There is almost nothing in sports that is better than overtime playoff NHL hockey.
Unless you happen to be a newspaper editor.
OT is great for fans. And for TV stations. But when you’re staring down the barrel of a firm deadline for a print edition, it creates no small amount of angst.
Yes, I’m as happy as anyone that the Flyers won last night. The fan in me admits that the longer they play, the more interesting it gets. Last night they rolled through one overtime and were rolling through OT period No. 2 when Mike Knuble finally lit the lamp to give the Flyers a commanding 3-1 lead over the Caps.
Me? I was long gone at that point. The truth is I’m lucky most nights now to make it to the 10 o’clock news. But it doesn’t change the challenge facing our writers and desk personnel. They are sitting here on pins and needles, with production people glaring at them wanting to know where the rest of those pages are?
Luckily, the game ended about 11 p.m. That left us 40 minutes to deadline for our first edition. We obviously got the game in for the full run.
I still remember a few years back when the Flyers and Penguins played almost to the next morning. This is the playoffs, remember. There’s no shootout. They play until someone scores.
Or until the editor passes out.
Unless you happen to be a newspaper editor.
OT is great for fans. And for TV stations. But when you’re staring down the barrel of a firm deadline for a print edition, it creates no small amount of angst.
Yes, I’m as happy as anyone that the Flyers won last night. The fan in me admits that the longer they play, the more interesting it gets. Last night they rolled through one overtime and were rolling through OT period No. 2 when Mike Knuble finally lit the lamp to give the Flyers a commanding 3-1 lead over the Caps.
Me? I was long gone at that point. The truth is I’m lucky most nights now to make it to the 10 o’clock news. But it doesn’t change the challenge facing our writers and desk personnel. They are sitting here on pins and needles, with production people glaring at them wanting to know where the rest of those pages are?
Luckily, the game ended about 11 p.m. That left us 40 minutes to deadline for our first edition. We obviously got the game in for the full run.
I still remember a few years back when the Flyers and Penguins played almost to the next morning. This is the playoffs, remember. There’s no shootout. They play until someone scores.
Or until the editor passes out.
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