10 February, 2012


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Dear Tony, It's a Really Big Hockey Night in D.C.

By The OFB Team 1 April, 2008

Mr. Tony Kornheiser
The Washington Post
1150 15th St. NW
Washington, DC 20071
April 1, 2008
Re. The Biggest Hockey Game in D.C. in a Decade
Dear Tony:
What a spectacular week for the Washington sports fan! The Nationals the other night christened an impressive new stadium — and in dramatic fashion. I’m sure you enjoyed the excitement of attending Opening Night in Nationals Park.
Imagine, though, if you could meet or even exceed Sunday evening’s electric atmosphere at the ballpark, with a heart-stopping, high-stakes sports event tonight at Verizon Center. The likelihood is high that you can.
Incredible as it may seem, Tony, the Washington Capitals tonight are playing their most important hockey game since the Stanley Cup finals of 1998. At home. With a victory against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, the Capitals — lodged in 30th place out of 30 teams in the NHL at Thanksgiving — would be tied for first place in the league’s Southeast division in this the final week of the regular season. I’m not sure we’ve seen the likes of this kind of resurrection in all of professional sports this decade. What a story, right here at home!
Tonight at Verizon Center is an event I think that Washington’s sports media ought to luxuriate in. In fact, the entire week and its three hockey games here ought to be hyped like hockey hasn’t been in these parts ever. The entire town ought to get behind the Caps this week, and of course, local media play a pivotal role in that endeavor.
Which is kind of why I’m writing.
Great sports towns, it seems to me, are characterized by a local press reliably and spiritedly conveying that greatness. I’m one who’s been of the opinion that we haven’t quite had there here in some while (if ever). But rather than bemoan opportunities lost, I want to see new and old media alike get behind a once-in-a-lifetime talent in Alexander Ovechkin and his highly skilled and infectiously enthusiastic young teammates during this remarkable week of season-concluding play. The way they’ve represented Washington ever since Bruce Boudreau took over behind the bench merits it.
It can be alleged, without overstatement, that there is a playoff atmosphere to the Capitals’ schedule this week. For what it’s worth, yesterday’s Washington Times claimed that the no.1 sports storyline in the area for the month of April was the Capitals’ playoff chase. All three of the team’s remaining games are at home, all of them “must wins,” and beginning tonight, when 18,000-plus fans¬†”red out” the Phone Booth, there will most assuredly be a playoff atmosphere in the city’s hockey rink.
I’d like to see local media cover the games just like they would the playoffs. We’ve already got a terrific beat reporter on the job for the Post; I’d like to see Tarik joined by the paper’s best photographer, Dan Steinberg blogging near me, and you joining the Cardiac Caps’ party.
We can use this week as a launching pad to a revitalized sports culture in Washington. Southeast D.C. along the Anacostia with its new ballpark is being revitalized — Alexander Ovechkin and the Caps are reviving hockey across town in Northwest.
I never believed that Washington had to be a second- or third-rate sports town, and I thought that one day an athlete so special in his skills, so magnetic in his personality, so dominant in his ability would arrive here and transform our sports culture.
He has.
Hope I see you tonight.

This was written by The OFB Team. Posted on at 6:59 am. Filed under Carolina Hurricanes, Dan Steinberg, Media, National Hockey League, Print, Tarik El-Bashir, Washington Capitals, Washington Post.
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19 Comments

  1. TonyK wrote:

    You can’t fool me. I know what day this really is.
    -signed TK

    1 April, 2008 at 8:32 am | Permalink
  2. dave wrote:

    I work 2 blocks from the post and would be happy to hand deliver a copy of this letter.

    1 April, 2008 at 8:40 am | Permalink
  3. pucksandbooks wrote:

    You’re my type of guy, Dave. : )

    1 April, 2008 at 9:13 am | Permalink
  4. Admin wrote:

    [Admin note]
    As you guessed, that was NOT Tony K. ;-)

    1 April, 2008 at 9:21 am | Permalink
  5. Mike wrote:

    Honestly, who cares if this clown is on board. If he is, it’ll bring into question my own love of the game.

    1 April, 2008 at 9:39 am | Permalink
  6. Victor wrote:

    Kornheiser is one of those guys who, every now and then, finds himself tripping over the truth . . . whereupon he picks himself up, dusts himself off, and continues on as if nothing had ever happened.

    1 April, 2008 at 9:59 am | Permalink
  7. b.orr4 wrote:

    For the life of me, pucksandbooks, I can’t see why you concern yourself with Kornheiser. He’s a MSM dinosaur whose time has passed. I don’t have any statistical proof, but if you walk around the concourse between periods, the fan demographics appear to be much younger than ever before. Frankly, I bet that the majority of hockey fans never listen to Kornheiser, much less care what he thinks about the Caps. Corey and Tarik do a good job, but when I get up in the morning the first things I read are OFB and Japers. Then I turn on XM for Hockey This Morning. The internet and satellite radio are the future of hockey coverage, not relics like Kornheiser.

    1 April, 2008 at 10:05 am | Permalink
  8. pucksandbooks wrote:

    I get your point completely, b.orr4, and I hope you recognize that the name of the addressee could have been interchanged with at least 40 or 50 MSMers. Sub-MSM, I could have addressed Czabin. Still I went local, and my target was far broader than a lone multimedia personality.
    The good news, as you marvelously reference, is that the disaffected in town are voting with their mouses, and directing their media consumption elsewhere. Still, and perhaps naively, and obviously most modestly, I’d like to have a hand in re-engineering the MSM mess.

    1 April, 2008 at 10:14 am | Permalink
  9. bc wrote:

    I like watching Tony Kornheiser as much as he likes watching hockey.

    1 April, 2008 at 10:21 am | Permalink
  10. SovSport wrote:

    Tony who?
    [I seriously don't know who the guy is]

    1 April, 2008 at 10:28 am | Permalink
  11. Stokley Rose wrote:

    Well screw Tony…that letter got me extremely pumped up for tonight. Which of course will make the day drag. Thanks a lot, P&B!
    LET’S GO CAPS!!

    1 April, 2008 at 10:33 am | Permalink
  12. Zman wrote:

    Kornheiser is an a-hole. I could care less about the guy, screw Wilbon too.

    1 April, 2008 at 11:00 am | Permalink
  13. SpartyCuse wrote:

    Dear OFB:
    Unfortunately, I will be watching Idol tonight. Perhaps I will turn on the Caps after Idol is over, if I am still awake.
    Love,
    Tony

    1 April, 2008 at 11:05 am | Permalink
  14. Gustafsson wrote:

    SpartyCuse,
    That, sir, was funny.

    1 April, 2008 at 11:09 am | Permalink
  15. Aneesa wrote:

    Awesome letter. It’s no joke we’ll win tonight.

    1 April, 2008 at 11:56 am | Permalink
  16. Bob wrote:

    This is for all the chips! Let’s go Caps!

    1 April, 2008 at 12:37 pm | Permalink
  17. NHL Observer wrote:

    This is also not an April Fool’s Day Joke. Tony K. actually gave the Caps some love on his show today and had Tarik on at the start of the 2nd hour. Who would have guessed?

    1 April, 2008 at 1:45 pm | Permalink
  18. Jon wrote:

    Yeah, Tarik was on Tony’s show, but he gave the Caps a depressing 1 in 3 chance of getting in…

    1 April, 2008 at 2:26 pm | Permalink
  19. Joe wrote:

    It’s unbelievable. The Caps are starting their most important week in YEARS and not a damn peep about it from the Korn-Meister.
    Go Caps!

    1 April, 2008 at 4:02 pm | Permalink

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