One round down...

Some random thoughts from a random mind:

- So the Sens are off to Round 2 after eliminating the Lightning. Ray Emery won the battle of goaltenders, but they need Hasek to win the Stanley Cup.

- The Hockey Night in Canada crew loves the fact the Sens are in the next round, but are also thankful they won in 5 games. The Stanley Cup playoffs are a long grind for not only the players, but the television crew. I'd say the crew puts in MORE hours. They are a dedicated bunch.

- I have two days off now. Maybe I should go rollerblading. I better do laundry, though. Can anyone tell me how to pack WITHOUT wrinkling my dress clothes?

- Word is I might be off to work Game 7 in Detroit. I better start reading up on those teams.

- You wouldn't believe how much inane stats/information I read about the Senators and Lightning over the past week. I swear it has pushed some of the old stuff out of my head...now how do I turn on the stove again?

- I'm not a religious person, but I'm praying for Montreal to win its first round match-up. An Ottawa-Montreal series would be an amazing experience. And a huge boon for CBC ratings.

And off we go...

It didn't take us long to leave Tampa.
Just 15 or 20 minutes after the final horn sounded on another convincing win for the Senators, four of us hopped in a car and drove an hour to Orlando.
We're staying in a hotel just outside the airport so we can get an early start on the day. Reporter Elliotte Friedman and I need to be in Ottawa tomorrow so we can finish off an interview for his Headliner piece.
In the car, the consensus was that the Lightning were finished. For the second straight game, they just couldn't keep up to the speedy Sens. It's clear that they need a major overhaul.
With the exception of Paul Ranger and Dan Boyle, there's very little to like about the defence.
Or the goaltending. John Grahame isn't a No. 1 netminder and he's shown it the past two games.
Coach John Tortorella criticized Grahame for his play in the post-game press conference. It's a virtually certainty that Sean Burke will start in Game #5.
I really hope that the Sens make quick work of the Lightning. As much as I like the heat in Florida, I'd like to sleep in my own bed for at least a day. I've only been away for a week, but it feels like months.

I'm melting

God, it's hot in Tampa Bay.
I'm not complaining. Really, I'm not. But it is hot. When you've been through a tough winter, you almost forget what it's like to stand in sweltering heat.
Your shirt and pants are so soaked with sweat you have to change and take a shower. That was certainly the case today, as cameraman extraordinaire Mark Punga and I travelled across Tampa gathering footage for our show.
First, we went back to the rink, where the Ottawa Senators were practicing at 11 a.m.
After reporter Elliotte Friedman did a little one-on-one interview with coach Bryan Murray, we shot a little of the practise and headed into the locker room to gather some clips.
Friedman asked a few questions to Chris Neil and Daniel Alfredsson, who didn't really have much to say beyond that they feel Tampa will come back strong in Game 4.
Defenceman Wade Redden, coming off an amazing effort yesterday despite going through one of the toughest times in his career with the death of his mother earlier this week, was in the locker room, but the media respectfully kept their distance.
We had an hour to spare before we could feed clips to Toronto, so Punga and I had lunch at Dave Andreychuk's restaurant, just across the street from the arena.
I loved Dave as a player, but the service at his restaurant was awful. Punga ordered a coffee, but the waitress didn't bring any cream or sugar. I ordered a salad, but got no utensils...We should have left a smaller tip.
After we quickly finished, we headed off to our feed point, at WFLA-NBC. Usually, at this point, it's the end of our day. But Elliotte made a special request for us, and we hopped in the car and travelled down the highway to the Florida State Fairgrounds.
We shot visuals of Expo Hall, the first home of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The expansion Lightning stayed at Expo Hall for one season before moving to the Thunderdome.
Despite it's age, it's in fairly good condition. It's hosts various events throughout the year, including home and auto shows and conventions. The circus uses the facility to plan and practice its shows.
I can tell you, though, that virtually nobody has been to the press box since the Lightning left.
It was a scary walk across the catwalk to the box. The stairs were slippery and the wooden planks didn't seem too...what's the word....stable.
We pounded off a few shots and exteriors before heading back in the van and to the hotel, where I'm writing right now.
It's actually nice to sit, relax and enjoy the air conditioning. I'm not complaining about the heat. Really, I'm not.

Whew part II

Okay, if you read my last post, you know that I kind of left in the middle of a story. That's because my font operator, the legendary Ron Harrison Jr., just arrived in the truck as I was typing up my latest blog entry.
So...if you want the details on my airplane story and you just tuned in, read my latest post and this one.
As I was saying, customs officials were about the board the plane, which has never happened in my experience flying around the country.
Two huge men entered from the back, walked down till they reached a man just sitting one aisle up from me.
"Are you [insert name here]?" one of the burly men asked an unassuming 50-year-old gentleman who could easily pass for a tourist, complete with an ugly Hawaiian shirt.
"Yes," he replied.
"Let's see some identification."
The man complied, handing over his passport. When the customs officer was looking at it, he also noticed a photographer from a local newspaper grab his camera.
"Are you taking pictures?" the customs officer asked.
The photographer shook his head.
"Don't."
The customs officer turned his attention back to the man.
"You'll have to come with us," he said.
After getting his carry-on baggage up front, the two officers accompanied the man off the plane.
And that's the last he saw of him. I read the local paper and searched the web, but I found nothing about him.
I wonder where he is right now.

Whew

We're in Tampa right now. For those wondering, it's a sweltering 26C and I'm loving every minute of it. I'm a sun hog.
It's game day and the atmosphere here is...different...from Ottawa. Things are more relaxed the players look comfortable and even the Tampa staff looks like it won't kill them if its team loses this one.
Maybe it's because they're not hockey fans. We packed a bar called Champions, down the street from the rink, to watch the Canes-Habs game. Sherali, Elliotte and a new friend we met named Paul, who works for Sun Sports, sat down and watched the double OT thriller.
It was a great experience because most of the people in the bar were Canadians.
So far, our trip down here has been...interesting.
I've been on a lot of flights, but this one was probably the most eventful. It was just a normal trip, complete with a five-year-old kicking the back of my seat and nearly poking my eye out trying to escape the clutches of us Mother, until we landed.
That's when an flight attendant came over the public loud speaker.
"When we stop, please remain in your seats. Customs officials will come on the plane."
When a man got up to get his luggage, the flight attendant repeated herself. This time, more harshly.
"Customs officials will come on the plane."
Shortly after, we heard...
"Please unlock the back door."
Gotta go...we're starting to load our game...I'll be back.

A fine television performance

There's a lot of work and hours that go into producing live television. But there's a lot of perks to the job.
Not only do I get paid to watch hockey and rub shoulders with some of hockey's top talent, but every now and then I get my ugly mug on television.
That's what happened tonight. Normally, I don't get mentioned when we shoot the booth. I'm just the guy with a headset on and a bank of television monitors to my right.
But Bob Cole did the unexpected tonight. When our producer Sherali Najak asked for me to be included in the shot, I thought nothing of it. Sometimes I'm included, sometimes not. But when we came back from break, Mr. Cole introduced me to over a million hockey fans across Canada.
"This is our statistician, Jason Murdoch," he said as he smiled and looked at me. "Jason, look busy will you?"
The television truck erupted in laughter. Mr. Cole is very serious about hockey and his craft. Such a departure is unusual for him.
It's small moments like that which make the job special.

With the series now tied at 1-1, the HNIC crew is off to Tampa for Games 3 and 4. We're collectively getting up as a group at 6 a.m. so we can catch a flight to Toronto and connect to Florida.
So what's the biggest question among the crew as we head down south? Where's a great place to eat.

The off days...

I committed the ultimate sin today.

I’ve been in a lot of dressing rooms in my career, but I certainly looked like a rookie today.

I am very familiar with the rule of avoiding the logo on the dressing room floor, but I somehow forgot it when I decided to make a phone call to reporter Elliotte Friedman to tell him the players were available for interviews.

When I was dialing his number, I suddenly saw Sens’ vice-president of communications, Phil Legault, approach me. He grabbed me and pushed me to the side.

I looked down and realized I was stepping on the Sens’ logo. In the hockey world, it’s an offense similar to defacing a religious icon. The worst part was the evidence was plain for everyone to see: I left a big black mark on the cleanest white spot.

I couldn’t believe what I had done. Word got around quickly and when I entered the press room for the Bryan Murray interview, the cameramen looked at me and cracked a few jokes at my expense.

“I heard they aren’t going to let you in the room anymore,” one said.

Legault wasn’t angry at the incident, telling me a number of people step on the logo during the morning scrum, but that didn’t make me feel any better.

I’ll keep a wary eye on the logo every time I step into that dressing room from now on.

If you work for Hockey Night, you spend every day at the rink. Even the off nights.

The playoffs aren’t a time to relax and with Game 2 tomorrow, Friedman, senior producer Sherali Najak, cameraman Mark Punga and I went to the Sens’ practice facility – which is right across from Scotiabank Place – to get footage for a two-minute piece to air on tonight’s pre-game show.

The worst part of the whole experience is the waiting. You’re waiting for the players to finish. Then you’re waiting for the press relations manager to give you the okay to enter the dressing room. Then you’re waiting for the coach to arrive. You need a lot of patience at this job.

But at least the entire day had one big laugh. Watching Lightning coach John Tortorella trying to conduct an impromptu press conference in the referees’ room was worth the long day.

Dozens of reporters and cameramen were sandwiched in a room designed to accommodate four people. It was like watching salmon struggle upstream.

After we got all of our footage, Punga and I drove to CBC Ottawa for our feed. By the time we were done it was 4 p.m. and we were starving. We hadn’t eaten all day. We headed to a restaurant for a bite and then returned home in time for Friedman’s piece.

Game 1 breakdown

Some interesting stats from last night's game --

Vincent Lecavalier was second in ice time with 25:03. He scored a goal, but won only 4 of 20 faceoffs (20 per cent)
Chris Phillips had eight blocked shots, Meszaros had five.
Antoine Vermette won 15 of 19 (78 per cent) from the faceoff circle.
The Tampa Bay Lightning had 14:09 of PP time. Dan Boyle was on the ice for 12:23 of it.

One down...

It wasn't the most memorable game of my career, but it was certainly a great one.
The playoffs are filled with surprise, upset and excitement. Game 1 of the Lightning-Senators series produced two of the three.
If you watched the game, a 4-1 comeback win for the Sens, you saw many things. You saw the early stages of a potential upset, some fantastic goaltending and the reason why the Sens are considered the class of the East.
We're not supposed to play favourites at HNIC, but I'd be lying if I said no one react strongly when Jason Spezza lifted a beautiful wrist shot over John Grahame's shoulder. The Lightning are a good team, but the Canadians aren't waiting in front of their television to watch them play.
There are Leaf fans, Sens fans and Habs fans among our crew, but if there's a common consensus among our group it's they'd like to see Ottawa go far in the playoffs.
Each Canadian team that advances to the next round increases our ratings, which in turn, makes our job more fun.
The Calgary Flames' run in the 2004 playoffs was absolutely magical. Thousands upon thousands of people packing the Red Mile was an image that sticks in the head of even the most casual hockey fan.
Nobody was packing main street in Tampa Bay in support of the Lightning. If you weren't looking closely during that time, you wouldn't even realize they were playing for the Cup.
Speaking of fun, there were a couple of times in the broadcast booth tonight that I really enjoyed listening to Bob Cole.
I sit beside Mr. Cole during the game, handing him and Greg Millen stats to aid the broadcast, and there were some times the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I believe there's no play by play guy in sports -- that includes baseball, football or soccer -- who has a flair for the dramatic more than Mr. Cole.
He might know the Leaf players a little better, but this Senators team has already given him a chance to showcase his impressive vocals. These guys not only score a lot, but they score beautiful goals. And Mr. Cole certainly puts a lot of energy into those calls.
I haven't heard an "Oh, baby" yet, but I think he'll bring that trademark call out for the third round.
We had some rough spots production wise in our game, but I hope we worked through all our difficulties to make Game 2 even better for us. This crew is basically sticking together for the entire first round and Game 1 was like our spring training. On Sunday, we hope to hit full stride.
But, of course, our game all depends on what happens on the ice. Hopefully, we'll be treated to another great show.

So it begins...

It’s the first day of the 2006 playoffs and my adventure finally begins – at the airport.
Waiting for a flight to arrive is one of the most agonizing things about being on the road.
It’s 8 a.m. and I’m sitting in Pearson Airport, Gate 120 in Terminal 1 to be exact, awaiting my plane to Ottawa.

Airport travel is nothing new to me. I’ve done it all year as an associate producer with Hockey Night in Canada.

But in the playoffs, when you’re in an airport virtually everyday, the routine can get…kind of.. frustrating. Why do I need to be in the airport TWO HOURS before an international flight? So I can buy out the magazine rack at the airport gift shop in an effort to pass the time?

Since I’m covering the Tampa Bay – Ottawa series as an associate producer/statistician for HNIC, my bags are loaded with reference material with every conceivable tidbit of information at my fingertips.

If Greg Millen asks during the game who scored the game-winning goal in Game 3 of the Philadelphia-Ottawa series in 2003, I’ll know (I’m not going to look it up now just for the sake of my blog).

Team guides, the NHL guide and record book, the official NHL playoff book…I have it all. I’m a stats junkie’s dream. Now only if I could persuade someone else to carry all of it for me.

You see, I’m a minimalist. I don’t like carrying too much or having too many things going on in my life. When my backpack is loaded with 15 books, a laptop, tapes, cords, papers, staplers, binoculars, pens, pencils, sharpeners, black sharpies, cue cards, sometimes I think it’s a little too much.

But you have to be prepared. I learned that in my very first game working for HNIC two seasons ago. The Leafs lost a big game at home to the Sabres and it turned out to be, up to that point, their worst loss in their history at the Air Canada Centre.

At that time, I didn’t have the same resources and couldn’t pass on that vital stat to my commentators until after the game was over.

So that’s why I’m hunkered down, looking like a Sherpa about to climb Mount Everest, at Pearson with all of this reading material.

Now only if I could find The Hockey News around here to pass the time.

The adventure begins...soon?

My eyes are blurry as I type this. I don’t even know if my very first blog posting is going to make sense. Right now, I’m thinking that using my backpack as a pillow on my office floor wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

It’s one day after the end of the regular season and I’m dead tired.

If there’s one analogy used about the NHL playoffs around this office is that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. The past two weeks, I’ve been darting around this place looking like Carl Lewis instead of Khalid Khannouchi.

Now I’m paying for it. I’m not the only one pulling double and triple shifts in order to prepare for our biggest two months of the year. There’s about 15 of us in the department.

So why is it that I’m the only one with the zombie look on my face?

Maybe it’s because I haven’t the learned the subtle nature of pacing. This is one of the busiest days of the year in the department, but everyone has learned to tackle every problem one at a time as it appears and not all at once.

Now, in my sophomore season at HNIC, do you think I had learned this skill?

No need to answer my rhetorical question.

So now, at 12:24 a.m., here I am supervising as one of our graphics operators assembles our playoff disk before our Thursday 9 a.m. deadline.

The clock is ticking and we’re only halfway done.

My graphics operator is familiar with this situation. He’s a workhorse. He loves and thrives with every challenge presented to him. We threw a couple of big ones at him this year and so far he’s exceeded them.

Hopefully, he’ll meet the big challenge of meeting this deadline.

I hate deadlines. In journalism school, I would always hand in my work early because I never wrote well as the clock inched towards our cutoff time.

That’s why, next year, we’re starting in January. I’m not kidding.

So that’s why I’m a little nervous and anxious. That’s not a good combination with sleep deprivation.

Once this is over, it will be a huge load off my back and I can concentrate on the first round of the playoffs. I’m covering the Ottawa series and it looks like it will be an interesting one with lots of storylines.

It will be a nice to watch a little hockey and finally get immersed in the playoff experience instead of watching dozens of looping backgrounds and comparing graphics for any discrepancies.

Plus, Tampa Bay is a really nice place to spend a day off.