Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has a lot to say, but so little time in which to type it all out. (NB to all loyal minions: Are you getting tired of your Maximum Leader starting posts this way? Do you wish that your Maximum Leader would start posting via osmosis? Via dreams? Via some other method? Would you prefer just that he just shut the hell up and get on with it?)

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader is consumed with sports it seems. He has been watching his beloved Washington Nationals slip from first place in the National League East and begin to play more in line with how he expected them to play. Your Maximum Leader knows that every team in baseball will win 60 games they will lose 60 games; and that all the action is to see how many of the 42 remaining games they will win. Your Maximum Leader figured that the Nationals would likely be fighting for third place in the NL East this season. He thinks that the Mets and the Phillies will duke it out for first and that the Braves and Nats will duke it out for third. But the hot streak to open the season made your Maximum Leader lose his senses and think that the Nats were better than they were. Now he is beginning to be more sensible about it.

In other news…

If your Maximum Leader hasn’t mentioned it before, the first professional sport he started following was not baseball, but hockey. He has loved ice hockey for many years. For all of those years he’s been a Washington Capitals fan. He’s sat through triple and quadruple overtime playoff losses. He was in the stands as the Detroit Red Wings completed their sweep of the Caps in the Stanley Cup finals back in 1998. He fell away from the whole sport of hockey for a few years after the labor troubles. But this year he’s gone back to the fold. He’s gone to a few games. He’s watched games on tv. And the Caps have rewarded him.

Allow your Maximum Leader to say that he’s seen the greats of hockey in their prime. Gretzsky. Messier. Lemieux. Yzerman. And he’s seen some near greats that only hockey fans might recognize (indeed he remembers seeing a great goal (against the Caps) scored by Alexander Mogilny that stands out as one of the greatest goals he’s seen with his own eyes live and in person). Your Maximum Leader will now say that Alexander Ovechkin has the talent needed to rise to the level of the greatest to play the game. Alexander Ovechkin has pretty much carried the Capitals to their first playoffs in years. If the Capitals can build a team around Ovechkin there is a chance they could be a long-term contender.

So… This week the Caps will start their series against the Phlyers. Damn, your Maximum Leader hates the Flyers. Frankly, your Maximum Leader hates the Penguins, the Islanders, the Rangers, the Flyers, and the Rangers more than he can bring himself to hate the divisional rivals the Caps have now. (That is dating his fandom…) Gawd your Maximum Leader would love to see the Caps just spank the Flyers. He means he’d like to see the Caps just make the Flyers their bitches. It would be sweet.

Of course, having said all that… Your Maximum Leader has a lifetime of Caps first round playoff disappointment to reflect upon. He isn’t going to get his hopes up… (Okay… Maybe just a little…) But let him say that if the Caps can beat the Flyers… He might treat himself to an Ovechkin jersey in the new style.

Carry on.