On Frozen Blog

The good news is that a sports columnist from the Washington Post deigned to attend — and write on — last night’s marque matchup at Verizon Center. Better still, his name wasn’t Kornheiser (busy moonlighting on MNF) or Wilbon. But that’s pretty much where the good news for area hockey fans ends, as in the heart of Mike Wise’s published account we find this:

The loss of a season to labor strife two years ago is often blamed for hockey falling into the public-consumption abyss . . . the real reason hockey could not connect outside its knowing and loyal fan base was the lack of genuine star power . . .”

Actually, it’s only lazy journalists for whom hockey is an afterthought who still scapegoat the 2004 lockout, two years later, to justify hockey’s backpage treatment by the MSM. (Notice how other pro sports’ work stoppages knew no such knee-jerk sentiments.) After all, Mike, your paper’s coverage of the Caps and hockey in general hasn’t differed pre- or post lockout. I was at the National Press Club last fall when Commissioner Bettman arrived to announce the greatest October attendance in league history, mere weeks after hockey’s obit had been universally penned by your likes, Mike.
Welcome to OFB accountability, where the memories are long.
The cold, hard reality, Mike, is that Alexander Ovechkin has been bugging out eyes and lifting people out of their seats for 15 months in this town, and you’re only just now taking notice. The cold, hard reality, Mike, is that had Sanatana Moss scheduled Redskin Park windsprints at about the time the puck dropped last night at Verizon Center, you and your like on 15th St. would have concocted a rationale for covering it. Hey, a 4-9 football team after all can become 5-9 with a little extra work, right?
Log into Nexis this morning, Mike, and take a look at your paper’s acknowledgment of the start of the NHL’s season back on October 4. I’ll save you the time — there was none. And this morning we hockey fans in the region are asked to accord your views on the overarching state of hockey with a straight face?
Your premise this morning — that pro hockey in “the Lower 48″ would be welcomed to the adults’ holiday dinner table instead of the children’s if it merely had more stars — can’t fly up the flagpole and be saluted because once upon a time, when nos. 99 and 66 did skate and score in mesmerizing fashion for two decades, and I wished to read about it in your paper daily, then too did you fail.
It’s really a shame, ’cause unlike your columnist bretheren, Mike, you do have keen insights to share: “The Capitals are better because of the maturation of their secondary players . . . Olie Kolzig has been outstanding, stopping more shots than any other NHL goalie. But he’s not having to work as hard behind his defense as he did a year ago.”
Here’s a challenge for you, Mike: shake off the 15th St. arrogance, seat yourself next to General Manager McPhee again at a game this season, even Metro over to Ballston and take in a few practices in the Caps’ new state-of-the-art facility. Give hockey a genuine chance. But don’t jump in like your columnist colleagues do once every two years and lecture we who follow the game daily about the prevalence of superstars and such. That, too, is lazy. Hockey has its share of blame for its third-tier status, and it’s been looking hard into the mirror post-lockout. Is the Post?