Rock The Red: Washington Is Now The Caps' Town

Feel it comin’ in the air/

And the screams from everywhere/

I’m addicted to the thrill/

It’s a dangerous love affair.

Can’t be scared when it goes down/

Gotta problem, tell me now/

Only thing that's on my mind/

Is who’s gonna run this town tonight?

Rihanna’s cute, Bajan lilt on the hook of Jay-Z’s song may have you in a frenzy, but it's really the young Washington Capitals who run this town.

Yes, that’s no misprint—hockey and the Caps own Washington, D.C. 

In title-starved Washington, with a once-proud pro football team at sea with Jack Shepherd and Gilligan; a pro basketball team that can only go as far as their enigmatic, oft-injured star; and a pro baseball team still wet behind the ears and mired in ineptitude, it’s only natural to flock towards the city's thriving pro hockey team.

With a couple seasons of success, the team—orchestrated by an affable, fan-friendly owner (Ted Leonsis); a shrewd, no-nonsense general manager (George McPhee); a fast-paced tactician of a head coach (Bruce Boudreau); a super nova superstar (Alex Ovechkin) and above-average complementary players in Niklas Bäckström, Alexander Semin, Mike Green, to name a few—has developed the right formula to win often, gain a Stanley Cup in the near future and earn the hearts of many fans for some time to come. 

The team started an unfortunate, but necessary rebuilding process four years ago, when former stars such as Jaromir Jagr and Robert Lang performed poorly despite lucrative contracts. 

By attempting to buy a Stanley Cup instead of winning one the harder way (good draft picks and solid minor league system, as well as a few free agent pick-ups, sensible trades), the personable and extremely smart Leonsis (a tech savvy businessman) had no logical choice other than to let most of those stagnant players go. 

That was Phase I.

Even more humbling, Leonsis had to present season-ticket holders and other loyal Cap fans with a slow, restructuring project (Phase II). That led to several poorly populated home games, as the owner watched his team transition from bad to worse, not even resembling a 1998 roster that went to the Stanley Cup finals.

Yet, through trial and error, good things did come to those who waited for a better outcome, starting with the 2004 NHL Draft. Because of having the worse record the year before, they landed the first overall pick and the team found a gem of a left-winged forward in Alexander Ovechkin. 

Was this the third and final phase?

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