“SO MANY PEOPLE TO THANK”

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Gratitude is a wonderful human emotion to express.

The Winter Classic was a true double bottom line pursuit by so many.

Thank you to our fans. The Winter Classic was a small way for us to say thank you, and you are appreciated and loved and respected by us. Thank you. Thank you for the smiles, the selfies, the personal touches and handshakes and fist bumps and human connections, the thank you notes, the “Lets Go Caps” chants. I love you. You Rocked the Red in a big way yesterday! Thank you.

Thank you, Washington DC, our Mayor, our Mayor elect, the city council, and all the people in local government for helping us showcase Washington DC; the greatest city in the world. Thank you to our local police; we all felt safe and secure. Traffic flowed well. Thank you to Metro. And the people there who got fans to and from safely and securely. Thank you. Without you and without building Nationals Park, there is no Winter Classic in DC! Thank you.

Thank you to Virginia and Maryland, the Governors of both States, and all of our fans and supporters who live in the bigger Caps community! Thanks to Metro too! Again. Thank you. All played a part of building America’s Hockey Capital. And the dreaded cliched term of “DMV.” Best fans in the world! Thank you. I personally feel so deeply connected to Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.

Thank you to our Military and our federal government agencies who all chipped in to make yesterday a wonderful experience. The choir, the jets, the pageantry. Awesome. We were all safe and secure, fans had no idea how safe and secure! Thank you.

Thank you to the Wounded Warriors and all the people who work to say thank you to our men and woman who have made sacrifices for us as a country. We tried to say we care and we love you at the Winter Classic. We can’t say thank you enough!

Thank you to the talent who performed for us, you worked hard and showcased your gifts. That was fun. Thank you.The performances were pure, were on time, and the show was flawless! Thank you.

Thank you to NBC, and Comcast and all of your related properties. You really know how to produce compelling television and present mega sporting events to a global audience in a pitch perfect way. Truly inspiring and respectful work. Thank you.

Thank you to the crew at Epix of the “Road to the Winter Classic” series and to their gifted and talented leadership team. We provided you total access and great theater. You were wonderful to be around. Go home now. Fade to black. Thanks for the show of respect. Great “F*in” work!

Thank you to the wonderful folks at the Washington Nationals and to the Lerner Family. You were perfect hosts; the stadium looked like a Hollywood set. It is a modern facility, great technology and infrastructure and showcased the best Winter Classic to date as to state of play and fan comforts. And to all of the people at the Washington Nationals, the staff were so welcoming and classy and had huge smiles on their faces all day. The love shown to fans was sincere and honest and is most appreciated! Thank you.

Thank you to the men and woman of the media and blogosphere for working hard over a holiday, for taking fantastic photos, for filing story after story, video after video; for showing your creativity in wonderful settings, for being respectful to the game, the league, and the players and our franchises and our fans and city! Thank you.

Thank you to the Chicago Blackhawks. You are a world class operation, with historic ownership and leadership. And one hell of a team! Thank you, Rocky!

Thank you to the NHL, Gary Bettman and all of the wonderful people who have mastered presenting the Winter Classic to fans of hockey on a world wide basis. I had fallen in love with the Winter Classic and knew it could be presented to our fans in the best way possible. The team of folks at the NHL worked tirelessly and professionally and are the best of the best! Thank you for your confidence in us as a city and as a franchise. Thank you for believing in our fans. Thank you for flawless execution of a world class event. I am so personally grateful to you all!

Thank you to the talented men and women at the Washington Capitals, and Monumental Sports & Entertainment. I saw how much passion you poured into this work, and how hard you worked to make the Winter Classic a fantastic experience for our fans and our community. You worked throughout the holidays, you worked with grace and style and care. Well done all around. Thank you! A true bright shining moment was provided for our community! Thank you.

Thank you to my partners who put up with my incessant chatter and frenetic pace and energies around this event. For a long time ! That was fun! Thank you for the support!

Thank you to the Washington Capitals, players and coaching staff and all personnel. And to the family members of all! We are a team. I am grateful for your love of the game, respect you showed our fans and your rising to the occasion on a big stage . That was a perfect ending to a perfect day , we get the two standings points and we played with vigor, with discipline and we did the right things the right way. We are all proud of you.

Thank you to my family, my son and daughter, extended family and friends who all showed so much support to me, to the Winter Classic and to our fans and our city and community. All I can say is thank you and I love you! And mostly, thank you to my wife Lynn who allowed me to work on this one for too many hours, with too much attention to detail.

If I forgot to thank anyone I sincerely apologize!

I hope our good friends at the USOC were watching the festivities yesterday. I want to humbly but confidently state that no one knows how to conduct world class sporting events with athletes and fans front and center, in a classy, safe and secure manner like we do in Washington, DC! Thank you.

There is pixel overload from the games, here are some of my favorites, click around from Japers’ Rink, NHL.com, Monumental Network, Caps Website, and the Washington Post here, here and here.

And thank you again! Go Caps!