A Change In Direction

Since Bruce's first offseason as head coach for the Capitals, there has been a pretty apparent way of thinking: stand firm. Every year we watched as GMGM would re-sign the players we fell in love with and choose not to venture far into the free agent market. In fact since the Summer of 2008, the only "big" free agents we had seen sign in Washington were Jose Theodore and Mike Knuble.

Already it is clear that GMGM has realized the error in not venturing into the open market. Most Caps' fans sat in front of their computers smiling as we finally opened the wallets to bring in the likes of Troy Brouwer(for grit), Joel Ward(for playoff success), Roman Hamrlik(to stabilize the D corp), and Vokoun(a bona fide #1), and Jeff Halpern(Former Cap/Leadership). We had every reason to be thrilled. Then the smiles began to fade. Varlamov found himself traded to Colorado(though props to GMGM for getting what he got). Matt Bradley and Boyd Gordon, two huge fan favorites, found themselves in Florida and Phoenix respectively. And just last week Eric Fehr was dealt to Winnipeg for what will essentially be cap space. We must also always remember to include the ever-present rumors of Alex Semin to [insert random team]. At least for me, it is hard to see these players go.

Yesterday I went and manually corrected all the rosters on NHL 11. Now granted this was a simple video game but I couldn't help but feel very little for these new players. Will Brouwer/Ward/Halpern score more goals than Fehr/Bradley/Laich? Absolutely. Will Vokoun win more games than Varlamov? Past stats and injuries say Yes. It still is going to take some time to get used to the notable absences.

From a business perspective this was a genius move though. Keep all the fan favorites to build up the dwindling fan base(as of 2007) and then once you hit the top make the championship winning moves and hope the fans stay too. From the many I have had a pleasure to meet on twitter, I know the true ones will.