Inside the Press Box: Dave Molinari

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 26th installment: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Penguins beat writer Dave Molinari.

1. How did you get started covering the Penguins?

I began covering the Penguins for the late Pittsburgh Press in the summer of 1983, after a change in leadership in the sports department, where I had been working as a copy editor. The Penguins beat -- and hockey in general -- was not particularly prominent, compared to those of the Steelers and Pirates, at the time, but it was the job I had wanted since I was in junior high school and had aimed for from the time I entered the newspaper industry after graduating from college in 1977.

2. Describe the rigors of traveling with the team and the hectic in-season schedule. How does it affect your mental health and family time?

I do not travel with the Penguins, per se. Yes, I cover road games (although a co-worker handles some of them), but I do not stay at their hotels or travel on their charter flights. I take commercial flights, just like the vast majority of people who travel for their job, and arrange my own hotels, meals, ground transportation, etc. I really don't know that I'm qualified to say how my work affects my mental health -- that determination probably would best be made by a trained professional -- but the demands of the job certainly can have an adverse impact on family life.

Six- and seven-day workweeks are the norm for most of the year, and the idea of an eight-hour day isn't much more than a fantasy. Obviously, writers work a lot in the evening and on weekends, because that's when most games are played, and because news can happen at any time, whether it's a trade or an auto accident or whatever, writers are on-call 24 hours a day. Most of us accept that as an occupational hazard, though. The ones who don't tend to find another way to earn a living.

3. How would you describe the Penguins-Caps rivalry from a reporter's perspective?

The rivalry, a natural because of the geographic proximity of Washington and Pittsburgh, gained a lot of momentum during the 1990s, when it seemed as if the Penguins and Capitals met nearly every year in the playoffs. Obviously, with so much of the game's great young talent concentrated on those two teams, there's every reason to believe it will continue to percolate for the next decade or so.

For it to reach its full potential as a rivalry, however, the Capitals will have to have more success against Pittsburgh during the playoffs. Until then, I don't think most Penguins fans will have the kind of intense animosity for the Capitals that a lot of Washington fans seem to have for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins were on the flip side of a similar situation with Philadelphia for a lot of years. Penguins fans despised everything about the Flyers, but Philadelphia fans didn't seem to have quite the same level of venom for Pittsburgh until the Penguins began to consistently compete on an even basis, or better, against their team.

4. What are some of your favorite hockey-related memories?

I don't know that I can speak for everyone in my business when I say this, but I don't look at games now the way I did when I was attending them as a fan, and don't have the luxury of getting immersed in big moments the way I did then. For example, I've covered all three of Pittsburgh Stanley Cup championships (along with most Stanley Cup finals since 1984) and events like the final NHL games of Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and Raymond Bourque, but the practical demands of my job -- most of which revolve around meeting strict deadlines for filing stories -- mean I can't soak in what I am witnessing.

It's another of those occupational hazards I mentioned earlier; I began covering hockey because I loved the game, but don't get to enjoy on the level that I did when that love was developing.

5. What occupies your time when you're not working?

There's a lot less downtime now than there used to be -- my "season" will start with a rookie tournament in Kitchener, Ontario, in early September and run through the first week or so of free agency next July -- but when circumstances permit, I like to get away from civilization for a couple of weeks, usually in a remote corner of someplace like Maine or Vermont.

Because of the irregular hours and unpredictable nature of my job, I really can't get involved in anything that requires a firm commitment, unless it's confined to a window of time from mid-July through August.