Al May

I'm doing great, Bob.

Not covering any playoffs, but I've been watching every single game, so it's been a blast once again watching all these great rivalries take place here in the most important time of the year.

I think with the way things were going, you have to be very honest with your team.

Whether you're looking at money puck or whether you're just gauging where you think your team's at.

The Caps were very inconsistent this year.

And, you know, trending, you know, the inconsistencies, you know, favored the downside of not making the playoffs more.

And I thought they did, you know, hedge their bets and, you know, getting a haul of what they did for Carly at his age.

And, you know, he's the best defenseman the Caps have ever had.

And he leads in every single category.

He was still, in my opinion, the best defenseman this year.

And, you know, to get a first and a third and then for doubt a second and a third, you know, an aging fourth liner, you know, they did what they had to to worry about the future and, you know, let the chips fall where they may.

So I thought it showed Chris Patrick.

really showed for the first time, and I'm not taking a shot at him, but he had to make hard decisions for the very first time in his career as a general manager, and I thought he came out of that on the better side of the hockey trade.

So you look at it, hopefully they don't screw up the trades, but just the numbers alone show that he did a pretty good job.

You know, with Florida, the way their year started out with the injuries they had, I honestly didn't expect them to make it because I just thought, you know, Barkoff, you know, arguably the best all-around center in the National Hockey League, more to the defensive side than the offensive side.

But, you know, still just an incredible player.

And then Kachuk out of the start of the year, and they just had so many injuries.

But I thought the Capitals...

They needed to be healthy, and I don't think they replaced a couple of the players that they lost last year.

They were trying to integrate some players into the lineup, and there was a lot of inconsistencies.