Sunday Smorgasbord 2-15

• We kick things off tonight with the big news outside of A.O.'s hat trick which is Canadian Diving Team Captain, Low Blow Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby, claiming the scalp of another Head Coach. Low Blow Cindy now has her third Head Coach in just four seasons. (Mary-OH! at least waited until she had been in the league for six years before accomplishing that feat.) This was a long time coming in that the Penguin Scum have not lived up to the standard set last year, though in fairness, this was not the same Penguin Scum team that found its way into the Stanley Cup Finals last year. It was pretty clear that the Penguin Scum felt it didn't matter who skated with their core of Cindy, Evgeni Malkin-Lindros, Gonchar, and Marc Andre-Fleury. We don't know how much Therrien can be blamed for this mess though we do admit, he had the same "deer in the headlights" look that Glen Hanlon had at the end of his tenure in Washington. The big question now for the Penguin Scum is; was this too little, too late? We ask this because the Penguin Scum currently sit five points behind the Buffaslugs on even footing for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. That's a large mountain to climb with 25 games left because of the Bettman Loser point. Add in that 16 of their 25 remaining games are against teams currently in the playoffs (Panthers three times, Canadiens twice, Flyers twice, Caps twice, Devils once, Rangers once, Bruins once, Blue Jackets once, Flames once, Blackhawks once, and Stars once) and the Penguin Scum really have their work cut out for them no matter who the coach is. Finally, the biggest mistake we feel the Penguin Scum could make is trading for Martin St. Louis and/or Jay Bouwmeester. The Hossa trade was a mistake simply because it mortgaged a part of the team's future for the here and now. While it ended up in an Eastern Conference Title, it led to the disaster that is this season and will only further the disaster should they try it again.
• And speaking of job security, we announce tonight the start of The Debbie Yow Watch. Officially it is on Day 2 because of yesterday's Garyland t-shirts distributed and worn by the Friends of Gary at the UMD-Hokie-Pokey game yesterday was Day 1. You might have heard about the little dust-up between Gary and the UMD Administration and while Yow has given Gary the dreaded "vote of confidence," the fact that the F.O.G's remain outward F.O.G.'s means that Debbie's days have to be numbered. The relationship between the two has never been strong and if the big $$$$$ donors are publicly backing the coach over the A.D., well, Maryland is going to be looking for a new A.D. very soon. This comes in spite of a three part (Com)Post series (Part I, Part II, Part III) seeking to bury Williams. Part I was downright yellow journalism in that every single detractor of Gary was allowed to talk about how this kid or that kid would have been perfect in the Maryland system while glossing over and neglecting to mention the regard of the players Maryland did recruit or trying to find out why Maryland never seriously recruited the playes in question. We feel conflicted about Part II because while it is the closest to our understanding of the Rudy Gay fiasco, it shies away from exposing the seamy underbelly and outright violations that have occurred in NCAA Division I Men's College Basketball for a very long time. We understand Gary "protecting the Fraternity" but isn't exposing the dark side of things what journalists used to do? I guess somebody needs to write a press release in order to get the stories written. Part III only served to bolster Gary's point that the media would have had a field day on him for bringing Tyree Evans to campus. However what is the biggest failure of this "expose" is that Steve Yanda and Eric Prisbell didn't even bother mentioning the role of the UMD Administration. We have on tape if they would like to borrow it a See-BS special done in 2003 called From Triumph to Tragedy: The Maryland Terrapin Odyssey. In that special, done one year after Maryland won the National Championship and chronicled the program's fall from the death of Len Bias to winning the school's first National Championship in Basketball one year earlier, former assistant coach Billy Hahn discussed the talented kids that Maryland could not recruit, like Lawrence Moten, who ended up starring at other schools because the UMD Admin made it clear they would not be admitted because of their academic background. It is a problem that plagues both the Men's Basketball team and the Football team to this day. Fact of the matter is this, as long as the ghost of Len Bias haunts he University of Maryland, do not expect the Basketball or Football teams to seriously compete for a National Title on a regular basis, no matter who the coach is.
• And speaking of spinning your wheels, reading this about the Redskins tells us that is exactly what they're going to do for the short term. Simply put, the Redskins do not have the flexibility under the salary cap that they would need in order to retool both the offense and defensive lines this offseason. At least the problem has been identified, now we'll see if the fans and the media have the patience to see the process through. We're betting they won't. However did see how much credit Dan Snyder got for not raising ticket prices? We forgive you if you didn't notice.
• And speaking of ticket prices going up, Ted Leonsis is taking a huge gamble in betting that he can get away with raising ticket prices for 2009-2010 in a tanking economy and not have any effect on the attendance. Tickets for most fans are going up anywhere from $2 a game to $5 a game depending on where you sit. The VIP ticket holders are seeing major increases of up to $20 per game. Ted has to hope that the Caps not only get out of the first round this spring, but avoid some of the playoff disasters that have befallen the Caps in the past. The absolute worst case nightmare scenario is for the Penguin Scum to sneak into the 8th spot, upset Boston in the first round, face the Caps in the second round, and come back from a 3-1 deficit and win Game 7 in the Phone Booth. Should that happen, you can bet the farm that all the goodwill built up over the past two seasons would evaporate and people like Khornball will be taunting "Choking Dogs" all summer long. We hope that doesn't happen, but with this franchise you just never know. This isn't the first time Ted has gambled like this and for his sake, we hope he at least comes out even this time around.
• This week, the Caps kick off a season long five game homestand when Montreal pays a visit on Wednesday night. Colorado is in town on Friday before the Penguin Scum infect the Phone Booth on Sunday Afternoon. The Maryland Men head down to Klempsun on Tuesday night on ESPN2 before getting shellacked again by UNC at home on Saturday on ABC. The Maryland Women visit Georgia Tech on Thursday night before hosting Dook on Sunday Afternoon/Evening on Fox SportsNet.
• As always folks, please send all comments, criticism, questions, corrections, suggestions, and link exchange offers to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.