Previews, previews, and more previews

JP and the Hockey News both have the Caps finishing first in the Southeast, while Suck Burnside hedges with a kinda-sorta playoff pick, and EJ Hradek flushes the Caps all the way down to the bottom of the Southeast standings.

What does all this say about the Caps chances this season in the Southeast? That nobody has a clue about this team (or most of the teams in the Southeast, for that matter).

This just in... E.J. Hradek is an idiot

Yet again, another ESPN hockey "reporter" has written a glowing piece about how Secondary Sid is "the very best player in the NHL." To which I reply, "bull$#!#."

The only reasons I can see that these "experts" continuously stroke the Secondary One in print are 1) there is only ever 1 TV on that shows hockey in all of Bristol, and they only get good reception from the Pittsburgh feed and 2) nothing beats the Pittsburgh sob story (an up and coming team that may be forced to relocate because they have a crappy arena).

Let's face it folks, Alexander Ovechkin has more charisma in his right pinkie than Crosby has in his whole body. He also has more scoring ability than Crosby will ever dream of. Disagree? Compare The Goal to The Imitation. One is a goal for all-time, something I'll be telling my brother's kids I saw years from now. The other? Someone laying out to make a deflection. And yet every hack with a keyboard in Bristol seems to think that they belong in the same conversation. They don't, and time will show that they won't.

You want to talk about being a complete player? How about putting a shoulder into someone. I've never, EVER seen Sid put a solid lick on any player, much less a physically imposing one. Alexander Ovechkin plays a monster physical game against every team he plays. He doesn't just beat up on the small guys, the grind guys, the lesser players of the NHL. Don't believe me? Ask Forsberg how his head feels. Or search youtube for Crosby and hits. Find anything? Thought not. Now do the same for Ovechkin. I'll see you in half an hour when you're done with the first few pages of highlights.

But yeah, E.J., you're right. Crosby is a complete player. Completely soft. The guy has more diving minors than hits.

Oh, there's also that little thing called the Calder trophy, given to the best rookie in the NHL. Last year, Ovechkin "edged" Crosby in the voting, winning by a margin of only 119 first place votes (there were 129 cast). That after "experts" like Hradek and Suck Burnside predicted one of the closest votes of all time.

Now I'm not saying Crosby is not a good player. He most certainly is. In time he may become one of the all-time greats. What I am saying is this: Putting the Secondary One on a pedestal above the Russian Machine (see, he's even got better nicknames) is more than just lazy journalism. It's downright offensive, and it makes a mockery of what a "complete" player, and hockey in general, should be all about. And Caps fans should be LIVID about it. I know I am.

Rage, rage against the dying of the... Scott Burnside?

This just in from my brother, Grumpy Caps fan #2

"We must rage on Suck Burnside. I hate him. He must die." Concise, eloquent, to the point. I like it. See Burnside's idiotic comment below.

"Washington Capitals: Let's review. Fans in the nation's capital wouldn't come out when the Capitals boasted Jaromir Jagr, the game's most exciting player. Now, they won't come out when the Caps boast one of the hardest-working teams in the NHL and one of the game's most exciting figures in Alexander Ovechkin. Maybe that's a sign. We're just guessing, but we bet fans in Houston or Kansas City, or even Waterloo, Ontario, would appreciate Glen Hanlon's squad a whole lot more."

Let's see... fans here wouldn't come out to support a team of overpaid underachievers with Jaromir, "Mr. Regular Season" Jagr, only the least likeable, most aloof superstar this side of Terrell Owens. The team played its home playoff games that season at the worst possible time, right smack dab in the middle of the Easter holiday, a fact that had Ted boiling about his scheduling arrangement with Abe Pollin, the owner of the arena (and the Wizards). The team lost games because the glaring weakness at defense was never addressed, which made it less fun to see the team because you knew they 1) had a bunch of hired guns that didn't care all that much (two from the dreaded Pittsburgh Flighless Devilbirds, nonetheless!) and 2) were just as likely to lose a game 7-1 as they were to win one. It's hard to get excited about a team like that.

Sideburns is right about one thing. The Caps do have the league's hardest working teams and the best hockey player in the world today. But he also has to look at this from a potential fan's perspective. Last year, the Capitals were not a good team. They were a young team that made a lot of mistakes, had a few players that were not NHL calibur, and got outskilled (not outworked) by many of the teams in the NHL. It's very difficult to attract new fans (and to regain fans still raging over the moronic labor dispute) when your team loses the majority of its games, and loses big to the better teams in the league.

I admit the attendance numbers this year have not been stellar, but to say that the Capitals are a lost cause in DC as Burnside LOVES to do is moronic. We're on 5 year plan V2.0, and I think Ted has done a great job of working to get fans to the game, with the 4 for $20 Eagles Nest tickets during last year, our worst rebuilding year. He continues to make the team accessible to the fans by doing things like moving the practice facility to Ballston, (light years closer than Piney Orchard or Ashburn) and making all practices free and open to the public. The Caps players are some of the finest ambassadors the league could ask for. They consistently stay late after practice to chat with fans, sign autographs, and generally carry themselves as well as could possibly be expected of professional athletes. Their work and generosity with their time and energy WILL pay off. The team WILL get better. And the fans WILL come. Then maybe we can tell Suck Burnside where he can stick it. Right in Houston or Kansas City, or even Waterloo, Ontario.

Jerk.