Puck 'N Hockey

Greetings, all!  I’m Em, and I’m going to be posting to Puck ‘N Hockey on Sundays for as long as Eric can tolerate my rambling.  We’ll see how that goes, eh?  I’m relatively new to hockey in some ways – I didn’t play as a child, and grew up in a family who didn’t follow professional sports of any kind – but when I did get involved, I hit the ground running and haven’t stopped yet.

With the start of the 2010-2011 season, the Washington Capitals adopted the slogan “Building America’s Hockey Capital.”  While the catchphrase may be new, the concept is one that’s been gradually taking hold in the DC Metro area for the last several years, with very positive results.

Rosy memories and childhood stories or not, there is a reality that can’t be overlooked: Professional hockey is a business.  Like any business, it functions on the principles of supply and demand.  They play, we buy tickets, the cycle continues.  In order to work, the system requires a minimum threshold of demand (not just for tickets, but for media rights as well, as the Chicago Blackhawks are well aware).

So how do you increase the demand for hockey in your region, especially if your team isn’t regularly contending for the Stanley Cup?  The obvious answer is to build a winning team, but that’s only half of the battle.  The other half is to cultivate an audience (and, if necessary, literally build them from the ground up.  Give us your mites, your squirts, your pee-wees…).  This is what Washington has been doing, and while it’s already paying dividends, the Capitals are smart enough to realize that they’re in this for the long haul.

Boldly stated initiatives aside, the Capitals organization gives every appearance of taking their obligations to the community seriously (as does much of the NHL, on that note).  The franchise is involved with community hockey programs, both through financial support and hands-on outreach by players and affiliated personnel.  They also actively provide support for women’s hockey (including the JWHL Challenge Cup), and are involved with both the USO and local area education programs.  Players on the team are encouraged to donate time and resources to a range of causes in the region, and often partner with local business or media outlets in order to promote ongoing projects such as Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army’s Grate Patrol.

I could spend another three pages going into a more detailed list of Caps-affiliated charities and the populations they serve, but there’s already an annual report in existence that does that quite efficiently (and probably cost a pretty penny to compile).  Instead, what I would like to focus attention on is the hockey community that the Caps have helped to build and continue to nurture.  The Fairfax Times recently ran an article discussing the rise of hockey in Northern Virginia, and while it concentrates on the Reston Raiders, it acknowledges the growth of programs across the region in spite of recent economic struggles.

Across the DC Metro area, children and adults are learning and playing hockey in numbers that would have been considered blind fantasy a decade ago, and they’re proving to be good at it.  Garrett Roe, drafted by the LA Kings in 2008, the first player born and raised in Virginia to be selected in the NHL Entry Draft; he is unlikely to be the last.  The Washington Pride is ranked second in the Major Junior East division of the JWHL, and their captain, Haley Skarupa, was named to the US National Team this fall.  The region also supports both sledge and special teams hockey programs, in addition to the more standard house and travel leagues.

While the opening montage at Verizon Center may have changed as the season has worn on – players now proclaim that “We Are Washington!” instead of “We Are A Hockey Town” or “Building America’s Hockey Capital” – the motivation behind the mantra has not gone so quietly into the night.  We may not be “Hockeytown, USA”, but we are a hockey town.  As the season progresses, I hope to make that point unfailingly clear.