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Keyword: Patience Leonsis sees Capitals as a project in progress
Posted: Saturday April 22, 2000 05:43 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the Washington Capitals season was ending, a rich man sitting at a laptop was breaking new ground. In a unique experiment, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis answered fans' e-mails on camera between periods. The America Online executive also wore a microphone for part of the game, as did general manager George McPhee. To make time to show all this, a high-tech firm sponsored the entire telecast on regional cable with limited commercial interruption. After the game, a 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference first-round series, Leonsis walked to the locker room, thanked the fans and the media, then joined the players for some final encouraging thoughts. The Capitals have finished like this many times before -- a solid regular season followed by postseason disappointment -- but first-year owner Leonsis' visionary ideals have energized the franchise and given hope that better things are to come. "I fell in love with the guys," Leonsis said. "I think the city fell in love with the team. There was no booing at the end. People were coming up to us and saying, 'Thank you.' This was the first step in a healthy process. The organization knows what it has to do to make the city proud." The Capitals continue to bleed money, but Leonsis has injected excitement through his fan-friendliness and his ideas of "brand marketing" and use of the Internet to promote the team. The MCI Center began to sell out toward the end of the season, and -- in a major reversal from past seasons -- fans from the opposing team weren't able to snap up thousands of tickets and make home ice feel like visitor's ice during the playoffs. Such support from the owner and the fans is felt by the players. Maybe it will translate into two or three extra wins a year, maybe not. It doesn't hurt, though, and it adds to the sense that the Capitals are a team on the rise. After making the Stanley Cup finals with an aging lineup two years ago, the Capitals failed to make the playoffs last season. McPhee purged the veterans and went with youth. He didn't expect the move to pay off so quickly: Washington surpassed 100 points for the first time in 16 years. "I thought we were going to be rebuilding, then all of a sudden we regained the confidence we had two years prior," McPhee said. "We have good kids coming, so I think the team we have next year will be better than this." The Capitals were bad in the fall, then became the best team in the league in the new year. They finished second in points in the Eastern Conference with a lineup that included Richard Zednik, Sergei Gonchar and Jeff Halpern, improving players whose best years are ahead of them. Halpern, in particular, was a surprise. From Potomac, Md., he became the first Washington-area native to make the NHL. Undrafted out of Princeton, he was a long shot at training camp. He not only made the roster but played 79 of 82 games and scored 18 goals. In addition, the Portland Pirates, Washington's American Hockey League affiliate, had a solid season. Goaltender Martin Brochu, the MVP of the AHL, will be one of several prospects soon to appear on the Caps roster. Still, all the optimism couldn't take away the hurt Friday night. Pittsburgh's winning goal came on a fluke deflection off defenseman Calle Johansson's leg. The Capitals felt they outplayed the Penguins in Games 2, 3, 4 and 5 -- all decided by one goal -- but most of the bounces went the other way. "I thought we had a great season," McPhee said. "But it's all about winning in the playoffs. It's about winning the Cup."
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