Move football...

Yes, I know that football still hasn't even started yet but stuff is happening in the NFL.

The Redskins have no QB at this point. Kyle Shanahan has said that it's a open playing field for John Beck and Rex Grossman (although they have not resigned him, yet) for the season starter.

Chad Occhocinco is a Patriot and will be teammate with Albert Haynesworth, who passed the conditioning test so he will get to play with the Pats. Oh and did you all see that long hair that Tom Brady had last season? He got a hair cut, nice and short.

In baseball, Pfitzner Stadium is due for a make-over, a $150,000 make-over. This is the stadium where the Potomac Nationals play.  At some point in the nearish furture the stadum will be moved closer to I95. That's a little bit of a bummer because it's about 5 minutes away from me. It's good that the place is getting a make-over, it's 30-years old, still in good shape but some improvements are necessary like flattening out the field and putting in better drainage. Really that's the only things I would like done to the place.

A little correction from my last post: I said Haynesworth was traded for a 5th round draft pick in the 2012 draft but it's the 2013 draft. Sorry, a type-o I didn't see.

Maybe this will teach him

Well guess how my day got worse, Mr. Albert Haynesworth is now a former Redskin. Unfortunately he is a New England Patriot. One good thing is that Coach Belichick's coaching style is that it's his way or the highway. In other words, if Albert doesn't cooperate buh-bye.  The Skin's got a 5th round draft pick in the 2012 draft in trade.

Donavon McNabb apparently didn't think that it was great that two of his coaches were (<- key word here) father-son. His is now a Minnesota Viking, but I think he's glad to be gone. He didn't really seem to enjoy himself while he was with the Redskins. Which is a slight bummer but that's in the past. Who will be the new QB? Any ideas please leave a comment.

The Redskins are still shaking up the team and it may be a while before they have the final line-up.

Le'ts play catch-up

So I'm back from camp and it was hot and sticky. Most of the things I'm going to say you have already heard about because I've been away.

Hockey first:
The Capitals have a new associate goalie coach, Olie Kolzig. The former Cap is training to be the head goalie coach.

Football is back on! After the longest lock out in the history of the NFL Training camp starts this week and a lockout won't happen again for another 10 years. Some of the Redskin players spent their last day of freedom at a chairty event for kids. If you ask me, that's a good way to spend your last day before getting back to the hard work of football. The season will (or roughly) start on time. Free agent talks start tomorrow but teams can't sign them until Friday. Ten teams start training camp on Wednesday and the Redskins start camp on Thursday. Finally we will have a football season and I hope that they plan ahead for the next time this happens.

Biking, Mud, and Teeth

Let me just say that I’m sorry that it’s been a week since I last posted. I just got back from a 187 mile bike ride on the C&O Canal in four days. I’m the type of person who doesn’t care if mud gets on me, which is a good thing when it rains the day before we start and rains on the second day while we are on the trail. By the time we reached DC I looked like I had gone through a war zone. But back to sports:

Let’s start with hockey. Varlamov has broken his silence about his being traded to Colorado. He said if he hadn’t been traded to Colorado he would have gone back to the KHL. He also has said some very good things about Washington fans, “When I got out on the ice, saw the full stands and heard the “Varly” chant, I really felt their love. Washington fans are among the best in the NHL.”*

The Caps signed center Christian Hanson, 25, formally of the Toronto Maple Leafs and he will most likely get a spot on the Hershey roster.

They have re-signed Karl Alzner for two years, worth $2.57 million.

The Caps development camp was held this week, a good chance for some to see future stars of DC hockey. One thing about our kind of hockey is even in camp we play rough. Ten minutes into day one of camp, Swedish player, Mattias Sjogren lost a tooth when he was hit in the mouth by a goalie stick. Oops.

In the soccer world, the USA’s women team is showing us all that they can do it. They will play Japan in the Championship for the World Cup. We shocked Brazil and everyone before them.  Having a good goalie has been a great thing for them. If they play this way tomorrow then they should have no problem. 

Baseball now:  well I don’t think there’s must to say, but the fact that the Nat’s aren’t doing too bad; the Pirates are doing ok as well; and the Red Sox are being just as good as they usually are.

Off to camp I go, see you in a week.

*Quote from Washington Post Sports, 7/11/11.

To Catch-Up

Lets start with hockey:
The Capitals traded Semyon Varlamov to the Colorado Avalanche for a pair of draft picks.
Boyd Gordon has left after seven years with the Caps and gone to Phoenix.
Marco Sturm signed a one-year contract with Vancouver (yes, the team who lost to Boston this year).
They have signed veteran defenseman Roman Hamrlik, Jeff Halpern, a former Capital, and Joel Ward, a forward. The Capitals have also signed a new goalie. Let me back up; Capitals general manager George McPhee had the best deal of the free agency season land in his lap Saturday. Veteran goalie Tomas Vokoun is now a Cap. The 35-year-old is going to make $1.5 million compared to the $6.3 million he earnd with the Florida Panthers. "I guess we got lucky," McPhee said. Maybe Vokoun will be a good influence on fellow Czech and goalie Michal Neuvirth.

For Potomac National fans this is sad news. The  Washington Nats have moved Bryce Harper up to the AA Harrisburg team. The P-Nats are a High-A team and the Nats feel that he needed a harder team to play on. Bummer if they don't think that the P- Nats are a hard team to play on or against.

The Redskins have a date set for training camp, July 28, even with the uncertainty of the talks still going on.

Hockey in July

As I dream about snow and other things cold, hockey is happening right now (yes!). To start "We want to Change and Improve"* seems to be the Capitals motto for the moment; and with the free agents becoming, well, free, this is a good time to put that motto into action. I'll come back to that, more pressing (ok they're about the same in importance) matter, will Semyon Varlamov be returning to the Capitals or will he sign with the KHL (the Russian league)? We seem to have been doing well with young goalies (Varlamov, 23, Michal Neuvirth, 23, and Braden Holtby, 21) if your system works don't mess with it but having three available goalies all biding for the top spot could get ugly fast. Last season Varly (a nick-name he is sometimes called) shared time in the net with Neuvirth most of the time. He is set to be a restricted agent; it would be great if he can back to the Caps. Another nagging question is will the Caps trade some of their young guns for newbies? With the players they have, all of them have seen playing time and have the experience but new guys trying to find their way in the hockey world may not be the best idea. Just saying. Finally Tom Poti had nagging groin injuries most of the season. If the Caps keep him will he still play defense or will he be moved? Lots of questions that I don't have the answer to. On a good note Brooks Laich has signed a six year contract with the Capitals. It's worth? $27 million. That's a lot of money.

Here is a list of free agents now on the Capitals roster:
Jason Arnott
Matt Bradley
Boyd Gordon
Scott Hannan
Marco Sturm

Restricted agents:
Karl Alzner
Troy Brouwer
Semyon Varlamov

We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

*quote from Ted Leonsis' blog