I was also very impressed by the NHL Network’s presence in Buffalo in the leadup to, and after-event coverage of, the Winter Classic. When the NHL hosts a special event, its network seems to rise to the occasion.

But covering hockey in the dead of winter ought to be like breathing for the rest of us for this network.

I’m not an XM subscriber, but I’m familiar enough with the characteristics of XM 204 to know that puckheads who have it are grateful for it. The league has something good going with XM, and in-season, when the NHL Network broadcasts all two hours of ‘NHL Live’ each day, that’s quality programming. Repeating it in the early evening is wise as well, as most fans aren’t home at 10:00 a.m. to view it. The network in the offseason suffers to some extent by losing such a program, which offers engaging in-studio interactions with serious league insiders like E.J. Hradek and their thoughtful take on league developments, delivered informally and always with enthusiasm. That’s a winner of a TV formula, and the network needs to find some manner of replacement for it in the offseason.

It seems to me that there needs to be a recognition by the network that its patrons in summer are, on some level, seeking an escape from summer heat, from baseball — from NASCAR most particularly. It’s then when we most need images and associations of our frozen game. So why not offer up a re-broadcast of the very first league-sponsored outdoor game, the Heritage Classic, when frosty Edmonton froze up the event’s Zambonis? Some NHL teams are now annually holding one or more practice sessions outdoors (as the Caps do at Chevy Chase Country Club). Footage from those affairs would be especially novel to view in the dog days of summer.

There are also compelling stories emerging from every NHL summer Development Camp. The league’s network should be broadcasting press conferences and prospect interviews and even snippets of scrimmages. When George McPhee beamed in front of cameras at Kettler Capitals last week about the arrival of the Frozen Four in Washington next spring, that was an occasion for all of hockey to celebrate. This is not a league or a sport that goes dark in the dead of summer (influencing, incidentally, the genesis of OnFrozenBlog) — and its TV channel ought to reflect that.

I’ve yet to see ‘Slapshot’ air on the network. May I ask why? Schedule that for one summer Saturday night, and promote it with an appearance by the principal actors offering commentary in interludes, and see if more than 17 folks tune in (the Canadian Parliament will go out of session).

This is a league that is chronicled, on line, by some of the most creative and talented commentators in all of sports. Why wouldn’t the league open up a few hours of its offseason each week on the NHL Network to the wit and wisdom of its bloggers? “My NHL” was advertised by the league just a couple of seasons ago. Make it so on the network in summer, and eventually year round. After all, we’ve given traditional media a fair century at the endeavor, to underwhelming reviews.

The NHL was bold and beautiful with its idea of a Winter Classic; similarly, it needs to be bold and beautiful with its around-the-clock television broadcast branding. Especially during Redskins’ training camp.

Filed in Blogs, Don Cherry, Hockey, Hockey Movies, Internet, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, NHL Network, National Hockey League, Stanley Cup Playoffs, Washington Capitals, Winter Classic| Permalink| Comments (14)

Test Your Cherry Comprehension

By DC Sports Chick
Saturday, July 5, 2008

I have to give Jason Plautz credit: this quiz isn’t as easy as I might have supposed. There are actually one or two puzzlers in the bunch; not sure if that says more about Don Cherry or clowns.

Tough Question
Filed in Don Cherry, Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Wit, TV| Permalink| Comments (13)

Stephen Colbert Solves the HNIC Theme Controversy

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Friday, June 13, 2008

Stephen Colbert ruminates on global warming’s impact on the melting ice caps, and what treasures might be unearthed. One that he thinks the U.S. might steal is the HNIC theme. As Colbert puts it, “The theme to ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ makes everything more exciting, especially American things.”

Punching beavers in the face!
[If the embedded video does not work for you, try this link instead.

Filed in CBC, Hockey, Hockey Night in Canada, Schadenfreude, TSN, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (1)

The End of an Era

By DC Sports Chick
Sunday, June 8, 2008
The Ubiquitous Logo

It’s the end of the road for the Hockey Night in Canada theme song:

After more than 13 months of negotiations, CBC is saddened to announce that a deal has not been reached with the rights holders for an extension of “The Hockey Theme” - CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA theme song.

But wait! There’s a potential silver lining, at least according to CBC:

CBC, in conjunction with leading music producers Nettwerk Music Group, will conduct a nationwide search, inviting Canadians to write and record an original song for CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA. Then, in a debate that is certain to dominate conversations throughout the country, fans and a jury of experts will choose the best new composition. CBC will offer $100,000 for the winning song, which will then become the new “official theme song” of CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA and will be heard in every broadcast.

This could go either way: it’s either going to be a great thing for the show- a sign of the changing times and new millenium- or it could be the musical version of New Coke. Only time will tell.

Update, 06/09/08: CTV managed to score the exclusive rights to “The Hockey Theme.” In your face, CBC!

Filed in CBC, Hockey Night in Canada, Media, Music| Permalink| Comments (10)

Does Hockey Really Need TV?

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, May 20, 2008

By now, you’ve probably read accounts of hockey enjoying a significant spike in the sport’s television ratings recently. No doubt you also know of (and admire) hockey’s embrace of alternative media. That union has been a fusion of opportunism, technology, and desperation. Generally, it seems to be working.

Still, we’re three years into the Crosby-Ovechkin Era, and even with the promise of hockey benefitting dramatically — perhaps moreso than any other sport — from high definition television, there are durable limitations posing a serious ceiling on Television America’s embrace of our frozen game.

One is geography. Climate, while not metaphysically determinative in the matter, nonetheless plays a lead role in forging many puckheads’ attachments to the game. The other is the physical parameters and pacing at play. Football with its rectangular field, allowing many varying camera angles, and regular stops in the action, doesn’t merely allow television a foothold in its event but actually, in its modern incarnation, is determined by it. Or perhaps you’ve missed the past twenty Super Bowls.

But think about the hockey rink, which necessarily with its dasher boards shields three-and-a-half feet of action from the camera eye and many spectators seated low-in-the-bowl. Its oval, walled- and netted-in configuration just isn’t super fan friendly, relative to the playing fields and surfaces of other sports. It ever has to be so.

This week, freshly considering this reality, aware of a new and fabulous North American fascination with the untelevised World Championships, and aware of film increasingly relying on viral marketing, I wondered: just how much does hockey really need TV?

Can hockey go Cloverfield?

Something fantastically viral transpired with these Worlds. True, North American hockey hearts could welcome them into their lives as not before because of their arrival in Canada, and their being contested in North American time zones. But in Washington at least, it seemed to me that many, many more followed this tournament than in recent years past.

They were able to because of the arrival of the World Championship Sports Network. You plunked down $5 and you got about 50 world-class hockey games broadcast on your computer. On demand, too. Folks like me on regular business travel could carry our laptops along on trips and catch the Worlds in our world of airport terminals, bars Wi-Fi, or hotel rooms.

We in D.C. didn’t want to surrender high-level hockey when we were forced to last month, and when in prelude exhibition play for the Worlds word filtered out (virally) that Russia’s top line was comprised entirely of Washington Capitals, a fair number of folks in this region found a storyline they wanted to follow a bit.

In years past, I don’t recall hockey fans clogging my in-box with reactions to the Worlds they were unable to view. They couldn’t. Also in years past, if I wanted some reaction forum on the tournament I was pretty much confined to the tournament message board at hockeysfuture. This spring there was vibrant commentary on the Worlds on the Caps’ official message boards; in comments left here and on other Washington hockey blogs; and perhaps most tellingly, on the media blogs of the Caps’ beat reporters in town.

Now consider, too, the behemoth ESPN’s role in hockey’s rather robust return from its labor stoppage of a few years back. Which is: nothing. People still snicker at the agreement the NHL has with Versus, but the league’s revenues keep on growing. Somehow word is getting out about great hockey being played these days.

Moreover, hockey’s roots in the broadcast medium are with iconic, culture-defining radio personalities (Foster Hewitt) as opposed to John Madden- or Howard Cosell-type mega personalities on TV. I find that charming. And telling.

I’m still fascinated by the X-Files-like thought of Comcast one day rising up and challenging ESPN’s dominance. But if that never happens, if hockey is never accorded a seat at the broadcast dining room table by the usual suspects, is that so bad? It will always have regionalized television coverage. The league’s dedicated channel is a hit with its fans. Its universe of supporters on line grows by the week — and it appears to be broadening internationally, too — and they’re distinctly engaged. And I’m sure the league and its visionary, new media marketers like Leonsis are by no means exhausted of their ideas for broadening further sports’ fans interest in hockey.

Still, what a lovely virus we have at the moment.

Filed in ESPN, Hardcore Hockey Fans, Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Rinks, IIHF, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Radio, TV, World Championships| Permalink| Comments (3)

“Philly-Washington is going to be downright ugly”

By Gustafsson
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Yesterday, the NHL held a media conference call with several big name broadcasters, Don Cherry of CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada”, Mike Emrick from VERSUS and NBC, Pierre McGuire from TSN and NBC and Mike Milbury from NBC and TSN. Each broadcaster started the call with a few words about a series before they took questions. Pierre McGuire spoke of the Caps/Flyers matchup.

PIERRE McGUIRE: Well, I’d like to talk a little bit about the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals. I think this series has a chance to have the most bloodshed of all the series, and the big reason why is because of the targeting that’s going to go on. Whether you talk about going after Alex Ovechkin or even challenging a rookie like Nicklas Backstrom, I think that’s going to be real tough for Backstrom who’s never played in an NHL playoff game.

I think when you look at the Philadelphia Flyers under John Stevens, he brought back a little bit about what made the Flyers good in the 1970s and that’s intimidation. It’s not easy to do now with the way games are being called, but I expect you’re going to see players like Braydon Coburn having an impact on the series Philadelphia is going to win. I think you’re going to see Steve Downie and Scottie Upshaw potentially have an impact if Philadelphia is going to win.

But the thing that Alex Ovechkin does, like any superstar in the NHL, is he attacks the people that are trying to attack him. He will not be intimidated. He’s yet to show that in his three years in the league, so I expect it’s going to come down to a goaltending situation, and who’s going to be the better goalie. And right now neither one of those goalies has won a playoff round in their NHL history.

I think right now Huet has probably got a little bit of an advantage, but I think the MVP of this entire thing is George McPhee, the general manager of the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline. One of the reasons they are in the playoffs is he got Fedorov, he got Matt Cooke who’s been a tremendous energy player for them, and obviously Huet. What they’ve done with Bruce Boudreau is they’ve cultivated talent like Mike Green to put them in a position where they have a chance to succeed.

But when you play against Washington, the most underrated part of their game because everybody focuses on the skill of Kozlov, Fedorov and Ovechkin, they’ve got powers upon powers on defense. Shaone Morrisonn is a big body. They lean on you. They’re not intimidated. This will be a long, physical bloody series and I think the Washington Capitals will win it, but I think they’re going to win it under severe physical duress.

With the storybook season of this year’s Caps — along with the Caps and Flyers being two of the most improved teams this year — a majority of the questions focused on the Caps and Flyers. Here they are:

Q. Pierre, a lot of buzz about Ovechkin as MVP this year. Why beyond statistics do you feel he would be a candidate?

PIERRE McGUIRE: Because he can do it by himself. A lot of guys need other players around him. He can make himself great and make this team win because he is so overwhelmingly dominant because of the physical nature of his game.

The one thing that he does, and Don and Mike coached against him and obviously Mike played against him. Teemu Selanne was great but he needed Andy McDonald with him or another career type of player to do that. Alexander Ovechkin doesn’t need that. You give him a stick and a puck and he doesn’t even need gloves. He’s virtually indestructible. I would call him a cyborg.

When you look at it, he is without a doubt the MVP of the league, and whoever has a vote that doesn’t vote for him should have that vote rescinded. He’s the MVP of the league.

Q. Mike Milbury, you’ve seen a lot of players in your time. Is there anyone that Ovechkin reminds you of, or is he kind of his own man?

MIKE MILBURY: He’s taken it to another level that I haven’t seen. When you see him jumping up against the glass and the enthusiasm that he demonstrates with his teammates, whether it’s him scoring a goal or not doesn’t seem to matter to this guy. There’s no question he’s as electrifying a player as I’ve seen when you put him in that category. Crosby last year was in that similar vein, but I think Ovechkin may have knocked it up a notch. It’s hard to believe that he can, but this is as improbable a run as you’d want to expect from a team that was down and out until Boudreau comes along and turns them into just a fantasy that’s hard to believe. It’s great for Washington and they’ve waited a long time and it looks like they should be good for a lot of years to come.

DON CHERRY: I think George McPhee did a great job. I heard him on the radio, and he said, yes, well, we all knew that Boudreau was a great hockey mind. That’s why he left him in the minors for 17 years I guess it was, and he named him interim. Who’s kidding who? He was there just until he found another coach, and all of a sudden he pulled a little magic out and now he’s staying.

But make no mistake about it, when he first went there, he was just cannon fodder until he found another coach.

MIKE EMRICK: One last thing on Ovechkin, the last time I checked he was tenth in the league in hits, and he’s the scoring champion.

Continue reading ›

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Bruce Boudreau, CBC, Cristobal Huet, Don Cherry, George McPhee, Media, Mike Emrick, Mike Milbury, NBC, National Hockey League, Philadelphia Flyers, Pierre McGuire, Sergei Fedorov, Shaone Morrisonn, Stanley Cup Playoffs, TSN, Versus, Viktor Kozlov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (24)

The Color of Success

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

My good friend Eric McErlain didn’t pick a good night to play hookie from the hockey rink. But he doesn’t have much red in his wardrobe anyway.

But first thing’s first. I asked for one WaPost columnist to attend Tuesday night and George Solomon sent two, including himself. There were enough Post reporters in attendance last night to fairly fill the media elevator. I messaged Dan Steinberg after the game, explaining to him my need now to call out the Post for ‘dissing the Wizards and Redskins in its Caps’ slant. Hah.

(Reader Dave: did you really deliver my letter to the Post yesterday?)

Every Caps’ player in the post game commented on the home crowd. The Caps Tuesday night established their bona fides as an aspiring playoff team to be reckoned with; their supporters in the stands likewise auditioned magnificently for the role of postseason noisemakers of distinction. Both are new to the endeavor — both seem very ready.

Those of us in the hockey blogging community wondered what would happen to our privileged perch in the Verizon Center press box when our sweet secret about this hockey team got out, and a tsunami of bandwagoning old media came a calling. Tuesday night, we learned. To accommodate all of the press demand for the big game the Caps’ media maven Nate Ewell filled every press box seat, two rows deep, on both sides of the sixth floor, and managed to fulfill every media request he fielded, new and old. That impressed me. I’m not going to suggest that should the team make a deep run in the playoffs we in new media will all be there to cover it . . . just maybe reminding Mr. Leonsis of his pledge to ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ to host us in his box should press credentials run short. Hah.

Wow but it was red in the rink. During the national anthem, with the lights dimmed, the three levels of red managed to cast a powerfully pervasive haze of hometown unity. Mr. Leonsis was beaming in the post-game locker room adorned in his red Caps’ sweater. Channel 4’s Lindsay Czarniak looked fetching in a stylish red sweater. (”Fetching”? That’s awful writing. The woman could fill a cathedral of male worshippers wearing a potato sack and mud mask.) Lisa Hillary was red literally from neckline to toe — eager to show off a new red paint job on her toes. Sportscasters Michael Jenkins and Dave Feldman brought their naturally red hair. I wore a smart looking red necktie.

You know who looked reddest of all? Peter Laviolette.

Our good friends from the Hershey Bears sure picked the right night for a visit. John Walton was blogging in-game and delightfully distracted from all those Bears’ injuries by the electric atmosphere in the rink. Tim Leone of the Patriot News was sharing with me his anticipation for next week’s Frozen Four, with the upstart, Cinderella Fighting Irish of Notre Dame having captured his former USC Trojan heart. Chris Poisal summed up the feelings of all from the farm: he came away impressed with this hockey team’s “swagger.” He told me during the second intermission that what he was seeing out on the ice Tuesday night reminded him a lot of the swagger the Hershey Bears had en route to their Calder Cup in 2006.

“This team is going to make the playoffs,” Poisal told me, “and once there, they are going to do damage.”

The game atmospheres feverish hockey fans fantastically improve correspond intimately to the magic their eyes consume. This new Red Army in town seemed Tuesday night unleashed as a fixture battalion on F Street. At times Tuesday, most especially when the home team delivered a glass-rattling check, they ascended to alarming realms of raucousness: with clenched fists they’d turn and pound on the glass partition separating them from the game’s media. It was, initially, somewhat scary — but scary good.

Chalk it up to excessive Red Hook.

Thursday night — and thirty months from now — I can envision the earth-toned-clad hockey fan arriving at the Phone Booth to looks of disdain from his impassioned puck peer in scarlet. Even Gang Green has gone red.

Let’s designate this Wednesday — mercifully for our panic-attack hockeyhearts a gameless day for the home team — a Code Red: meaning, ours is the team and sport white-hot in town, we its supporters now send screams of “Let’s Go Caps!” cascading through Metro tunnels and Green Turtles. Let’s bask in this red glow of victory all day and evening long, get dinner out of the way early and settle in before the TVs for a fresh set of Eastern conference showdowns. And even in our temporary, domestic R&R, dress for battle.

Filed in 2 Points, American Hockey League, Blogs, Carolina Hurricanes, Comcast SportsNet, Dan Steinberg, Hershey Bears, Hockey Night in Canada, Internet, John Walton, Lindsay Czarniak, Lisa Hillary, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, Print, Stanley Cup Playoffs, TV, Tarik El-Bashir, WRC, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (11)

Training Camp for Washington Sports Editors

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Morning Cup-A-JoeNear 8:00 this past Saturday night, Washington’s mainstream sports editors confronted an annual dilemma: the end of another Redskins’ season. Joe Gibbs’ second retirement from football offered our local press horde a brief stay of execution from the Burgundy and Gold beat, but today the harsh reality sets in.

Their dilemma is existential: what now?

To the disappointment of Wizards’ fans, and the horror of Dan Steinberg, Agent Zero recently hinted at the likelihood of shutting it down this season to recover fully from his knee injury. Nats’ pitchers and catchers don’t report south for weeks. We’re many months away from Tiger’s return to town.

Customarily, this season in the D.C. sports calendar dictates that sports editors assign their staff the research and drafting of obituaries for American sports legends solidly on life’s back nine. Long lunches. And vacations.

We at OFB, however, think that with the arrival of Redskin-free Januaries, henceforth and inaugurating with this one, the region’s hockey bloggers, in a joint endeavor with the Washington Capitals, ought to conduct a training camp for MSM sports editors.

To introduce them to the sport of hockey.

In a very real sense, it’d be analogous to the fantasy camps the well-heeled, middle-aged, and portly participate in across all sports. Making no judgment on the physical well being of our MSM editors, it’s abundantly clear that their cognitive acumen with respect to hockey is, shall we say, under exercised. As such, the heart of our camp would feature a fully developed Capitals University for the editors. JoeB is particularly busy at this time of year, but given the claims of this cause, I’d anticipate some creative schedule juggling on his part and ultimately his cooperation.

Orientation would have to start with the most basic of basics: a Mapquest route from WaPost and the various network broadcast studios in the District to Kettler Capitals. Initially, the editors would be picked up and led to the facility by various Caps’ players in a caravan, but as part of a camp final exam, the editors would have to demonstrate their ability to navigate their own way to the Capitals’ new home.

Early on, too, it would imperative to dispel some false assumptions long held by the editors. For instance, on Day One of camp we’d have one of the region’s meteorologists present Dopler data conforming that no reporters covering Caps’ games actually freeze from the experience. Indeed, at Verizon Center, there’s the greater likelihood of visitors suffering heat stroke. It is simply not true that the Caps travel to Saskatchewan to contest their games outdoors December through March.

As part of camp, the editors would be taken on field trips to the region’s rinks — Reston, Ft. Dupont, Columbia and Cabin John — where they would be asked to view the thousands of youths, male and female, clogging the weekend clocks morning, noon, and night with the playing of hockey. They would be asked to sit in the rinks’ stands among players’ parents and interview them about families’ devotion — in finances, time, and travel — to the sport of ice hockey. The tongues the hockey families would speak in would be foreign to the editors, and so bloggers and Caps’ communications professionals like Mike Vogel would be strategically stationed in the stands to facilitate translation.

Back at camp, VIP speakers would address the editors. An emissary from the Canadian Embassy would allege that his home is not in fact a 51st American state or territory, but instead a sovereign nation which celebrates the awe-inspiring playgrounds that nature etches across his home’s landscape for half the calendar year. Executives from cable television providers would arrive and testify to the fact that indeed thousands of Washingtonian households spiritedly subscribe to NHL CenterIce and the NHL Network.

High priests of puck like Don Cherry and Barry Melrose would lunch and cocktail hour with the campers and lead chalkboard Xs and Os and endearing narratives of the sport’s legacy. Melrose would even suggest that here in Washington there is a viable Jack Adams candidate.

Craigh Laughlin and Joe Reekie would lead a discussion of conflict resolution in hockey, and how the United Nations Security Council is not involved.

A professor of comparative literature and linguistics from the University of Maryland would attend and identify the sliver of contemporary professional athletes who commonly speak to the press in complete sentences, often thoughtfully. He will introduce the editors to the concepts of humility and modesty that commonly lace these orations.

The District’s Chief of Police would brief the editors on the needlessness of bringing along weapons of self defense into the players’ rooms during interviews.

Necessarily, camp would conclude with a screening of ‘Slapshot,’ and accompanying consumption of beer would be mandatory.

To prepare for camp, we who conduct it might want to view the film ‘300,’ for in this quest we face the same odds for victory as the Spartans.

Filed in Barry Melrose, Don Cherry, Hockey Movies, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Lisa Hillary, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, Other Sports, Redskins, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (9)

The Great Outdoors: On Ice-Covered Buffalo Wings and Frostbitten Big Lips

By pucksandbooks
Monday, December 31, 2007

Morning Cup-A-JoeMy New Year’s wish: that 64,000 of the expected 74,000 fans packing Buffalo’s football stadium tomorrow afternoon for the Winter Classic are Maple Leaf fans donning blue and white Leafs’ sweaters.

Give the NHL credit when credit is due: the marketing for tomorrow’s game has been — most particularly by NHL standards — superb. Last Friday’s USA Today had lavish coverage of the game and of outdoor hockey in general. The league has fed superb images of the construction of the rink to scores of electronic media, making the Winter Classic a staple of Web sports navigating for at least the past week. And the league is wisely using its broadcast outlet, the NHL Network, as a lead coverage catalyst. Take a look at the broadcast schedule there today, for instance:

1:30 - 4:00 p.m.: Winter Classic Preview

4:00 - 6:00 p.m.: Heritage Classic (Montreal vs. Edmonton)

6:30 p.m.: Sidney Crosby Revealed (skip that) (as if he hasn’t been revealed already enough)

7:00 - 9:30 p.m.: Replay of the Winter Classic Preview

Buffalo of course is nobody’s idea of a holiday destination, but it is in New York, and that has a lot to do with the league getting the coverage it is for this gig. Clearly, it learned a lesson from the Heritage Classic. That was a magnificent event, including as it did the Old Timer’s Game featuring Wayne and his old Oiler teammates and some greats from the Habs’ past. The feature game itself was competitive and well played. But the whole event took place in frozen-over Alberta. It was broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada, but there was zero U.S. television coverage.

There is no longer much in the way of compelling college pigskin on New Years Day anymore, larded as it is with three- and four-loss, third- and fifth-place-in-their-conference teams about the networks. A national champion is never crowned on New Years Day anymore. That’s a travesty.

Scores of NHLers in recent days have expressed support for the league’s staging an outdoor game every year. They speak of games like this with uniform enthusiasm. New Years is the perfect occasion for it.

The NHL has something fantastically distinctive with outdoor hockey. There’s nothing the other sports can do to match it for intrigue. Better: it’s anything but forced, schlocky fabrication — it’s a return to hockey’s roots. And fans, in Canada and the U.S., are responding, in droves. Sabres’ officials last week claimed that they could have sold 150,000 tickets for tomorrow’s game. I don’t dount it.

One hundred thousand of them likely would have come from Toronto.

Filed in Buffalo Sabres, Gary Bettman, Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Rinks, Internet, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Old Time Hockey, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pond Hockey, Sidney Crosby, TV| Permalink| Comments (3)

Leonsis on Bloggers: “They’ve Become a Legitimate Media Outlet”

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Cup'pa JoeWhen it comes to new media and its coverage of the NHL, Ted Leonsis is both visionary and trailblazer, and so it should come as no surprise that his thinking on the matter is anything but static. When “Hockey Night in Canada” came to D.C. a couple of weeks back and profiled the Caps and the team’s bloggers, television viewers caught some snippets of the owner’s new age rationale for embracing the blogosphere. Now there is available the full 18-plus minutes of Ted’s exchange with HNIC’s Elliotte Friedman. [Follow the link to "Hockey Night in Canada," then "Interview," then "Ted Leonsis"] His sentiments are sprawling and savvy and at times startling, and once again, the owner is looking forward:

“We have to be the most new media savvy league and go to where the puck is going to be. I’m not interested in being where the puck is — it’s not that impressive.”

He sets the sporting scene in D.C. in appropriately daunting fashion: “We all live under the spectre of the NFL and the Washington Redskins. We have to find our place. We have one reporter that follows us from the Washington Post. He does magnificent work. I wish there were ten of them, but he’s the only guy.”

“[Tarik] can cover the news, but now having this network of blogs, all of them coming from a different perspective, it helps us sell the game.”

The NHL, with its numerous and ill-fated experiments at improving the televised experience with hockey, must embrace new technology. “Television was our concern 20 years ago,” and it still is today, Leonsis noted. “We’re not going to make it on television.”

Friedman’s piece was well researched. He surveyed all 30 NHL clubs for their respective policies on bloggers. Turns out five or so have blogger friendly policies in place. Three more are considering them. But 17 to 20, Friedman reported, have reviewed the issue and for now have said “no way.”

Leonsis isn’t concerned about the editorial liberties bloggers enjoy or their presumed “lack of accountability.”

“I’m concerned about being ignored,” he told Friedman. “We worked with Off Wing Opinion to craft a Blogger’s Bill of Rights. I take exception [that] there aren’t any standards.”

“I keep hearing we’re going to get burned by a blogger. Oh, like we haven’t been burned by the Washington Post!”

“[Blogs] have become a legitimate media outlet.”

Leonsis emphasized that embracing new media is for the league merely an extension of the relationship its fans have already cultivated, passionately. “All of our fans are wired. They spend most of their time on broadband. They have their mobile devices.”

“People have underestimated the importance of search. They’ve underestimated the influence of Facebook. Facebook has a $15 billion valuation — more than every NHL and NBA team combined. What did they do? They brought a big audience of young Web-savvy customers. We have to look at our business in the same vein.”

So what’s ahead? For starters, the owner contends, increasing acceptance of bloggers and the blogosphere. Additionally, individual blogs that are likely to surpass The Hockey News in popularity and influence. Their quality, he said, “is better than the copy you see in the newspaper.” Then next up comes a very new age role for NHL players.

“Players actually own more of the NHL than the owners do — they get fifty five percent of the revenues. We need to turn players into their own media brands.”

He envisions an NHL with every player on Facebook and Myspace and operating “homesteads” from which they actually sell tickets to the game!

What, you prefer TicketMaster?

Filed in Blogs, Hockey Night in Canada, Internet, Media, OFB, Print, Tarik El-Bashir, Ted Leonsis, The Hockey News, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (6)

Hockey Night in Canada on Bloggers

By The OFB Team
Saturday, December 1, 2007

Our cousins to the north have taken notice of blogging’s impact on coverage of the NHL. Hockey Night in Canada was at the Phone Booth this past week taping a piece on Caps’ bloggers, and it aired tonight. Take a look at the results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrkx-IQsihk

Filed in Blogs, CBC, Hockey Night in Canada, Media, OFB, Ted Leonsis, Video Clips, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (13)

Grapes on Dames at Games

By pucksandbooks
Saturday, November 24, 2007

We wanted to allow Liz to get settled in a bit here before we approached Grapes for his thoughts on our adding a member of the fairer sex to our townhouse of testosterone. In this week of giving thanks, we original OFBers are thankful she’s joined our team and improved our site. It’s been a fun first month together.

Grapes wouldn’t speak to us on the record about this, but he did have a few thoughts about women who attend hockey games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRm_K9OpYbo

Filed in Coach's Corner, Don Cherry, Hockey Night in Canada, Media, TV, Video Clips, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (5)

In Hockey, It’s All in the Family

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Cup'pa JoeQuality human beings comprise the vast majority of the enrollment for the great game of hockey, and so when the giants within it are called upon to offer reflections on their journeys within the game, we shouldn’t be surprised at the quality they offer in that endeavor. It’s impossible to watch the NHL’s Hall of Fame Induction ceremony and not be persuaded that the humility, character, and most particularly the connection to family that hockey players demonstrate and articulate is unrivaled in the landscape of professional sports. Baseball’s induction ceremony this past summer, by virtue of the character of its principal inductees Gwynn and Ripken, seemed to take a step back in time and grace and generate a renewal of honor for a sport badly in need of it. But the NHL, with its highest honor event every November, has it every year.

The billing for Monday night’s ceremony in Toronto was a legends’ list of inductees, the best class ever, but listening to their tales of rising within dedicated families and their unwavering support structures — ones that are extended and amplified within the larger hockey family itself — one felt that this event, seemingly a spectacle for the rare-talent individual, was actually every bit as much an exhibition for the family unit that serves as the perpetual wellspring of greatness in this game.

The cameras last night delivered to us footage of the excellence of the inductees on the ice; their poise and emotion while reflecting on their honor on stage; but also regular glimpses of their families seated nearby and poetic testimonials from their sons as to their invaluable influence. All seemed interrelated and intertwined.

And in point of fact it is. The Hockey Hall of Fame has among its exhibits a simple home’s family room circa 1950 within which family members are gathered around a broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada. It also has a station wagon honoring the pre-dawn pilgrimages to the rink, played out over years through the hardships of Canadian winter, conducted as devoted ritual.

A hockey player’s developmental journey requires nothing short of an all-out commitment of time and resources from families. They arise on weekdays with newspaper delivery trucks to make pre-school practices in frigid blackness. They become road warriors of the winter weekend to travel to games and tournaments, and in 90 percent of Canada and the upper Midwest, that’s often desolate and dangerous travel.

Becoming a hockey player is rarely a fleeting, half-hearted venture. Perhaps that’s why this sport is played with so much heart.

Al MacInnis was the first honoree last night to acknowledge the role of family in his greatness, and as the first-ever Nova Scotian to be enshrined (incredible, that), he made sure that his extended family members in Port Hood knew of their role in his career. They had a place in the Hall of Fame, too, he said.

It was heartening to hear Scott Stevens testify to the impact he felt from his eight years in the Washington Capitals’ family. He thanked David Poile and Bryan Murray from management, and his defensive partner Brian Engblom. He characterized his tenure in town as “a period of growth” and alluded to being a part of the first Capitals’ team to qualify for the postseason — the first of seven straight such in D.C. he was a part of. And he thanked Capitals’ fans for their support.

The tear machine that is Mark Messier of course had ample reflections on the role of family in his career. He had ample reflections period, obliterating the prescribed four minutes for remarks with rambling incoherence that nearly outlasted his career. What if he’d been wearing a tuxedo system designed by Reebok amid all that sobbing?

Messier’s frequent pregnancy-long pauses allowed me to rememeber that at one time his family was reputed to have included Madonna. I rather delight in hockey’s figures of towering talent, their origins in towns of hundreds, their modesty unmatched in or out of professional sports, dalliance-ing with American starlet strumpets. That of course is the exception to the more mundane extension of family in this sport. Hockey players never forget their roots, or lose their attachment to them.

Filed in Baseball, Hockey, Hockey Heroes, Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Rinks, Hockey Weather, Morning cup-a-joe, Old Time Hockey, Other Sports, Reebok, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (2)

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)

On Poorly Conceived PR Pranks

By pucksandbooks
Friday, July 20, 2007

Cup'pa JoeThe news that the Islanders have lured Hall of Fame Coach Al Arbour out of retirement to come back and coach a single game behind their bench on November 3 has the smell of misguided gimmick to it. (He’ll sign a one-day contract the previous day, which the league  apparently will honor.) Certainly the move doesn’t bolster the credibility of the long ridiculed length and alleged meaninglessness of NHL regular season games. And if the Penguins and Islanders are entwined in a tight affair late that night, does Ted Nolan really want a man removed from NHL bench leadership by more than a decade making the vital line calls? Perhaps Arbour won’t, in which case this is a genuine gimmick of credibility demeaning nostalgia. A long disorganized and unserious organization has this week freshly reminded us of the merits of its laughingstock status.

Nolan, apparently, is particularly disturbed that Arbour’s games-coached tally has been stuck on 1,499:

“Every day last season I would walk by that big board outside our locker room at the Coliseum that lists the franchise’s award winners and milestones,” said Nolan. “And every day it would kill me when I’d see Coach Arbour made it to 1,499 games.”

Aren’t players and coaches supposed to leave the game when their genuine and general effectiveness is finished, irrespective off well-rounded-off participation numbers? Isn’t that at the heart of credibility in our games?

To some extent hockey is prone to these showmanship stages of stupidity. Remember Gordie Howe’s appearance in a Detroit Vipers’ uniform at the age of 69 in 1997? It was an outlandish attempt by Howe to obtain credit for “skating professionally” in his sixth or ninth decade. Mr. Hockey has no greater admirer than yours truly, but there were forays in his later years that invited universal criticism for irrefutable unseemliness. And of course there’s the ubiquitously negative association, explanation altogether unnecessary, with Gary Bettman’s “Glo-puck.”      

I’d be interested to know what Don Cherry’s take on this Isles’ prank is this morning.

But here’s a big “but” to my critique of hockey’s looking to the past and attempting to honor it. Such attempts, when appropriately conceived, can be enriching events. Not long after my early visits to Kettler Capitals this past season I had a few discussions with various members’ of the team’s communications staffers about the general appeal and terrific possibilities associated with the Caps’ annual Alumni game. In this shinny new showcase home the game, I told them, could be must-see affair for Caps’ fans of all ages and patronage periods. We all agreed that sooner rather than later the stands would be teeming with puckheads embracing a glimpse of the team’s past.

That alumni game has drawn largely middling participation from Caps past, most commonly of those who’ve remained reasonably near D.C. after their careers ended. But with the team’s uniform unveiling and Entry Draft party last month, we saw the dawning I think of a refreshing embrace of that past, by the team and its alumni, with the likes of Langway, Sylvan Cote, and especially Mike Gartner returning home. I would expect all three to skate in next spring’s Alumni Game, schedules permitting.

Now then, I have this idea for expanding the production values and overall quality of that game. There should be an audio call of it, broadcast in Kettler and on the team’s web site, by a broadcaster lured, for one night, out of his retirement. That same night, this broadcaster should be honored with his own banner raised in the rink. His name is Ron Weber.     

   

Filed in Don Cherry, Morning cup-a-joe, New York Islanders, Ron Weber, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (6)

Cooling Thoughts Amid Mercury Madness: The Heritage Classic, a Reminiscence

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Heritage Classic - Jose Theodore - photo by Getty ImagesOFB reader Chris Meza helpfully reminded me this morning of cooler times, and specifically of November 22, 2003 — date of the Heritage Classic outdoor hockey game between Montreal and Edmonton. Chris is a good person to talk to about that event, seeing as he traveled from Washington all the way to Alberta that weekend to take in the game in the upper deck of Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium. I vividly remember him ringing me on his cell phone from those frozen environs. I asked Chris to share with me his recollections of that remarkable Saturday night.

The league of course selected the late November date seeking optimally chilly and dry conditions for the game. It got chilly all right. That Saturday afternoon, temps were in the single digits. Before the evening was done, the Habs and Oilers were skating in air that reached -28 Fahrenheit.

“The night before, it snowed in Edmonton,” Chris recalled. “It snowed enough and it was cold enough that one of the Zambonis needed for the game froze up.”

There were two games for the early winter hearty to take in that day, an Old Timers one featuring ’70s and ’80s Oilers and Canadians greats and then a standing’s counting one between the contemporary teams afterward. Players for both games were able to skate out onto the makeshift ice surface from their locker rooms.

I asked Chris how he outfitted himself for his perch a hundred feet high in the frosty Alberta night. “I was in winter socks, longjohns, Levis, two shirts, a heavy duty ski coat, gloves, a scarf, and a wool cap,” he said. “The thing I remember most about the fashion that night were the locals, men and women, and even their children, armored in winter coveralls that you commonly see construction workers in when they’re working outdoors in extreme winter.”

He had another vivid recollection from his frozen stadium experience. “I didn’t purchase refreshments from the concessions, because trips to restrooms required . . . well, in all those layers all of us were in, it just took too long,” he laughed.

Heritage Classic - Edmonton, Alberta

It wasn’t just spectators lavishly layered — Montreal netminder Jose Theodore famously added a touque to the top of his goalie mask to try and ward off the tundra chill, and many of the skaters appeared to pull turtlenecks up to their ears.

The league set up two large viewing screens at both ends of Commonwealth for spectators. Chris said that the screens were important for those like him seated up high to follow the play. “So much of the stadium seemed to follow the play on those screens,” Chris said. “Their enthusiasm, with every rush, seemed identical to the passion you associate with a Canadian crowd in a typical arena.”

I asked Chris to identify a lasting image of that November’s frozen feast. “Even in the upper deck where I was, you could see the joy on the faces of the Old-Timer All Stars, their delight in taking shovels and pushing snow off of the playing surface. It just reminded you of hockey’s roots and that the game’s biggest names seemed to relish a return to them.”

Filed in CBC, Edmonton Oilers, Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Weather, Montreal Canadiens, National Hockey League, Old Time Hockey, Puck Sodas, Satellite Hotstove, Shinny, TV, Zambonis| Permalink| Comments (5)

I Can’t Believe It’s Not . . . Don Cherry?

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Don Cherry ImpersonatorCan’t get enough of Don Cherry’s blustery take on hockey and the world in general? Are you sinking into a deep funk at the prospect of a long summer without a little Cherry to brighten your Saturdays? Well now you can have the inimitable Don Cherry experience brought right to your door!

Yes, your dreams have come true: Comedian Clark Robinson is a Don Cherry impersonator whom you can hire out of Calgary for your corporate event or fundraiser. As per the Corporate Comedians website: “Why have some emcee present stock jokes from the internet when you can have a professional comedian present Don Cherry to rock and sock your world! When Don Cherry hosts your event, people listen!”

Sure people listen . . . though he may be hard to hear over that loud suit. Zing! Thank you folks, I’m here all week. Try the prime rib.

Honestly it’s a pretty neat idea, and I can see him getting big laughs at the right event. Hmm, perhaps he can be the celebrant for my wedding . . . Ow! Put down the hockey stick, sweetie, I was just kidding . . .

Filed in Coach's Corner, Don Cherry| Permalink| Comments (3)

Watching Game 4 in Canada

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Gustafsson and I watched Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Canadian soil — at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. Elliot Segal was there to cheer on the Sens, as were fellow blogger friends DC Sports Chick, 1/2 Asian Man, and Ken of Japers’ Rink. You can see Elliot enthralled (along with the rest of us) by Don Cherry’s blustery tirade against modern hockey elbow pads on the far right of the big-screen photo below.

The event was hosted by Connect2Canada, “a way to exchange news and ideas, and find out what is happening in the U.S. related to Canada.” The organization was founded two years ago by former Ambassador Frank McKenna, and is a great source for information about our neighbors to the north.

That holy grail of Canadian beer, Alexander Keith’s, was also present, much to the delight of the evening’s attendees. Even better, we were thrilled to find authentic poutine: french fries topped with cheese curds (squeaky cheese!) and gravy. Trust me, try some if you get the chance; Gustafsson practically had a gravy IV.

While the result of the game disappointed the crowd of Canadians and Canadian well-wishers, the event was a rousing success. Embassy staffers were even kind enough to escort a few of us to the roof for a few photos. Additional thanks to 1/2 Asian Man [and DC Sports Chick] for snapping a few of the interior photos, particularly the one of me gleefully reveling behind our many beverage containers.

Washington Monument
Capitol Dome
Canadian Seal

Continue reading ›

Filed in Alexander Keith's, Anaheim Ducks, Coach's Corner, Don Cherry, Hockey, Ottawa Senators| Permalink| Comments (7)

High Stakes for Hockey Night in Canada

By pucksandbooks
Saturday, April 7, 2007

rivalry.jpgIs tonight’s Habs-Leafs tilt (Air Canada Centre, 7:00) the most significant between these historic franchises in a generation? For the purposes of a bit of fun and novel hype . . . yes. It’s the final game of the season for both teams, and the Habs and Leafs and the Islanders are in a fierce race to the finish for the Eastern conference’s final playoff berth. But as print media in both Canadian cities this morning point out, some of the allure here is tempered by the reality that neither club is a serious Stanley Cup threat.

This morning Montreal resides in 8th place in the East, with 90 points. Toronto is right behind them in 9th, at 89 points. And the Isles, who have two games remaining this weekend (a matinée with Philly today and one with the Devils tomorrow), are in 10th with 88 points. With a win tonight, Montreal is in. The Leafs, however, not only must win but get some help from either Philly or New Jersey to keep from being passed by the Isles.

The Globe and Mail this morning isn’t quite as enamored with the matchup as one south of the 49th might imagine: the two teams are akin to “average high-school students about to take their final exam.” Ouch!

The Toronto Sun on the other hand is embracing the novelty of this winner-almost-takes all showdown: “It’s like the hockey gods decided to give the fans a treat.”

The Montreal Gazette this morning is all over this game. Its home page bears a one-word headline above a photo of the Habs — “Showdown.” Gazette columnist Jack Todd, in his column “This is it, hockey fans — the night of nights,” argues that tonight’s is the biggest game between the teams “since the Toronto Maple Leafs won their last Stanley Cup by upsetting the Canadiens in 1967.”

Wow.

Todd does his part to fan the frenzy:

“Hockey Night in Canada’s ratings will be off the charts tonight, Don Cherry will be in full Maple Leaf drag and in pubs and offices from coast to coast, Leafs and Canadiens fans will taunt and insult one another to the point of fisticuffs.”

NHL.com reporter Evan Grossman points out that while tonight’s is the 682nd meeting of these historic franchises, it is the first to conclude a regular season for both teams in 64 years, and never has such a game between them decided a playoff fate.

Mother Nature is doing Her part to provide an appropriate backdrop. There are April snow showers in both cities, and for those of us here who’ll follow the proceedings via Center Ice, we awoke this morning to a white frosting of our trees and lawns for our Saturday morning joe. I love it.

Filed in Don Cherry, Eastern Conference, Hockey Night in Canada, Media, Montreal Canadiens, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Stanley Cup Playoffs, Toronto Maple Leafs| Permalink| Comments (2)

Leonsis Next Chairman of the NHL Board of Governors?

By Gustafsson
Saturday, February 3, 2007

Ted Leonsis - bio picture from WashingtonCaps.comFollowing the June meeting of the NHL Board of Governors, Harley Hotchkiss will step down as chairman. Hotchkiss was one of the longest serving chairman having served six, two year terms and was a key component in ending the most recent labour dispute, but not until after a season had been canceled.

During Satellite Hotstove on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, Eric Duhastschek noted that the executive committee will compile a short list of canidates for chairman, which is one of the top three jobs in the game. He was told that George Gillette from the Montreal Candadians is someone who might be on the list along with “progressive owner” Ted Leonsis.

Filed in CBC, Hockey Night in Canada, National Hockey League, Satellite Hotstove, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)

Don Cherry Expands on the Web

By Gustafsson
Saturday, February 3, 2007

Coach's Corner on CBCWe at OFB love Don Cherry. We may not always agree with him, but you have to agree that his passion, enthusiasm, and candor is not only refreshing, but should be embraced. I record Hockey Night in Canada on NHL Centre Ice every week to watch Coach’s Corner, if nothing else.

Now there comes some great news from the CBC via Kukla’s Korner.

“CBC.ca will launch a special online version of Coach’s Corner … with new content, design and features. Enhancements include an improved and larger video picture and an online forum allowing hockey fans to submit their remarks regarding Don’s, uh, ‘legendary’ weekly commentary.”

If you have never seen Coach’s Corner, be sure to check it out.

Filed in CBC, Coach's Corner, Don Cherry, Hockey Night in Canada, TV| Permalink|