CAPS MINOR HOCKEY

I have recently found this shirt among the many I have that I put away during the fall months and somehow forget I have the next spring. This is a shirt I got to celebrate the Islanders making the playoffs and winning the division way back in 1993. Why did I post this today. Because today was the trading deadline, and I feel that they let me down again. Did they try and make a push to the playoffs? No. Did they try to patch some holes? No. What did they do? Trades 2 NHL players for 2 minor league players. Some are happy because it saves them money. So what, they are near the bottom and need to spend money. It is not like they have to get under the cap or make room to get a player. Some say it is a good move for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Good for them. They are a minor league team and the GM should be working to make the major league team better, not minor. Some say that it will give the youth some playoff experience. Does that matter when the major league team does not go to the playoffs (or even play like they want to)? And to boot, GM Snow does not sign 2 top players to extensions, which means that the players now have all the power for who to sign with and how much to sign for coming this summer. Thank you for letting me vent. Go Islanders.

Brett Leonhardt, college goalie and Washington Capitals web guru, was signed to an amateur tryout contract as an emergency goalie when Jose Theodore injured himself, and a back-up goalie from the Caps minor league affiliates could not get to the game until after it started. Here he is shown with Alexander Ovechkin and others prior to the game. He sat on the bench for the first 9 1/2 minutes until Simeon Varlamov arrived from Houston.