The truth comes out

Any Caps fan who read or listened to Jeff Halpern's comments on DallasStars.com would come away with some questions. Here's a direct quote:

"I feel that who they have and what the management said about the direction of the team and where they want to go, it brought a lot of excitement to me as far as winning a Stanley Cup," said Halpern. "In Washington, we had a few real good years, but my goal right now is to win a Cup and be part of a team that is trying to move forward constantly."

Because the Caps aren't trying to move forward constantly? What the hell kind of statement is that? Nice to see THAT comment from a guy who, a week ago, was the captain of the team. Yeah, like Dallas is going to lock up the Cup next year (or any time soon, for that matter). Sure, the Caps are several years from being serious Cup contenders, but it's not like they aren't trying. Halpern really benefited from playing with Ovechkin this past season, and I wonder if he'll be as good in Dallas in the next 4 years. I'm amazed that they gave him a contract of that length; obviously (and for good reason) the Caps didn't do it, and that was a smart move on their part. I see Dallas not being too pleased with him by the end of year 2. I liked Halpern while he was here, but I don't think he was as great as he seems to think he is.

An aside: why did the official press release from Dallas include this:

Dallas Stars General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today that the club has signed center Jeff Halpern (pronounced HAL-pern) to a four-year deal through the 2009-10 season.

Is Halpern's last name that difficult to pronounce?

Ted answered some questions in his recent Owner's Corner:

Along those same lines, we recently saw Jeff Halpern sign a four-year contract with Dallas and Brian Willsie ink a two-year contract with Los Angeles. In both cases we are happy for the players’ good fortune, but will miss them here in Washington. Our decisions not to match the offers given to them by their respective new clubs were hockey decisions. We have a number of centers in our organization – Dainius Zubrus, Brooks Laich, Brian Sutherby, Boyd Gordon, Kris Beech, Dave Steckel and the just-drafted Backstrom. Under the salary cap system, multi-year contracts obviously impact a team well beyond the current season. With the number of young forwards we currently have on our team and in our system, we did not want to go as far in term for those two players as their new teams were willing to go. We had interest in retaining both Jeff and Brian, but not at the expense of holding back the younger players in our system. We wish them both well with their new teams.

Sounds fair to me. I'll miss Willsie- was slightly surprised to see him go, though I had heard the rumblings that he was looking elsewhere so I knew it was coming. The Caps have clearly decided that the younger player system is the way to go- I sure hope they're right. They did better last season with younger players than The Hockey News thought they would; THN ranked them to finish last, I believe, and they came in fourth from last. Yeah, not stellar, but at least they were ahead of the Penguins. That's all that really matters.

One of my fellow writers over at FemmeFan wrote an article about his top 10 favorite sports stars. While I didn't agree with everyone on the list, like T.O., Sidney Crosby, and Kobe Bryant (though I understood why he chose them), I did agree with his number 1 pick: Alexander Ovechkin. Great choice.

So Brendan Shanahan is going to the Rangers. I'm a little surprised; thought he might stay in Detroit after Stevie Y. retired, since he would likely become captain. I'm sure he'll end up back in Detroit at some point, especially since it's only a 1-year contract with New York. I know that's what those poor Detroit fans with Shanahan jerseys are hoping, anyway.

Also today: what was up with Zidane's head butt? A decidedly unclassy way to end one's football career. What a strange World Cup final.