Monthly Archives: August 2009

The NHL Players’ Association revolving door has picked up speed, as its members have shown Executive Director Paul Kelly the exit. According to NHLPA Ombudsman Buzz Hargrove, the players didn’t have the “trust and confidence” in Kelly required to lead them, nor to tackle negotiations in 2011 for the next round of contract negotiations.
The next NHLPA boss will be the fourth to hold the position since 2005 (five if you count current Interim Executive Director Ian Penny). The NHLPA’s front office is starting to look like the average NFL team’s coaching staff in terms of turnover — and this does not bode well for the league in 2011. Continue reading →

The Minnesota Wild have a new third sweater that will debut this season, and it’s a marked improvement over the old. This sweater is classy and classic in its conception, instantly old school.  

Recently three puckheads congregated around a few rounds of puck sodas on a sticky late summer night, and the topic of Mike Green’s poor playoff showing arose. Among them this line of thought emerged: who in old media or new speculated that not only was Green likely playing injured for the Capitals during the postseason but that some of his decision-making and instincts on the ice could have been impaired by some manner of painkillers? Continue reading →

Here is a sure sign that summer is almost over. The Capitals have annouced the dates for both rookie and training camp. Session times and rosters will be announced later. Continue reading →

The five NHL storylines of the summer that no one could miss. Continue reading →

The Hershey Bears will be skating in new sweaters in 2009-10. They look good, with effective retro/old style striping, and we love the lace up collars! Continue reading →

“No longer a curiosity and hardly a passing fad, bloggers have gotten the attention of the teams they write about,” observes Bob Cohn in yesterday’s Washington Times, adding, “In an ever-changing communications landscape, what constitutes “media” might mean different things to different people.” Cohn was covering the Washington Nationals’ red carpet treatment, for the second time this baseball season, of more than a dozen bloggers this past Sunday at Nationals’ Park. In some respects, the Nats’ experiment with new media resembles what the Capitals championed years ago: a seriously struggling franchise seeking to broaden coverage in a fiercely competitive sports media market, one dominated by the football heavy. Continue reading →

More summer vacation imagery shared by OFB readers: father Russ snapped this pic of his young charge making plain his good breeding. Continue reading →

Rest easy — when the Capitals visit Montreal on November 28, there’ll be no hokie facsimile of an outdoor hockey game hosted by one of North America’s worst football stadiums. Instead, Alexander Ovechkin and his teammates will have to settle for competing in one of the finest hockey rinks on the planet, Bell Centre. Tarik got to the bottom of this silly story earlier today. From the get-go, this was a brazen money grab ploy by the Habs (selling 70,000 seats for Ovi and the Caps as opposed to 20,000 in their home shrine). And it would have delivered none of the aesthetic charms we’ve come to associate with the Winter Classic. This idea was so bad you have to believe Commissioner Bettman had some role in it. Continue reading →

Congratulations to the communities of Hershey and Harrisburg, Pa., for their designation as the top minor league market in America, according to the Sports Business Journal. The Journal merely coronated what those of us who regularly visit central Pa. have known for some years — there is no match in per capita passion for the puckheads following the Bears. Continue reading →