On Frozen Blog

We are actually in the midst of the Great Revolution. No longer dreaming about it, no longer longing for it, but actually living it. The very revolution that seemed ludicrous merely to postulate a mere 12 months ago (and when I did, a few of my readers let me know so). The best part is that you don’t need me telling you it’s happening for you to know it’s happening.

You just need to look around.

“Everywhere I go I see [Caps'] hats,” Alexander Ovechkin observed on media day. Ballcaps are merely one manifestation of the metamorphosis.

I paid particular attention to select print opinion pieces published over the weekend, two of them from the Washington Times‘ Thom Loverro (‘Redskins could learn plenty from Leonsis‘ and ‘Passion for the Capitals already at fever pitch‘).

“It is hard not to write about Capitals fans when you are writing about
the Capitals on the ice, because the two are so connected,” Loverro claims. “Three years
ago, the Capitals were a last-place team and Verizon Center a morgue,
save for the hockey die-hards. But now the Capitals have become one of
the most powerful teams in the league, and with that growth has come
the remarkable turnaround of hockey in this town.”

I like to think that on some level I placed this this-town-is-a-changin’ bug in Thom’s ear, because he and I chatted about it over dinner in the Verizon Center media lounge a couple of times last season. But I’m not interested in credit; rather I’m fascinated by the circumstances that have created what I consider a perfect storm for a sports landscape uprising early this fall. It’s themed largely on two predicates: (1) a lot of folks are fed up with Danny and his annual parade of mediocrity — and most particularly its cost; and (2) when measured against all other teams in town, the Caps are a freshly discovered Rembrandt while all the other clubs are different hues of velvet Elvis.  

It’s been said here for decades that local media doesn’t tune in to hockey until the Redskins’ season is finished. The competitive portion of the Skins’ season finishing in Detroit last Sunday, however, doesn’t explain the tree harvesting carried off by the local dailies, day after day, in support of the Caps’ new season. The showing by the region at the Capitals’ first-ever convention last month surely caught the attention of a lot of local sports editors. But then there’s this: Dan Steinberg noted recently that both WashingtonPost.com Redskins pages and Comcast broadcasts supporting the Redskins have been graffiti-ed by drive-by Capitals’ supporters, in strong numbers.

“Caps forward Matt Bradley isn’t an ardent football fan, but he tuned
into the Redskins’ post-game show on Comcast SportsNet Sunday
afternoon, and happened to see some of the live texts from viewers on
the scroll. Like the ones that said “Let’s Go Caps!” and “Put Ovechkin
In!!”

And then there’s this: late last week it was brought to my attention that some local high school football games now feature Capitals’ game updates from the games’ public address announcers. 

And then there’s this: WFED radio sports producer Ben Raby is taking it all in in this his first season on the Caps’ beat in town. He covered the Canadiens in Montreal for sports radio there and the Leafs in Toronto for TSN. He told the Examiner last week that covering the Caps was “a dream job,” and that “I did not think twice about the move from TSN to WFED.”   

The sum of this Red Energy seemed to coalesce and ignite at Verizon Center for the Capitals’ home opener Saturday night, in this autumn of revolution.

“You felt like you were in a piranha fish tank,” Leafs’ coach Ron Wilson said of the Phone Booth’s atmosphere in Saturday’s post-game. What a change in environment for Wils, who presided so often over Caps’ clubs who knew only half-filled home ice and nothing rockin’.    

The recipe the Caps have cooked up for success is fairly straightforward but with a serious instance of big-time luck — draft no. 1 when the top pick is a once-in-a-generation talent, and otherwordly likable too; draft well around him, too, and carefully supplement roster holes with savvy free agent signings; and have leading the assembled talent a Jack Adams maestro who employs a winning and highly entertaining system. Really it’s not rocket science, yet you’d be surprised how few clubs anywhere in pro sports swallow hard and sign up for it. Like say in Ashburn.    

Initially, making Washington into a Hockey Town referred to making it simply hospitable for hockey here, so that it wouldn’t flee. Now, this autumn, it seems something altogether more significant. As in: We’re making like Braveheart against the Danny and scaling the summit. It’s no longer OFB leading the accountability charge against the Redskins; it’s the Post, the Times, Redskins’ blogs, and most especially Redskins’ fans.  

We are living an in-kind revolution to that which took place in Pittsburgh (that one more peaceably), when a beleaguered hockey franchise there was led out of the wilderness by a no.1, franchise- and city-altering draft pick. The Penguins today are the no. 2 game in that town, and enjoy spirited support from the Steelers’ faithful. The latter point is noteworthy because this fall a good many Skins’ fans are writing to newspapers and calling in to talk shows and expressing support for the Caps, often at the expense of their long-held attachment for the Skins.

Pittsburgh, incidentally, has become a real good sports town because of its altered sports landscape.

But the Penguins actually needed to win a Stanley Cup before the city fully realized its sports revolution. The sports scene in D.C. today is changing — dramatically — because of a remarkable confluence of circumstances that races forward while merely carrying the hope that the Capitals win a Stanley Cup this season or next. That makes the Revolution here different, and something no one could have predicted perhaps just six months ago.

This Revolution here now is one of increasingly shifting emotional allegiance. Never before has it much mattered if the Skins put up a lousy season. Now, it matters very much. It isn’t just that there’s a seriously winning alternative in town, it’s that the Capitals’ winning ways with their oh-so-likable characters — and their oh-so-likable owner — lure and ensnare you into their party. And it’s a great party you just don’t want to leave.     

Autumn brings change, and the harvest in Washington this fall is colored red. And it will be in season for quite some while.