But one moment above all others took the cake. Stephen Strasburg’s 14 strikeout, no walk debut in seven innings of work sent chills up and down the spines of any DC sports fan this year. Despite his season being cut short because of Tommy John surgery, Strasburg has given this area reason to believe that baseball will soon be relevant in Washington, D.C and that the Navy Yard metro stop will have a sharp increase in attendance when Strasburg makes his return, seemingly in 2012.

Biggest Surprise (Good)

The Washington Wizards Winning the NBA Draft Lottery. Not just days after Ted Leonsis took over the franchise from the Pollin’s, the Wizards got their best news in years with winning the Overall #1 pick at the NBA Draft Lottery. John Wall, when he has been on the floor, has been the kind of player that the Wizards have long needed with a point guard. But his injuries can be a concern. But from what we have seen of Wall so far, he just needs to adjust to the NBA style of play before he wrecks himself.

Biggest Surprise (Bad)

Mike Shanahan benching Donovan McNabb, not once, but twice. Who would have thought at the beginning of the year that it would have been the COACH and not the Owner who was pulling a power play. But twice this season, he has benched highly respected quarterback Donovan McNabb, which the Redskins spent two draft picks on, for Rex Grossman. Now I have personally been quite critical of Shanny’s handing of this, and I think maybe we made a mistake of bringing this guy in. There’s a reason this coach hasn’t won a playoff game since John Elway retired.

Biggest Gut Punch

With no doubt the biggest gut punch especially to myself and Mike, was The Washington Capitals losing to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the NHL Playoffs. The Capitals last year looked like a team that could not be stopped. Absolutely steamrolling the competition in the Southeast Division, and winning the Eastern Conference by 18 points. In addition, the Presidents Trophy was theirs as well pretty easily. So what happens when they hit the playoffs? They fall flat and lose in 7 games to Montreal. I was watching this and my rage was enough that I wasn’t really nice to anyone for a few days after that. But thats in the past and we just have to wait and see what 2011 holds for all of us.

Rant of the Year

LaVar Arrington had  this for awhile when he responded to Clinton Portis not long after the Super Bowl. But after the shellacking that the Redskins got at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football Chad Dukes unleashed the fury if you will, letting the pent up frustration that has built up in Redskins fans for almost a full generation that has seen all of 3 playoff appearances, 2 playoff victories, and 1 division title since winning Super Bowl 26. If you haven’t heard it already, go and listen to this now.

 

 

This is all I have for now, if Mike wants to chime in with some of his, he’s more than welcome to talk about it.

Caps Acquire Scott Hannan From Avs

In a move many fans have been waiting for, the Caps finally got their veteran defenseman.  The team has announced that GM George McPhee has traded forward Tomas Fleischmann to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Scott Hannan.  Fleischmann, or Flash as he has become known, enjoyed his best offensive season last year, putting up 23 goals and 51 points for the President’s Trophy (best league record) winning Capitals.  Yet, this season he has struggled to find that offensive game, scoring only 4 goals and 10 points in 23 games thus far.  Hannan, who had to waive his no-trade clause for the deal to become finalized, has 6 assists in 23 games this season.

This deal makes a ton of sense for the Caps.  Flash has great offensive talent.  However, he has been inconsistent his entire career.  Last season marked his best yet, but he has failed to maintain that pace through the start of this campaign, even being a healthy scratch due to his poor play.  And I believe the play of rookie Marcus Johansson, which seems to improve every game, made this deal possible.

Hannan, 31, is a veteran defenseman who has been in the league for 11 seasons.  He is a stay-at-home defenseman that will add physical play and help stabilize a blueline that has a ton of talent, but not a lot of experience.  Before this trade, the only D-man with more than 400 games played was Tom Poti, at over 700.  Hannan’s experience will benefit young D-men Karl Alzner and John Carlson, as well as take some of the pressure off of the young duo.

Contract-wise, both Flash and Hannan are UFAs at the end of the season.  This move is to make the Caps a stronger contender this season, and if Hannan plays really well and the money is right, maybe the Caps make an offer come the off-season.  Given the fact Hannan waived his no-trade-clause to come to the Caps, maybe he is willing to take less money to stay with the contender.  All that being said, it’s this blogger’s opinion that Hannan is here just for this season to help win a Cup and let Alzner and Carlson develop. The plan is they will be ready to handle even more responsibility next season.  The money saved can then be used to make a substantial offer to Alexander Semin.

I wish Flash the best of luck in Colorado.  Hopefully that mile high air can help him find his consistency and he can put up some good numbers to cash in on his free agent status at the end of the season.  I’d also like to welcome Hannan to D.C. and the best team in hockey.  Let’s Go Caps!

Caps Sign Matt Hendricks, Waive Nylander and Others

After scoring a hat trick in the Capitals preseason opener, center Matt Hendricks earned himself an NHL contract.  Brought to training camp on a tryout basis, Hendricks is coming off of a 56 game, 9 goal, 16 point campaign with the Colorado Avalanche last season.  At age 29, Matt is hardly a young prospect anymore, but is widely regarded as an extremely hard-working player.  The deal is for 1 year and is a 2 way contract.  This move is for depth, as he is not likely to pry the 2nd line center job from Tomas Fleischmann or Marcus Johansson.  Look for him to be a first call-up in case of injury or poor play by one of the 3rd or 4th line regulars.

The team also placed center Michael Nylander on waivers.  Nylander has already cleared, which is no surprise, but this doesn’t affect the Caps since he is still playing for Jokerit of the Swedish League. 

The team also announced that is has waived forwards Brian Willsie and Kyle Greentree.

New Uniforms For the Wizards

Where's the Red?

According to AP reports. The Washington Wizards will be changing their uniforms for the 2011-12 basketball season. While this isn’t the full change that some of us wanted, by that I mean most folks wanted the name changed back to the Bullets, the change now to Red, White, and Blue means that both pro teams sharing the Verizon Center will be sharing the colors. So expect to see a lot of Red around Chinatown come Fall of 2011. Included with this is a possible mock up of the Wizards new unis that I found on basketball-reference.com. While I do like the colors on here, I do hope that the blue is swapped out for a red because we need to become a more memorable team and Red is among one of the most memorable colors.

In addition to this, I will be attending the Wizards ‘Midnight Madness’ event that will be held at the George Mason University Patriot Center on Monday September 27th with the doors opening at 11 p.m. I’ll do a write up on the event and hopefully get some pictures and or videos for it.

Redskins pull out a Squeaker

They always keep me playing dirty

The Washington Redskins debuted a new coach, a new quarterback, and a new look at home on Sunday night against the hated Dallas Cowboys, and despite the score only being 13-7, despite Donovan McNabb only managing about 157 yards through the air on less than a 50 percent completion percentage, this team looked so much different both visually as well as perception wise.

The offense while not hitting on all cylinders seemed to be galvanized by McNabb’s leadership, and towards the end of the game Clinton Portis showed some flashes of the running back he was under Mike Shanahan. In addition to that, the defense looked so much more active than we have been seeing the last couple of years, the 3-4 look that they have been installing under defensive coordinator Jim Haslett has their defenders flying around and put Tony Romo under a good deal of pressure the entire evening, and despite him throwing for 247 yards, he and the rest of the Cowboys could only manage 7 points against a defense that was without Albert Haynesworth for the majority of the game.

And..as for the holding penalty….well….I think the pic says it all

Bottom line is that the Redskins start out with a 1-0 record, but they have a tough Houston Texans team next week.

Shaone Morrisonn to the Sabres

Shaone Morrisonn is now officially an ex-Cap, signing a 2 year deal with the Buffalo Sabres.  While it was made clear that Caps management had no plans on re-signing him once the season ended, I never said never while he was still a free agent.  Morrisonn had a decent 5 seasons in Washington, providing stability on the blueline while younger guys developed.  He came to the Caps in 2004, in a deal that saw him and a 2004 1st round draft pick (Jef Schultz) acquired for Sergei Gonchar.  Good luck in Buffalo!

Caps acquire D.J. King

In a move that some say (not me) may be related to Maxime Talbot of the Penguins trashing Ovechkin in an interview yesterday, the Caps, per Andy Strickland’s Twitter account, have acquired heavyweight D.J. King from the St. Louis Blues.  Strickland is also reporting that King will sign a 2 year extension prior to the move being complete.  No word on the return yet.  While the move comes right after ”superstars like me” Talbot decided to remind people that he existed, I’m sure Ovechkin will have no problem leveling Talbot with the devastating checks he’s become known for.  Therefore I believe this move was made by George McPhee to improve the toughness of the team for the entire season, not just the Pens season series.  But it does add a nice storyline to the highly anticipated Winter Classic.

EDIT:  The Caps send prospect Stefan Della Rovere back to the Blues.  I envisioned SDR being a pest on the Caps 3rd line for many years once he developed.  I hate to see him go, and kind of think that McPhee paid too much to get King for 2 years.  Good luck in St. Louis, SDR!

Hello Caps Fans!

Hey everyone!  My name is Mike.  I’m very opinionated, and very excited to get this blog started.  This is a website about DC sports.  My job here is to blog about my obsessive love of the Washington Capitals.  I can trace my love of hockey back to when my family lived just outside of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada when I was 5 years old.  We spent 2 years there, and that time really ignited my passion for the game of hockey. 

So, with that out of the way, let’s talk NHL Draft 2010.  In the past, picking in the top 5 of the draft became a yearly tradition, and it usually meant excitement for the Caps and their fans.  Those early picks yielded arguably the two most talented players the franchise has ever seen:  Ovey in 2004 and Backstrom in 2006.  Karl Alzner at 5th overall in 2007 has yet to be determined, but all signs point to him playing full time in Washington next season.  

Not that I’m complaining about picking late, mind you.  It’s nice finishing at the top of league, and certainly there is still talent available late in the first.  Look at Jeff Schultz (27th) and Mike Green (29th) in 2004 as  prime examples.  While both have their obvious flaws, they are key parts of the Caps’ blueline.  Semyon Varlamov (23rd in 2006) and John Carlson (27th in 2008) are other examples of the gems that can be found. 

So on to this year.  I was hoping the Caps would have a shot at Jarred Tinordi.  His dad, Mark, is one of my all-time favorite Caps D-men.  Those hopes were crushed when the Canadiens traded up and snagged him with the 22nd pick, four before the Caps.  But with the 26th pick, the Caps took Evgeny Kuznetsov, a center from – you guessed it – Russia.  While a lot of teams shy away from Russian players, the Caps are confident that the promise of playing with Ovechkin can lure any player from Russia and the KHL. 

Kuznetsov isn’t particularly big, standing 6 feet tall and weighing 174lbs.  He’ll have time to add to his frame however, as the Caps have no need to rush him.  Scouting reports on him describe him as fast and extremely talented, as well as a leader.  He captained the Russian under-18 team in the World Juniors. 

As for other draft picks, the Caps addressed almost every position.  They took a right wing (Stanislav Galiev), a goalie (Philipp Grubauer), another center (Caleb Herbert), and a defenseman (Samuel Carrier).  Despite the low number of picks this year, scouting reports suggest this could end up being a very successful draft.  I guess time will tell.

With the draft now come and gone, it is time to turn our attention to free agency, which starts July 1st.  In the coming days I will post a free agency preview along with my predictions.  Thanks for reading, and  I hope to be posting some free agent signings very soon!

Hello world!

Whats going on DC Sports fans. This is Tim Blank one half of the aspiring duo, the DC Sports Optimists. Along with my friend and co-worker Mike, we hope to give our thoughts on the current state of affairs of all teams playing within the District of Columbia, right outside of Northern VA where the two of live, work and (me anyway) go to school.

Why the name of the optimists, when this is a town that hasn’t had only one team in a championship series (1998 Capitals) in about 20 years, a number of draft and free agent busts (Redskins, Wizards and Capitals, I’m looking at you Jagr!) that would have had lesser fans turn tail and hop on the bandwagon of teams like the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees/Boston Redsox, or Los Angeles Lakers. We both chose the name for the reason that despite all of the struggles and all of the heartbreak (Capitals vs. Canadiens this postseason) that DC teams tend to show, we both fully maintain that better days lie over the horizon for the teams.

Because think about it, the Nationals probably have the best pitcher in the National League this year with hotshot Steven Strasburg. The Redskins, who had the most horrendous year I could imagine last year, have completely overhauled their coaching staff and got Donovan McNabb to be the newest QB of the team. The Capitals have two of the best players in the world on their roster in Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

And as for the Wizards? They take their first step to hopefully become the team that they can be tonight with the NBA draft, where they will presumably select Kentucky G John Wall with the first overall pick that they won at the NBA Draft Lottery. Video of the lottery below.

For a team that had such rotten luck, they finally caught a break leapfrogging to number one to earn the right. Wall will definitely be an asset right away for the Wizards, and while some people have been wondering about Gilbert Arenas, but as of right now, I think the Wizards would do very well to hold onto him. As of right now, I have an idea on what should be the prospective lineup for the Wizards going into the 2010-11 season, and this is how it goes down.

1. John Wall

2. Gilbert Arenas

3. Nick Young

4. Andray Blatche

5. JaVale McGee

Now this is what I think, mainly because Arenas and Young are both scorers and a set up man like Wall is only going to help both players out. In addition to that, having both Blatche and McGee down low, gives the Wizards a pair of big men to help themselves out, however Blatche has to grow up and McGee has to bulk up. In addition, Leonsis and Grunfield have to make sure whatever money they spend on free agents or other draft picks have to be done intelligently. Leonsis was burned in the past by Jagr as owner of the Capitals, so he knows how to build the team around the number one pick, he just needs to do it for hoops now.