In Glacialis Blog

Per a vexillum, weekly online chat per lector yesterday Lavatio Stipes columnist/ESPN personality/ imperator magnus interventus blowhard Michael Wilbon agri questions in mens of nonnullus Washington sports fans. Ut vos vires statua, novus of Sean Taylor surculus eram of paramount penitus quod sollicitudo. Tamen illic erant quaero quoque in Veneficus, contraho football, quod NFL magis universe.

Unus questioner, vero,deigned ut erigo sermo of NHL quod Caps’ firing of Glen Hanlon. Quinymo topically vindico in the calendar of chat, wouldnt’ vos narro? Take nota primoris of professionalism Wilbon pre se ferre in suus coepi reaction ut serius, sober, and newsworthy in suus timeliness percunctor ex hockey fan, tunc nota quoque Wilbons’ admission of excludo sui ex pulvis domus ut unus of plagiarius’ plurimus donum athletes, procopiose a annus: 

Maryland: Mike, EGO teneo illic’ non ultum hockey sermo in illa chat domus, tamen quis es vestri sententia in Caps changing cogo? In hodie’ universitas of lusum qua “ ludio ludius lucror quod cogo perdo” obviously is had futurus perfectus. . . but operor in-season coaching changes concito satis of a teams’ juices ut vere planto a distinctus? Gratiae.

washingtonpost.com: Hanlon Sicco ut Caps’ Cogo (stipes, Nov. 23)

Michael Wilbon: Operor vos vere curo NHL? Teams change cogo amo they change underwear. They change lemma iens in playoffs secundum nonnullus alius cogo got team in playoffs. Diabolus have perfectus is quodwon Sto Vas … vel utique gotten ut Denique. Es vos kidding? Does is succurro? Hockey ludio ludius videor ut pervenio ut a change in cogo amo haud alius team lusum athletes. Im’ non super ut theoricus in Caput switch quoniam EGO havent’ seen Caput in alio in super a annus … EGO simplex dont’ insisto NHL via EGO did ut a kid, teenager, tener adult vel tener sportswriter … illic pulvis’ satis hora in dies, dies obvius week vel weeks obvius annus insequor panton, vel pro guys amo mihi quisnam es pensus insequor lusum. NHL est quis EGO occumbo, ut Ive’ incrementabiliter gotten in soccer quod ( tardus) NASCAR … quod is videor, ex vultus procul custodis instar, Im’ non solus unus quisnam has occumbo sicco tardus.

Plures, comprehendo nostrum own pucksandbooks, erant ex urbs quod a suum computers per feriae ut magnus novus ledo. Iuvo reprehendo vos sursum in weeks’ vices, weve’ congero nonnullus links ut a numerus of articles. Erant’ reus habeo requiro nonnullus, sic sentio solvo dimitto nos a ineo per a link ut absentis article.

• A Visum ex Vilis Sessio: Hanlon Sicco, Boudreau In
• A Visum ex Vilis Sessio: Tersus Slate
• Bleacher Opinio: Caps’ Skid Sumptus Hanlon Suus Officium
• Canada.com: Caput Incendia Caput capitis Cogo Hanlon
• Caput Insider: Hanlon Incendia
• Dump quod Fugo: Ex Archives
• In Cella: Cogo Hanlon Incendia
• Hockey Novus: NHL Gig diu Coming pro Boudreau
• FanHouse: Glacies Ovis: Bruce Omnipotens
• Globe quod Mail: Populus Hanlon has run ex refero
• Lancaster Online: Gero’ cogo proveho ut Caput
• James Mirtle: Terminus pro Hanlon
• Pium- Novus: Boudreau Takes Super Caps
• Pium- Novus: Boudreau A Victor
• Incomparabilis Prognosticator: Change
• Lusum Novus: Caput incendia Hanlon, proveho AHL cogo
• Lusum Novus: Vicis runs sicco in Caps’ Hanlon
• Sol solis Herald: E- Mare Wolves cogo protelo Caput
• Tribune-Democrat: Iugum of e-Johnstown ludio ludius ascend coaching ladder
• Iugum Rector: Boudreau gets suus chance
• Walton, Wired & Unwired: An Patefacio Tabellae ut Caput Populus
• WashingtonCaps.com: Caput Restituo Hanlon
• WashingtonCaps.com: Postgame Notebook
• Lavatio Stipes: Hanlon Sicco ut Cogo
• Lavatio Stipes: Boudreau est Laurifer in Suus Debut
• Lavatio Vicis: Boudreau Nomen Caps Cogo
• Lavatio Vicis: Nixor Caput licentio Hanlon
• Lavatio Vicis: Backstrom’s Vir Buoy Caps
• Winnipeg Sol solis: NHL Imbuo

Congrats ut NBC4s’ Lindsay Czarniak quisnam partis December occulto of Washingtonian magazine per WJLAs’ Alison Starling pro an article in gauisus hora.

A slideshow of photo conforto can exsisto visum inNBC4s’ textus site.

In celebration of suum 60th anniversary, Hockey Novus took a inviso caput capitis ten ludio ludius pro sulum team super preteritus sexaginta annus.

Hic est quam THN affero Peter Kerzel (quisnam quoque wrote is annus’ Caps’ praevius pro THN Annual Yearbook) saw Washingtons’ Caput capitis Ten:

1. Peter Vinculum
2. Virga Lingua
3. Olaf Kolzig
4. Mike Gartner
5. Dale Venator
6. Kevin Securis
7. Accersitus Johansson
8. Bengt Gustafsson
9. Scott Stevens
10. Alex Ovechkin

Nostrum own Gustafsson, quisnam coepi erectus nos ut album, innotesco ut Montreals’ caput capitis ten didnt’ comprehendo Pium Roy. (ut Gustafsson said, suus’ ferreus moveo preteritus Jacques Sero quod Ken Dryden in ut album) Tunc is lego in quod evestigatus ut Roy est #3 in Colo colui cultum Avalanches’ caput capitis ten. Promptus ordo est, inter alius officina, substructio in a ludio ludius’ vicis in sulum proprius sudo, sic illic erant a numerus of athletes quisnam erant audio praeter quondam. Illa ludio ludius comprehendo sequens:

• Dave Andreychuk (BUF, TB)
• Spolio Blake (COL, LA)
• Andrew Brunette (ATL, MIN)
• Interfixus Bure (FLA, VAN)
• Dany Estus (ATL, OTT)
• Sergei Fedorov (CLM, DET)
• Ron Suffragium (CAR, Vorago)
• Wayne Gretzky (EDM, LA)
• Glenn Aula (CHI, STL)
• Arturs Irbe (CAR, SJ)
• Ed Jovanoski (FLA, VAN)
• Paul Kariya (ANA, NSH)
• Pat LaFontaine (BUF, NYI)
• Roberto Luongo (FLA, VAN)
• Ziggy Palffy (LA NYI)
• Jeremy Roenick (CHI, PHO)
• Vestigium Nuntius (EDM, NYR)
• Scott Niedermayer (ANA, NJ)
• Scott Stevens (NJ, Eram)

Sic quis operor vos reputo? Did Hockey Novus requiro quisquam vel comprehendo quispiam they shouldnt’ have?

Gratiae ut Gustafsson pro sic impigre lectio Hockey Novus quod obduco per notitia.

blogging ladies of puck huic urbs es condita suum vestigium. Duos mensis secundumJames Mirtles’ article in Hockey Novus, hodie’ Sarcalogos Scientia Monitor jumps in Lavatio Bloggers’ Bandwagon, quod vitualamen sursum nonnullus alacer insights in novus interventus revolution in fabula est unus nostri ventus novus interventus vox vocis, Insurgo Henshel of A Visum Ex Vilis Sessio. Monitor notitia:

“ut plures sportswriters, suus’ a scandal. Ut erus of Lavatio Caput, suus’ posterus.

Press- arca archa sessio ut had been servo pro newspapermen in seasons absentis per es res attributa ut bloggers. A opinio ex Lavatio Stipes vires reperio sui sitting inter liberalis ex In Glacialis Blog (www.onfrozenblog.com) quod Puckheads’ Sententia (http:/pheadsthoughts.blogspot.com/)./

Ut gelu in aer isnt’ iustus Quin Centers’ aer valetudo verto sursum in altus”

Insurgo, cognatus nobis, has juvenis in suus pars (ok, lots of is), quod ut juvenis affords suus an maximus vantage in CSM ratio:

“illic es nonnullus [newspaper opinio] quisnam contemplor is ut fans res donatus nimium licentia quod intruding in quis has sursum etiamnun been a valde proprie stipes” says Insurgo Henschel, quisnam launched suus blog, A Visum ex Vilis Sessio, primo of permaneo season. “is videor futurus aliquantulus of a generational res, vere. Iunior opinio es maybe magis voluntarius ut loco sursum per is quam populus quisnam have been in res pro 20 vel 30 annus”

Insurgo, amo nos, agnosco pestifer persona MSM have ludio ludius in suus demise in D.C. “ filia of a longtime Caput season-ticket habitum, Henschel says fans of team have been “tremendously underserved” per mainstream interventus”

“propter via blogs es producto produxi productum they can suggero instant notitia quod reactions ut papers moris’ vulgo insquequo sequens day,” Henschel says. “populus volo suum notitia velox quod, insquequo nuper, bloggers erant solus ones suggero ut muneris. EGO reputo suus’ valde dico ut Caps’ pello pepulli pulsum scriptor pro duos major domus papers in D.C. have nuper partum suus blogs ut can exsisto updated ut necessarius”

Nos operor, quoque, Insurgo!

Lego universus article hic.

Duos members of Lavatio Caput’ prosapia hodie adepto adduco in Hockey Aula of Laus: Scott Stevens, quisnam ludio ludius duodeviginti seasons per Caps, quod tardus Dave Fay, teams’ pello pepulli pulsum opinio pro Lavatio Vicis pro prope a vicus century. Hockey Aula of Laus textus page dedi poignant profiles pro totus members of 2007 ordo of inductees.

Mike Vogel est in Toronto pro ceremony, neque nec surprisingly, hes’ merged res libenter, having iamlima nonnullus sententia in an OHL venatus cepit in per Ron Weber quod Vicis’ Corey Masisak is weekend, quod featured venatus’ tunc valde talentum, 2009 draft eligible Jonathon Tavares of Oshawa Imperator.

Scilicet puteus’ polleo video vidi visum snippets of inductees’ sermo tonight in inter periods of venatus, tamen per Corey quod Mike vestis proceedings optimus ratio mos adveho ex Lavatio scriptor is week.

Update[: NHL Network ero televising 2007 Hockey Aula of Laus Induction Ceremony tonight ex 730pm: 930pm:]

Yesterdays’ Boston Globe comprehendo an article in Sarcalogos Bourques’ NHLs’ debut permaneo Tuesday. NHL dico- sursum venit mane satis pro suus parentes proficiscor quod vigilo venatus ex sto. Sarcalogos’ praeclarus abbas, Ray, had nonnullus aula-of- laus precipio pro suus filius secundum venatus.

“is sententia EGO ludio ludius vere puteus, quod iustus told mihi ut exsequor bonus opus” said Christopher, cuius sermo exemplum quod accent es virtually identical ut suus dads’. “is iustus volo mihi facio is a ferreus sententia pro lemma transmitto mihi down, quod, hey, obviously is est qua Volo moror. Ive’ been somnium super is meus universus vita”

Chis quoque orator of suus amplitudo.

“ego sentio vere bonus procul is pondus, EGO sentio velox sicco illic” said Bourque. “Ive’ nunquam vultus procul meus amplitudo ut quispiam ut held mihi tergum, vere. EGO inviso is ut an contraho. Ive’ got a mugio center of sepulchrum, quod ut planto is ferreus mihi impetro conicio off puck. Sic, suus’ an commodum mihi non a infitialis”

Lego ceterus procul Boston Globe website.

EGO eram aliquantulus tener ut repeto Chinese unda cruciatus- amo progressio no per interventus obviam Nixon administration per Watergate, tamen Redford quod Hoffman in ‘ totus Praesieo’ Men’ innutum a painstakingly patiens propinquo ut aedificium edificium Stipes’ testimonium- substructio vindicatum obviam Nixons’ henchmen. North American unda cruciatus vires exsisto an apt genus of quis plures NHLers es diutinus illa dies indutus in Reeboks’ paratus- prosterno similitudo ratio. Quod amo Watergate, is may exsisto plures, plures mensis pro justicia est utlimately servo. Is exyesterdays’ Globe quod Mail:

“iustus weeks secundum induco suus ultum-vaunted, pinguesco novus NHL similitudo, Reebok est condita modifications experior ut mollify a growing numerus of ludio ludius quisnam have criminor super discomfort theyre’ usus ex scientifically- intentio fabric.”

Nonnullus quisnam es coming porro ut press per damno testimonium ( in atrum garages?) es requiro suum identities exsisto tutis:

“Obviously, similitudo dont’ eradico sudo” said unus U.S. hockey paratus pensator quisnam has been auditurus esse questus ex ludio ludius quod instructus. “is iustus goes vox down in gloves, pardus, crus pads quod skates.”

Quod:

“industria radix narro vexillum did non operor satis testis sub venatus valetudo.

“ materia ipsum est non tractare via they exemplar intentio” unus industria insider said. “illic eram non satis due diligentia tractare in is materia prior ut putting illa similitudo in universus league.”

Utriusque Reebok quod NHL is week praemitto PR apologists experior quod stem conscendo detrimentum: “utriusque league quod Reebok insist novus jerseys es hic ut subsisto” Globe quod Mail vindicatum Hockey fans trans jugis have got scio ut leagues’ administrator quod corpus consortio es non pandus.

Globe persevero “super redundo sudo, alius questus have focused in res they videor ut rip magis facile. Quod nonnullus ludio ludius dont’ amo adstringo opportunus, quod they reperio magis restrictive.”

Caput’ porro in proprius videor termino in suum surculus motus.

Is preteritus Mondays’ Novus York Vicis censeo Adveho Centrals’ Stephen Colbert quod suus oculus- oris vultus permaneo Sunday in ‘ opportunus Press.’ Colbert, ludio ludius, comedian, incentivus, fledgling candide promptus pro Niveus Domus, videor ut Tim Russerts’ hospes, quod Russert eram in in iocus. Praeter, obviusVicis’ insightful visum, is wasnt’ adeo a iocus. Quoque in Lavatio is week, Lavatio Vicis vindico a contemporary overview of persona ut hockey bloggers incrementabiliter es lascivio in interventus universe. duos novus vices, Id’ oro, dedi vegetus vicis ut perseco ongoing evolution of interventus.

Colbert est a faux presidential candide. Atqui validus ferrum in suus ‘ opportunus Press’ vultus eram ut in plures veneratio is eram magis auctorizo quam quis typically est portatus off in ut progressio vel suus in- pius Sunday oriens competition. Ut eram subtilis Colberts’ cuspis; hes’ res publica habeo said, “ ego sum recedentia verus quam [Kansas Orchestra quod insquequo nuper presidential candide] Sam Brownback.” Sit. magis hes’ sulum frenum ut speciosus a presidential candide ut Brownback vel Sarcalogos Dodd vel Joe Biden.

Colbert volo ut moneo nos of inherent phoniness of contemporary American politics quod interventus Quod qui consurgo in tutaminis of Vetus Interventus vis a vis novus interventus’ challenge ut is dont’ copiose appreciate, is videor ut mihi, aut ambitus of longstanding, widespread dissatisfaction per interventus statua quo — chronicled iam super decades — vel versatility quod verus- vicis labefactum brought super per novus competition.

Ut a humanitas, didnt’ nos abicio mythology of press “ libertas” super a ingenero abhinc? Utrum vestri target est Katie Virtus vel Dan Quinymo vel Bob Novak, delusional quaint animadverto ut an universus workforce of notitia gatekeepers est quomodo filterless, dispensing developments per ideology- solvo lenses, videor iam of universitas- est- campester sensibility. upshot quorum est: in chronicling altus, lows, quod imperator operor- nusquam of utriusque Inhaero quod Frutex administrations of preteritus 15 annus, cuius’ had a maioribus labefactum in nostrum humanitas, Res Drudge vel Pullus Tribus? Ut significant legislation est induco quod disputatio in Caput Tumulosus, quot Americans puto network vel magnus urbs paper Tumulosus cohaereo quod suus vel suus 900- vox lima vel 120- secundus-segment-soundbite excipio major domus of bills’ labefactum? (vel vel a sliver.) Quis venio ut a bill — amo narro is preteritus ver’ Orchestra’ immigration sarcina (800 pages) — ut an exercitus of bloggers, nonnullus per lex inhonestus, goes per is per a teres- dentis certamen? refero: K Vicus — quod Vetus Interventus conventional sapientia — fio confusus.

tunc question est, quare would vos have ultum si ullus deference ut mortalitas medium? Excolo veneratio forsitan, tamen deference? Alius question est unus of philosophical pragmatism: in lux lucis of velociter developing technology quod democratizing species of interventus is progenero, quare would vos reputo ut a lone paro of eyes quod fingers in a keypad ought futurus certus responsal of a novus vicis? Quod dum per magnus novus items in versus illic’ usquequaque coepi multus of estus quod sonitus, quinymo velociter siligoinis gets singulus ex chaff.

gelu ferreus animadverto pro magnus- urbs emendator quod bureau proceres est ut per sulum obduco week magis quod magis Americans senex 15-40 es verto ut alternative interventus impetro suum ferreus, mollis, quod pulchellus ultum panton in inter quidam quaedam quedam quidam novus. Pro melior vel pro peior, suus’ been a constans diet of Jon Vilicus, Res Drudge, Stephen Colbert, Cotidie Kos . . . quodBasium Suzy Kolber.

Is preteritus Friday nox noctis, in meus plurimus repens saluto ut Quin Center, EGO no duos notitia super dynamics of contemporary lusum press arca archa. Illic est in propono illic, nox noctis, a attonitus dichotomy. Sive, vos have unique pello pepulli pulsum opinio ex unique Vetus Interventus exitus modius absentis in suum apparatus an hora pro venatus, vere molior infrasctructure of repono theyll’ lima in pauci hora. Theyll’ pause quod planto vegrandis- sermo aliquando per suum incomparabilis, tamen universe suus’ a angustus scripted environment affording precious parum significant pondero vicis. Potissimum illa opinio es vere stilus dum venatus factum est captus locus — quod necesse non vigilo is.

Procul alius terminus of press row licet plerumque reperio a cadre of bloggers, totus cuius technically es inconcessus ex blogging in “ verus vicis” Instead, they es rapturously engaged in in- glacies proceedings . . . quod per unus alius. Illic est gravis traffic of verus- vicis visual nota- captus quod socius, analysis quod theoricus. Sepius EGO mos devenio Quin Center per a single file idea and depart with four, by virtue of the savvy blogger exchanges I am immersed in, particularly between periods.

But there is more: like all others Friday night, I packed up my gear at the game’s concluding horn and made my way down to the players’ rooms. The Capitals’ captain had appeared to be injured quite badly. I wanted to get official word of Clark’s condition as fast as possible, and get it up on the ‘Net within minutes. Dmitry Chesnokov and I waited in a hallway for Nate Ewell with the word. It took some minutes, but we got it: stitches and not anything truly awful. My computer was packed up, and were I a lone blogger here I’d have had to wait for a work station and an outlet of some sort to type up my finding. Instead I relayed the news via cell phone to an OFB colleague, who was seated near his computer at home.

But there is more: there is an archetype to the filings of Old Media (”the game file”) at games. Oftentimes I determine mine six or seven minutes into a game. Sometimes I play it straight, sometimes I veer off on creative tangents. And in this respect I’m pretty much like every other hockey blogger in town.

Friday night I had no editor to wait upon for publication clearance back in any news room. The point here isn’t to toot our horn but instead to delineate a bit the technology that is driving the media revolution. On Saturday new and old media alike simultaneously received word of Alexander Semin’s new contract. Who do you suppose had word of it up first? (Answer: blogger Mike Vogel.)

Much like Colbert’s jarring intrusion on Tim Russert’s set last Sunday hockey bloggers in D.C. have uprooted the conventions of hockey coverage in town. And I don’t think we’ve even gotten to the fun stuff yet.

Washington Times’ sports business reporter Tim Lemke spent a number of weeks interviewing a number of the region’s hockey bloggers, his interest piqued by their prevalence in the Verizon Center press box for Caps’ games. “No team in professional sports offers as much unfettered access to bloggers as the Caps,” Lemke writes in this morning’s Times.

“Writers from a half-dozen other blogs, including Japers’ Rink, DC Optimist and A View from the Cheap Seats, are on the premises, cranking out posts that analyze everything from the Caps’ new uniforms to the Hurricanes’ power-play defense. They are affectionately called “blogger nation” and are part of a growing — and unique — strategy by the Caps to embrace new media outlets rather than keep them at an arms’ length.

We were particularly appreciative that Lemke credited Off Wing Opinion’s Eric McErlain for his role in establishing protocols for bloggers wishing to cover the team.

“McErlain worked with Leonsis and the Caps’ public relations staff on crafting a “Bloggers Bill of Rights” that would grant access to the most active bloggers while outlining rules of etiquette and professionalism.”

Lemke concludes by capturing Ted Leonsis’ commitment to new media covering his team and its sport:

“What happens if the Caps make a deep playoff run?”

“Then they can come sit in the owners box,” Leonsis said. “I’ll find them a place to sit. I hope we have that issue. I’d like to be looked at as the most new media-savvy, blog-centric of the teams. If we win, that network just helps you to keep that momentum going.”

You can read Lemke’s piece here.

In Monday’s New York Times, in her “Sports of the Times” column, Selena Roberts posits that baseball itself is largely culpable for its death as a participation sport in the U.S. She noted that by the time MLB got around to sanctioning the first pitch of an American League playoff game last Saturday night, the American sporting landscape was already abuzz from another Saturday afternoon of upset specials in college football. Worse, Saturday night’s Red Sox-Indians’ tilt ended some time near Sunday morning church-going for millions of Americans.

In catering more to Jay Leno’s demographic, baseball is divorcing itself from the very constituency it needs to perpetuate itself: young athletes. And in so doing, and here’s where Roberts’ argument gets really fun, baseball necessarily has exported many of this nation’s best athletes to another sport — football.

“Only insomniacs, Stephen King and barflies would have seen the Red Sox lose at that hour [Saturday night],” she wrote.

“Only baseball could test the sleep-deprivation limits of its fans in a postseason where every inning feels like the seventh-inning stretch. Only baseball could seem more invisible, more numbing, during the playoffs than it did during the slow-drip cadence of a 162-game season.”

It’s not a terribly terrific idea I don’t think to take a non-contact sport, which derives much its enduring hold on its supporters for its “cerebral” and games-without-clocks appeal, and by virtue of starting games past the bedtimes of millions of American youths, help ensure they can’t form important attachments to it. We’re talking about the sport’s postseason, after all, when heroes and icons typically are birthed.

“This is why college football is reveling in the sweet glory of parity,” Roberts claims. “The decline of baseball as America’s pastime — or past time, as the clock may indicate — has inadvertently seeded football programs across the country with talent.”

“Where are all the skilled athletes going? To the sport they can watch, to the sport that engages their short attention spans and markets to their starry-eyed sensibilities. To football.”

There’s data backing up Roberts’ point. The conspicuous decline in participation by American blacks in baseball is increasingly being documented — the sport’s been obliterated from urban America. (Where are the fields in cities?) But now American blacks are beginning to be joined on the sidelines by another important group: whites.

“In the past 15 years, according to a recent study by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, the percentage of African-American major league baseball players has plunged to 8.4 percent from 18 percent; the percentage of white players has slipped to 59.5 percent from 68 percent.

Now look at Division I football statistics compiled by the N.C.A.A. In the past five years, the percentage of football scholarships offered to African-American players has risen to 45.4 percent in 2005-6 from 39.5 percent in 1999-2000.”

I read Roberts’ remarkable findings and claims and thought back to Labor Day weekend, when Appalachian State stunned much of planet Earth with its compelling slaying of top-5-ranked, powerhouse Michigan. It wasn’t with smoke and mirrors that A State pulled off the feat, it was with quality athletes — all over the field, and especially at the skill positions. Does that kind of upset happen 20 years ago? Of course not; had it, the reaction to this game wouldn’t have been as powerful as it was. And now, virtually every Saturday sends fresh jolts throughout the top 25 rankings. College athletic directors who 5 or 10 years thought they’d scheduled “gimmes” out of conference in 2007 are learning something else.

The vast majority of college football games each Saturday are completed just as baseball’s playoff clubs are leaving their hotels. And so baseball’s wound in the competitive sports marketplace is self-inflicted. Why can’t a postseason first pitch be delivered at 1:05 on a Saturday? Because of baseball’s bloodlust for prime — and past prime — time big bucks.

There’s a cautionary tale here for hockey. The good news is that when a hockey broadcast, regular season or playoff, commences at 7:00 on the East Coast the action starts at 7:05 and pretty much proceeds unabated until 9:30. It’s a kiddie-family friendly schedule. For some mysterious reason baseball broadcasts arrive and viewers are greeted by nearly a half hour of non-action analysis. Then, in its modern iteration, baseball imposes something on the order of 21 pitching changes over the course of nine innings. Really, could it do anything more to drive away viewers — young ones most particularly?

The economics of baseball for families aren’t all that bad — wide swaths of stadiums’ upper decks and bleacher seats remain within wallets’ reach. Less so, though, I think with big-league hockey. The American League and CHL games I attend are constantly crammed with kiddies. That’s not because they find the NHL boring.

There are great athletes today in hockey, at all levels. This is true to some extent because they have been able to make a connection with the game on television. But could even more great athletes form an attachment with hockey, particularly, say, in urban settings? I think so.

One of the more endearing traditions in the American Hockey League is the relative prevalence of afternoon games. Some are scheduled during September’s preseason slate, others on holidays like Columbus Day. School kids by the busload fill the stands at affordable rates. Hockey wants to be a hit, but first you must hook the kids.

“As viewing habits go,” Roberts concludes, “a sport can’t be a hit if it’s not seen. Football gets that. And with it, all the talent.”   

I received helpful feedback recently from Associated Press reporter Peter Kerzel, who penned the Caps’ preview for this season’s THN Annual Yearbook. You may recall my suggesting that Kerzel’s file, which featured curious forecasted line combinations among other personnel considerations, delivered the impression of being a bit outdated for this reader. Turns out, Kerzel had to have his forecast submitted to THN editors in the second week of July — “barely enough time for free agents to get signed,” Kerzel told me.

“We were allowed to make some changes the beginning of the following week,” Kerzel pointed out, “but at that point, everything was formatted and the books sent to press so they could be in stores by mid- to late August.”

Here’s how early in the summer this preview was penned: Kerzel collaborated on the project with the Washington Times’ Dave Fay.

“Dave thought he had a pretty good handle on personnel,” Kerzel said. “Of course, that was before Fleischmann’s ascension, Kozlov’s move to center, Backstrom’s move to wing, [and] Clark’s move to the third line.”

“I’ve run into this same issue before, when covering the Caps and putting together a preview for The Sporting News. The year Washington acquired Jagr, the trade was consummated literally at the deadline for copy to be finalized.”

“If not for a really good editor, a guy named Ray Slover, who helped me turn around a rewrite on a dime – while still keeping the same amount of space that had already been allocated – the whole preview could have been out of date almost immediately. It’s just an inherently troublesome part of the process.”

In his preview Kerzel picked the Caps to finish 10th in the East this season. “I still think the Caps are on the bubble as far as playoffs go,” he told me, right before the season opener. 

Kerzel’s THN preview this summer also offered some conspicuously kind words for the team’s bloggers.

“The whole notion of blogging has really caught fire. One of my baseball  pals, Roch Kubatko of The [Baltimore] Sun, was given blog duty a couple of years ago and wasn’t sure what to make of it – demotion? Lack of interest from the bosses? Two years later, his baseball ruminations are the most well-read blog on any of the company’s newspaper’s blogs. He’s developed a cult following.

“And I can say for sure that blogging has changed the way most media outlets approach their jobs. I know with my work for the AP, the fact that someone can blog it right away on a daily paper site means we’ve got our feet to the fire to turn around the news much quicker these days.”

James Surowiecki, writer for The New Yorker’s Financial Page, recently ruminated on the current Congressional debate on a bill to raise automotive fuel economy standards. The article, while brief by New Yorker standards (then again, so is Gone with the Wind), makes for a very intriguing read.

Clearly a discussion about fuel economy legislation is better left to the political arena; but Surowiecki referenced an example to illustrate his point that you may find as interesting as I did:

Back in the nineteen-seventies, an economist named Thomas Schelling, who later won the Nobel Prize, noticed something peculiar about the NHL. At the time, players were allowed, but not required, to wear helmets, and most players chose to go helmet-less, despite the risk of severe head trauma.

But when they were asked in secret ballots most players also said that the league should require them to wear helmets. The reason for this conflict, Schelling explained, was that not wearing a helmet conferred a slight advantage on the ice; it gave the player better peripheral vision, and it also made him look fearless. The players wanted to have their heads protected, but as individuals they couldn’t afford to jeopardize their effectiveness on the ice.

Making helmets compulsory eliminated the dilemma: the players could protect their heads without suffering a competitive disadvantage. Without the rule, the players’ individually rational decisions added up to a collectively irrational result. With the rule, the outcome was closer to what players really wanted.

Surowiecki goes on to posit, “In calling for a law requiring better gas mileage in our cars, then, voters are really saying that they’re unhappy with the collective result of the choices they make as buyers. Sometimes, they know, we need to save ourselves from ourselves.”

Besides being an interesting debate in and of itself, it got me thinking about the NHL dilemma regarding face protection. Visors, a.k.a. half-shields, are currently optional in the National Hockey League. In 2004, approximately 35% of NHL players wore visors. [1] Like the helmet-optional days of yore, many players choose to forgo safety in favor of a slight competitive advantage — though with top-notch players like Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby wearing visors, one might understandably wonder if the “advantage” is more perception than reality. Regardless, a majority of current NHL players still go visor-free—a situation that sounds remarkably similar to the 1970s’ helmet debate.

The half-shield issue rears its head each time a player is injured in a way that a visor could have prevented . . . and it’s a surprisingly long injury list, including Saku Koivu, Dany Heatley, Owen Nolan, Bryan Berard, and Steve Yzerman to name a few prominent examples.

Even the great Stevie Y, a tough-as-nails player by any reckoning, had a change of heart after his injury:

Yzerman, when talking to reporters days after his injury in the 2004 playoffs, had changed his opinion on visors.

“Sitting in the hospital that night, I really wished I’d been wearing a visor,” Yzerman said. “I played 21 years and never had an eye injury. My cheekbone didn’t really hurt at the time. The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘I don’t want to lose my eyesight.’ I really believe guys should be wearing them. I didn’t say that (a week before the injury occurred).”

Yzerman said that he would support the idea of mandatory visors. He added that he had no trouble adjusting to the visor. [2]

Unfortunately it is human nature to have difficulty embracing lessons learned by others. It took a personally-sustained injury for Yzerman and many others to realize that the return-on-investment of wearing a visor makes it a smart investment indeed.

Speaking of investment, visors protect more than the players who wear them. Owners pay millions of dollars to bring the right players to a team; coaches and GMs spend countless hours on plans based around those players; fans invest hard-earned money to see those players, not to mention fans’ emotional connection to their team’s success. Donning a half-shield seems a small inconvenience with a potentially huge payoff that benefits more than just the player.

Now I am a fan of hockey pugilism—proper fighting (not cowardly hits from behind, elbows, and the like) has a place in the game. Regardless of where one stands on the fighting debate, visors need not impact fighting at all; when two players drop the gloves, they can simply drop the helmet as well. Not only would it make the moment as two players square off even more dramatic, but it would also reduce hand injuries from punching an opponent’s helmet. And if a player is unwilling to remove his helmet for a fight, well, perhaps he should just turtle and not be fighting in the first place.

Companies like ITECH and Oakley now boast optically-correct visors that are practically bulletproof, thus significantly reducing the one player complaint that seemed to hold up to scrutiny: that visors made it more difficult to see. Clearly NHL teams would provide their players with the best visors available; thus players would be less likely to deal with the fogging/distortion issues plaguing pickup hockey players’ shields. Still, any fractional vision impediment caused by visors would be irrelevant if everyone wore them—and Yzerman, by his own admission, easily adjusted to playing with a half-shield after 21 years without one.

So the debate comes back to Surowiecki’s point in the New Yorker article: when individuals are incapable or unwilling to make smart decisions (whether due to a perceived or real competitive disadvantage, or just plain machismo) shouldn’t the relevant governing body to help protect the individual as well as the investment of others? Or, to put it in socio-economic terms, when the parties in a given market cease to operate as rational actors, shouldn’t the powers-that-be step in to correct the problem?

Whether it’s the automotive industry’s seat belts and safety glass, or the NHL’s helmets and visors, the answer is a resounding “Yes.”

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.”

Pete Kerzel’s preview of the Caps for the Hockey News’ 2007-08 Yearbook is rather dour — he sees them on the outside of the Eastern conference playoffs looking in, and emphasizes instead “incremental improvement is much more likely.” His file also has a ring of outdated-ness to it; he identified the Caps’ Tomas Fleischmann as fifth on the Caps’ depth chart of left wings, among other personnel oddities. And he claimed that the team’s third and fourth lines were weak points, when in fact, early this autumn, they appear to be pgraded over recent seasons (as in adding a 30-goal scorer to one of them).

But Kerzel’s concluding paragraph caught my eye in a more positive light:

“Majority owner Ted Leonsis, an AOL executive, gave players laptops upon taking over the team in 1999 and the coaching staff is among the most tech-savvy in the league, using specifically constructed computer programs for in-game strategizing. Leonsis blogs regularly on the team website, and his ruminations have spawned several dedicated fan blogs. They’re smart, sassy, irreverent must-reads, mainly because they keep the team honest and in touch with fans.”

     

Apprised of Comcast’s commitment to the Caps this week, I turned on Comcast SportsNet the moment I arrived home from work Monday night, and left it there. What I watched over the next four hours stunned me.

I saw new Comcast Caps’ beat reporter Lisa Hillary studio host a season preview alongside Joe Reekie. I saw just about all of Alexander Ovechkin’s first-ever NHL game (I’d forgotten that he was a flubbed breakaway from a hat trick that night). Then I saw JoeB and Craig host another studio half hour, “Caps Speak,” for another team preview. Promos for Comcast’s “SportsNight” that followed promised even more Caps’ coverage.

It was “Monday Night Hockey in Washington,” of course.

Head Coach Glen Hanlon was interviewed in depth by Hillary. GMGM was thoughtfully interviewed, at length, and he provided his customary thoughtful replies. Key personnel — Chris Clark, Olie Kolzig, Tom Poti, Nicklas Backstrom, Michael Nylander — all took turns before Comcast’s cameras. Tarik El Bashir’s segment with Joe and Craig I thought was a highlight of the entire night. (Tarik, true to form, offered a sober and fair assessment amid the rampant optimism engulfing the organization early this autumn. The Caps, he said, could finish anywhere “from sixth to tenth” in the Eastern conference.)

Broadcast Buzz about pro hockey in D.C. these days? Umm, yes — only if you regard all-consuming, single-topic devotion by the local sports television outlet to the city’s red-headed stepchild of pro teams “buzz”-indicating. Apparently it’s going to be like this the remainder of the week each evening on Comcast.

At one point during the prime time proceedings I saw Joe and Craig flash on the screen multiple-screen listings of Caps’ prospects. I saw the names Michal Neuvirth, Simeon Varlamov, Karl Alzner, Joe Finley, Mathieu Perreault, Francois Bouchard, Dave Steckel, and Chris Bourque, all broadcast on an outlet that never in its life held an office fantasy hockey pool. Briefly, it was like a breakout from hockeysfuture, and two DraftGeeks renting out the Comcast studio and making like Wayne and Garth on local cable access.

Wayne, er, JoeB: “Look at all this talent in the pipeline, Dude!”

Garth, er, Craig (head cocked): “Excellent!”

This is what importing one Canuck can do to an outlet!

More seriously, Hillary was hired to bring her NHL coverage experience to Comcast. The in-house hockey talent was significant, if under-appreciated and grossly under-utilized, but had the outlet ever boasted a dedicated reporter on the beat? Next I’m going to allege that coverage decisions like Comcast’s for this week haven’t occurred in a vacuum, and that they’re a harbinger of better coverage to come, print and broadcast, traditional and alternative. To an extent, it’s fashionable, of course: the Caps may not make it to the postseason this year, but they will not be dull.

But of course I’m a subscriber to the theory that a media revolution for this team and its sport is well underway these days, in these parts.

I’m also, at week’s end, when this trial run on Comcast terminates, planning on becoming a subscriber to CapsTV.