Nostrum cousins ut north have captus animadverto of bloggings’ labefactum in occulto of NHL. Hockey Nox noctis in Canalis eram procul Phone Tabernus is preteritus week taping a piece in Caps’ bloggers, quod is aired tonight. Take a inviso praecessi:
Procer Is Stipes
A penetranter turbo animadverto est captus habitum pro Caput is season: they mos non species pro playoffs; “ quinque- annus intentio” pro peractio of a hortus- sursum redivivus est certain sumo longer Alexander; Ovechkin est pessime egenus a suscipio iacio; quod absentis a professio, Olie Kolzigs’ tutela moris’ terminus in palma.
Caps moris’ planto playoffs is annus pro unus simplex causa: they pulvis’ bonus satis.
Is est frustror, quod Ted Leonsis may sentio is unacceptable procul seasons’ terminus, quod coepi nonnullus ratio of procuratio incumbo. Tamen quis’ forsitan tristissimus of totus est animadverto ut est sensim tamen plurimus certe certo occasus in on Olaf Kolzig. Had redivivus obviam Vas litis secuutus procuratio’ envisioned calendar of quinque annus, hed’ have capped suus Caps’ tutela in teres quod vindico formo. Is mereo mereor ut progredior a victor, secundum totus hes’ fidelis been per hic. However, absent a professio– an increasingly Dale Venator- amo possibility ut season progressio, IMO — totus abyssus’ have exhibeo pro suus fidelitas ut Caps per preteritus quinque seasons of lost- in--wilderness superstes vae est an appreciative fan substructio’ adoration. Quod quis vires probo proprie excruciating pro suus fans quod him is ut a verum, durably strong Caps’ stipes may insisto velox in heels of suus profectio.
Pro Alexander Ovechkin, tendo animadverto est recedentia minor daunting. Hes certain’ futurus re- summus per Caps procul an alienigena summa, quod team inter him, eventually, ero per validus. Magis quod magis suus tutela est orsa ut similitudo Caltha Lemieuxs’ in suus chronology: ut Aula of Laus prodigo suus primoris quattuor NHL seasons absentis playoffs, tunc saving a suffragium per championships. Comparisons with Crux crucis in Pittsburgh hodie es baseless: Pens erant puter satis porro satis habeo constipatus Sid per aurum vexillum bulla. Ovechkin has Backstrom, a rookie ut league quod ut North America. Si Alexander Semin suo lemma in All Astrum status it mos only occur ut valetudo arrives.
Is eram understandable tamen nonetheless peius- monitus pro George McPhee quod Ted Leonsis ut ferreus-wire, publicly, the Caps’ redivivus ut nonnullus predetermined plot of quinquennis. animadverto est ut in pro sports calendars of competitiveness es quisquam tamen fixed and predetermined. Erant they secus, magis teams would suscipio lemma. Primoris- teres (Sutherby, Magnificentia) quisnam tamen a annus vel sic abhinc videor futurus aedificium edificium blocks are hodie iam jettisoned vel afterthoughts. Res Pettinger quoque may non ultimately probo futurus a secui of Caps’ palma core. Illa disappointments dont’ reddo dramatic misfires per management so ultum as they operor a cognatus typical progression toward the destination of firmus postseason impleo. Inter Avs, Diabolus quod Pennae illic erant a letanie of primoris- rotundus flameouts. The key in hockey ut res firmus bonus est primoris potuisse firmus nocens — verus nocens. Per tamen duos lottery picks in suum roster Caps es nusquam near in possessio of rebuilding clausus exaggeratus per solum nutritor stipes annus abhinc in Ottawa, San Jose, Detroit, quod Novus Jersey.
prosperitas in Philadelphia is season est testimonium of permaneo seasons’ 30th locus perago res an aberration. Totus amplexus is has been postseason qualification.
Multus of velico of George McPhee illa dies centers in teams’ failures in spite of suus roster res larded per primoris- teres. Duos sententia super is. Unus, dum aggregate numerus of lemma est cognatus altus, plures erant plucked ex crap-shoot bottom dimidium of rotundus unus. Neque nec, incidentally, from cognatus pallens draft ordo. Unus of causa McPhee eram validus adipiscor quot primoris teres ut is did preteritus quinquennis eram quoniam suus incomparabilis sententia cognatus parum of lemma. Tamen parumper team in cinis cineris, is eram sapiens ut ausus in species emerging ex talis volubilis . . . per predictable attero a secui of equation.
Mike Viridis, Alexander Semin, and Boyd Gordon are jewels ex is ars. Tamen Jeff Schutlz, Joe Finley, Eric Fehr, quod Sasha Pokulok es non. Nondum. Unus vel duos may ultimately probo futurus firmus effectrix in Caps’ lascivio teams, tamen hodie they pulvis’. Quod ut magis quam ullus alius causa est quare Caps es qua they es.
Nimium obvius of prestolatio eram foisted super 19- annus- vetus Nicklas Backstrom this fall. Hes’ a rookie velox emerging ut a legio Calder candide — factum satis. Ut statua him lynchpin of a season- porro, uber secundus versus, per haud pro hockey usus in North America whatsoever, was delusional quod vacuus preeo.
Tamen valde patientia semino valde somnium. Bruce Boudreau-led Caps es suscitatio ex annus of nightmare hockey. They iustus dont’ etiamnunc have somnus swept ex their eyes.
Lavatio Vicis’ lusum res opinio Tim Lemke prodigo a numerus of weeks interviewing a numerus of tellus’ hockey bloggers, suus penitus piqued per suum prevalence in Quin Center press arca archa pro Caps’ venatus. “haud team in professio lusum dedi quantus quantus unfettered obvius ut bloggers ut Caps,” Lemke writes huic oriens’ Vicis.
“scriptor ex a dimidium-dozen alius blogs, comprehendo Iocus’ Rink, DC Bene quodA Visum ex Vilis Sessio, es in premises, cranking sicco stipes ut analyze panton ex Caps’ novus similitudo ut Turbo’ vox- lascivio tutaminis. They es affectionately accersitus “blogger populus” quod es secui of proventus — quod unique — ars per Caps comprehendo novus interventus exitus quinymo quam servo lemma procul an telum’ tractus.
Nos erant proprie appreciative ut Lemke promeritum Off Pennae Sententia’ Eric McErlain pro suus persona in fundo protocols pro bloggers volens tectum team.
“McErlain opus per Leonsis quod Caps’ publicus consanguinei baculus in professio a “Bloggers Bill of Vox” ut would tribuo obvius ut plurrimi strenuus bloggers dum outlining sceptrum of etiquette quod professionalism.”
Lemke infero per excipio Ted Leonsis’ commitment ut novus interventus vestis suus team quod suus lusum:
“quis venio si Caps planto a profundus lascivio run?”
“tunc they can adveho sit in proprietas box,” Leonsis said. “peius’ reperio lemma a locus sedeo. Spero nos have ut proventus. Id’ amo ut exsisto vultus procul ut plurrimi novus interventus-savvy, blog-centric of teams. Si nos lucror, ut network iustus succurro vos ut servo ut momentum iens”
Vos can lego Lemkes’ piece hic.
Tonight, Ipsa Gero es in Iunctio ludo Bridgeport Sanus Tigers. They left yesterday meridianus supervacuus per prandium vicis, sino ubertas of sileo pro puck occumbo. Servo in mens, is est AHL qua vos eo vetus schola. Vos eo per bus. Is trinus est truculenter a quattuor hora veho — vacuus traffic.
Gero’ radio vox vocis John Walton didnt’ permissum a bus veho prohibeo suus blogging. Gratiae ut wireless penitus (via cell technology, scilicet), is eram stipes “ex posh amplexus of team bus” quod gave nos a subluceo of vita in AHL.
guys es captus in “ vesica of Palma” in bus is meridianus per Mos Ferrell. Si vos havent’ auditus mihi profero is in radio pro, movies in team bus es centum sentio lectio of caput capitis cogo. Illic est haud vultus of democracy tendo quondam erant’ rota sursum ut is adveho ut television programming. Usitas movies es ok, amo hodie. Illic es alius vicis Ive’ duco escendo sursum in roof impetro a quisquis’ res ostendo. Hodie est a bonus dies, sententia. Totus secui of a dies’ opus in via.
Procul a novus placitum yesterday, Lavatio Caput chairman quod major domus erus Ted Leonsis orator of quam professio athletes es sepius laudabilis pro suum virtus. Is innotesco ut virtus can take plures vultus, ex vir nostri bellicus quod primoris respondeo ut nostrum liberi pugna morbus. Ut reperio a via ut suum universus norma quod fans could ostendo suum suscipio, they partum Virtus Caps.
Virtus Caps es team- proventus quod torqueo hats quod ero miles militis, satus October 26th, pro $20 procul defero consanguinei traba procul Caput domus venatus quod online proculWashingtonCaps.com quodNHL.com. “ut nostrum fans gero illa hats”, Leonsis persevero, “they ostendo suum suscipio pro fortis populus per nostrum defero”
Quod, taedium of Virtus Caps hats ostendo suscipio, venditio suggero financial suscipio. centum% of venditio pretium mos vado beneficium CureSearch Populus Childhood Baculus Crepidoinis. CureSearch est a Bethesda- substructio nonprofit “ quod an NHL charitable socius ut focuses in erigo crumens pro Children’s Oncology Humus, world’s amplus consensio cancer research norma ut tracto 90% of liberi per cancer”
team electus an vetus amicus iuvo debut is novus progressio, pro press placitum took locus per teams’ annual saluto ut Liberi’ Populus Medical Center. universus team, Leonsis quod socius Raul Fernandez erant procul hospitium pro press placitum.
Pro annus Audivi of teams’ saluto ut Liberi’ Populus Medical Center, tamen is eram prothoplastus vicis ut EGO eram in manus manus ut vigilo ludio ludius quod liberi penitus. Ut a abbas of a quattuor- annus- vetus per alter obvius, saluto eram heartwarming quod tear-jerking. ludio ludius — totus of lemma — sat down procul traba quod infucatus per liberi ut erant puteus satis dimitto suum beds quod exsisto patesco ut unmasked salutor quod untold germen. Is infractus meus pectus pectoris video vidi visum illa liberi, nonnullus in wheelchairs, alius per multiplex IV tubes quod fascia, quod admiratio qualis abyssus they quod suum parentes es victus. Tamen tunc vos animadverto smiles in suum visio ut Sarcalogos Expedio chirographum a hat pro lemma, vel Brent Johnson asks quis colo colui cultum is should colo colui cultum hockey ludio ludius’ galea, vel ut aliquantulus puella runs super ut Olie Kolzig ut inquit “Hi illic pigtails, quam es vos?” Illic est quoque a simplex tripudium of seeing illa amplus- quam- vita hockey ludio ludius sessio per suum ventus Crayola hue quod trying moror in versus.
EGO eram narro per hospitium’ procurator of publicus consanguinei, Emily Dammeyer, quisnam told mihi ut is est hospitium’ ventus vicis of annus. “They vere prodigo vicis per liberi, non iustus planto an vultus, singulariter upstairs qua venit es off.”
Quod no mihi recordor Olie, quisnam non tantum has been coming ut Liberi’ Populus Medical Center praeter quisquam alius in norma, tamen est quoque a abbas. EGO asked him quam is usus has changed ex pro is eram a dad ut secundum.
“Ive’ usquequaque had a fondness pro kids, quod been a magnus puto ut res a kid quod res infirmus shouldnt’ vado manus manus in manus manus … tunc vos fio a abbas tunc vos animadverto quam vital is est habeo a facility amo is”
Solus res absentis ex yesterdays’ vicis eram interventus. Press solvo renuntio vicis quod photo op erant sent sicco per Caput quod Liberi’ Populus Medical Center. Forsitan EGO requiro nonnullus visio quod nomen, tamen EGO puto tantum Ego, a Comcast SportsNet TV Cameraman, quod duos photographers famulor. Quam talis tremendous officina per an norma quod suus ludio ludius can vado unnoticed vel per parum penitus est repugnant.
Meus gratiae progredior ut Caput quod sulum procul Liberi’ Populus Medical Center, singulariter Emily Dammeyer quod Vestigium Miller, pro affording mihi beneficium arbitro arbitror is annual vicis of pietas quod charisma.
Pauci magis pictures of vicis can exsisto seen secundum effrego.
Lavatio Caput iustus privatus sequens editio contemplor Comcast SportsNet Plus quod Cox Communications.
Nos desiderium quod apologize pro inopportunitas. Nos volo quot populus ut possible habeo obvius ut Caps hockey. Caput es spes a consilium inter Comcast corpus, Comcast SportsNets’ parentis vexillum, quod Cox Communications ero pervenio in upcoming dies.
Si vos es ut preoccupo ut nos es, vero, tunc Hortamur vos voco Cox cable ( mediocris 703-378-8422, Fredericksburg 540-373-6343 vel Hampton Via 757-224-1111), dico lemma vos es a Cox subscriber quod scisco lemma gero CSN+ occulto of Caput hockey.
Tantum Cox Communications subscribers es impacted; sulum alius major domus cable quod satellite suggero in Lavatio, D.C., tellus, per eximius of Cox, mos veho venatus in CSN+. Fans can reperio vox channel pro venatus per vultus sursum suum television suggero quod CSN+ channel online: stipes in utcomcastsportsnet.com, sumo “Baltimore- Lavatio, D.C.” quod utor zip code reperio.
EGO sum opus is proventus totus dies hodie per Comcast, Cox quod locus habenae. Subsisto tuned.
- Ted
Procer Is Stipes
Ex vicis ut vicis, nos adepto emails ex nostrum lector informing nos of hockey tidbits vel alius happenings ut nos vires secus requiro. Nonnullus es blog dignus, nonnullus es non. Nostrum plurimus repens email adveho in vigoratus of OFBs’ primoris libri opinio. Mr. Leonsis attributa nos nostrum tunc libri per transporto nos a link ut a libriprofessor obviusParietis Vicus Iter itineris.
In suus tardus libri,Andy Roddick Pello pepulli pulsum Mihi per a Frying Pan: Captus Agri per Pro Athletes quod Olympic Legends respondeo Lusum Fans’ Igneus Questions, scriptor Todd Gallagher tackles nonnullus of lusum magis sententia provoking questions. Unus talis question est quare an NHL team has non indutus an obese calx ut plene repleo net sic contradictio couldnt’ possibly ustulo?
Gallagher scisco forensis, interventus, physical quod practical proventus question erigo. Reperio a morbidly obese calx est a challenge, sic is has a proprius- presencia guru molior a pinguis interpellatio ut replicate talis an “athlete”.
Solus via ut copiose expertus is ratio eram impetro an NHL team ut surculus obviam faux fatso. Meus suspicio emendator, Jed Datum, got in tactus per a socius Georgetown graduate quisnam eram effectus prope pariter ut sit: Ted Leonsis, billionaire erus of Lavatio Caput, quos Lusum Novus quondam accersitus unus of viginti plurimus validus populus in lusum. Leonsis, quisnam no suus sors obvius universitas of telecommunications quod technology, est aliquantulus of a visum. Quod dum suus visum may non have exemplar comprehendo sino professio hockey team is owns sumo slapshots procul a guy in a pinguis interpellatio, is saw potential quod gave attonitus viridis lux lucis.
Per a team of altus solers surculus in locus, nos necessarius quispiam impetro in interpellatio. EGO certainly wasnt’ iens efficio is (insert fake malum/ailment/ nota ex meus mom hic), sic EGO inscribo George Cimentarius Universitas calx Trevor Promus.
experiment eram obviously se gero pro terminus of permaneo season, tamen reactions es haud minor funny.
Suum reactions erant vel minor foveo quam Johannas’ glacialis respondeo erant. Plurimus ludio ludius volo nusquam efficio per an barrus calx. Tutaminis Ben Clymer eram sic verecundor of res socius per lacus ut is exertus ut identify sui per a fake nomen ( is adsuesco assuesco center Kris Beechs’). Volatilis Fastidiosus Zubrus loco is bluntly: “is would exsisto embarrassing si illic eram a calx ut big.” Tutaminis Steve Magnificentia affirmo meus pessimus vereor super quam nostrum magnus vir would exsisto suscipio ut is said adversus teams would simplex capto run him super in net. Verus Kris Beech had an vel magis cavum ineo pro nostrum novus astrum: “vos vires telum him quod animadverto si chocolate venit out.”
excerpt est a valde lego, quod dum is may exsisto solus hockey reference in libri, is est unus EGO vultus porro ut lectio.
Nostrum gratiae progredior utTed pro caput capitis sursum.
Weve’ blogged pro preteritus 365 dies quoniam weve’ instituo is a fun exitus pro nostrum perturbatio pro puck — quod imprimis, pro nostrum perturbatio pro puck in illa secui. Nos agnosco perception ut Lavatio isnt’ a hockey urbs. Tamen vox iam Lavatio est summopere a hockey blogging urbs, quod ut hodiernus nos have been tamen unus vegrandis vox vocis intus ut vibrant e- defero pro unus annus. Suus’ stupendum nobis tracto quatenus interventus universe has altus quod evolved quod etiam vel amplio in suus coverage of the Caps and the sport in the past year.
We would have blogged with passion aplenty absent any intervention from the Washington Capitals, but in reflecting on the past year, we’re overwhelmed by the support we’ve received from the team’s communications professionals, its athletes, and that filmmaker fella with the nice perch at Verizon Center. The very first comment left at OFB one year ago today was from Mike Vogel. The second came from Ted Leonsis. The next thing we knew we were being invited into Verizon Center’s press box and players’ rooms. What’s excited us most about that remarkable hospitality is its visionary democracy: the Caps have led the entire professional sports industry in laying out the welcome mat to committed bloggers, and there were times last season when a press box row was populated entirely by bloggers.
Bloggers are a byproduct of new media, but many of the hockey bloggers in Washington we’ve met the past year were the byproduct of old media: locally, a malignant one. Bloggers swooped in to fill a vicious vacuum, a dereliction of duty to provide the most basic coverage of the pro hockey team in town. A sense of “We’re fed up and we’re gonna do something about it” fueled OFB’s formation. One year later we’re pleased to report progress by the old guard, but we’re mindful of the too many years of sneering neglect, and By George (Michael), we’re gonna keep our guard up!
Many of our readers shared our frustration with old media while others at times thought our critique too shrill. We might all agree on this: a great sport deserves great media coverage. If you don’t believe that hockey is the greatest sport on the planet you’re in the wrong forum.
Maybe in year two we’ll set the goal of getting Kornheiser and Wilbon attired in new Caps’ sweaters on the set of PTI. Would that be any more ludicrous than the new bloggers on the block blogging from Moscow?
If the Caps were first in impact upon us in year one our readers were a close second. The four of us believe we have some of the most loyal readers in hockey’s online community. Just yesterday we received a note from a reader recently moved to France informing us of his devotion to the Caps and his intentions of following them this season via this site. All we can do with a sentiment like that is say we’re honored by the patronage, but remember that from our vantage we’re merely new-age pool reporters whose voices represent the underserved.
In form we are identified as four in this forum, but we prattle, prod, and publish in a voice we feel is echoed all over the hockey continent. We’ve heard your echoes here often, and chorused with ours they form a fine harmony.
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Gustafsson and I attended Tuesday’s 2007 Capitals Media Day at the Verizon Center. After opening remarks by owner Ted Leonsis, an open session followed. Here are a few highlights:
Pearls of Wisdom from Ron Weber
I struck up a conversation with Capitals radio great Ron Weber. We were both gazing out at the empty ice surface as chatted about hockey history for a bit, such as the fact that only one team, the Montreal Canadiens, used to have blue lines along the bottom of the boards rather than the standard yellow. He also (without my prompting) commented on the lack of out-of-town scoreboards and real-time clock; we were both hopeful that the cloth-draped ends of the lower ribbon displays will be unveiled as scoreboards on opening night.
The most interesting tidbit he shared with me was in the form of a question. “See the red line?” he asked. “Do you know why it’s not a solid line, but has those white spaces along the line?” I confessed that I did not. “Well,” he explained, “back when they started broadcasting hockey games, they couldn’t tell on close-up camera shots whether the player was skating over the blue line or the red line . . . because on black-and-white televisions they looked the same. So the NHL made a rule that the red line had to have those white marks, so viewers could tell the difference between the lines. Not that anyone is watching on a black-and-white TV today, but they’ve still kept it that way.”
Breathe Deep the DC Air
Among the many media folks at the event was Comcast SportsNet’s wonderfully friendly Lisa Hillary. Ted Leonsis, Hillary, Gustafsson and I were chatting about the upcoming season after Leonsis and Hillary taped an interview for Comcast. Leonsis apologized for his rough voice. “It’s the mold,” he explained — and I sympathized, as a few days ago I awoke with what I thought was a bad cold but was in fact a sore throat caused by the incredibly high count of mold allergens in the air. Hillary remarked on the clean Northern air, “We never had to worry about mold in Ottawa!” Welcome to DC, Ms. Hillary, and good luck in the humid, pollen-ridden, exhaust-fume-choked DC air this spring. Bring Claritin!
At right, a photo of Lisa Hillary and Dave Steckel. Steckel’s impressive camp and preseason have earned him a spot on the Capitals’ opening night roster.
Q & A with Tomas Fleischmann
OFB: You had a shorter season than most of the Caps with your Calder Cup playoff run last year. Looking back, could you imagine then that four months later you’d not only make the team, but be skating with Alex Ovechkin?
Fleischmann: You never know, this is hockey! I didn’t think about it, I just went to summer workouts and worked hard in training camp to make the top two lines . . . You have to work every day, be better every day. I’m just excited and can’t wait for our first game.
OFB: How were those Calder Cup runs, and how do you think that will prepare you for an 82-game schedule in the NHL, and hopefully the playoffs?
Fleischmann: That was a great experience . . . the first thing you have to do in the playoffs is have a good group of guys who want to win, and play for the Cup. Everyone has to do his job, and that’s what it takes. And if everything works like that, it works every time on the ice.
OFB: And you feel that’s what the Capitals have this year?
Fleischmann: Oh, exactly, that’s the way I feel.
As do we, Tomas, as do we.
Pete Kerzel’s preview of the Caps for the Hockey News’ 2007-08 Yearbook is rather dour — he sees them on the outside of the Eastern conference playoffs looking in, and emphasizes instead “incremental improvement is much more likely.” His file also has a ring of outdated-ness to it; he identified the Caps’ Tomas Fleischmann as fifth on the Caps’ depth chart of left wings, among other personnel oddities. And he claimed that the team’s third and fourth lines were weak points, when in fact, early this autumn, they appear to be pgraded over recent seasons (as in adding a 30-goal scorer to one of them).
But Kerzel’s concluding paragraph caught my eye in a more positive light:
“Majority owner Ted Leonsis, an AOL executive, gave players laptops upon taking over the team in 1999 and the coaching staff is among the most tech-savvy in the league, using specifically constructed computer programs for in-game strategizing. Leonsis blogs regularly on the team website, and his ruminations have spawned several dedicated fan blogs. They’re smart, sassy, irreverent must-reads, mainly because they keep the team honest and in touch with fans.”
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It’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.
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.
The next step is to close the deal once you have the lead.
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A week to the day after the Kettler Capitals Complex afforded me empirical evidence of hockey’s return, I headed up Rt. 83 North to take in Media Day and the opening of training camp for the Hershey Bears this morning. I noticed that the Maryland and Pennsylvania trees bore the earliest tinges of autumn’s colors, and so the confirmation of hockey season’s arrival indoors last week was matched by one outdoors this. I rarely pass up a chance to visit our affiliate, the best in all of hockey, and today delivered me my first immersion in the formal start of a Bears’ season.
One of the first things I noticed was that the Capitals’ new crest rests opposite the Bears’ on Giant Center’s center ice. I also noticed the AHL training camp’s size: on opening day it is modest in personnel relative to an NHL camp — a total of 33 skaters (and just three goalies) dressed for Bruce Boudreau and his staff during two sessions this morning and afternoon. More of course will join in the days ahead, as the Caps make more cuts.
And just a handful of fans perched themselves down low for today’s opening session at 10:00 a.m.
I was roaming around the dark Giant Center concourse all alone near 10:00 when by accident I spotted Tim Leone of The Patriot News and the Bears’ John Walton above me. They knew a confused newcomer when they saw him, and diverted their path and came downstairs and escorted me to a productive work area.
Leone and I juiced up our laptops in Giant Center’s press box before heading down close to the glass to try and make out the identities of the skaters. The Bears neither name nor number their training camp sweaters. But before we left the press box Leone pointed to an odd-looking box in the middle of his laptop screen into which he was typing.
“A blog [for the Patriot News] I’m now responsible for,” he told me. “I blame you,” he added with a smile.
As we watched Head Coach Bruce Boudreau put the mostly anonymous Bears through a rigorous skate I had the thought that while there is perhaps less glamour at camp in Hershey there is every bit the drive and passion among the camp invitees and the coaches possessed by their NHL counterparts. Boudreau today looked and sounded like his charges were in the midst of a mid-January losing streak, and he was going to work them out of it. After the morning’s first session Leone asked Boudreau about his bark out on the ice.
“Look, I tell the guys, ’shame on you if you’re not ready to come.’ There’s a lot of money [to be made] in hockey, in the AHL and NHL,” he said.
I wanted to know of the coach who and what he saw in his nearly week on the ice at Kettler Capitals that might have made him excited about the prospects this season for both the Bears and the Caps. He sounded a strong note of pride in his players.
“All my players can help the Capitals,” he claimed. “There’s a reason we’ve gone to the Calder Cup Finals two years in a row. We’ve got good players.”
He then ran off the list of all of last season’s Bears still at Capitals’ camp. “They’re all going to help the Capitals at some point this season,” he said. (Continued)
Yes, the THN OFB mention this week is pretty cool, and yes, we’ll tip back a few self-congratulatory cold ones out at Bailey’s in Ballston this weekend, but training camp starts tomorrow! Moscow was a blast, but we’re thinking about the promise of the present this week.
With his feature on the dramatic impact that bloggers have had in altering coverage of hockey in this town, James Mirtle has given bloggers a nice bit of PR but more importantly done hockey a terrific and important service. James is a blogger himself; it’s clear that like Ted Leonsis he recognizes and champions the role that new media already is playing in the NHL and will continue to play in the years ahead.
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On Tuesday, Caps’ owner Ted Leonsis conducted a bit of a new season tour of media, and his message was static-free and stout: 2007-08 is the year for the organization and its fans to raise their expectations high — postseason high. “The rebuild is over,” Leonsis proclaimed to Joseph White of the Associated Press, adding that during the offseason “we improved a lot . . . and a lot of teams around us didn’t.”
That’s throwing down the gauntlet. For what it’s worth, while we haven’t completed an overview of the offseasons of 29 other NHL clubs, we see it a lot like Leonsis does, especially in the Southeast division.
White’s preview of the Caps’ season is commendable on many fronts. It outlines Alexander Ovechkin’s progression from a stand-alone star on a talent-starved club immediately following the lockout to his status this autumn as a leading figure now surrounded by a distinctly talented supporting cast: Michal Nylander, Alexander Semin, Viktor Kozlov, Tom Poti, Nicklas Backstrom, Chris Clark.
White also broke some news Tuesday: the Caps’ payroll for this season appears lodged at $42 million — higher than conventional kneejerk forecasts (you know the ones, suggesting that the club would once again anchor the payroll floor for the league). At this salary level, Leonsis noted, the Caps possess what he termed “optionality,” or manueverability in-season to remedy roster needs.
” . . . we could be a really good team. . . . We’re under the cap. We have a lot of assets. I could see us during the season making trades. We’ve reached that point now where we’re a team going up with good cap management. We have ‘optionality.’ We’re very well-positioned in the new NHL.
“If you look for the most part, the teams who got really, really good were [first] really, really bad. That’s the nature of professional sports. It’s a very difficult decision to say, ‘We have to get bad, we have to strip this house down to its foundation and rebuild it to be great.’”
If we had a gripe with White’s work on Tuesday, it’d center on his rote recitation of the overplayed “the-stands-are-empty-for-hockey-in-D.C.” refrain. Nothing wrong with the observation, so long as you paint a full contextual landscape for it: for nearly 10 years Leonsis has run his team in a city with a dismissive-to-hockey media. Sneering columnists, ignorant radio jocks (bar one, who happens to be Canadian), superficial sports anchors, and blissfully balance-free sports page editors. How do you market a product, even in playoff-qualifying times, when virtually every media shop in town acts as if you don’t exist? One approach is to go beyond the local traditional media and find other outlets to spread the word.
Tuesday also saw the publication of an interview with Leonsis by local blog DCist. He discussed his film Nanking, reiterated the Capitals’ salary cap strategy, and again set the playoffs as the team’s 2007-08 goal. He also addressed the alleged — and subsequently discredited — report recently of a scuffle between Alex Ovechkin and Russian agent Gennady Ushakov:
“As with any international superstar, there will always be speculation and innuendo written, but with media ethics today, I tend to disregard most of what I read and deal with what I know to be fact.”
Leonsis’ interviews with the AP and DCist speak to, as he put it, the “need to go direct to consumers and bypass media filters as much as we can.”
We at OFB, unsurprisingly, couldn’t agree more. Just as fortunes for the Caps appear to be changing for the better on the ice, so too are they off it: in broadened, better, and MSM-challenging coverage.
The Washington Capitals recently signed on with a new radio partner, Bonneville International Corporation, to broadcast all 82 games for the 2007-08 season. As a former DJ I was curious about the deal’s details, and how it benefits the team and Caps fans. So I recently spoke with the Kurt Kehl, the Capitals’ VP of Communications & CCO, about the new Caps radio show, the advertising arrangements, Internet broadcasts, and more.
Mike: Ted Leonsis has mentioned on his blog that the stronger radio signal was a key factor in the team’s decision to switch. What else made this deal so appealing to the team?
Kurt: Here were some of the other big factors:
Expanding to Baltimore was important to reach out to fans there. We were considering a Baltimore sister station. But [3WT] has an incredibly wide reach with its three stations; now we no longer need a separate station. Also, unlike WTEM, [3WT] has no overnight power reduction.
[Editor’s note: WTEM operates with 50,000 watts during the day, but 5,000 watts at night. 1500 AM operates at 50,000 watts continuously.]
One problem with the old deal was surfing the dial to find a game when it was bumped to another frequency. Talk Radio 3WT broadcasts on 1500 AM (DC), 107.7 FM (Warrenton, VA), and 820 AM (Frederick, MD). Will the games be simulcast on all three frequencies?
Yes. And that holds true for the games as well as the Saturday show.
What can you tell our readers about the broadcasting arrangement? Is it a “rent the airtime, keep the ad revenue” deal for the team?
Yes – we buy time and maintain ad inventory – the key point in the agreement is ad inventory for sponsorship and revenue.
Is this a pretty standard agreement in the hockey radio world, and in the sporting world in general?
It’s not an uncommon arrangement – a lot of teams buy their airtime, unless they dominate a market like the New York Yankees or the Washington Redskins.
What varies is how much you pay, and what you get for what you pay. In that regard the Caps’ deal is unique as far as the excellent advertising and promotional opportunities provided.
The key thing for us was getting additional promotional inventory on WTOP. Bonneville offered us a generous package, including “spot banks” that we can use as we like – for example, to promote particular games or events more prominently than others.
We really focused on the promotional elements to reach out to more fans. We’re grateful for the hard-core fans that already listen to the games, but the promotional opportunities are critical to attracting new fans to the team – whether they come to games, listen on the radio, or watch on television.
The press release mentioned a “weekly one-hour Capitals magazine show on Saturday nights at 6 p.m.” Can you tell us more about the style of the show?
The show will be similar to Caps Center Ice Show, but now it’s 6 p.m. every Saturday throughout the season.
Who will host the show, and when is it slated to premiere?
We haven’t selected the host yet. The plan is to debut the show before the first game, but no official date has been announced.
Will the games and/or shows be streaming via the Internet?
Yes! We haven’t finalized exactly where they’ll be available, possibly washingtoncaps.com, but the broadcasts will be available online. We hope that the online broadcasts will provide out-of-town fans a way to follow the Caps from wherever they are.
Will the Saturday Night shows be available for download/podcast?
That’s definitely our intent, though exactly how we’ll distribute them is not yet set.
Has a name for the weekly show been selected? If not, may I suggest “Saturday Night Caps”, or SNC, since everything in DC requires an acronym or abbreviation…
I like your suggestion … maybe you should offer options on OFB and have fans write in …
Thanks Kurt! You heard the man, folks: vote away, and feel free to add your own.
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Here’s the latest on the Verizon Center’s new screens: Mitsubishi Electric is installing the first-ever indoor High Definition LED scoreboard, and it looks to be a doozy.
According to LEDs Magazine, the Phone Booth’s four new screens will be 14′ 5″ high and 25′ 2″ wide (total screen area of 365 square feet each). The United Center in Chicago has a similar setup, though it’s two years older, a bit smaller, and not true HD (take that, Blackhawks!). The photo at the right is from the United Center, just to give you a taste of what’s to come; for more information on the Verizon Center’s new system, read on:
In addition to the high-definition boards, the new center-hung scoreboard will also feature four 10mm 5-foot, 3-inch high by 25-foot 6-inch wide LED video matrixes and two 20mm LED rings.
“Arenas are being built all over the country and in order to compete, you need to be ahead of the curve,” said Abe Pollin, chairman of Washington Sports & Entertainment. “Partnering with ANC Sports and Mitsubishi Electric, who have created the first true high definition scoreboard, is a perfect example and we’re excited to be able to expand our resume of firsts for sports and entertainment facilities.”
Operated through ANC’s unique VisionSOFT software application, the signage system is capable of exhibiting separate game prompts, statistics and 3D animation in real time to build an energetic environment throughout the building.
“We are excited to partner with Washington Sports & Entertainment in delivering a one-of-a-kind event experience at Verizon Center,” said Jerry Cifarelli, president and CEO of ANC Sports Enterprises. “Combining Mitsubishi’s technology with ANC’s revolutionary software and graphic content will create visuals that indoor entertainment has never been able to feature before.”
No official go-live date has yet been announced; it’s slated for completion some time this autumn. Soon the Verizon Center’s video system will be the class of both the NHL and NBA.
I am excited about the system not only for Capitals games, but also for concerts. This summer I’ve seen the Virgin Festival at Pimlico, Rush at Nissan Pavilion, and The Police in Hershey. All three shows were a blast, but the screens were woefully inadequate at each venue.
The Phone Booth is already an appealing concert spot due to its public transportation-friendly location; the heinous traffic to and from the three locations mentioned above seriously detracted from the overall concert experience. These new HD screens will make the Verizon Center an even better concert destination than it already is, and they should certainly enhance the in-game experience for Capitals and Wizards fans alike.
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Friday night the Capitals hosted their Draft Day Party Uniform Unveiling at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex. For the “play-by-play” details of the event, check out the Caps’ official site. Here, I’ll share my own perspective (and photos: some pretty cool, one very cute, and a few kind of painful) of this thoroughly enjoyable evening.
My fiancee Adrienne and I popped into the locker room area for a quick look. I posted a few locker room photos from my visit in April, but the “card wall” is something I’d missed photographing on that first trip. The glass wall separating the player’s lounge from a hallway is covered in slightly-enlarged reproductions of classic Capitals hockey cards on both sides. Click the photo below for a larger version and pick out your favorites.
The team wisely paid homage to its past by introducing some big-name former Capitals. Yvon Labre, Rod Langway, Mike Gartner (his first appearance in DC since he left the team), Kelly Miller, and Sylvain Cote are in the photo below, left to right. Cote, attired in cargo shorts and sandals, goofed around a bit and struck a surfer dude pose just before this photo, much to the delight of the fans and former players.
Now for the video from the big screens prior to the unveiling. Some great Capitals moments in here, including the Juneau goal that sent the Caps to the Stanley Cup Finals. Adrienne (whom I’m gradually ushering into hockey fandom) observed regarding the old-school footage, “It’s so strange seeing them play without helmets!” I grew up watching Ron Duguay and Guy LaFleur, so I have a slightly different perspective on helmets, but I see her point.