The Capitals and the NHL have lots to see and hear
By: Jim Williams
Examiner Sports Columnist
October 2, 2009
Anyone have doubts Washington is truly a hockey town? Last year's Caps ratings both locally on CSN as well as on NBC have proven that there is an audience that is large and continues to grow.
Consider WFED AM 1500 Sports producer Ben Raby who is in his first year at the helm of the Caps radio broadcasts as positive proof. Raby started his career working at "The Team" 990AM in Montreal where he followed the Canadiens. He would later move to Toronto where he would cover the NHL for TSN (Canada's ESPN). But he had a brief chance to work at WTOP while in college and coming to Washington to work on the Caps broadcasts was something he could not pass up.
"To work in Washington with Bonneville and the Caps was a dream job for me. I did not think twice about the move from TSN to WFED," said Raby.
Steve Kolbe, in his 13th season, will be doing play by play and be joined by color commentator Ken Sabourin. Mike Vogel of washingtoncaps.com also joins the broadcast team.
Jonathan Warner will again handle the pre- and postgame duties and Raby will join him on most of the postgame shows. Warner will handle "Caps Saturday Night" -- the extended pregame show. Raby will join him doing features.
On the TV side, CSN will once again offer the best local hockey broadcasts in the country. "Caps Pregame Live" -- which includes the talented team of Lisa Hillary and Al Koken -- handle the interviews and features.
The game broadcast team of Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin are network quality.
Between CSN, Versus, NBC and the NHL Network, all 81 regular season games should be broadcasted.
Versus will air 54 regular-season games this season, including an afternoon double-header Friday starting at noon featuring Chicago and Florida from Helsinki, Finland, and closing at 3 p.m. with Detroit and St. Louis from Stockholm, Sweden.
On Friday, the action moves to the NHL Network for the first of over 77 regular season telecasts, where the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins face the New York Rangers. Also, of those 77 telecasts, 28 will be the legendary "Hockey Night in Canada" broadcast from the CBC.
NHL Network's flagship show, "NHL On The Fly," features up-to-the minute hockey information, live look-ins, extended highlights, overtime shootouts, real-time scores, interviews, pre- and postgame reports and news conferences.
Lastly, there will be a free preview of "NHL Center Ice" -- the complete package of all the games in the NHL offered Oct. 2-24 on Comcast cable.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
