End of an Era

Although it's been suspected for some time, Washington Caps fans got the word from Olie Kolzig himself yesterday that he has no plans on resigning with the Caps. Here's a great take on this news from Caps writer Mike Vogel. I was also reading some of the comments posted on the Washington Post Web site and have to admit I was quite disappointed in some of the "Olie-bashing" that seemed to be going on. That's the beauty of cyberspace - everyone has their own opinion and has the instant right to share it. I respect that. But I also respect Olie for his leadership, talent, class and dedication to the D.C. community for the past umpteen years. And I respect and completely understand his desire as a professional athlete to still want to play and be competitive. As I've said before, thanks Olie for all you've done - best of luck to you and your family. You will be missed and hope to see your jersey in the rafters of the Phone Booth.

Now to last night's game 1 in the Pens/Flyers series. Wow! I was really expecting to see some gloves drop at the first face off with all the bad blood between these 2 teams. But things didn't get surprisingly didn't get too heated until the third period which brought a number of scrums. Malkin always seems to be in the middle of these - I wonder if he talks smack in Russian? Malkin was also on a scoring run last night with 2 goals and an assist. Mike Richards of the Flyers also scored 2 last night - this is hard to admit but I do like Richards as a player. So Pens are up 1 game. Flyers were definitely missing Timmonen - feel bad for the guy having to miss the rest of the season with a blood clot. Don't blame him - still wants to play. Now that's what makes a good hockey player - that killer instinct to play through the pain especially in the playoffs. Game 2 on Mom's Day! Treat your mom to a beer and the remote....