Leafs TV? How About Caps’ TV?

Apprised of Comcast’s commitment to the Caps this week, I turned on Comcast SportsNet the moment I arrived home from work Monday night, and left it there. What I watched over the next four hours stunned me.
I saw new Comcast Caps’ beat reporter Lisa Hillary studio host a season preview alongside Joe Reekie. I saw just about all of Alexander Ovechkin’s first-ever NHL game (I’d forgotten that he was a flubbed breakaway from a hat trick that night). Then I saw JoeB and Craig host another studio half hour, “Caps Speak,” for another team preview. Promos for Comcast’s “SportsNight” that followed promised even more Caps’ coverage.
It was “Monday Night Hockey in Washington,” of course.
Head Coach Glen Hanlon was interviewed in depth by Hillary. GMGM was thoughtfully interviewed, at length, and he provided his customary thoughtful replies. Key personnel — Chris Clark, Olie Kolzig, Tom Poti, Nicklas Backstrom, Michael Nylander — all took turns before Comcast’s cameras. Tarik El Bashir’s segment with Joe and Craig I thought was a highlight of the entire night. (Tarik, true to form, offered a sober and fair assessment amid the rampant optimism engulfing the organization early this autumn. The Caps, he said, could finish anywhere “from sixth to tenth” in the Eastern conference.)
Broadcast Buzz about pro hockey in D.C. these days? Umm, yes — only if you regard all-consuming, single-topic devotion by the local sports television outlet to the city’s red-headed stepchild of pro teams “buzz”-indicating. Apparently it’s going to be like this the remainder of the week each evening on Comcast.
At one point during the prime time proceedings I saw Joe and Craig flash on the screen multiple-screen listings of Caps’ prospects. I saw the names Michal Neuvirth, Simeon Varlamov, Karl Alzner, Joe Finley, Mathieu Perreault, Francois Bouchard, Dave Steckel, and Chris Bourque, all broadcast on an outlet that never in its life held an office fantasy hockey pool. Briefly, it was like a breakout from hockeysfuture, and two DraftGeeks renting out the Comcast studio and making like Wayne and Garth on local cable access.
Wayne, er, JoeB: “Look at all this talent in the pipeline, Dude!”
Garth, er, Craig (head cocked): “Excellent!”
This is what importing one Canuck can do to an outlet!
More seriously, Hillary was hired to bring her NHL coverage experience to Comcast. The in-house hockey talent was significant, if under-appreciated and grossly under-utilized, but had the outlet ever boasted a dedicated reporter on the beat? Next I’m going to allege that coverage decisions like Comcast’s for this week haven’t occurred in a vacuum, and that they’re a harbinger of better coverage to come, print and broadcast, traditional and alternative. To an extent, it’s fashionable, of course: the Caps may not make it to the postseason this year, but they will not be dull.
But of course I’m a subscriber to the theory that a media revolution for this team and its sport is well underway these days, in these parts.
I’m also, at week’s end, when this trial run on Comcast terminates, planning on becoming a subscriber to CapsTV.

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