Inside the Press Box: Dan Steinberg

Storming the Crease is conducting a series of interviews with people who cover (or work for) the Caps and the NHL. You can find a link to the series archives on the right sidebar. Today's third installment: Washington Post uber-blogger Dan Steinberg.

1. How did the idea for the D.C. Sports Bog come about? What is your idea or somebody else's?

I did a kooky blog from the Winter Olympics in 2006 that was fairly well received. After I got back, I told my editors that I'd love to do something like that, focused on the D.C. sports scene. The idea evolved several times since then, and it isn't quite the same now as it was when I started (fall of 2006). But it was basically me wanting to write in a quicker, more relaxed and more humorous style, and my editors wanting more and more Internet-only features.

2. You spent a lot of time covering the Caps this past season. Do you think their share of the D.C. sports landscape has grown?

In terms of interest? Absolutely. Hugely. Without a doubt. In terms of coverage? No, not yet.

Honestly, though, this was the clearest example I've seen yet of the nature of the D.C. sports fan. And I don't blame them, since I'm the same way. But ratings and Web clicks and attendance and all the rest went through the roof so rapidly once the Caps got hot. Just unbelievable. As of right this second, I'd rank them behind only the Redskins for fan interest and buzz in
this town.

3. Do you think there will be a hockey version of the Bog's popular college basketball poll?

With college hockey? Um, no. Can't say I know anything about college hockey.

4. What's your most memorable hockey-related moment?

As a fan? Watching Brett Hull ruin the city of Buffalo's sports hopes in 1999 from my grandparents' living room, with the sound turned down low so I wouldn't wake them. I was never the biggest Sabres' fan in the world, but that was about civic pride for me, and trying to erase the 1991-1994 Super Bowls. It didn't happen.

As a journalist/blogger? Since I've only been around the sport in D.C. for the past two seasons, and since 2006-07 wasn't particularly memorable, I guess it's gotta be stuff from this year. I missed much of the Flyers series this year, but Game 7 was definitely the most energy I've felt in that building since George Mason-U-Conn. in the winter of 2006. And this was probably better. Just weird to see how quickly that building changed. What was it, four months?

5. What do you do when you're not busy blogging?

Jeez. Not much. Play with my 16-month old daughter. Attempt to run off the effects of years of press box popcorn and French fries. Read pulp novels from the 1940s and 1950s. Read other peoples' blogs.