P� djupfryst Blog› Michael Wilbon

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Ett Blogging fel av efters�songInexperience

Vid pucksandbooks

L�rdag April 12, 2008

Att placera kartl�gger - lek 1 Jag gjorde ett sorgligt att missf�rst� i dom denna vecka, och den fick effekt motsatt OFB p� kanske denna plats viktigaste dag av existens. Vi fungerade n�ra, och v�l med huvudst�derna bemannar placerar massmedia till f�rs�k och oss sj�lva f�r att forts�tta f�r att komma med dig k�nslan av hockey, som oss k�nself�rnimmelsen som den Verizon centrerar inifr�n, men du kan ha h�rt: huvudst�derna som denna vecka satte in upp�t av 250 f�rfr�gan f�r pressvitsord f�r fredagnatt. Kontrastera det med vilken Tarik ig�r anm�lt vara t�ckningsk�ren f�r lock' spela runt om tacks�gelse: om ett dussin. I en massmediamilj� l�ngt f�r mindre innegrej �n fredagnatt, tv� av oss fr�n OFB credentialed, s� att vi kan leverera b�de uttrycker och avbildar/videoen h�r, men p� veckans start som avk�nner en mycket �ndrande hockeykultur h�r, jag informerade min OFB-kollegor att vi kan �r lyckliga att f� precis en av oss i Verizonen centrerar pressl�ktaren f�r lek 1. V�nder ut, �ven den prognos var optimistiskt.

F�r att hysa s� massiv svaller massmedia, huvudst�derna som meddelas till oss deras behov att skapa ett �verfl�domr�de f�r funktionsduglig press - i massmedia vara sl�, downstairs, v�l i v�g fr�n nojan. Det kan ha gjort f�r en tystare arbetsmilj�, men jag �nskade att fungera i nojan. Avk�nna en ankomst av ett djupfryst r�tt hav kanske �ven den mer h�g �n sist veckan, och att �nska att se, hur r�tt den skulle, �r med Philly i town, mig �nskade att granska och njuta av den och dela, erfar mitt sensoriskt med dig.

Men jag konfronterade ocks� ett tidigare dagstidning-journalist-v�nt-blogger's dilemma: manarna och kvinnorna, som g�r ett uppeh�lle p� pro idrott f�r bel�ggning att ha ett tydligt att fordra till prioriteten, tar fram att jag inte. Herr Leonsis i hans nya massmedia�ldervision kan inte inst�mma, men jag gjorde beslutet som under s�dan ut�ver det vanliga tar fram beg�ranb�rdor, och efter att ha hysts f�r tv� �r s� j�mnt magnificently av huvudst�derna, �nskade jag ingenting av att vara huvudv�rknr.en. 251 f�r klubban. Jag kunde klockan leken hemifr�n och blogn�got liknande andra. Jag rationaliserade mitt beslut delvis p� denna halvsanning av en n�mna f�rst: till graden, som jag besk�dade jag sj�lv (fel) som knuffas �t sidan av yrkesm�ssigt gammalt massmedia, villkorar det mycket var symbolisk av t�ckningsframg�ngen som jag hade s�kt f�r leken, jag cherish i min hemstad.

At 6:15 last night, shopping for my playoff game beer and pizza out in the suburbs, believing myself able to transition back to simple, traditional hockey fan with the snap of fingers away from a keyboard, I realized the seriousness of my mistaken judgment. I felt a profound ache at being away from the action, away from working at chronicling it, and it felt awful. Even beer on sale offered no salve.

I should have shoehorned myself into that rink last night, even if I had to try and blog from underneath Abe Pollin’s desk. Rather than adopt the view that this new love affair the press is having with hockey could be an impediment to my coverage calling, I should have embraced it as a fresh challenge. I made a huge mistake. This morning, I owe our readers an apology. At least the good guys got it done!

Initially I lessened my early evening ache a bit by maintaining contact with some friends in the press box via instant message. But then my diminished ache turned to anger. I learned that Friday night’s Washington Post delegation — understandably enlarged — was pork barreled in the press box’s front row with the names of Kornheiser and Wilbon. If I ever get to own a pro hockey team they won’t be allowed in my rink — Friday night was a red-tie party for HockeyWashington, and the two of them have amply demonstrated over years not only disinterest in attending such soirÃ©es but ridiculing those who do.

My anger wasn’t directed at their hopping on the hockey media bandwagon — it was that after securing so sought after a set of seats . . . they failed to show up to work the friggin game! Kornheiser may have been cavorting about a luxury box, but he certainly wasn’t working upstairs. His workspace space preserved. Ditto for his partner in the superficial, syntax-challenged, and loud. This is a family blog, and the words I associate with this act of unfathomable arrogance won’t appear here. Maybe they could title their next ESPN podcast, ‘Pardon the Absence.’

Enough about hockey-hating egomaniacs and back-room media matters.

Friday night delivered not just a pulsating, emotionally draining victory over a gritty and skilled opponent but perhaps just as importantly it obliterated any residual concern about the viability of Washington being hockey friendly when it really mattered. A Hockeytown under construction may have a completion date that may have to be bumped up.

The Comcast broadcast went live at 7:00 last night, and at 7:00:30 it was abundantly apparent that the orange-and-blackouts of the past were lodged right there, in history. I don’t quite understand how the Capitals’ sales department managed to make it so pervasively red last night.

But I have Friday night beer leftover for them.

Filed in Blogs, ESPN, Internet, Media, Michael Wilbon, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Print, Stanley Cup Playoffs, Tarik El-Bashir, Ted Leonsis, Tony Kornheiser, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (26)

So Hockey Got Asked Out on a Date This Week

By pucksandbooks

Friday, January 4, 2008

Morning Cup-A-Joe Something momentous and stupendous happened to hockey on Tuesday. By late Wednesday afternoon I was aware of an unusual mainstream media preoccupation forming a phenomenon: they were, rather uniformly, rather nationally, saying nice things about our sport. Really nice things.

Then came Wednesday’s 5:00 hour on ESPN.

I was New-Years-resolution fitnessing at a big health club then, flat screen TVs hanging overhead, the pearls of wisdom from the talking heads captioned for the sweating. At the top of hour there there’s some hip and chic and therefore unendurable split-screen of sports columnists blathering for 30 minutes. A guy named Woody from Denver, Jay from Chicago, somebody else I didn’t know, and some smarmy host red-meating the proceedings. I figured they’d quick-hit hockey ’cause of Tuesday’s novelty and move on to the important stuff, like what Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson will do together during the Cowboys’ bye week.

Instead, everyone took turns praising not just the Winter Classic but the fundamental appeals of hockey, which, they claimed, were showcased in Buffalo on Tuesday. And they couldn’t stop talking about it. They interrupted one another with accolades. They debated when and where the next outdoor game should take place. Soldier Field was mentioned, where the “revitalized Chicago Blackhawks” would skate perhaps against another Original Six club. One fella admitted that he couldn’t stick with a single college bowl game Tuesday afternoon (imagine shunning all those three- and four-loss dynamos!) because he kept getting drawn back to the Lakeside fun in a winter wonderland.

Understand that in the wallets of these Worldwide Leader in Sports personalties are laminated cards that read, “If I even know that hockey exists, I seriously hate it.”

In the middle of the hour Kornheiser and Wilbon followed, on PTI. These two of course last did coverage favors for our sport pre-expansion. But they, too, joined in the broadcast swooning over our sport. It was no gag, either. Gym exercisers to my right and left seemed to be following the dialogue like I was, but only I kept falling off equipment pedals.

At times the MoJo that moves the media in a hungry pack around a new food source is vague and intangible. It formed and fomented around hockey late Tuesday and throughout Wednesday. I don’t think as recently as 12:45 p.m. Tuesday anyone even in the NHL’s Communications or Marketing offices could have imagined the media’s love-at-first-sight sweet nothings for our game soon to ensue.

Early Thursday I Googled “Winter Classic” as a subject search, and from little more than one full page of listings spotted these headlines:

Winter Classic is a step in the right direction

Winter Classic: Outdoor Game Scores

The Perfect Snowstorm: The Winter Classic Scores

NBC Shoots, Scores with NHL Winter Classic Ratings

Winter Classic a Huge Success

NHL Winter Classic proves league can get it right (” . . . nothing short of an overwhelming success . . . “)

In truth, hockey got lucky Tuesday, on at least two fronts. The first was a slate of yawner college pigskin bowl games, the byproduct of BCS madness rendering New Years Day — once the sport’s Christmas morning — now needless, the nutritional equivalent of television Twinkies. The second front, obviously, was the weather one: raucus and Rockwellian. The Ralph on Tuesday had everything but the Budweiser Clydesdales.

Best of all, few among the millions who watched likely thought, “Ah-hah, the spoiled millionaires are discomforted for a few hours.” No, millions saw highly skilled, smiling skaters persevering through rhythm-robbing interruptions and a rapidly deteriorating playing surface, and 71,000 supporters screaming through sideways snow and sleet and gashing Great Lake winds.

I became aware that hockey had created a crush, that in this week it was being asked out on a date by the four-sport letterman who never noticed us in class; a date perhaps only for this Saturday night, but a date nonetheless.

Here’s a loser-has-to-get-a-Mike-Green-haircut wager I direct at those who think Tuesday was a lone flicker of lucky lust directed at the league: there’s a new Yankee Stadium today under construction, and it won’t be open 5 years before the Rangers skate a regular season game in it.

Why would the Yankees and BigMedia care about us again?

Because in our natural state we’re very pretty.

Filed in Buffalo Sabres, ESPN, Gary Bettman, Media, Michael Wilbon, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Old Time Hockey, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pond Hockey, TV, Tony Kornheiser, Washington Post, Winter Classic| Permalink| Comments (4)

From the Vault of WaPost’s True Colors, Exhibit no. 106

By pucksandbooks

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Washington Post - 15th Street During a standard, weekly online chat with readers yesterday Washington Post columnist/ESPN personality/general big media blowhard Michael Wilbon fielded questions on the minds of some Washington sports fans. As you might imagine, the news of the Sean Taylor shooting was of paramount interest and concern. But there were queries also on the Wizards, college football, and the NFL more generally.

One questioner, however, deigned to raise a discussion of the NHL and the Caps’ firing of Glen Hanlon. Rather topically appropriate in the calendar of the chat, wouldn’t you say? Take note first of the professionalism Wilbon exhibited in his initial reaction to the serious, sober, and newsworthy in its timeliness inquiry from the hockey fan, then note also Wilbon’s admission of excluding himself from the arena the home to one of the planet’s most gifted athletes, for fully a year:

Maryland: Mike, I know there’s not much hockey talk in these chat houses, but what are your thoughts on the Caps changing coaches? In today’s world of sports where “players win and coaches lose,” obviously it had to be done . . . but do in-season coaching changes stir up enough of a team’s juices to really make a difference? Thanks.

washingtonpost.com: Hanlon Out as Caps’ Coach (Post, Nov. 23)

Michael Wilbon: Do you actually pay attention to the NHL? Teams change coaches like they change underwear. They change them going into the playoffs after some other coach got the team into the playoffs. The Devils have done this and won the Stanley Cup … or at least gotten to the Finals. Are you kidding? Does it help? Hockey players seem to react to a change in coaches like no other team sport athletes. I’m not about to speculate on the Capitals switch because I haven’t seen the Capitals in person in over a year … I simply don’t follow the NHL the way I did as a kid, teenager, young adult or young sportswriter … there aren’t enough hours in the day, days in the week or weeks in the year to follow everything, even for guys like me who are paid to follow sports. The NHL is what I dropped, as I’ve increasingly gotten into soccer and (lately) NASCAR … and it seems, from looking at attendance figures, I’m not the only one who has dropped out lately.