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Caps Fans Work Through Their Feelings Using Filip Forsberg’s Wikipedia Page

By Ian Oland

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April 3, 2013 10:15 pm

filip-forsberg-wikipedia

Photo via @SteeChain

When I got home from work tonight, I ate my feelings in homemade Hawaiian pizza (thanks, Ashley). I’m bummed about the Erat/Forsberg trade. As much as I love this team, I worry they are just not that great, getting older, and not actually improving along with their win-loss record. I hoped the Caps would flip some guys in the final years of their contracts for picks and prospects, but instead George McPhee did the opposite: trading part of the Caps’ future, Filip Forsberg, for Martin Erat, a 31-year-old left wing who is 249th in goal scoring and has a cap hit of $4.5 million. The team is better now, but I don’t know about their future.

It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who is ambivalent. A few minutes after the trade was announced, Forsberg’s Wikipedia page was defaced. Like five times.

The final paragraph of Forsberg’s biography read like this:

On April 3, 2013, Forsberg was traded to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta.[sic] which might go down as the worst trade ever in the Washington Captials[sic] history.

It was then changed to this:

On April 3, 2013, Forsberg was traded to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta.[sic] which might go down as the best trade ever in the Washington Captials [sic] history.

And then, my favorite:

On April 3, 2013, Forsberg was traded to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta. [sic] which might go down as the worst trade ever in the Washington Captials [sic] history, but there is NO WAY OF KNOWING THIS FOR ABOUT 2-3 YEARS [sic, but a good point].

The page was eventually fixed, but not without some commentary:

On April 3, 2013, Forsberg was traded to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta. Capitals fans are mad, for good reasons.

Personally, I think the Jagr trade is, was, and will always will be the worst in Washington Capitals– and possibly human– history. And really, who knows how Forsberg will develop as he gets older. He might be a plug.

Regardless, McPhee sent a message to his team and its fans: Future be darned; we’re making the playoffs this year. I get that. But it seems I’m not alone in my wariness over this move.

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