Season Wrap-up; Commentary On the NHL Awards

Over the past two weeks it's been hectic here in Bristow, VA and the Caps haven't done much in the way of free agent signings so the blog has been pretty far from my mind. I spent the past three days in Stillwater, OK working at ICx - Nomadics. Lots of great, smart folks in an interesting town that is the home of 1) Oklahoma State University, 2) Eskimo Joes, 3) the largest business unit in the ICx Technologies, Inc. Corporate Family, and 4) one of the nicest McDonald's on the planet if your into sports memorabilia as part of your decorating accessories.

So after spending much of today aboard crowded airplanes, I settled in to watch the NHL Awards on Versus. I haven't watched much hockey since the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals - weren't they great? I certainly thought so, games 4, 5, and 6 were all just so much fun to watch. Next year I'll keep my prognostic pronouncements to myself, I confess by game 2 I was rooting for Osgood, Datsuyk, Zetterberg, and Lidstrom. I was actually disappointed for the Red Wings, at the end of game 5, everyone loves to win championships at home, but also happy I'd get to see another great game. The Red Wings' season and accomplishments can't be overestimated. It was super. Congrats to the Wings, the Penguins, and the Penguin Fans who showed a lot of class after the final horn of Game Six.

Tonight's NHL awards only had one surprise for me, and I agreed with all the selected awardees - of course that's not saying much given the great season all the nominees had. The surprise? Bruce Boudreau. I'm very, very happy for Boudreau and the Caps organization and I think he is very deserving. I just figured it was Mike Babcock's to loose and Guy Carbonneau also coached a heckuva season. Way to go Coach Boudreau. I'm also just basically psyched overall that Alexander Ovechkin won both the Pearson and the Hart Trophies...and yes CapsChick, I definitely enjoyed all the gushing the Versus guys were doing over the Caps. Once again I want to take back all my bad thoughts and comments about Comcast's Lisa Hillary as well - her commentary and interviews were great tonight. Also - Lisa nice gown on the runway, as they say "Baby's got back!" Clearly, the future should be bright for the Washington Capitals the way things played out tonight. The upcoming draft and free agency period should be quite interesting to watch. Who will the Caps resign and draft? Will the Penguins be able to hold their team together with all the UFA and RFAs they have? What will the Canadeans, Hurricanes, and other Eastern Division teams do to improve their rosters? Personally I can't wait till next season! It should be the start of the "Ovechkin - Semin Era" here in DC, so much for the "Crosby - Malkin Era". LETS GO CAPS!!!

While I'll continue to follow the Caps and I've renewed my season tickets - I have a partner this year and we'll be splitting the games - until next season winds up my Caps writing will consist primarily of commenting on the RFA & UFA re-signings as well as the Caps 2008 draft. That means my posts will start to have much more content on the subjects of my other "musings." Like the header says that means primarily Family, Technology & Career, life approaching the big Five -oh and to a much lesser degree moderate politics, which will likely be limited to a small lament that the Congressional Representative from Virginia's 11th District, Tom Davis has chosen not to seek re-election and retire. Congressman Davis, has in this constituents opinion served the district and the nation well and has generally been a rationale, moderate influence in a body that, at least from the MSM's presentation, is becoming increasingly polarized. I believe, we the residents of the 11th District would do well to once again send a moderate to Congress and hope we'll have a set of choices in November that gives us that opportunity. Looking at the two candidates websites, it's hard to tell what their positions really are on any if the issues. Neither Democrat Gerry Connolly who won the Democratic primary while I was in Oklahoma this week or Republican Candidate Kieth Fimian, who has been the GOP candidate since April have any real meat that lets you know where they really stand on any issue. Hopefully that will change soon, otherwise I'll miss Congressman Davis even more than I already do.

Until the opening of the 2008 - 2009 NHL season and the time comes to really comment on that though my blogs will likely primarily be on to Family, Technology & Career and life approaching the big five-oh as fodder to muse about. Looking ahead our calender this summer I'll have the following events to prompt musings on these sort of subjects.

June 6th: our only child, Chris graduated from High School. That has me musing about life in general and our future "approaching" middle age - think 50 is the new 40 kind of stuff, especially when you are 48; also just how proud of my great kid I am.

During the remainder of month of June and July, I expect our team at ICx Technolgies will reach a few milestones that will prompt musings about Homeland Security - Technology - Military Force Protection - Interoperability & Standards and the interplay and inter-relationships of those four broad subject areas. In Security Industry speak, a word that is rapidly becoming overused - "Convergence". Some of these subjects will likely "bleed over" into August as well.

July 10th: Chris reports to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy for Indoctrination, and we officially become "empty - nesters." True fodder for "life as one approaches the big Five - Oh" is when your kid selects your alma mater as his college choice and joins the class that will graduate just before you plan on going to your own class' 30th reunion/homecoming.

In August, we'll take our first vacation in 18 years without a child/teenager as part of the trip.

September 4th and 5th, we'll get to see our son for the first time face to face since July 10th at the USMMA's "Parent's Weekend", another family trip/event to be prompt musings.

Along the way will be the various Caps and NHL events and news to analyze as well as life in general but to be sure, like most Caps bloggers I suspect this off-season, my first as a Caps blogger, will see a slowing of the pace of my posts. It's just the nature of things, it really doesn't mean I've slowed down, it's just that many things in my life are not the types of things I think are newsworthy or worth posting/sharing with a larger community. Does that make me "weird" for a blogger? - as if all bloggers aren't a little weird, I don't know, you tell me. Anyway on the hockey front, "Can't wait till next season!" Congrats once again to Coach Boudreau and Alexander the Great. LETS GO CAPS!!!!