On Frozen Blog

Hanlon and Kolzig on XM’s NHL Home Ice

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki) Wednesday, November 14, 2007

XM Radio Washington Capitals coach Glen Hanlon was a guest on The Power Play with Jim Tatti and Gary Green (on XM 204). In the five-minute interview Hanlon discusses key injuries, the effect those injuries have had on line combinations and goal scoring, Alex Ovechkin’s defensive improvements, and other tidbits. Check out the audio here.

What struck me most about the interview is that Hanlon’s line combination plans seemed set well in advance barring any unforseen chemistry issues. Hanlon admits that injuries are part of the game . . . yet it seems that the lines had no real backup plan in place to address the inevitiable injuries every team must face.

Losing a top scorer like Alexander Semin, or a hard-nosed leader like Chris Clark, has no easy fix. But one hopes that camp, preseason, and practices suggested other potentially successful line combinations that could be slotted into place when the injury bug hit–rather than the “random line juggling while crossing one’s fingers” that seems in place now. Admittedly it’s a brief interview and thus subject to fill-in-the-blanks syndrome, but the impression of a lack of contingency planning was a bit disheartening to this listener.

In other Capitals/XM news, this next program seems like must-hear radio. At 11:00 PM this Monday, November 19, Olie Kolzig will be featured on Hockey Confidential. From NHL Home Ice:

Hockey Confidential: Olaf Kolzig

Mon, 11/19 | 11PM ET

NHL Home Ice - XM 204 proudly presents Hockey Confidential with Washington Capitals goaltender Olaf Kolzig. Join Hockey This Morning host Scott Laughlin as he goes post to post with Olie the Goalie, in front of our live Hockey Confidential studio audience. This is an hour of honest insight from one of the NHL’s greatest ambassadors, a true star of the game, and a tireless worker for Athletes For Autism.

Encores:
Tue, 11/20 8PM | Tue, 11/20 8PM | Wed, 11/21 7PM | Fri, 11/23 3PM | Sat, 11/24 9AM | Sun, 11/25 2AM, 3AM, 5PM

[Update: See the comments for more information about the Kolzig XM show from a Caps' press release.]

2 Comments

OrderedChaos wrote:

Just received a press release from the Caps with some additional information:

“This is a wonderful opportunity for XM listeners to connect with the stars of hockey, past and present,” said Joe Thistel, program director of NHL Home Ice, “and we couldnâ€™t have picked a better subject and role model to kick off the Hockey Confidential series than Olaf Kolzig.”

Kolzig, the 37-year-old goaltender who is the longest-tenured player in Capitals history, taped the show in the XM studios in Toronto when the Capitals visited the city Oct. 28. He and Laughlin covered a variety of topics, including the current Capitals team, his charity work and his playing career in junior hockey, the minor leagues, Europe, the Olympics and the NHL. The show closed with Kolzig fielding questions from a studio audience.

Kolzig is the first guest on Hockey Confidential, a new show in the spirit of other XM shows like Artist Confidential and Baseball Confidential.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 5:58 pm | Permalink
Chelle wrote:

Can’t wait to hear the broadcast.

I also wish I lived in Toronto so that I could go to one of the tapings of the show. I look forward to seeing who else they are going to have on.

Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 2:15 pm | Permalink