RED ALERT: Perhaps Dan Snyder could learn from Ted Leonsis edition

Mark ButerbaughNov 4, 2009

The Washington Capitals are moving on, looking forward to a showdown with the hot New Jersey Devils. They will do so without the greatest player on the planet, Alexander Ovechkin. Ovechkin is listed as week to week and will not play on Wednesday.

Devil fans should not get too confident, not should Caps fans be too concerned. There is Capitals-prepare-to-play-without-Ovechkin-8480029-69012862.html">more fire power on the Caps roster than just Great 8.

""We're not a one-man show," said Caps defenseman Brian Pothier. "[Ovechkin] brings something to the team that nobody else can bring -- nobody in the league can bring. Obviously, he'll be missed. But every team goes through hard stretches where they have key components of their team out. It's just an opportunity for guys to perform.""

And don't worry, Alex will be preoccupied.

"Take some nachos, Coke and enjoy the game," Ovechkin said with a laugh when asked about traveling with the team despite being injured. "Hopefully guys gonna win."

The latest the AP is reporting is that Ovechkin may miss 2 weeks.

Caps owner Ted Leonsis has decided to clear up some of the notions out there about how much he is involved with the Washington Capitals front office.

"Lately I have been getting positive feedback from fans and media because I don’t get involved in hockey related decisions regarding the Washington Capitals. I help set vision, strategy, culture and provide the resources. Then I am a cheerleader for the team and the franchise and I also get involved in many business affairs such as sponsor relations and season ticket holder communications.
I believe in the folks that work for us in hockey operations. I trust them. And the results are starting to speak for themselves.
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And perhaps this above all, is the lesson Dan Snyder could learn, and learn quickly . . .

"I hear from many of our fans that it is a good thing that I am not involved because after all, I am not a “hockey person.” Their rationale is that I never played in the league - even though I went to my first hockey game in 1966 and went to my first Capitals game in 1976 and have been a season ticket holder since 1992 and have owned the team for 11 years spending literally thousands of hours per year around the team and the professionals managing the team and the players - I still wouldn’t know what I was doing. I try to attend every home game and I watch every road game on television if I don’t attend it myself. I literally have watched tens of thousands of hours of hockey in my lifetime now. But I am not a “hockey person” by definition.
I am also on the Executive Committee now at the NHL. I am on the Board of Governors too having attended almost 50 meetings since we bought the team. I have also become a student of the game talking to as many successful people in the league as I can so I can do what is called “Best Practices” for our team.
Yet even with all of this on the job training and exposure to the team and league, I AGREE that I am not a hockey person and would never assume that I would know what to do to build a team as to specifics; salary cap management; execution; systems; lines to play; players to draft and the like. So I agree with you all. Thank you. And thank goodness.
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