On Frozen Blog

In the most benign and charitable of chat parlors, his name evokes antipathy. He is two parts perseverance and puck passion and seven parts self promotion. He’s Eklund, “Ek” . . . “*-*-*-*” on many serious-minded message boards (they do exist). But he peddles a product on an e-street corner conspicuous for its absence of competition, so he endures.
Once upon a time, he was, genuinely, a touchstone of hockey’s inner circle, our pool reporter during the long pain of the year-long lockout. We weren’t just locked out from our great game, we were locked out from basic news about its status. Eklund personified the passion and ache so many of us felt in that sorry solitude, and like a good intrepid reporter does, he cultivated good, reliable sources. It sure seemed that way. But he confronted a basic dilemma at the lockout’s conclusion: what now? Ever since, he’s struggled to retain relevancy. He’s a Carl Bernstein without a Watergate.
And it is in this latest chapter that he has spawned an enemy’s list (of which we’re not one) (not yet). Accorded a privileged perch within the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association as an acknowledgment of his strong lockout coverage, he chose to pull up the blogger’s ladder, the story goes. There’s no real paper trail for that, just the stunning results and a litany of high-profile hockey bloggers unwilling to buy him a single, flat, warm O’Douls.
Today he is to hockey reporting what Bob Ryan is to Washington weather: chock full of (distracting) congeniality and error. Both persevere through the force of perseverance.
Really I have no axe to grind with Ek. His prose carries all the nutrition of a PopTart, but there is a preservative-free quality to his messages that renders them harmless. If his “Bondra to the Caps (e4)” sets Washington Slovak-stirring hearts aflutter, is it really his fault? He is the People Magazine of Puck; Eklund as Entertainment Tonight. He is, most especially, when it comes to prognosticating on all things Washington Capitals, Dan Rather on Election Night 2000.
If he has relevancy anymore it arrives this week and in the days leading up to the NHL’s February/March trade deadline. But post-lockout, even his work there is meager and a mish-mash of maybe-educated guesswork. If you toss enough non-buttered rumor hotcakes on a wall a few will stick. But none flipped in D.C. have. I’ve never met the man, I have no reason to believe him now a lazy reporter; it’s just that the Caps’ hull is pretty water-tight.
(I love irony. Mischievous irony the more.)
We the puck-crazy in D.C. this summer are so anxious for positive change, but let this file serve as a caution against investing too much faith in the claims of the vitamins contained in PopTarts.