The Week Ahead - Into The Breach Without Caps Hockey for a Diversion

Well the week ahead looks pretty busy and hectic as usual. So even though the Caps have concluded their season, this week like last will probably just fly by.

On the professional front, it's another couple proposals, in process and looming. As we at ICx Technologies look toward our next couple of months we have several large US DoD Force Protection related procurements that are in process or looming that will keep us busy over the next couple of months. First on the horizon is a task order proposal related to a "Joint Capabilities Technologies Demonstration" or JCTD that needs to be completed this week. If I get that done early in the week then I can go out to the West Coast to look at some interesting technology the DoD is using to fuse CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives) sensor data with, if I don't get the proposal done early in the week, then that's what I'll be doing till its done. Hopefully, we'll also hear about the next steps in a program procurement the Army has in process for a proposal we submitted about 10 months ago, soon as well. The the Air Force has their next large Force Protection program procurement coming out later this month. All in all it should be a busy couple of months and with some good fortune it'll be a happy time for those of us who have been working these types of things. On the product side things also continue to move forward briskly and in a positive but busy fashion, we've started closing early sales of our CohesionIF(tm) - sensor integration software - and that too will mean we'll be increasing our capabilities in providing CBRNE and Advanced Wide Area Surveillance sensors for incorporation and integration to enterprise-wide security solutions. I'm very excited about our prospects in both areas as they are things I've been working towards since joining the ICx Team, 17 months ago.

On the personal front, we are getting prepared to be empty-nesters in Bristow when our son Chris enters the United States Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point, NY - he'll report for "Indoctrination" - sounds ominous doesn't it? - on July 10th. It's not that ominous, for the record, I reported to KP for Indoctrination on July 10, 1978, 30 years before my son enters to the day but I started on a Monday, he'll start on a Thursday. Indoctrination is a 2 1/2 week period prior to the start of classes where entering Freshman - Plebe Candidates in USMMA "speak" - receive their first taste of Academy life and their first "Indoctrination" to "Regimental Life" - it's basically the start of their military training prior to the start of the academic year. They "learn" the rules of the regiment as well as a significant amount of historical information about the Academy - "Plebe Knowledge" and start their PT (Physical Training) and learn to march, etc. While not all that ominous, it will be a large change for most Midshipman, including our son. However, yesterday, he told me he was looking forward to "finishing this stuff and starting the next thing in his life" - hopefully, he'll keep that attitude going forward, I believe he will.

On the "hockey diversion front" both the Caps and Hershey Bears are now out of their respective playoffs, however the South Carolina Stingrays will play a series ending (one way or the other) game 5 tonight to see if they or the Columbia Inferno continue on in the ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs. The winner of the Stingrays - Inferno series will play the winner of the Cincinnati Cyclones - Reading Royals series who also play their "rubber match" game on Monday evening in Cincinnati.

Washington DC Area Hockey fans continuing to follow the Stanley Cup playoffs know the Eastern Conference Championship series starts later this week in Pittsburgh when the Penguins face off against the Philadelphia Flyers. Meanwhile in the Western Conference the Detroit Red Wings will face off against the Dallas Stars. The Stars beat the San Jose Sharks with a 2-1 win in the fourth overtime last night in Dallas. Both NHL games contested yesterday were exciting to watch. An earlier post provides the highlights of the Penguins - Ranger finale. The Sharks - Stars game went into a fourth overtime and was an exciting, fun game to watch. Throughout the entire game, the goal tending was superb, but the stupendous saves that both Evgeni Nabakov and Marty Turco made in the first three overtime periods were pretty mind-boggling. Through 6 periods of hockey the Sharks had 61 shots and the Stars had 51, even more amazing than their respective save percentages of of 98.36% and 98.04%, was the nature of some of the saves made by Turco and Nabakov. There were numerous scoring chances where it seemed the Goalies were superhuman. Both played top notch hockey through 131 minutes of hockey, and they both amassed several games worth of highlight reel saves throughout the action. In reality, both goalies played to a 1-1 tie in the first "game 6", then to a 0-0, dual shutout, tie in the second "game 6". The game went on like this until in the seventh period/fourth overtime when, at 9:03, Brenden Morrow scored a power by deflecting a pass from Stephane Robidas as the Stars and eliminated the pesky San Jose Sharks 2-1 in a game that ended early Monday morning. It was the longest game in the NHL playoffs this season, and the longest in San Jose history. The sad thing is that by the end of this game, both teams deserved to win, as did both goaltenders, but in the end only one team could win and that was Dallas. So Dallas now faces the Detroit Red Wings to see who from the Western Division will play for the Cup.