5 Miscellaneous Thoughts for Your Consideration

mecelly Here are a few general snip-its, blurbs and musings that didn’t make it into a post this week. As always, we want to hear your thoughts. (Wisdom of the crowd).

The Decline of Western Civilization?
With Connor McDavid making his first appearance at Verizon Center this week, I got to thinking about the transition of the “names of the game” to the next generation. Could the next generation of NHL “Young Guns” result in a decline in NHL popularity in the United States? With small Canadian cities such as Edmonton (Connor McDavid) and Winnipeg (Patrik Laine) slowly replacing major East coast American cities such as Pittsburgh (Sidney Crosby) and Washington (Alex Ovechkin), one wonders what this will do to general league popularity, television ratings, merchandise sales,etc. in the US. As they say, time will tell.

A Word About The F’ Word:
Yep, Filip Forsberg scored back-to-back hat tricks this week for Nashville. It’s painful to even type it. But here’s a bit of (ir)rational logic to help Caps fans digest this news. It’s highly unlikely the Capitals could have afforded to resign Forsberg, who signed a new contract this past summer for 6 years/$36 million dollars. At minimum, it would have meant that T.J. Oshie probably never signs with Washington, and one could argue that Kuznetsov would also be doubtful. Oh, and Oshie has more goals and points than Forsberg so far this season, so Caps win! (Hopefully that helped a bit)

Calling All Chips! Please Report to the Center of the Table:
I seem to be in a major minority on this one, but I feel the Caps need to push all of their chips to the center of the table at this point. This may be their best shot at a cup for the next 3-5 years, maybe more, maybe for the Ovechkin era. We all know major unrest awaits this summer. What I mean by this is, the Caps need to make additional acquisitions for depth, as well as prepare for a “plan b”, in the event of a potential loss of a key forward or defenseman. Do anything and everything to prepare for a cup run. Let me ask you this, would you give up a top prospect for a guaranteed cup?

Another Outdoor Hockey Game This Weekend:
I’m with most of the crowd on this one. There have been way too many outdoor hockey games as of late. But I’m actually looking forward to the Stadium Series game this weekend. The Penguins and Flyers are usually a good view regardless, but when you mix their fans in a confined space, only good things can happen for observing Caps fans.

Photo: NHL

Ovi and Under The Radar:
I came across this Instagram post recently, and it grabbed my attention for some reason. Yes, Ovi probably takes tens of thousands of fan photos a year, but I liked this one because of the story. It seems little Teddy was too intimidated to go over and meet his idol, Alexander Ovechkin. In fact he was terrified to tears. Thankfully, Ovi took matters into is own hands, took the initiative and made his way to say hi to Teddy. The look on Teddy’s (and Ovi’s) face is priceless. Teddy may have been terrified at the time, but I think he will cherish this photo and the story for a lifetime.