On Frozen Blog » Lindsay Czarniak

Czarniak on Ovechkin

The OFB Team — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:42:42 +0000

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/video.

The Color of Success

The OFB Team — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:20:25 +0000

My good friend Eric McErlain didn’t pick a good night to play hookie from the hockey rink. But he doesn’t have much red in his wardrobe anyway.
But first thing’s first. I asked for one WaPost columnist to attend Tuesday night and George Solomon sent two, including himself. There were enough Post reporters in attendance last night to fairly fill the media elevator. I messaged Dan Steinberg after the game, explaining to him my need now to call out the Post for ‘dissing the Wizards and Redskins in its Caps’ slant. Hah.
(Reader Dave: did you really deliver my letter to the Post yesterday?)
Every Caps’ player in the post game commented on the home crowd. The Caps Tuesday night established their bona fides as an aspiring playoff team to be reckoned with; their supporters in the stands likewise auditioned magnificently for the role of postseason noisemakers of distinction. Both are new to the endeavor — both seem very ready.
Those of us in the hockey blogging community wondered what would happen to our privileged perch in the Verizon Center press box when our sweet secret about this hockey team got out, and a tsunami of bandwagoning old media came a calling. Tuesday night, we learned. To accommodate all of the press demand for the big game the Caps’ media maven Nate Ewell filled every press box seat, two rows deep, on both sides of the sixth floor, and managed to fulfill every media request he fielded, new and old. That impressed me. I’m not going to suggest that should the team make a deep run in the playoffs we in new media will all be there to cover it . . . just maybe reminding Mr. Leonsis of his pledge to ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ to host us in his box should press credentials run short. Hah.
Wow but it was red in the rink. During the national anthem, with the lights dimmed, the three levels of red managed to cast a powerfully pervasive haze of hometown unity. Mr. Leonsis was beaming in the post-game locker room adorned in his red Caps’ sweater. Channel 4′s Lindsay Czarniak looked fetching in a stylish red sweater. (“Fetching”? That’s awful writing. The woman could fill a cathedral of male worshippers wearing a potato sack and mud mask.) Lisa Hillary was red literally from neckline to toe — eager to show off a new red paint job on her toes. Sportscasters Michael Jenkins and Dave Feldman brought their naturally red hair. I wore a smart looking red necktie.
You know who looked reddest of all? Peter Laviolette.
Our good friends from the Hershey Bears sure picked the right night for a visit. John Walton was blogging in-game and delightfully distracted from all those Bears’ injuries by the electric atmosphere in the rink. Tim Leone of the Patriot News was sharing with me his anticipation for next week’s Frozen Four, with the upstart, Cinderella Fighting Irish of Notre Dame having captured his former USC Trojan heart. Chris Poisal summed up the feelings of all from the farm: he came away impressed with this hockey team’s “swagger.” He told me during the second intermission that what he was seeing out on the ice Tuesday night reminded him a lot of the swagger the Hershey Bears had en route to their Calder Cup in 2006.
“This team is going to make the playoffs,” Poisal told me, “and once there, they are going to do damage.”
The game atmospheres feverish hockey fans fantastically improve correspond intimately to the magic their eyes consume. This new Red Army in town seemed Tuesday night unleashed as a fixture battalion on F Street. At times Tuesday, most especially when the home team delivered a glass-rattling check, they ascended to alarming realms of raucousness: with clenched fists they’d turn and pound on the glass partition separating them from the game’s media. It was, initially, somewhat scary — but scary good.
Chalk it up to excessive Red Hook.
Thursday night — and thirty months from now — I can envision the earth-toned-clad hockey fan arriving at the Phone Booth to looks of disdain from his impassioned puck peer in scarlet. Even Gang Green has gone red.
Let’s designate this Wednesday — mercifully for our panic-attack hockeyhearts a gameless day for the home team — a Code Red: meaning, ours is the team and sport white-hot in town, we its supporters now send screams of “Let’s Go Caps!” cascading through Metro tunnels and Green Turtles. Let’s bask in this red glow of victory all day and evening long, get dinner out of the way early and settle in before the TVs for a fresh set of Eastern conference showdowns. And even in our temporary, domestic R&R, dress for battle.

Buzz Trades, a Big Game, a Big-Buzz Atmosphere Stream of Consciousness

The OFB Team — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:45:14 +0000

Was in the then MCI Center the night of March 13, 2001 — also deadline day — when earlier in the day GMGM dealt Zednik and Bulis and a pick to Montreal for Zubrus and Linden, and the mood in last night’s rink felt larger and more significant . . . that dealmaking carried a component of risk; this was pure aggression with minimal assets heading out . . . the better comparison may be with March 1997, carried out not in a single day but over the course of a couple of weeks, when McPhee, in his first season on the job, added Brian Belllows and Esa Tikkanen . . . Enjoyed most of all throughout the late Tuesday afternoon and evening messages from friends and strangers who were busy with business throughout the day and wholly unaware of the deadline day madness that enveloped the Caps, who arrived at the news late and lavished it (in my email inbox) with happy obscenities and exclamation points . . . Mike Vogel, looking terrifically telegenic, rinkside on Comcast in the 5:00 hour to help analyze the breaking big news, me comparing his polished appearance before TV DC with his pre-sunrise, blogging-through-the-Moscow-night, comrade shagginess with me during last year’s Worlds . . . big bonus: dinner with Ron Weber in the press room on such a big day . . . look at all the media big wigs who show up when hockey creates the day’s sports buzz: George Solomon of the Post, three Times’ reporters, the one-time Queen of OFB even, I think I may have even seen Arch Campbell in Bruce Boudreau’s post-game presser . . . Ted’s box is filled as I hadn’t seen it since perhaps opening night . . . Commissioner Bettman, in his pre-game presser: “This is a team that has been built on prospects and for the future” . . . He’s in town for some chit-chat on the Hill about drugs and athletes, and he mentions “players as role models” and a clear concern that his sport not be painted with a broad brush of they-all-do-it cynicism: “What goes on in one sport doesn’t [necessarily] go on in others” . . . “We’ve had one player in two-and-a-half years caught [for performance enhancing drugs],” and he references the tough remedies that face the offenders — a quarter-of-a-season suspension, three-quarter-of-a-season, three strikes and you’re out . . . and I think, Bud Selig he ain’t, but it’s also true that this sport has a much different relationship with its players union than all the rest . . . He is also asked about the prevalence of players exercising the “No” in their no-trade clauses: “Nobody makes a club give a player a no-trade clause” . . . I ask the commissioner about Ted’s expressed wish to take the team on a goodwill tour of Russia, “sooner rather than later,” and he expresses cautious support. When he references what a “big deal” it’s going to be for Jagr to return to Prague next season, I think I have my answer about the likelihood of Ovechkin’s returning to Moscow . . . He also acknowledges that the league today doesn’t have the relationship with the Russian Hockey Federation it once did . . . Even the arena’s game night personnel working in catering and as ushers seem buoyed by the day’s big news — they are all chipper and wide smiling in every encounter. . . On a day like today I appreciate the professionalism and the quasi-renaissance of renewed hockey coverage by our town’s two print beat reporters, both of whom blogged and filed on Tuesday until their fingers were sore, giving Washington hockey fans timely and superb breaking news; following Corey’s blog a bit during the game, I chuckled at his reflection “at some point I’ll eat” . . . Midway through the game I have a minimial amount of notes and reactions recorded, as friendly folks keep bending my ear for reaction and basic “Can you believe all this?” empathy, vanquishing my between-periods composition, and I relish it . . . Peter Bondra is back in the press box tonight, and on the ice sheet below the young prospect he was traded for, Brooks Laich, is having a career night, and I just sorta like the symmetry of that . . . in the second row of the press box, where the Caps’ communications staff works each game, I see each and every one of them, no one missing, and I think there’s so much work for them to do on a day like this they all have to be here, but it’s probably also the case that such a day makes a Caps’ staffer proud to have the careers they do, and they want to be in the rink, well dressed, helpful, and full of good cheer . . . very loud rock music typically greets bloggers and press in the post-game locker room after victories, but tonight it’s quiet, and I infer that the day’s drama has drained the entire team, that they want as efficient an encounter with media as possible, hot showers, and a race home to crash in bed . . . the circle of cameras and microphones and scribes around Kolzig is unlike anything I have seen in two years — it’s five-deep at turns, and Tarik has to make like a gymnast to get his recorder squeezed into some open space around Kolzig’s locker . . . no one much asks Olie the Goalie about the game, instead, The Trade . . . question after question on the trade: was he shocked? was he upset? how can it possibly work with three netminders? did the team approach him about a trade? . . . he says, among other things, “The thing that surprises me is that there’s three goalies here” . . . Coach Boudreau acknowledges the challenge of managing three netminders, but he dismisses a contention that the day’s developments insult the greatest goalie in Caps’ history; he maintains that the consumate professional will rise to meet the new challenge . . . Here’s hoping Fedorov this spring is Bellows of ’98, Matt Cooke that year’s Esa Tikkanen, Olie Kolzig . . . Olie Kolzig.

Lindsay A Covergirl

The OFB Team — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:19:40 +0000

Congrats to NBC4′s Lindsay Czarniak who shares the December cover of Washingtonian magazine with WJLA’s Alison Starling for an article on happy hours.

A slideshow of the photo soot can be viewed on NBC4′s web site.

Put me in, Coach- I'm ready to play

DC Sports Chick — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:31:22 +0000

Well, hi there! It’s good to be back.
When I ended my blog last month, I had no intention of returning to blogging any time soon. Recent life changes for me and my husband, Chanuck– including a DC Sports Chicklet on the way– made me realize that I couldn’t maintain my own blog on a regular basis without sacrificing quality. Plus, I needed the break. Then OFB came calling, and I couldn’t resist; the guys are awesome and I didn’t want to pass up a chance to collaborate with them.
I know that there’s no way I could ever take EmptyMaybe’s place, not that anyone expects that, though that’s not my goal. Rather, I hope to provide a point of view that was previously missing from OFB (save for MrsGustafsson’s excellent post about Hockey in Heels). For the readers who don’t know me, I’m not the type to go all puckbunny and drool over the players. On the other hand, someone has to counter the boys’ official Lindsay Czarniak love on behalf of some of the female readers of the site. (It gets a little out of control at times, though I know they would disagree.)
The boys told me that they would pick up their dirty clothes, put the toilet seat down, and generally keep the blog in good order. If I could only get my own husband to do that‚Ä¶but just like in marriage, I know it doesn’t work that way. I don’t expect anything here to change. It will be business as usual, with perhaps a few subtle nuances. No worries!
Now, back to your regularly scheduled hockey blog‚Ä¶

Just Hand Us the Cup

The OFB Team — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:55:11 +0000

Hockey luminaries Gary Bettman and 2007-08 Jack Adams Award winner Glen Hanlon loom large these days. Knowing the commissioner as I do, it’s virtually certain he’ll insist on senseless redundancy, and not cancel the remainder of the NHL season and instead mandate that the Caps complete the remaining 79 games on their schedule. Insanity is famously defined as the repetition of the same act while expecting a different outcome. At least in the absence of competitive drama this hockey season the Caps can showcase their impressive new threads in arenas across the continent.
How am I supposed to work up any hatred of the Caps’ opposition when they can’t even score?
Here’s one directive I do expect out of the league office, perhaps as early as today: the Caps will be required to wear thermal versions of Reebok’s uniform systems, ones made of Northern Ireland sheep wool, for they are unable to work up a sweat in their current garb. Especially the goalies. I am an admirer of the team’s first television ad of the new season, one featuring a sultry brunette being tattooed with the new logo. But I’d modify the ad’s slogan to: “Perimeter kicksaves by yawning netminders, in True Colors.”
Hanlon, few would have guessed a month ago, is today on the short list for Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year Award — at least if it’s bestowed for exemplary acts of good sportsmanship. Knowing he had all the weakspots from recent years filled on his roster coming into this season, he’s chosen to sit Alexander Semin in two of the season’s opening three games, affording the appearance of competitiveness in the games. I know Semin’s ankle is sore, but I also know that he’d be playing were we in April instead of October. Or if there was any doubt as to the outcomes.
Approximately two-thirds of the Caps’ top line is in synch, the power play isn’t, and a stud is missing from the lineup, and so far no one in the East can compete. Speaking of tattoos, long ago I made a promise to my hockey chums that when Lord Stanley is hoisted here by my guys I’d permanently etch the occasion on my hind quarters. Herewith, I’m accepting estimates from the region’s parlors, with quivering buttocks.
Imagine the disquiet that must be settling in on the team’s general manager and scouts, knowing that soon, by virtue of a hostile NHL Board of Governors decree, they will be restricted to drafting hockey players only from Maryland and Virginia. You don’t really think the league is going to give Ross Mahoney et al a crack at another Mathieu Perreault — (he’s not allowed to play as many games as other forwards in the QMJHL, to keep the scoring race competitive) — do you?
Lindsay Czarniak sure didn’t pick the right hockey season to go to the dark (Burgundy) side, did she?
We have a Roll Call of the Rocks-in-Their-Heads to conduct. First up, ESPN’s John Buccigross, who pegged the Caps for 14th in the Eastern Conference this season. That was with Alexander Semin in the lineup he prognosticated so. Another last-place-in-the-Southeast forecast came from Sports Illustrated’s Sarah Kwak. “Their offseason moves failed to address the defensive shortcomings that led to their surrendering 3.35 goals a game,” she opined. The Caps have defensive “shortcomings” only if the barometer was holding all 82 opponents scoreless for the entire season. Let’s see if we can get Eric Staal and Erik Cole and Ryan Whitney to get the shot counter above 5 midway through a game against the Caps before we wring our hands over “defensive shortcomings.”
Here’s what Kwak should have written: “Ditched in D.C. this summer: Kris Beech. Standings value? Five slots, minimum.”
This dynasty-audition by the Caps is breeding in me rational but nonetheless exuberant sentiments. Check out the exchange I had tonight with the shepherd of both lonely and swelling hearts on radio each evening, Delilah, on FM WASH:
Delilah: “On the love line, pucksandbooks . . . that’s a distinctive name. So you want to dedicate Paul McCartney’s ‘Silly Love Songs.’ Tell me Pucks, who’s stolen your heart this Monday night?”
Me: “Don Koharski.”

Hockey Mole at WRC at It Again

pucksandbooks — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:30:13 +0000

Her WRC colleagues last evening were startled by the segment, occurring as it did in late May, with the Redskins mere weeks away from the start of training camp, but OFB Queen of Local Sports Media Lindsay Czarniak remained undaunted and committed to her puck calling, devoting 56 minutes of last evening’s 60-minute 5:00 WRC newscast to a profile of local college hockey player James “Bubba” Sixsmith. (OK, the segment wasn’t quite that long, but it seemed so to our puck-starved eyes and ears in Washington this spring.) We’d embed the segment for you if we could. But check out the WRC video link.
Sixsmith, a native of Alexandria, Va., recently graduated from Holy Cross College and captained the hockey team there the past two seasons. He was also a Hobey Baker finalist this past season.
Dave Fay may not be the only local hockey beat reporter fated for Hall of Fame enshrinement as a hockey media standout.

Softer Spoken Than Nick Backstrom: the Washington MSM on a Big Hockey Signing Day

pucksandbooks — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:25:56 +0000

Confession: prior to Monday, I’d never watched ‘Washington Post Live.’ I don’t have a friend or acquaintance who’d admit to the act. I never heard any “must-see” buzz surrounding it, or even any “see it while you’re ironing” buzz, and I’ve been busy this spring doing the work those associated with that program should have been regarding one of the region’s pro sports teams. But Monday brought us a significant photo-op/presser at Kettler Capitals, and I was curious to inventory the MSM coverage of it and dutifully report my findings to OFB readers. So I tuned in.
A knee-jerk reflection about ‘WaPost Live’s’ production values: three guys sitting around a non-descript studio bloviating for 90 minutes about sports. How avant garde . . . how cutting edge.
Sorry I missed its first three months. Anybody Tivo’d them?
The program is recorded and aired initially at some point in the afternoon, for 90 minutes, every day, and then subsequently re-aired seven or nine times on Comcast, and the cumulative tally of viewers then is alleged to exceed the tailgating population of Hershey Bears’ fans in the Giant Center Center parking lot on a May Sunday afternoon. Anyway, I watched the 8:30 p.m. re-airing Monday, and was shocked, shocked, to see the opening roundtable discussion focus the program’s opening 10 minutes on Michael Vick’s breeding of fighting dogs.
Vick, after all, is QB for the Atlanta Falcons.
For all I know, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is really upset with Michael Vick these days. But ‘WaPost Live’ is really, really upset with him. Ten minutes, uninterrupted, worth of upset.
Fighting dogs.
Just so I’m not misinterpreted: the daily television program on sports for the newspaper ‘of record’ in town opened Monday with a prolonged discussion of a running (and ever armed) QB’s penchant for breeding fighting dogs.
(The irony of former WaPost Caps’ beat guy Jason LaCanfora adding to the Comcast kennel chat wasn’t lost on me.)
Washington isn’t a sports town, you know, because of the transient quality of the region’s residents; certainly not because its MSM have warped news values.
A quarter of an an hour into the program host Russ Thaler paused for oxygen and in a cutaway to commercial alluded to a breaking roster development out at Kettler. At OFB we call that progress for puckheads.
I was able to survery the rush-hour sports segments for both WJLA and WRC. Tim Brandt’s coverage was predictably pedestrian. I can’t get worked up about the old linebacker’s middling musings about hockey. And it’s just WJLA, after all.
But Lindsay Czarniak’s 6:00 sportscast, my readers will be shocked to learn, garnered my admiration. She opened her sports report with the 24 hours-old highlights of Sunday’s Nats-O’s game, but then she used Sunday RFK to transition into Capsdom. Backstrom threw out Sunday’s first pitch there, and she was impressed by the Swede’s courage and control in the endeavor.

Her coverage of Monday at Kettler included interviews with Mr. Leonsis, the team’s general manager, Backstrom’s new coach, and the star goalie. And we saw snippets from all of them. I felt almost as if I were watching an evening sportscast in Winnipeg.
WRC grade: A
I also was able to catch Comcast Sportnight’s coverage of the Backstrom presser. It lasted all of about 40 seconds. Same outlet covering the frothing canines caper. Ten minutes on the four-leggers, 40 seconds on the two-legged SuperSwede.
Grade: F
WaPost this morning bumped hockey all the way up to E3, out of its usual perch below the obits. Tarik’s account is fine I suppose. No pic of the newest Cap, which struck me as odd, from an event designed mostly for photo ops. But smack in the middle of E1 Washingtonians are confronted by Steve Goff’s account (with accompanying color photo) of a Maryland pro soccer team no one in the history of the world has ever heard about.
Grade: D+

Knee-jerks: Practice, 3/20/07

pucksandbooks — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:50:15 +0000

With an alternate work schedule today, I was able to attend my first Caps practice since training camp and first visit to Kettler Capitals Iceplex since the ribbon cutting press conference. I took a few notes and will present them in typical OFB Knee-Jerk style.

I’d estimate the attendance at about 50-75 fans. A practice at high-noon can’t hurt and it makes me wish I worked closer to Ballston. It’s probably just as well because an “extended lunch” would probably become a bad habit.

Attendance from the MSM included Lindsay Czarniak. Here’s hoping her non-game day visit means improved quantity and quality of Caps’ coverage on News4.

Team mood seemed to be quite good. Amazing what winning — and winning big — can do.

Through most of the practice, the top two stars of Sunday’s game were skating on the same line. Semin on the right wing and Fleishmann on the left. Beech centered them.

Ovechkin was sporting a fish tank off his helmet, courtesy of Dan Boyle.

With the hand injury, Pettinger was still practicing, albeit he was the lone man wearing red.

At some point during drills, both Ovechkin and Semin each tried to complete a “Wheeler goal.”

The last 5 minutes of the “official” practice icluded a shootout competition. Chris Clark’s team, clad in black, pitted against the Russians & Co., donning white. The cheers grew louder with each goal scored by the Men in Black. I soon found out the reason for the commotion. The losing team in white, upon their loss, took to the ice, laid down on their backs, and began a series of crunches. I didn’t notice if Brent Johnson had to endure the punishment of loss.

An impromptu unofficial drill took place after practice with Brent Johnson in net surrounded by Brashear, Clark, Laich, Eminger and others as a shot was taken from the top of the circle. BJ would leave a rebound for one of the masses to pick up the sluff and try to score. I did not keep track.

I was able to thank Lindsay for dramatic reduction of News4 sports replays that include slowed down action and cheesy sound effects. The SportsMachine style of replay, mercifully, seems to be headed to pasture with its trainer.

When asked if WRC had named a replacement for the top sports anchor, Lindsay told me that she and Dan Hellie will split those duties. Congrats to both. With split responsibilities, all sports not owned by Dan Snyder should get increased coverage.

Skeletor Has Left the Building

pucksandbooks — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:46:12 +0000

George Michael, after many, many years, has left NBC-4 — his final broadcast as sports anchor on NBC-4 was Thursday’s 11 PM news (the last episode of his syndicated The Sports Machine airs March 25).
He is a polarizing figure in the sports world. Some will miss him; he was undeniably a sports broadcasting pioneer in the early 1980s, mixing gimmicks and entertainment into his sports coverage. ESPN clearly took cues from Michael in its early days as the station developed its identity. Steve Levy, currently a SportsCenter anchor, even admits stealing footage from Michael when Levy worked at SUNY Oswego.
Others feel he overstayed his welcome and should have retired long, long ago — his increasingly self-congratulatory and cantankerous attitude wore on many people’s nerves, as did his glad-handing, back-slapping interviews with Redskins coaches and the like. OFB is firmly in the latter camp.
However, let us take a brief but fond look back at the good ol’ days. In 1984, George Michael’s Sports Final (Sports Machine precursor) covered the NHL Playoffs. This clip has everything: classic Capitals footage, cheesy props, a playoff sweep of the Flyers, and Olivia Newton-John.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRplYritaiw

Here, The Great One reminisces — again, though, he’s looking back fondly on the early 80s . . .

Sadly, as Michael became a sports broadcasting “personality,” he increasingly treated the NHL as red-headed stepchildren. Too often his hockey coverage — on both NBC and his own show — was a mention of the score and perhaps a brief highlight clip. Coverage of high school sports, boxing, and rodeo got more air time than hockey.
Rumors that the equestrian-loving broadcaster decided to retire so he could mourn Barbaro full time appear to be unfounded.
In truth, it seems that his decision to leave his post was born of loyalty to his staff, the victims of layoffs at the station. Michael told the Washington Post, “If I have to lay somebody off . . . I have to take the first bullet. It’s that simple.” In this regard, we salute him (a lesson many CEOs could take to heart). Not that Michael is hurting for money, of course — if one can afford a half-page ad in the Washington Post saluting one’s own career, one is not a pauper — but it was the right thing to do.
Regardless of his financial situation: as fans of hockey and of quality sports broadcasting, we will not miss him.
OFB hopes that Lindsay Czarniak, Michael’s Sports Machine co-host and NBC-4 anchor/reporter, embraces hockey more than her predecessor did. Regardless, she is certainly a bit easier on the eyes:

Lest readers accuse OFB of being age discriminators, Michael was never exactly of model-quality. In fact, some would say he has a face for radio; he may also be a Vulcan:

Those who remember Michael fondly from his early career may look on his departure as the end of an era. But to those who have watched the past decade of his increasingly poor broadcasting, that era ended a long time ago.
But it’s not over… as Michael told WJFK-FM’s Don and Mike on Thursday, “If you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time.” Those inspiring words accompanied his announcement that he will begin covering NASCAR for Fox Sports.
So his career follows a Strom Thurmond-like trajectory — it just doesn’t end. But NASCAR can have him, and hockey fans are well rid of him. George Michael isn’t really retiring; we’re just glad that Skeletor will no longer be the face of DC sports.