On Frozen Blog

As a regular reader of many of the Washington Post’s discussions, I always take note when hockey is mentioned. It came up in Marc Fisher’s discussion yesterday:

Arlington, VA: It appears that you have angered Mr. Leonsis. Here are a few select quotes from his blog Ted’s Take about you and the newspaper business in general. I believe that this was in response to your comments last week about the Caps.
“I think the question to be asking Marc is this: “Is D.C. a newspaper town or a Washington Post town anymore?”
“Have you seen your numbers of late? Your circulation is down. Your revenues are down. Your profits are down. Your newsroom employee count is down. Your prospects are bleak. You don’t even publish your circulation numbers in your own paper. Why is that? Young adults don’t read your paper. You are a software company with a newspaper aside it now. If I were you, I would write about what you know and not throw out opinions as facts regarding other businesses.”
“If Marc would like to compare the Washington Post’s numbers alongside the Washington Capitals numbers, I would be glad to do so in a public forum.”
Any thoughts? It’s hard for me to take him too seriously since AOL didn’t exactly do a great job adapting to the evolving Internet.
Marc Fisher: Wow–I hadn’t seen or heard about that. (This is apparently picking up on our conversation here on the chat over the past few weeks about whether Washington is indeed a hockey town.) My conclusion so far in our discussion here has been that there are a good many diehard hockey lovers who support the Caps, plus a larger group of casual fans who can get engaged when the team is doing well or has a genuine star, as it does now. But there does not appear to be the same kind of broad, bedrock support for hockey that you find in more northerly and snowy places where the sport has been around for many decades.
I’d be more than happy to talk to Leonsis about the two businesses–indeed, both the Post and the Caps have been leaders in their fields in jumping into new media and embracing the technological changes that promise to redefine what we do. And both are also struggling institutions. I don’t remotely see that as a bashing comment, but rather as a good and important conversation to have, whether we’re talking about journalism or hockey.

Fisher is a noted crank who doesn’t like hockey, soccer, or puppies. Still, his response is a fair one. It would be interesting to read the result of a discussion between him and Ted.
Naturally, the mere mention of hockey brought out the haters:

Hockey: The question you should be asking is, “Is the U.S. a hockey country?” I think we got that answer when the players struck for a year and a half and hardly anyone noticed. Hockey’s a punchline. A joke. A peculiarity like the duck-billed platypus.
Marc Fisher: That’s a little too harsh, no? After all, the NHL is a highly profitable business with a large following. It’s not football or baseball, but it’s certainly a very popular sport regionally, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

It’s sad that people actually think this way, but that’s the stark reality of it. Is this a stupid, incorrect statement? Sure. But it’s unfortunately a common sentiment among those who don’t know the joys of hockey. Despite such idiotic comments, interest in the NHL seems to be on the rise because of events like the Winter Classic and superstars like Ovechkin and Crosby. It certainly helps the D.C. area to have one of the most exciting players and a thrilling team to watch. After a season of highs and lows like this one, no one can say that hockey is boring. And it certainly isn’t a “duck-billed platypus,” either.