Tariq El-Bashir

He said he was going to be decisive and aggressive, and he sure has been.

I mean, they have changed in the last 72 hours now the composition of the Capitals forward core and perhaps the trajectory of the team for the next several years because, I mean, Tuck signed an eight-year deal with Washington right after the trade.

and Jordan Cairo was under contract for five years, so they just added two 30-goal scorers in the prime of their career, you know, in the span of, I mean, back then it was in the span of 24 hours.

So, yeah, a little surprised they were this productive and aggressive, but they needed it.

They needed it.

If you're Alex Ovechkin on vacation on a beach probably in Turkey right now, he's got to be looking at his phone going, wait a minute, I need to get on the phone with Chris Patrick and tell him I'm coming back.

I do.

I do.

You know, I don't have a direct line to him.

Like I said, he's halfway around the world right now on vacation with his family.

But, you know, I've been talking to people, you know, in and around the organization, and no one really knows.

He has not tipped his hand.

But it just feels like, you know, I've covered him since he was drafted in Carolina in Raleigh back in 2004.

So I've been with him the entire time.

And people –

in his circle are preparing as though he's going to come back.

I think these moves that they've made to, you know, augment the forward group, I mean, if not remake the forward group, I mean, if you're him, you really want to win one more time.

You want one more kick at the can at 41 years old.

This is the best team he's going to have played for probably since when they were, you know, making the second round every year and, you know, when they won the cup in 18.

Yeah, the power play was not good last year.