You can't beat this Capital investment

Sporting News, The, July 23, 2001 by Larry Wigge

It was this close, Capitals goaltender Olie Kolzig says, holding his fingers about two inches apart to describe how he far he was to the precision pass that set up Mario Lemieux's winning goal for Pittsburgh in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs.

"We always seemed that close" Kolzig says. "But when you are talking about the talents of a Marlo Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, that alone can be enough to decide a lot of excruciatingly close games."

As soon as I heard that the Capitals pulled off the steal of the summer by obtaining Jagr, a five-time scoring champion and one-time MVP, from the Penguins along with journeyman defenseman Frantisek Kucera for three prospects, I remembered what Kolzig said, shoulders slumping in frustration while standing in front of his locker after barely missing Jagr's goal-mouth pass April 14.

Now Kolzig has that little bit of extra skill on his side. Jagr will have an immediate impact on the offensively starved Capitals.

Late last week, Kolzig told me opponents had better not take penalties against the Caps if they know what's good for them.

"Our power play was great last year" Kolzig says, "and now we've got Jagr. Wow! I still have to pinch myself at the thought of Jags in a Capitals jersey"

The Capitals are now more than just a couple of inches better than they were in that first-round loss to the Penguins, when it was frustratingly painful to watch Washington's offense score no more than one goal in four of the six games in an otherwise tightly contested series.

If Peter Bondra didn't score, the Caps were no closer to scoring than mismatched hitters are to making contact against Pedro Martinez.

Pittsburgh gets centers Kris Beech and Michal Sivek and defenseman Ross Lupaschuk, who were all selected among the top 34 players by the Caps in the 1999 entry draft. But the threesome combined for just four games--no points and a minus-2 rating--in the NHL last season. The future considerations accompanying those prospects is $4.9 million in cash over the next two years, which will help the Penguins re-sign free agents Alexei Kovalev, Robert Lang and Martin Straka.

"We got great value in this deal," Penguins G.M. Craig Patrick told reporters. "Time will show us that. I know I can't convince people of that right now, but all three of these guys are going to be big contributors here for a long time."

Someday. Maybe. But not next season, one year after the Penguins whetted their fans' appetites by making it to the Eastern Conference final.

This season, unless they find a right winger such as Brett Hull to play alongside Lemieux, the Penguins might not make the playoffs.

The reality is that it is impossible to replace 439 career goals and 640 career assists and the kind of presence Jagr brings on most nights. But for a franchise that must travel the path of fiscal responsibility, one player can't take home nearly 30 percent--$10.35 million of $36 million--of the payroll.

And if Jagr could have been healthy in the playoffs--his injured shoulder required injections so he could play--fans might not be so down on him, and his exit perhaps might not have been as swift.

But that was then. Jagr will be healthy again when he reports to training camp--and he will be dominating once again.

This deal affects the landscape of the East when you consider what the Flyers have done this offseason. If Capitals G.M. George McPhee can make amends with center Adam Oates or obtain another play-maker to help set up Jagr's No. 1 line and Bondra's second line, then the Flyers may not end up as the team that has improved itself the most.

Centers Jeff Halpern and Trevor Linden are candidates, but how they address this need will tell us whether the Caps are legitimate contenders or once again frustratingly inefficient to watch.

In a conference call following the trade, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis gushed about showing that he could get a high-profile player to come to Washington--after losing out on bids for Jeremy Roenick and Pierre Turgeon. He compared Jagr's arrival in Washington with the impact Michael Jordan might have with the NBA's Wizards.

"We are talking brand-name product here," Leonsis said. "But we don't want this to be just the Jagr show."

Jagr is going to help Leonsis sell tickets, but he isn't a Pied Piper. Jagr's words won't capture the fans' attention like his moves on the ice will.

On paper, the Capitals are better than the 13th-ranked offense in the NHL they were last season. After giving up nothing from a major league roster that posted a 41-27-10-4 record and finished eight points better than anyone else in the Southeast Division, they have skated onto a level just below the Avalanche, Blues, Devils, Red Wings, Stars and Flyers.

Clearly, the Capitals made the best acquisition of the summer, but you don't surround the Mona Lisa with canvases from starving-artist sales.

For Jagr to have the kind of effect in Washington that Leonsis is counting on, another major investment is needed.

"I remember studying tapes of the Penguins for hours every night trying to find a way to beat them," Capitals coach Ron Wilson said at the news conference. "It always came back to stopping Lemieux and Jagr.