My night on press row...diary style

My press credential

Thanks to my good friends at my internship, I was given the opportunity to have full press credentials for the Capitals vs. Bruins game.  It was a great experience overall.  And I decided to write a running diary of my night.  Enjoy!

6:10 p.m. ET: Walked up to the TD Garden like I owned the place and said, "Jeff Hancock, WHDH Sports."  Of course, I get a response saying, "you're not on the list."  So I whipped out my WHDH 7Sports I.D. card and BAM! The guy writes me a credential (NOTE: my internship is now officially over, but I still have my I.D. card.  I could totally take advantage of this situation).

6:15: Headed to the press room.  I didn't recognize anyone.  Just a bunch of old guys with gray hair wearing some sweet NHL blazers.  They look important.  I'd love to have one of those blazers. 

6:20: Arrived at my seat on press row.  Seat number N4-2.  I'm sitting so high that I'm above all the banners.  The Garden is beginning to fill up.

Free food

6:27: I'm consider press tonight.  You know what that means?  Free food.  I head over to grab some popcorn and soda pop (That's right New England...I said pop, not soda.  Deal with it).  As I'm walking past the NESN broadcast booth, I run into Andy Brickley.  Not literally though.  No sign of Jack Edwards.

6:45: Both teams have been warming up for awhile.  No signs of HBO cameras.  Some players will be mic'd up though.  No sign of Gary Bettman either.  Although, I doubt he's here.  Probably in Pittsburgh.  I'm really looking forward to watching Ovechkin live.  As I write this, he's taking one timers off passes from Backstrom.  Ovie, Carlson, and Green are the last guys off the ice.

6:50: I decided to go to the bathroom before the game begins.  There are two urinals in the bathroom.  Guess who's using one of them?  Jack Edwards.  I literally took a leak standing next to Jack Edwards (and no, he does not laugh like a mad man while he pees).  After I washed my hands, he sticks his hands under the water and looks at me and says, "GEEZE! This water is ice cold! You think they'd warm this up! It's like they ran it through a refrigerator!  It's colder than what comes out of the ground!"  We had a very, very brief exchange about the game after that.  The man might be crazy, but he's a nice guy.

7:00: Bruins pre-game video montage with Trans-Siberian Orchestra music and crazy Jack Edwards calls.  Awesome mix.  Nicely done, Boston.

7:08: The puck is dropped.

My view from press row.

7:14: All B's early on.  A quick Caps' turnover...Wheeler to Bergeron.  Bam.  It's 1-0 Bruins.  After watching 24/7 on HBO, this doesn't look good early on for Washington.  I can only imagine the F bombs from Boudreau and the blank stares in response from his players.

7:20: Ference shot is blocked.  Comes right back to him.  It's 2-0 Bruins.  Timeout for the Caps.  They're in trouble.  Garden is loud.

7:22: Right off the faceoff, McQuaid and Bradley got a full 12 rounds.  Real good fight.  McQuaid wins.  Garden is even louder.

7:25: Ovie with a great chance right in front.  Thomas stoned him.  Just announced that it was Ference's first goal in 99 games.

7:30: TV timeout...more free pop and popcorn for me.

7:34: Ovie getting huge boos every time he touches the puck.  Silly Bruins' fans.  They must think he's Crosby.

7:38: Wheeler scores and it's 3-0 Boston.  The Caps look horrible.  Can you fire a coach during a game?  Ove's line was on the ice for the goal.  Backstrom snapped his stick in half over his knee in frustration.

8:01: Second period is underway.  More Ovie booing.  Green just got smacked into the boards face first by Chara.  He went down.  Play was stopped.  Skated off and went to the dressing room (he would return).

8:04: Seguin stoned on a breakaway.  Caps go the other way and score.  Bradley gets it.  It's 3-1 and the Caps are showing signs of life.

8:09: Caps go on the first PP of the game.  Ovie hits the post.  If you ever get a chance to see him live, just watch his movement on the ice with or without the puck for an entire shift.  It's fascinating. 

8:28: Much better period for the Caps, but how 'bout a goal to make things interesting?

8:33: Colin's kid with a nice chance.  Good save by Neuvirth.  He was hurt on the play.  You could almost hear is groin tearing from press row.  Surprisingly he's okay.

Tons of stats given to me before the game and after each period.

8:54: Third period is a go.

9:03: Great Caps' pressure all period so far.  Ovie and Backstrom two chances point blank in front of the net and Thomas stops them both.  Need a goal soon to stay in this.

9:10: The Bruins' do an extremely nice job of blocking shots.

9:18: We have ourselves a ballgame!  Alzner scores from the point.  It's 3-2 with 5:28 to go.

9:19: Two fans literally just climbed over the glass and ran on the ice!  Unreal.  I've never seen that before at a hockey game.  They didn't get to far though.  Running on ice isn't the easiest thing to do.  Refs grabbed them pretty quickly. 

9:24: Headed down from press row on the 9th floor to the dressing room area on the 3rd floor.  As I got off the elevator, the two clowns who jumped the glass were in handcuffs and getting in the elevator.

9:26: Met up with my photog Myron.  Looks like he's right off the old crappy Islanders' sweater.  He's a real life Gorton's fisherman.

9:30: (watching game on TV in press room now) Ovie somehow goes in all alone! Stoned by Thomas with 10 seconds left.

9:32: Bruins win 3-2.

9:35ish: Headed inside the B's dressing room.  Collected sound from McQuaid, Bergeron, Thomas, and Wheeler.  I took crappy video on my cell phone, while the photog got the quality video for the station (My crappy video is below.  You probably can't even hear what the players are saying.  The arm with the stripped shirt?  Yeah, that's me.)

McQuaid

Bergeron

Thomas

9:54: Had the opportunity to speak with Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe.  Made sure to thank him for doing an interview for my hockey show that I did for my class.  He's a ridiculously nice guy.

9:57: Press conference with Claude Julian.

10:05: Grabbed the tape from Myron and literally ran back to the station.  My producer needed the tape fast to get the sound edited in time for the sports hit in the 10 p.m. newscast.  My cross-country background helped out here.

10:15: Sat down and went over the sound.  Helping pick out the good bites for the newscast.

Afterward, I stuck around to observe the 10 and 11 o'clock sports segments from the control room and finally headed home around 11:40.  A great last day at my internship and a great experience.   

Is Jimmah one of the best young goalies in the NHL?

James Murphy doesn't think so.  

Murphy, who writes for ESPNBoston.com and a few other hockey publications, has produced a list of his top ten goalies 30 years-old or younger to build franchise around for Le Hockey Magazine. 

Now, I don't speak French nor could I find his article online, but Murphy tweeted his top ten list.

1. Price, 2. Rask, 3. Halak, 4. Bernier, 5. Schneider, 6. Quick, 7. Ward, 8. Fleury, 9. Lundqvist, 10. Miller.

Does Jimmah belong on this list?  I think so.  At the very least you can make an argument for him to be on the list.  I understand seeing names like Ward (Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe winner), Miller (Captain America), Fleury (Cup winner), and Lundqvist (solid numbers the past five seasons), but what about the rest?

Halak, Price, and Quick have somewhat similar numbers when it comes to goals against average and save percentage.  All three are younger and have more experience in the NHL.  Schneider and Bernier have less experience and appear to be on this list based on their potential.  Rask has about the same experience as Jimmah and very similar numbers (Murphy is a Boston guy too...hmmmm...interesting).

As a Wings fan, I say hell yes Jimmah should be on this list.  He's done just as much as a guy like Rask.  Should we penalize him because he's three years older?  It's not his fault he didn't have the opportunity to play at a young age because he was in the Detroit's system.  He has just as much potential as anyone on that list.

Living away from Michigan and going to school with New York, New Jersey, San Jose, and Boston fans, in every and any hockey debate or discussion, I always hear the rebuttal of "yeah well he plays for Detroit."  Which, by the way, is really annoying.  Last season, Jimmah carried the Wings through some tough stretches.  The Wings might not have made the playoffs without him.  And Rask?  Well, Boston was the second best defensive team last year based on goals against (Detroit was seventh).  So if anything, Rask had a better defensive team in front of him.

If I try to look at this objectively, I guess I can understand why he isn't in the top ten.  The players his age have more impressive resumes.  Many of the younger guys have more experience.  The young guys that have less experience may have greater upside? Maybe Jimmah is #11? 

What do you think?

Adventures in Journalism

Image from John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Last night I had the opportunity to cover the Bruins/Islanders rookie game at the TD Garden in Boston.  It was great experience.  I had full press credentials for the game.  After I arrived at the rink and got my press badge, I got to hang out the media room with all the Bruins' beat writers and TV guys.  Jack Edwards ate a sandwich at the table next to me.

Sitting in press row was great.  I never realized just how big the press section was until I got there.  Since it was a rookie game, most of the press area was not filled up.  There were assigned seats for the regular media.  I was told I could sit anywhere there wasn't a yellow name tag.  The game wasn't being broadcast on NESN or any other television channel so I was allowed to film the game. 

The game itself was actually pretty entertaining.  I was surprised at how many fights occurred.  There were about 5-6 solid throw downs.  This was Tyler Seguin's first game in a Bruins' jersey.  I never had a chance to see him play with the Whalers, but he was solid on the ice.  He's going to have a great chance to succeed in Boston.  Plus, he wears #19 in honor of his favorite player, Steve Yzerman.  Other than Seguin, I thought Max Sauve was impressive. He had a goal, but overall, when he was on the ice you took notice.  Jordan Caron was easily the player of the game.  He recorded his first ever hat trick.  On the Islanders side, 2010 first round pick Nino Niederreirter was all over the ice in a good way and really stood out the most for New York.  The Bruins won the game 5-2.

After the game ended, I headed down to the locker room for some interviews.  There was immediately a crowd around Seguin, so we jammed into the crowd with our camera and mic for some sound bytes.  Seguin was very calm and laid back.  He was very relaxed and it felt like he'd gladly just hang out with the media and talk to them if they wanted to.  Next up was Caron.  I got a really good shot of him with his nameplate in the background and the WEBN mic right in front.  He was thrilled about his hat trick and said that even though it was a rookie game and didn't officially count, it was still a very big moment for him.  The press then left the locker room and headed back to the media room for a press conference with Providence Bruins' head coach Rob Murray and Boston Bruin' GM Peter Chiarelli.  After the post-game presser, we recorded our stand-ups for our package down on ice level by the Zamboni doors.

Overall it was an awesome experience.  It was great to learn exactly what goes on and how it works behind the scenes.  Everyone who worked for the Bruins was extremely nice and helpful with any and every question we asked.  When I finish my reporter package I will post it here to on the blog.  Hopefully, all will go well and the Bruins will allow us to come back during the season on a regular basis. 


These are some still shots of the game I took last night.