An interesting thing to do at NHL games in the new media era is to make mental notes of old and new media present at say Caps’ games and compare the quality of products generated a day later. To a certain extent, some of the old guard are hamstrung by the unyielding dictates of convention — what I call formulaic sports journalism. Or: corporate writing. Get the time of the goals right. Be sure to acknowledge the left winger’s third straight game with a secondary assist. Fatten file with recorded jock-speak filler — irrespective of how mundane, cliche-ridden the reflection.

The adherence to this dying script is precisely the point of new media’s rise.

To be fair, the Caps have two print guys on the beat who carry off the conventions as well as can be expected. They’re quite good. What’s more interesting to me, however, is, in a relatively short period of time, the meteoric popularity of their online readership for their respective blogs. These readers, like us, might miss a game file or three along the way but daily, sometimes hourly, monitor these guys’ blogs, which often are treasure troves. There, away from the conventions, away from the rigid formula, we go inside the team, inside the sport. There the scribe’s personalized passion for the game at times comes to life. It’s prose with a Budweiser, and they’re buying. Their readers sure are.

Another distinction, perhaps: at times I skim the old media game files, sweeping through the inverted pyramid prose swiftly for any event my eyes on the game didn’t detect. However, I never skim that reporter’s blog files. I suspect I’m not alone in this habit.

Back within the formula, it isn’t always the athlete at fault for the poverty of reflection. If there are 60 questions directed at a hockey team by 14 reporters in 20 minutes of post-game access, irrespective of the city, irrespective of the prestige of the news outlet, I can assure you that 40-plus are of the “Did he or she really just ask that?” variety. Don’t take my word for it. Watch ESPNews and its revolving door rotation of intellect-numbing game pressers. Or if you’re really interested in surveying the limits of Darwin’s Theory, tune in to the Super Bowl presser the Tuesday of game week. That’s George Orwell’s Animal Farm come to life. Some reporters are just plain stupid; many more though are asking questions whose answers feed a script. Gotta file, gotta formulate.

I can assure you that when Greg Wyshynski is in the arena the last thing he’s looking to do is fill his recorder with jock-talk. Chatting with him during a game often is more entertaining than the product we’re there to chronicle. His is a creative mind ever abuzz with unconventional coverage ideas. And this is largely why his blog numbers, be they at Deadspin, the FanHouse, or now Yahoo Sports are the envy of those of every old media outlet in press row.

One of the reasons this “debate,” such as it is, about bloggers and reporters exists is because it itself is an old media convention. Like Andy Rooney, it persists, perpetually. It has a radioactive half life. It’s erroneously conceived, superficially analyzed, and nurtured by a whiff of controversy. Therefore expect it to be around still 24 years from now.

More interesting to me is the embrace of Washington’s hockey bloggers by big media’s online or alternative editions. Rare was the week during this past season that one of us wasn’t excerpted in Washington Post Express. Eric McErlain transitioned from blogging at his groundbreaking site Off Wing Opinion in 2006 to covering the NHL for NBCSports.com last season, and this year he’s doing the same for the Sporting News. Jon Press joined McErlain at AOL Sports last year. Wyshynski of course is a blogging man very much in demand.

Just in the last week I found promo snippets for two of my OFB files slotted into the NHL team pages at Sports Illustrated’s web site. There’s nothing sly or sinister about that — SI needs content for its hockey pages in the offseason, apparently, and they’ve come to regard lil’ ole OFB as a source. Readers who normally wouldn’t know about OFB are, thanks to the big slick mag site, getting a look at us.

Lest you think old media in its new configuration is gobbling up gifted writers and consigning them to the old marching orders know that all of McErlain, Press, and Wyshynski are blogging for their new employers. That appears to have been a business decision by big media.

Each passing week is bringing about a remarkable evolution in information dissemination and consumption, in sports, politics, public policy, you name it — and in the process, in a very healthy way, obliterating the confining limitations of the old guard and its tired old formulas.

Isn’t it great to be a hockey fan today and to possess a healthy appetite for quality coverage and analysis of your team and its sport and to have that appetite nourished by the breadth of new and old media we’re now seeing? Even in the summer. Ahead, more quality voices will get added to the online chorus while the dour defenders of the tired, outdated approach whither and recede. The Revolution continues.

Filed in Blogs, Corey Masisak, Hockey Reading, Internet, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, OFB, Print, Sports Illustrated, Tarik El-Bashir, The Sporting News, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Post Express, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (18)

A Final Day of Calm To Enjoy Before the Postseason Storm

By pucksandbooks
Thursday, April 10, 2008

Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’ve savored these past five hockey-less days in D.C., immersing myself in a million metric tons of media, much of it local, pegged on themes like “the hottest team in hockey,” “a team of destiny,” “George McPhee, master architect,” the sum total of which is: Washington Capitals, media hogs in the nation’s capital. The Pope arrives here in town next week, and his Holiness can only hope to enjoy a media contingent comparable in size to that of the Caps these days.

Perhaps he will celebrate mass at Nats’ Stadium in red vestments. The Pontiff, Rockin the Red!

Last night I arrived home in time to catch the top-of-the-hour broadcast of Capitals’ TV, er, Comcast’s ‘Sportsnight,’ and immediately saw the mug of SovetskySports‘ Dmitry Chesnokov, out at Kettler interviewing AO. Jill Sorenson’s 5-minute feature highlighted “the Russian invasion” of the Capitals. Earlier in the week I read a Corey Masisak feature on the Capitals’ fourth line. Both big papers’ beat reporters traveled to Philadelphia early this week to capture the flavor of the Flyers for Washington readers.

Pope Benedict XVIEven riding a full route on a Metro car — single-tracked — isn’t time enough to canvass all the print coverage of the Caps this week. Who needs TSN or the National Post when the Washington press corps is Redded-Out? I haven’t had time to survey what might be downloadable on iTunes.

In the here and now I’m savoring this week of Washington as a very hockey hockey town. We’ll get to the battle of I-95 soon enough; for now I’m grateful that the culmination of a historic performance by the Capitals this spring — Saturday night’s division-title-securing victory and the appropriate perspective it invites — didn’t have to get shouldered aside 48 or 72 hours later by a postseason game 1. For their perseverance and passion Washington’s hockey fans deserved their week in the media spotlight.

Standing in the bowels of Verizon Center Saturday night awaiting the locker room arrival of a sweater-off-their-backs-busy Caps’ team, I heard and felt the Sea of Red’s sonic shakings fully 20 minutes after the game’s conclusion. Which occasioned this thought: irrespective of the Capitals’ postseason performance, the team this offseason should strongly consider producing a DVD documentary of the dramatic (to put it mildly) alteration in performance by and outlook for the team. Pro sports teams accomplishing comparatively little do so annually, but the metamorphosis of hockey here, I believe, ought to be chronicled as both a keepsake for fans and a powerful marketing tool for the as-yet-not-converted.

This product should be chock full of clips of AO’s historic season; the feel-good story of the acsent from the American League by Gabby; the deadline day dealings by GMGM that today are lauded all across the hockey commentariat; and of course the breath-stealing run of victory after victory over the season’s final few weeks.

This would-be DVD ought to amalgamate some of the many, many fresh and informative broadcast segments that have formed a glorious glut of puck on local TV this spring. This would help chronicle the arrival of Washington as a hockey town. That of course is a relative term, but it’s unassailable that the massive increase in local television viewership for the Caps, the love affair local media is having with our sport, the mere hours it took to sell out games 1 and 2 of the playoffs here this weekend, and the Sea of Rockin Red are emblematic of an unprecedented prominence for hockey here. This ought to be celebrated.

I’ll enjoy tomorrow night’s puck-drop and that altogether new atmosphere in our rink as much as anyone. But there’s a dream-like, 4th of July night on the Mall quality to the coverage of hockey in my hometown right now, and until about 5:00 tomorrow night I want to remain fixed within its glow.

Filed in Comcast SportsNet, Corey Masisak, Dmitry Chesnokov, Hockey Reading, Jill Sorenson, Media, Philadelphia Flyers, Print, Sovetsky Sport, Stanley Cup Playoffs, TSN, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (6)

Savoring the Historic Week That Was

By pucksandbooks
Monday, April 7, 2008

Some time near 8:30 Friday night, Capitals’ fans, having spent weeks residing in a purgatory of indeterminate postseason fate, received an invitation from an seraphim angel named Radek Dvorak to enter an unearthly realm of ecstasy.

At that moment in Raleigh, North Carolina, at 19:48 of period 2, while his team was playing for nothing but pride, the Florida Panthers’ right winger ripped a low wrist shot past Carolina Hurricanes’ netminder Cam Ward to stake the ‘Cats to an unlikely 4-2 lead. The shorthanded tally sucked the life out of a sold-out HBC Center. It also occasioned a big surge in beer swigging and the hugging of strangers by Caps’ fans following in Washington.

A win Friday night and the ‘Canes would have secured the Southeast division title — their third since 2002. Two hours earlier, failure in that endeavor seemed unfathomable; this was a team that had spent all but about two weeks in first place in the Southeast, was just two seasons removed from a Stanley Cup victory, and now had on its heels a Capitals’ team that had known only last-place finishes the last three seasons.

Hockey hopes spring eternal in spring in many parts, but not these. That’s the legacy within which the Era of Ovechkin dawned. And true to script, during Friday’s third period Panther after Panther made a parade to the penalty box, their two-goal lead eventually halved and netminder Craig Anderson under a near 50-shot seige. A spring of supreme stress here coalesced into a dungeon of the highest duress. Samsanov Agonistes.

“In Washington,” one of the Hurricanes’ broadcasters commented early in period 3, “the clock can’t move fast enough.”

Truer words were never spoken. Eventually the game clock in Carolina arrived at zero, Pinehurst no. 3 beckoning the ‘Canes, and in that instant, Caps’ fans were removed from all past April ills and into a springtime Friday night frenzy the likes of which they hadn’t seen since 1998. A Friday night of free-flowing frothies and free love — with perhaps dozens of little babies named Radek arriving at Sibley and Suburban next winter.

Saturday morning HockeyWashington awoke to a surreal reality: seeing the Caps, with a victory that night, move from ninth in the East to third. Better still, the Capitals’ fate was at long last in their own Misson hockey gloves. Actually, by virtue of Carolina’s Friday night flop the Caps technically were already in third, by virtue of playing fewer games and being tied at 92 points with the ‘Canes, but Saturday night’s game against Florida was the team’s final exam on the season — worth 90 percent of its grade.

Red OutIf Friday night was a sudden shockwave to the league standings, Tuesday night at Verizon Center was a sonic boom and a one-color kaleidoscope of unity delivered by a region ignited by an amazing sports story. One sensed within a rapidly enlargening hockey supporting community here a collective hunger to get behind a buzz-generating team. The Redskins lost more than they won under Joe Gibbs II. There’s a pedestrian quality to the Wizards — no longer really bad, but never really good, either. The ‘Nats are rebuilding and years away from contending. On Tuesday night in Verizon Center sports Washington was represented in unprecedented volume and unified uniform.

The home crowds for hockey have been growing and large for a couple of months now, but Tuesday’s ranked in another supportive realm. It was so startling to see the Sea of Red precisely because so many enemy sweaters had long filled so many home seats. If there were 18,000 fannies in the seats Tuesday night, 17,500 of them were Caps’ supporters.

“That was the best [home] crowd I’ve ever seen,” Mike Vogel told me over the weekend.

Better than the white-out postseason crowds of the powerful late ’80s Caps’ clubs at Capital Center?

“Those crowds weren’t loud like Tuesday’s,” Vogs added.

All we knew when the team returned home from its spectacularly successful six-game road trip was that it would play before large crowds here — likely, sellouts. We had no idea that the stands-shaking Redskins crowds of raucous old RFK would at last get a run for their rancor on F St.

For hockey.

Late on Wednesday afternoon the Caps’ communications staff, struggling perhaps like the fanbase to keep up with the speed of the hockey’s team’s ascent, announced the continuation of home Red Outs. The modest delay may have played a role in Thursday night’s home environment for Tampa: quite good, but not nearly as Red, not nearly as ear-splitting. The Caps’ nerves on ice that night, too, had a hand in quieting the mood a bit.

For some among HockeyWashington, Saturday’s first eighteen hours were a painful crawl toward a determinative destiny, while for others, savoring suddenly arrived at salvation, time couldn’t stand still enough. After all, morning paper reading, home cleaning, and car oil changing were all performed in third place. I imagined a Saturday morning Sea of Caps’ caps at Costco, among Saturday household chore performing the Red Army wearing the Capitals’ relic Old School look of a failure past now transformed in mere hours’ time into something fresh, vibrant, honor-bestowing, and most especially hip.

Chinatown was Red with anticipation at 4:05. I saw it.

Arriving early in Verizon Center’s press lounge, I surveyed beat media to see where Saturday night ranked in their list of most significant sporting events they’d personally covered. For the Washington Times’ Corey Masisak, only two events — the ACC basketball tournament won by underdog Maryland a few years back and his first Army-Navy football game rivaled the hockey he’d chronicled this March and April and most especially this past week.

“Maryland was like the 6 seed and they went down beat the numbers one, two, and three [seeds],” he told me.

WTOP’s Jonathon Warner has been involved in professional sports journalism for more than 30 years. For him, Saturday night had only George Mason’s Cinderella run in the NCAAs two years back as a rival to the Revival in Red.

“This is huge — this run they’re on, it’s actually given me chills of late,” Warner told me.

“You can feel the buzz,” Steve Kolbe told me. “Washington, D.C., as a whole has grown as a hockey town. That puck drops tonight, we’ll all have goosebumps.”

The Times’ Thom Loverro told me that in his 16 years at the paper Saturday night’s game “ranked right up there” among all regular season games he’d followed in Washington.

Next I asked the Washington Post’s Tarik El Bashir.

“I think you heard me down in the press room earlier tonight ask, has there been another comeback this dramatic in Washington pro sports history?”

“This team was left for dead on Thanksgiving day,” he added.

Tarik’s covered the Indy 500, “where you have 350,000 people,” he noted. But when he considered the lead-up to Saturday night, all of the must-wins the Caps had to have, Saturday raced to the top of his biggest games list.

“We awoke a sleeping giant here,” owner Leonsis, clad again in red, observed late Saturday night. That was a most pleasant observation to encounter Sunday morning, confirming that last week really wasn’t just a dream.

Filed in Carolina Hurricanes, Corey Masisak, Eastern Conference, Florida Panthers, Hockey Rinks, Jonathan Warner, Media, Mike Vogel, Print, Puck Sodas, Radio, Schadenfreude, Stanley Cup Playoffs, TV, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tarik El-Bashir, Washington Capitals, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (6)

Sunday Morning Literature Search

By pucksandbooks
Sunday, April 6, 2008

Brew an extra pot-a-joe this sunny-despite-the-rain Sunday morning and luxuriate in some outstanding coverage of Washington hockey history made at Verizon Center last night.

‘Coming All the Way Back,’ by Tarik El Bashir, The Washington Post

” . . . in front of a manic, red-drenched sellout crowd at Verizon Center, the Capitals seized the moment.”

‘Mission Accomplished,’ by Corey Masisak, The Washington Times

” . . . Alexander Semin whipped a perfect cross-ice, backhand pass to his countryman, who broke in alone on the left wing and ripped a slap shot over Florida goaltender Craig Anderson’s right shoulder at 15:03 of the second period . . . The 38-year-old Russian’s offensive production has trended upward at season’s end. After registering one goal and five points in his first 12 games with the Caps, Fedorov has eight points in the past six contests.

“Maybe I looked a little younger, but I feel it right now,” Fedorov said. “I feel the same as the guys who have never played in the playoffs. I am as excited as they are.”

‘Capitals clinch Southeast division,’ by Jospeh White, Associated Press

“The Capitals were easily the worst the NHL had to offer — 6-14-1 — when coach Glen Hanlon was fired on Thanksgiving Day and replaced by career minor league coach Bruce Boudreau, who turned the team’s personality upside down by introducing an attacking style featuring the league’s most prolific offensive player (Ovechkin), the NHL’s top goal-scoring defenceman (Mike Green, 18 goals) and a rookie of the year contender (Nicklas Backstrom, franchise-rookie record 69 assists).”

‘Ovechkin, Capitals snare final playoff berth with 3-1 victory over Panthers,’ the Canadian Press

“Long before the final horn sounded, the sea of red-clad fans had turned the arena into an earsplitting din of cheers of their team, “M-V-P!” chants for their star player, a chorus of “Bruuuuuuce” for their coach. The owner responded by blowing a kiss to the crowd.”

‘Feeling just like playoff hockey,’ by Dan Daly, The Washington Times

“File this one under Great Moments in Washington Sports History . . . Granted, they didn’t win the Stanley Cup — only the Southeast Division — but it sure felt like it.

“If you’re looking for a freeze frame, how about the sight of Ovechkin leaping onto Semin after 2-1 became 3-1 — and knocking his teammate to the ice, creating the most joyous of dogpiles in the right corner?”

‘Capitals headed to playoffs on late-season resurgence,’ by Ryan O’Halloran, The Washington Times

“A year ago, the Washington Capitals were strangers in their own building, limping to another nonplayoff season. For the finale, Verizon Center became Buffalo South. The Sabres were in town, and their fans made up more than half of the 18,277 in attendance.

The Capitals’ fans were drowned out, and superstar Alex Ovechkin was booed every time he touched the puck.

It was embarrassing but expected. When winning teams like Buffalo and Pittsburgh visited, they had the advantage.

Fast-forward to last night in Chinatown. Again, the announced crowd was 18,277. Everything else was different — most importantly, the result.”

‘Dialed in for the Long Stretch,’ by Thomas Boswell, The Washington Post

“What Capitals’ fans have been watching since November, and especially in the last three amazing weeks, is the genuine article, the completely deserved and totally-real happy ending . . . After years of taking it, the Capitals may finally be ready to start dishing it out.”

Filed in Blogs, Corey Masisak, Dan Daly, Hockey Reading, Internet, Media, Print, Stanley Cup Playoffs, Tarik El-Bashir, The Hockey News, Thomas Boswell, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (3)

Victory in the Lion’s Den: A Moment To Savor

By The OFB Team
Thursday, March 6, 2008

Tarik’s Washington Post game file today leads with, “After scoring his second goal of the game, Alex Ovechkin skated toward the corner boards at HSBC Arena, waving his arms in the air, imploring the capacity crowd to increase the volume . . . They did — and he loved every second of it.” Over at the Times, Corey’s game file is headlined, ”Victory for the villian.” Both files allude to Alexander Ovechkin’s bad-guy status in Buffalo – likely made worse last night by his heroics.

There was something superbly schadenfreud-ish for a few fleeting seconds last night as AO skated toward the HSBC plexiglass, victory virtually assured, behind which was perched a confab of the stunned and Slug-sweatered. His arms were raised in triumph, his gaze fixed on them. We wondered what he might possibly have mouthed to them in those sweet seconds of triumph. Then we thought, why not invite our readers to offer up their ideas — the more creative, the better.

So have at it; just what might those sad eyes in their blue-slugged sweaters have lip-read from Ovie?

Ovechkin Celebrates #54 (Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)
Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Buffalo Sabres, Corey Masisak, Schadenfreude, Tarik El-Bashir, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (30)

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

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

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.

Filed in Brooks Laich, Bruce Boudreau, Corey Masisak, Dainius Zubrus, Gary Bettman, George McPhee, Lindsay Czarniak, Mike Vogel, Morning cup-a-joe, NHL Trades, Olaf Kolzig, Peter Bondra, Print, Tarik El-Bashir, WRC, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (8)

Youppi!: Mascot Extraordinaire

By DC Sports Chick
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Youppi! suit- photo from youppi.caAs I was reading Washington Times writer Corey Masisak’s blog today, I was surprised to read this:

I went in a souvenir stand to see what people can buy. There are 10 - yes, 10 - player t-shirts including guys like Guillaume Latendresse, Carey Price (regardless of the fact that he is in the AHL now) and Steve Begin along with the big guns (Kovalev, Koivu and Huet). My favorite thing was an orange t-shirt with Youppi! on it. That almost made its way to Washington.

How could he not bring back a Youppi! shirt? But more importantly, Corey provided a link to the official Youppi! website. My favorite part is where you can make him move (try typing in “run” for an unexpected result). After checking out the rest of the website, I found this item for infants: a Youppi! suit for the bargain price of $40 CDN. Cute or creepy? You be the judge. Let’s just be glad that they don’t make one for adults- no need to encourage the furries. Still, a mascot with his own clothing and accessory line is pretty special. You don’t see babies running around in Slapshot suits.

Filed in Corey Masisak, Montreal Canadiens, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (8)

Bringing New Media Energy to the Old Beat

By pucksandbooks
Friday, January 18, 2008

Know what else is a white-hot success in these hockey parts these days? Corey Masisak’s blog at the Washington Times, “In the Room.” His entry from late yesterday:

“Not only are the Caps dealing with myriad injuries, it has spread to the media. I am officially listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury, but a source close to the situation said there was “a cooking incident” and “it involves 24 stitches and a hand laceration.” Naturally, as we near the playoffs, the organization had no comment on the situation. I am in the lineup tonight but only operating at about 50 percent.”

 

Filed in Blogs, Corey Masisak, Internet, Media, Print, Washington Capitals, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (0)

The Week That Was

By The OFB Team
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Caps Coach Boudreau - Photo by Jim McIsaac - Getty Images

Many, including our own pucksandbooks, were out of town and away from their computers during the holiday when the big news hit. To help catch you up on the week’s events, we’ve compiled some links to a number of articles. We’re bound to have missed some, so feel free to leave us a comment with a link to the missing article.

Filed in Blogs, Bruce Boudreau, Corey Masisak, Internet, Media, Mike Vogel, Tarik El-Bashir, The Hockey News, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (5)

Enshrinement Day for Two from D.C.

By pucksandbooks
Monday, November 12, 2007

Hockey Hall of Fame - LogoTwo members of the Washington Capitals’ family today get inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame: Scott Stevens, who played eight seasons with the Caps, and the late Dave Fay, the team’s beat reporter for the Washington Times for nearly a quarter century. The Hockey Hall of Fame web page offers poignant profiles for all members of the 2007 class of inductees.

Mike Vogel is in Toronto for the ceremony, and not surprisingly, he’s merged business with pleasure, having already filed some thoughts on an OHL game he took in with Ron Weber and the Times’ Corey Masisak this weekend, which featured the game’s next great talent, 2009 draft eligible Jonathon Tavares of the Oshawa Generals.

No doubt we’ll be able to see snippets of the inductees’ speeches tonight in between periods of games, but with Corey and Mike covering the proceedings the best accounts will come from Washington writers this week.

[Update: The NHL Network will be televising the 2007 Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony tonight from 7:30pm - 9:30pm]

Filed in Blogs, Corey Masisak, Dave Fay, Hockey Hall of Fame, Hockey Reading, Internet, Media, NHL Network, Print, Washington Capitals, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (2)

Wide Open Observations of Opening Night (at Home)

By pucksandbooks
Sunday, October 7, 2007

Olie postgameAn attempt to provide a sense of the atmosphere I encountered in and about Verizon Center beginning late Saturday afternoon:

4:45 p.m.: We do not have anything approaching hockey weather. In fact, walking down 6th St. under a blazing sun, I’m uncomfortable in merely bluejeans and a business shirt. But I’m better off than six fans I pass who are outfitted in new red Reebok Caps’ sweaters; they are collapsed and passed out against Verizon Center walls, sweat pouring off their temples. District Police revive them by removing the new sweaters and replacing them with old CCMs. Almost instantly the fans recover.

Seriously, I saw a fair number of fans in these rib-huggers out in the heat, and none of them seemed to be moving 9 percent faster than me.

The Caps have a number of young, attractive staffers scurrying about 6th and F Streets on Segways distributing pocket schedules.

5:05: The former Modell’s Caps’ and Wizards’ gear store, which nobody seems to know is named what now, easily has 60 or 70 shoppers in it two hours before the game. It’s actually quite difficult to move around in, it’s so congested. There is rack after rack of new color and logo caps, and they are disappearing fast. The lines at the two registers are consistently six or seven people deep. The team’s new look has been manufactured in a massive array of fashion in this shop, and it’s clearly popular with fans on opening night at home.

Back outside en route to the press entrance, I seize upon an amazing sight: a band of about 25 or 30 men and women — mostly men — congregated on 7th St. wearing hot red wigs, red dresses, and red athletic shoes. This is no ordinary opening night of hockey at home, I think.

5:20: Predictably, it’s novelty-night crowded in the press lounge. Comcast among other broadcast outlets is doing a remote outside the rink, drawing a lot of media personnel who’d otherwise be in the lounge. I arrive in the lounge with a mission to survey various media for their respective slottings of the Caps in the East this season. Here’s what I achieve:

Mike Vogel: 3rd (obviously, he has the Caps winning the Southeast)

Ron Weber: 10th (ouch!)

Eric McErlain: 7th

Corey Masisak: 7th

Dmitry Chesnokov: 6th

6:00: In the press box I’m seated between Eric McErlain and Dmitry Chesnokov. Meaning, my hockey education will be advanced tonight, and I’ll also have the immediate company of good friends. To the right of Eric is a Voice of America reporter originally from the Czech Republic. A couple of reporters in our row mention that the Caps have preserved a press box working space — all season long — for the departed Dave Fay. I mention to the VOA guy that my recollection was that Mr. Leonsis established that policy within a day or two Dave’s leaving us. Incidentally, the bottom of page 1 of the Caps’ 2007 Media Guide carries a dedication to Fay.

6:15: I’m in the refreshment area of the press box, which is partially glassed in, and seeking quiet there because Tim Lemke of the Washington Times is interviewing me about blogging and its impact on the Caps. He emailed me a week or so ago and informed me that he’d already spoken with Eric McErlain (good idea, that) and Jon Press.

The interview lasts longer than I thought it would simply because Tim and I have a real interesting and easy exchange, and he asks good questions. Also, because I love talking about this topic. Lemke mentions his impression that the four of us put a lot of work into OFB. I don’t quite know how to respond; objectively you could posit that we devote a healthy number of hours each week to the site, but even when I’m writing at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, knowing I’ll be dragging in the office the next day by early afternoon, I never view the endeavor as labor.

Full disclosure (sort of): three times I ask Lemke to turn off his recorder so that we can chat off the record. I want to provide him as full a sense as possible of what has happened to us over the past year, and various members of the hockey community have shared with me, with a good deal of candor, what they perceive the state of things media in D.C. to be. Mike Vogel once told me that 80 percent of what he hears in his hockey travels necessarily has to end up on the cutting room floor. “It’s a good way to preserve friendships,” he told me. Continue reading ›

Filed in Blogs, Comcast SportsNet, Corey Masisak, Dave Fay, Eastern Conference, Hockey Weather, Internet, Media, National Hockey League, Print, Ron Weber, Sovetsky Sport, Sweaters, Tarik El-Bashir, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (13)

Reflections on Training Camp’s Opening Week

By pucksandbooks
Sunday, September 23, 2007

Capitals Training Camp 2007It’s a day of rest not only for Washington Capitals’ players and coaches — well, the players at least — but for the team’s frenzied communications staff as well. Being out at Kettler as much as I have been the past 10 days, I gained a deep appreciation for the commitment of Nate Ewell, Julie Petri, Paul Rovnak, and Mike Vogel, among others. Their days during camp begin early and end late, and at this time of year they’re not only facilitating one of the heavier media flows following camp in years but also putting together the in-season communications products, such as the Media Guide. It’s forecast to be a stunning late September Sunday today, and I hope they’re all out having fun in the fun and recharging their batteries.

The pause in on-ice action is a good time to take stock of what the Caps have achieved thus far in what I believe is the most important training camp in the organization’s history. I made a point during my visits to survey the hockey-savvy heads also taking in the daily doings at Kettler, from print and broadcast reporters to fellow bloggers to fans in the stands, and herewith I’m blending their leading storylines of camp to date with my own.

  • Proud Papa. I’ve regularly seen Owner Leonsis as training camp spectator during the past 10 days, and while it’s true he’s no longer involved with the day-to-day operations of AOL, he remains a busy communications man. I think what’s happened with his training camp interest level mirrors that of the rest of us: the quality and depth of the organization on display is so impressive you are fairly compelled to make the trip out there and simply revel in the turned corner of the team’s competitiveness.
  • Nylander to line 2. Two years ago Michael Nylander left Washington as a very good hockey player. This fall he’s returned but done so appearing to be more a star. He’s a dynamic playmaker, in supreme condition. And while almost everyone in hockey this summer forecasted an Ovechkin-Nylander top-line pairing, way back in July Head Coach Glen Hanlon very publicly stated his intention of experimenting with top-6 forward combinations, and thus far in camp, the conspicuous chemistry appears to have melded among Alexander Semin, Michael Nylander, and Nicklas Backstrom as Hanlon’s second unit.
  • Slick Swede Part II. Speaking of Backstrom, he is irrefutably gaining comfort on the North American-sized sheet of ice — making progress “on a daily basis,” to quote my friend Mike Vogel. At the World Championships in Moscow in May, former Cap and Swedish National Team Head Coach Bengt Gustafsson told us that Backstrom would make that transition successfully and reasonably swiftly, and he was right. Tim Leone up in Hershey thinks it in Backstrom’s, and the Caps’, best interest for him to have a cup of coffee with the Bears this season. Ain’t happening.
  • It’s my puck, and I’m keeping it. The Caps don’t (yet) have a dominant shut-down defenseman, so Glen Hanlon’s strategy for improved defensive play this season rests with his club maintaining possession of the puck more often than in the past two seasons, when often they chased it around the rink in futile fashion. If you have the puck more often than your opposition, your goalie isn’t get apt to face 40 or 50 shots each night, and surrender five or six goals most nights. So far, this strategy appears to be taking hold. In training camp’s scrimmages and through the Caps’ first three preseason games, you can see more puck possession and fewer netminders collapsing from fatigue.
  • Captain, My Captain/Son of Kono-Dahlen-Halpern. I’ve changed my views on cloning, because of Chris Clark. Meaning no disrespect to Dale and his retired sweater, but should Clark captain the Caps to a Stanley Cup title in one of the next three seasons, he will have to be regarded as the best and most important captain in team history, having guided the team from the barrens of an unprecedented bottoming out to the promised land. And sitting here in September 2007, I wouldn’t stand in line to wager against it. (See Carolina ‘05-06, Tampa ‘03-04.)

It is Chris Clark’s team-first, two-way versatility that has Glen Hanlon fantasizing about a two-way, impact third line along the lines of the great Steve Konowalchuk, Jeff Halpern, Ulf Dahlen trio of a few years ago. That line, you’ll recall, was so dominant that Ron Wilson opened just about every game with it. It was also one that was a lynchpin to the Caps’ postseason participation. The coach has told the media that he’s looking for 60 goals from his third line this season, and given the defensive acumen of Clark and Boyd Gordon, and Matt Pettinger’s offensive pop, it’s natural to invoke the KDH comparison.

I’m also not wagering on Clark’s offensive production diminishing, dramatically, by virtue of his dropping down to line 3. As he noted himself on Media Day, he’s spent the past two seasons taking shifts against the likes of Zdeno Chara and top defensive pairings. Less so, it would appear, beginning this season.

  • Deep Depth. The Caps this weekend have 35 players battling for spots on the opening night roster. It’s reasonably easy to forecast another five cuts, but the leap from about 30 to 23 is another matter. To put it charitably, the Caps’ are in uncharted territory, post-lockout, in terms of the skater quality they’ll be showcasing out at Kettler in week two of camp. This is the most basic and encouraging sign of the overall success of the rebuild.
  • Three games, three leads. Through three exhibition games, the Caps have only once fielded a fairly veteran lineup — last Thursday night in Ottawa. They opened in Carolina, against a comparatively veteran Hurricanes’ lineup, dressing only John Erskine and Mike Green on the blueline as guys with significant NHL experience from last season (and with BJ in net). In all three games the Caps have played significant stretches with a lead (twice with two-goal leads). There remain mistakes (penalties) and concerns (penalties) aplenty, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Coach Hanlon’s strategy of playing a more puck possession game is abundantly evident. In order to win more often, a team must first establish competitiveness, then achieve leads in games. The Caps have accomplished both early in this preseason.

The next step is to close the deal once you have the lead.

  • When did Toronto’s print media come to work in Washington? For the first time in my hockey life, I wake each day knowing that with my morning coffee I need to visit the web sites for both of Washington’s big newspapers in order to follow coverage there of Caps’ training camp. There are files there basically every day. And good ones. Additionally, blog files there. This is as it should be, but to our print guys — and most especially the Times’ Corey Masisak, who’s only taking on the beat of a departed legend — good on you.
  • Sharp-dressed men. It’s not anywhere near as important as the talent upgrade, but in this the autumn of uniform mischief, the Caps have showcased the best-looking new threads in the entire league. And it’s not even close. I’ll be particularly grateful when those snazzy white uniform system tops are rightfully returned to wearing on home ice.
Filed in Boyd Gordon, Chris Clark, Comcast SportsNet, Corey Masisak, Dave Steckel, Front Office, George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Lisa Hillary, Matt Pettinger, Michael Nylander, Mike Vogel, Nate Ewell, Nicklas Backstrom, Prospects, Staff, Steve Eminger, Sweaters, Tarik El-Bashir, Ted Leonsis, Tomas Fleischmann, Training Camp, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (4)

I’m Taking a Television Mistress

By pucksandbooks
Friday, September 14, 2007

Cup'pa JoeIt’s Siberia-far from their best work, but the Cure have a song titled ‘Friday I’m in Love.’ I awoke and logged on this morning to news from my bloggermate Gus that beginning in just another couple of weeks cable and satellite television providers all across North America would be offering the puck-crazed their long longed-for NHL Network. Twenty four hours of televised hockey seven days a week three hundred and sixty five days a year.

It’s Friday and I’m in television lust.

Heaven I imagine to offer fellas like me non-stop broadcasts of hockey on enlarged screens in high definition, with a few tab-free beers. Wait, that’s now my new home in Montgomery County in three weeks’ time. (I’m not in a mood to be trifled with particulars such as whether or not Comcast will offer the outlet locally; if it doesn’t, I’ll move. Nobody likes Friday joy-buzz-killers.)

In this region where Steve Czabins and their print ilk would have you believe hardly anyone is truly interested in consuming hockey media, I personally know of 61 individuals who will some time next month order the NHL Network.

If this news is dour in any regard, it is from the vantage of my mother, who’d really like to see me married and laboring toward grandchildren for her. How am I to schedule a date in this new broadcast environs? I have to work, bathe, and blog as it is, and now with this news, bid adieu to all future family and social functions.

pucksandbooks in pjsThis morning I’m actually conceiving bloggers’ pajama parties centered around weekends seated before the NHL Network. The Washington Times’ Corey Masisak debuted his very promising looking blog this week; he’d look funny in a set of those footie pajamas. Imagine if we arranged such an event for some February Saturday and a life-stopping Nor’easter settled in on D.C. right as Grapes was in full fury during Coach’s Corner. Even if we had a few laptops among us I doubt you’d hear from us again.

Here’s one strategem for liberating me from my home this autumn and winter: have that marvel of modern multimedia, the Verizon Center’s new assault-all-of-your senses center ice scoreboard, offer two-hour evening feeds of the NHL Network. It’d be like going to the movies. It’d be my best, last chance at socializing again.

Filed in Coach's Corner, Corey Masisak, Don Cherry, Gary Bettman, Hockey Night in Canada, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, TV, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (2)

Bourque (and Masisak) Get an Early Start

By The OFB Team
Friday, September 7, 2007

The Washington Times’ Corey Masisak has a good article today on Chris Bourque’s early start at the Capitals’ training camp.

“I think this year is a big year for me,” Bourque said. “I think I made some big steps last year from my first year. I am going to do whatever it takes to make it but if not go down to Hershey and do my best down there and see what happens.”

Check it out here.

Filed in Corey Masisak, Rookie Camp, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (5)

In Summer’s Sun, a Stunning Sports Page, June 22, 2007

By The OFB Team
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

All of us had travel commitments last Friday and missed hard copies of the day’s newspapers. A copy of Friday’s Washington Times, however, remained for pucksandbooks in his office on Monday, and Friday’s sports section front from it knocked him out of his chair. Take a gander at the hockey love dramatically illustrated by the Times’ editors for Corey Masisak’s fabulous feature on the lofty state of American hockey these days:

Washington Times Sports Page - 22 June, 2007

That’s not a blowup of the story, that’s its actual layout. Allegedly there are two other stories on C1 from the Times on Friday — you just can’t find them! Patrick Kane’s hometown paper, the Buffalo News, can’t match this hockey journalism feast.

But beyond the sheer size and splendor of the piece, Corey Masisak delivered a grade A overview of the rocket rise of American hockey development today. “Massive gains” American hockey is enjoying, Masisak wrote. We hockey fans in Washington gained massively from his paper and him on Entry Draft Friday.  

Filed in American Hockey, College Hockey, Corey Masisak, DraftGeek, Media, NHL CenterIce, National Hockey League, Print, USA Hockey, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (5)