The toughest ticket in sports on Friday will not be a New Year’s Day Bowl game, but rather a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the Flyers and Bruins play outdoor hockey in the shadow of the famed Green Monster at Fenway Park.
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NBC will air the popular broadcast at 1 p.m. and it is the biggest day on the NHL calendar because the game attracts a huge crossover family audience that normally doesn’t follow hockey. The Winter Classic has become a huge boost to the league.
This week, “NHL on NBC” coordinating producer Sam Flood talked to me about the Caps and the New Year’s game.
Flood » “There is no doubt that Washington is worthy of playing in the Winter Classic, and it is our goal to fit them in soon. Everyone knows about Alex Ovechkin and the rest of the Caps, so it is in our best interest to put them on in the Winter Classic.”
Note to Sam: How about the Caps-Pens at Nationals Park in 2011?
Flood on the challenge of producing an NHL game outdoors » “We almost have twice as much equipment as we have for a regular-season NHL game. We have an airplane, which is not normal for a hockey game. For the first game, it was one of those ground-breaking moments in TV — a replay from an airplane of a hockey game. It never happened before and can only be duplicated.”
Bob Costas will host the event for NBC Sports and will be joined for coverage by Mike “Doc” Emrick (play-by-play), Eddie Olczyk (game analyst), Pierre McGuire (inside-the-glass analyst) and Mike Milbury (studio analyst).
Speaking of the Caps and their international following, I listened to broadcasts on Sirius/XM radio during a recent road trip to hear what the out-of-town broadcasters were saying.
The Vancouver broadcaster John Shorthouse on the 3-2 Canucks win » “The Caps are the most exciting team in hockey, bar none. Alex Ovechkin, Nick Backstrom and Mike Green are just a few of the talented players on this team. They are rock stars. Now, we can sit down and enjoy this win, but the Caps never make it comfortable. The full house at GM Place could not sit down till the final horn sounded.”
Rod Phillips, the voice of the Edmonton Oilers, on the Caps 4-2 win » “Not since the days of Wayne Gretzky have we seen a talented player the likes of Alex Ovechkin. This team was down 2-0 and never seemed to panic. The Great Eight scored 32 seconds into the 3rd period and somehow you knew the Caps were now in control of the game.”
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
