On Frozen Blog

Gustafsson and I attended Tuesday’s 2007 Capitals Media Day at the Verizon Center. After opening remarks by owner Ted Leonsis, an open session followed. Here are a few highlights:

Pearls of Wisdom from Ron Weber

I struck up a conversation with Capitals radio great Ron Weber. We were both gazing out at the empty ice surface as chatted about hockey history for a bit, such as the fact that only one team, the Montreal Canadiens, used to have blue lines along the bottom of the boards rather than the standard yellow. He also (without my prompting) commented on the lack of out-of-town scoreboards and real-time clock; we were both hopeful that the cloth-draped ends of the lower ribbon displays will be unveiled as scoreboards on opening night.

The most interesting tidbit he shared with me was in the form of a question. “See the red line?” he asked. “Do you know why it’s not a solid line, but has those white spaces along the line?” I confessed that I did not. “Well,” he explained, “back when they started broadcasting hockey games, they couldn’t tell on close-up camera shots whether the player was skating over the blue line or the red line . . . because on black-and-white televisions they looked the same. So the NHL made a rule that the red line had to have those white marks, so viewers could tell the difference between the lines. Not that anyone is watching on a black-and-white TV today, but they’ve still kept it that way.”

Breathe Deep the DC Air

Among the many media folks at the event was Comcast SportsNet’s wonderfully friendly Lisa Hillary. Ted Leonsis, Hillary, Gustafsson and I were chatting about the upcoming season after Leonsis and Hillary taped an interview for Comcast. Leonsis apologized for his rough voice. “It’s the mold,” he explained — and I sympathized, as a few days ago I awoke with what I thought was a bad cold but was in fact a sore throat caused by the incredibly high count of mold allergens in the air. Hillary remarked on the clean Northern air, “We never had to worry about mold in Ottawa!” Welcome to DC, Ms. Hillary, and good luck in the humid, pollen-ridden, exhaust-fume-choked DC air this spring. Bring Claritin!

At right, a photo of Lisa Hillary and Dave Steckel. Steckel’s impressive camp and preseason have earned him a spot on the Capitals’ opening night roster.

Q & A with Tomas Fleischmann

OFB: You had a shorter season than most of the Caps with your Calder Cup playoff run last year. Looking back, could you imagine then that four months later you’d not only make the team, but be skating with Alex Ovechkin?

Fleischmann: You never know, this is hockey! I didn’t think about it, I just went to summer workouts and worked hard in training camp to make the top two lines . . . You have to work every day, be better every day. I’m just excited and can’t wait for our first game.

OFB: How were those Calder Cup runs, and how do you think that will prepare you for an 82-game schedule in the NHL, and hopefully the playoffs?

Fleischmann: That was a great experience . . . the first thing you have to do in the playoffs is have a good group of guys who want to win, and play for the Cup. Everyone has to do his job, and that’s what it takes. And if everything works like that, it works every time on the ice.

OFB: And you feel that’s what the Capitals have this year?

Fleischmann: Oh, exactly, that’s the way I feel.

As do we, Tomas, as do we.