Now that the dust has settled...

Well, that was pretty fucking lame. Totally not worth skipping a class and goofing off at work for.

Who am I kidding? There's never a bad reason to do either of those things. Regardless, though, yesterday was pretty boring as trade deadlines go, especially for Caps fans. It marked the first time in a number of years George McPhee didn't make a single move on deadline day. Why not? According to GMGM, there were no deals out there. He fielded calls, but all anyone wanted to offer was futures, prospects, and draft picks. McPhee wanted to make a 'hockey deal,' but none were out there.

Not sure about anybody else, but I find his refusal to flip expiring contracts a little bit alarming, especially because at least one (Wideman) is at the highest selling point of his career, and two (Wideman and Vokoun) will almost certainly not be back next season. To me, that means McPhee thinks this Caps team is 'fine,' and that is more disturbing than any deal he could have made today.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying George should have gone out and mortgaged the future for rentals to try to make a cup run this season; far from it. But at least buying would have been a tacit admission by McPhee that this team simply wasn't good enough and needed help. Now, since it's my belief that this team as currently constructed, regardless of any potential deadline band-aids, cannot successfully compete for a cup this season, I think buying would have been a waste. Instead, George should have flipped said expiring contracts for futures in an effort to either build up assets that could be flipped this summer to fill a position of need *coughsecondlinecentercough* as part of a 'hockey deal', or to simply build up the organization's talent pipeline to hopefully be a more solid contender a year or two down the road. But he didn't. The fact that GMGM didn't implies to me that either he thinks this team this season has a reasonable chance at a deep playoff run (and if that's the case, I'd say he's suffering from delusions of grandeur), or slipping into the playoffs with no real chance of success is more important to management/ownership than taking steps to make the team stronger for the future. There's no other explanation for letting high value assets walk for nothing this summer. And that, to me, is the most disturbing aspect of this year's deadline.

But then, if I knew anything about the game...