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.
pucksandbooks: Dear Canada: you can keep Ron MacLean — particularly for attempts at standup comedy.
Gustafsson: Another Versus screwup going to TSN and not CBC . . . Thanks for joining the
program in progress.
pucksandbooks: One of the more under acknowledged aspects of Ovie’s appeal here is his rapport with Capitals’ fans. Notice he directed a personal hello to those who made their way to Verizon Center tonight.
pucksandbooks: Re. Pavel Datsyuk’s inspiring speech: on this front, again Alex Ovechkin is at the very top of his profession. Recall his aggressive efforts to gain command of the native tongue of the land in which he makes his career — he insisted on rooming on the road with an English-speaking teammate. Datsyuk’s been in the NHL for six years. Six. Is it too much to ask that such foreign-born players make more than indifferent efforts to be communicative members of the community?
Gustafsson: Another Russian revolution? Who knew the kids would present better than the adults (granted they were recorded) Interesting to see AO nervous and searching for the words… We’ve never seen that in the post-game locker room.
pucksandbooks: Ya think the league tonight is attempting to convey the image that it’s kid-friendly?
pucksandbooks: Oh *#@*, Datsyuk’s gonna try and speak again. Even MacLean gave him the business on his garbled, incoherent utterances.
Gustafsson: Did you see AOs face when they announced Scotty Bowman as presenter?
DC Sports Chick: Bruce!
OrderedChaos: Bruce!
pucksandbooks: Bruce!
Gustafsson: Bruce!
Empty Maybe: Bruce!
pucksandbooks: Dear Canada: you can keep Ron Maclean — particularly for attempts at standup comedy.
Empty Maybe: Mike Bossy, the anti-Dick Clark
pucksandbooks: Here comes the Calder . . . Kane. The Backstrom hopes I think were pinned on the Hawks’ guys splitting the vote. All three are gonna have spectacular careers, that’s for sure.
DC Sports Chick: Pat Kane, the anti-Pavel Datsyuk.
Gustafsson: I’m interested to see the vote breakdown for all categories with our guys… Was Nicky close? Did Bruce win handily? Did anyone not vote AO?
OrderedChaos: Bettman got introduced and there were no boos. Has that ever happened before?
pucksandbooks: This lifetime achievement award has the chance to be the evening’s highlight. Problem is, Bettman is hosting it. I’m gonna channel Mr. Hockey for a moment: “What am I doing standing next to this putz?”
pucksandbooks: Substantively, that was a strong speech by no. 9. He conveyed his enduring love for hockey (”in the alley, on dirt roads”), and in referencing the game being “in great hands,” he credited not the commissioner but rather the young guns. Who can disagree with him?
Gustafsson: Is there a kid for each nominee backstage or only the one with the winner?
pucksandbooks: Where are the parents?
Empty Maybe: At next year’s awards they should cram the stage with bloggers.
DC Sports Chick: Even Logan the 12-year-old speaks better than Datsyuk.
OrderedChaos: Apparently youth hockey is only played in Canada, as there isn’t an American youth up there to be found.
pucksandbooks: No surprise — Lidstrom takes the Norris. It’d be nice if the Academy Award winners’ speeches carried this evening’s economy of expression. Each one of those lasts longer than the NHL season.
Empty Maybe: I want to take a moment to thank Canada for being unassuming enough to run an awkward, earnest, awkward awards show. The geniuses in L.A. would have Ron MacLean sliding down a firepoll with Eva Mendez and Charisma Carpenter on each arm (stunt technology at it’s best), sip a martini, and then declare that Canadian bacon actually is ham, and that Moosehead beer has been bought out by Coors and will now be called Roadkill Lager.
Gustafsson: Have I missed Milbury accepting best broadcaster?
Empty Maybe: Billy Smith is on stage to present the Vezina. How is it that all of Al Arbour’s players from the ’80s look older than he does?
pucksandbooks: Who accompanied Brodeur to the awards tonight, his wife or her sister?
Empty Maybe: Maybe he’s moved on to the family au pair.
OrderedChaos: It’s Hart time!
Gustafsson: Ovie!
pucksandbooks: Ovie!
DC Sports Chick: Ovie!
Empty Maybe: Shocker!
OrderedChaos: Ovie!
Gustafsson: “You know . . . its all about my team” Perfect.
pucksandbooks: Mayor Fenty, you have a 4:00 appointment tomorrow. But I think you knew that.
Awards and nominations keep coming for the Washington Capitals—and not just to those with the parent club. The Capitals’ 2007 first-round draft pick Karl Alzner has just earned some hardware as a member of the WHL Calgary Hitmen, named both the Western Hockey League’s player of the year and top defenseman:
[Alzner] earned the WHL’s highest individual honour in winning the Four Broncos Trophy, given annually by the WHL to its top player in memory of four Swift Current Broncos who died in a bus crash in 1986.
Alzner also [won] the Bill Hunter Trophy as top defenceman.
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.
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.
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.
Friday, April 11, 2008 7 p.m. Philadelphia at Washington — Comcast SportsNet, VERSUS, TSN, WJFK
Sunday, April 13, 2008 2 p.m. Philadelphia at Washington — NBC, TSN, WJFK
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 7 p.m. Washington at Philadelphia — Comcast SportsNet, VERSUS, TSN, WJFK
Thursday, April 17, 2008 7 p.m. Washington at Philadelphia — Comcast SportsNet, VERSUS, TSN, WJFK
* Saturday, April 19, 2008 1 p.m. Philadelphia at Washington — NBC, TSN, WJFK & 3WT
* Monday, April 21, 2008 TBD Washington at Philadelphia — Comcast SportsNet, VERSUS, TSN, WJFK
* Tuesday, April 22, 2008 TBD Philadelphia at Washington — Comcast SportsNet, TSN, WJFK
* If necessary
Click here to see other series’ schedules.
TSN has a poll on their site this morning on the topic of the week. Vote early and vote often! Here are the current results:
Seriously, this is laziness at its best. How hard is it to check a player’s name- especially in a town where they already have a Kozlov? Not to mention that “Viktor” is spelled wrong too. I suspect that Atlanta just doesn’t care anymore, and who can blame them. Two wins in the last 17 games would depress me too.
Over at the AJC’s Thrashers Blog, Craig Custance shared this item:
Mark Recchi is part owner of the Kamloops Blazers in the WHL and his team is taking on Olaf Kolzig’s Tri-City team in the first round of the playoffs, so they have a sidebet going.
Now THAT could get interesting. According to Custance, the Blazers are the underdog, so Olie could make out well on this deal.
And finally, the sharp-eyed OrderedChaos noted this by saying, “Nicklas has not aged well on Yahoo!”:
Official OFB husband Chanuck visited Kettler today to see the new guys. He wasn’t the only one; apparently the joint was jumping with fans. He noted that Huet signed some autographs after practice, and managed to get a shot of his mask. Check out the strategic placement of the Caps sticker on the chin.
Well, it’s a start. After all, the guy’s only been here a day.
The eagle-eyed Chanuck also noted that TSN has already figured out who this year’s Hart Trophy winner is, so the rest of us can stop guessing. Foppa is truly amazing; he doesn’t even have to play a single game in order to win another award. Now that’s talent!
Details to follow.
[1:20 p.m. Update] TSN: Blue Jackets trade Fedorov to Capitals
[1:30 p.m. Update] TSN: The Caps have parted with 2007 second-round pick defenseman Ted Ruth to acquire Fedorov.
[1:41pm Update] Per the Washington Capitals press release:
ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have acquired center Sergei Fedorov from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Washington draft pick Theo Ruth, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.
Fedorov (SAIR-gay FEH-duh-rahf), 38, is in his 17th NHL season. The six-time NHL All-Star won three Stanley Cups as a member of the Detroit Red Wings (1997, ’98 and 2002), won the Hart Trophy as the league MVP in 1994 and won the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward in 1994 and ’96. A 6’2�, 207-pound native of Pskov, Russia, Fedorov has nine goals and 28 points in 50 games this season for the Blue Jackets.
Fedorov has averaged nearly a point per game in his career, with 1,133 points (470 goals, 663 assists) in 1,178 games with Detroit, Anaheim and Columbus. One of the most decorated Russian-born players in history, he has played in two Olympics, two World Cups, a Canada Cup and three World Junior Championships. He was the first Russian born and trained player to play 1,000 NHL games.
Detroit’s fourth choice, 74th overall, in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, Fedorov played 13 seasons with Detroit before signing with Anaheim as a free agent in 2003. Columbus acquired him via trade on Nov. 15, 2005. In NHL history he ranks 47th in career points (10th among active players), 50th in career goals (12th among active players) and 54th in career assists (13th among active players). Fedorov’s career plus/minus rating of +259 ranks second among all active forwards, trailing only Jaromir Jagr (+272).
Ruth was a second-round selection of the Capitals, 46th overall, in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. The defenseman is currently a freshman at Notre Dame in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
Details to follow.
[12:12pm Update] TSN: Habs trade goaltender Huet to Capitals
[12:22pm Update] Here is the official press release from the Washington Capitals:
ARLINGTON – The Washington Capitals have acquired goaltender Cristobal Huet from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.
Huet (KRIHZ-tuh-buhl YOO-iht), who will turn 33 on March 9, is in his fifth season in the NHL and played in the 2007 NHL All-Star Game. The 6’1�, 204-pound native of Saint-Martin-D’Heres, France, is 21-12-6 this season with a 2.55 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage. He ranks 11th in the NHL in save percentage, 19th in GAA and 19th in victories. Huet has a pair of shutouts this season, most recently a 35-save effort against the Capitals on Jan. 29.
Huet has a 72-59-11-13 record in 170 career NHL games, with a 2.49 GAA and a .917 save percentage. He has 15 career shutouts and led the league in save percentage in 2005-06 with a .929 mark. Huet was the second French-born player to play in the NHL and has represented France in two Olympics.
Huet was a seventh-round choice of the Los Angeles Kings in 2001 and made his North American debut in 2002-03 as a member of the Manchester Monarchs, where he played for Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau. Huet made his NHL debut for the Kings that season, posting a 4-4-1 record in 12 games, and played 41 games in Los Angeles in 2003-04. Montreal acquired him on June 26, 2004, with Radek Bonk in exchange for Mathieu Garon and a third-round draft choice.
The draft choice Washington sends to Montreal is Anaheim’s second-round pick in 2009, previously acquired in exchange for center Brian Sutherby.
At long last, the Capitals have gained some respect above the border. Witness the results of a recent poll on TSN.ca:
It’s a vast improvement from a January 2008 poll on ESPN.com that queried the following:
The Caps still have a lot of work to do in order to win the division, but at least they have the overwhelming support of Canadian hockey fans.
Per a report on TSN:
NHL Network logo
“NHL Network today announced it has reached a one-year extension for broadcast rights to American Hockey League (AHL) games. The broadcast package provides NHL Network, in both Canada and the U.S., with 20 ‘Game of the Week’ match-ups, airing Thursdays at 7 p.m. ET throughout the remainder of the regular season.”
The Hershey Bears will be shown twice with both games in February starting with the game where no love will be lost on Valentine’s Day at the Baby Pens.
Here’s the full schedule from TSN:
November
- Thursday, Nov. 15 - Rochester @ Syracuse at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Nov. 22 - Toronto @ Lake Erie at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Nov. 29 - Lake Erie @ Rochester at 7 p.m. ETDecember
- Thursday, Dec. 6 - Worcester @ Portland at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Dec. 13 - Toronto @ Rochester at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Dec. 20 - Springfield @ Portland at 7 p.m. ETJanuary
- Thursday, Jan. 10 - Lake Erie @ Rockford at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Jan. 17 - Philadelphia @ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Jan. 31 - Lowell @ Portland at 7 p.m. ETFebruary
- Thursday, Feb. 7 - San Antonio @ Lake Erie at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Feb. 14 - Hershey @ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at 7 p.m. ET
Hershey Bears Logo
- Thursday, Feb. 21 - Hershey @ Rochester at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Feb. 28 - Albany @ Rochester at 7 p.m. ETMarch
- Thursday, Mar. 6 - Philadelphia @ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Mar. 13 - Grand Rapids @ Lake Erie at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Mar. 20 - Rochester at Syracuse at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Mar. 27 - Manchester @ Portland at 7 p.m. ETApril
- Thursday, Apr. 3 - Manitoba @ Rochester at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Apr. 10 - Philadelphia @ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at 7 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Apr. 17 - Hamilton @ Lake Erie at 7 p.m. ET
“McKenzie has been covering hockey for the past 26 years and is one of the most respected analysts in the business. His unparalleled contacts in the hockey world, combined with an abundance of hockey knowledge and a genuine love for the game, make McKenzie the most well-informed, trusted, and connected man in the business.”[1]
A nice addition to Comcast’s ongoing Caps Week.
TSN, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated now have NHL mock drafts posted on their respective sites. Two have the Caps selecting London Knights pivot Sam Gagner with the fifth pick; the other predicts the Caps will pick blueliner Karl Alzner of the Calgary Hitmen.Â
Always interesting to see different writers’ interpretation of how a team’s needs and drafting style impacts their selections. One draft even has potential #1 Kyle Turris dropping to sixth.
Feel free to post a comment linking to other mock drafts you may find . . . the more the merrier!
Back in November 2006, TSN came to DC and shot a television commercial for their SportsCentre program starring Alex Ovechkin. Courtesy of the Caps’ website, that video is now available to those of us who don’t get TSN’s Canadian broadcasts. Click here to view the Quicktime video in the Caps’ player and watch our favorite Russian on May Day.
I’ve long been of the opinion that a healthy, playoff-viable NHL club cannot strike out with its selections at any draft; the compensation required for it is too implausible in succeeding drafts. Even with 2002’s success (Semin, Gordon, Eminger, Max II, and through trades Fleischmann and Klepis), there’s a price to be paid for 2001’s failure, and to some extent I think we’re seeing that this season. A lot of the league strengthened itself with that terrific ‘01 class, and the Caps did not.
Jiri Novotny’s acquisition from Buffalo yesterday can be viewed within the prism of belatedly addressing the Caps’ ‘01 shortcomings. An ‘01 draftee, 22nd overall by the Sabres, Novotny now joins new teammate Shaone Morrisonn (Bruins, no. 19 overall) from that class. The Caps at long last have somewhat filled the gaping hole left by summer ’01’s poor drafting.
Speaking of entry drafts, the fax ink from yesterday’s deal with Buffalo wasn’t dry before visitors to the Caps’ message boards could download seemingly dozens of pages of protest from the glass-is-not-only-half-empty, it’s-got-a-chipped-edge-to-meet-your-mouth crowd. At OFB, we’ve long referred to them as the Doom and Gloom set. Their chief point of outrage, it seemed, was a collective sense that the ‘07 Entry Draft was “weak,� and so the Buffalo first rounder, late as it was certain be, wasn’t anything to be happy over. Interesting. 2002, I remember vividly, was alleged to be among the worst pool of talent ever. Even 1996’s draft, which genuinely can be labeled atrocious, eventually delivered Dainius Zubrus to D.C. My point is, every NHL draft possesses talented young hockey players; the job of McPhee and his scouts is to find it.
I’ve another bone to pick with the message board GMs: for years we’ve had to endure their claims that when it comes to Dainius Zubrus, he was a hopelessly misplaced, “non-finishing” top-line center. Let’s all agree that he’s not a no. 1 pivot on a playoff club. But doesn’t it stand to reason that were he more the checking line kind of guy, he most assuredly wouldn’t fetch a no. 1 pick . . . let alone two? And yet, when that’s what Buffalo returned yesterday, these same naysayers wrung their hands over the “poor” return. Hypocrites.
Yesterday was a frenzy of attempted fact gathering by fans and media related to player movement, all of it more or less pursued on line. TSN and the NHL Network were broadcasting breathless accounts of the transactions all day long. One GM recently told Sports Illustrated that deadline day “ought to be a holiday in Canada.� Locally, we in the Capitals’ community are indebted to the committed labor of Tarik El-Bashir, who was lodged all morning, afternoon, and evening at Verizon Center, regularly updating his blog with trade intelligence, and Mike Vogel, who for a period of time yesterday afternoon was brought into the Caps’ hockey operations’ inner circle. The efforts of both men made for a marvelously compelling afternoon. If you weren’t convinced before about the revolution taking place in hockey news coverage — most particularly this season — yesterday ought to have ushered in a fresh reconsideration for you.
Tarik is on it.
An ‘07 first rounder and young, former first-round center Jiri Novotny are coming back.
Pierre McGuire, on TSN this afternoon: “We have to take the robber’s mask off of George McPhee’s face.”
2:45 update: Mike Vogel has been invited into the Caps’ “war room” this afternoon by George McPhee and is reporting that “more irons are in the fire.” Cool stuff.
Former NHL coach and scout Pierre McGuire is currently an analyst providing colour commentary for both Canada’s TSN and The NHL on NBC. McGuire’s point of view for Sunday’s broadcast of the Caps/Pens tilt was “Inside the Glass,” between the two team benches, giving him a unique perspective.
Check out McGuire’s endorsement of the Caps on his NHL Notebook on NBCSports.com:
“The Washington Capitals are the sleeping giants of the East. They have the lowest payroll in the conference, a great young prospect in Swedish centerman Nicklas Backstrom, and a GM (George McPhee) and Coach (Glen Hanlon) who are progressive and on the same page. The Caps are one season away from being the Penguins. Exciting times in Washington are coming.”
The Pens, it pains us to say, have surged to fourth place in the Eastern Conference and are tied for sixth in the league overall. But we’ll take a little of their MoJo, sooner rather than later.
The NHL has gathered over 20 regional broadcasters in an effort to standardize the operation of the game camera, which provides the master shot of the broadcast. Among the NHL’s instructional team is Al Mountford who shot the “Miracle on ice” at Lake Placid in 1980 and has operated the game camera for the Stanley Cup finals on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada.
“The trick is to select the right position on the lens so the viewer gets optimum pleasure out of watching the game,” Mountford said. “If you can watch the game and not notice the camera moving very much it’s usually a combination of the fellow doing a good job and the game being exciting. It’s got to look right. One of the problems is, it’s not always the same crew doing the game or the same guy doing the game camera.”
Unlike their desire to “fix what ain’t broke“, the NHL’s latest endeavour can only have positive results.
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