Slusher: Our quest in the Chicago Blackhawks quest for the NHL Stanley Cup
We started Wednesday evening with about the best circumstance we can hope for regarding a major playoff event. The puck was set to drop shortly after 7 p.m. in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Even if the game were to stretch into three hours, we would be working within the framework of our normal production process, and we'd be as confident as we could be that we would meet our deadlines to assure that your print edition arrived on time this morning with pictures from throughout the game, the final score and overall game reporting and analysis.
But of course, as I write this on Wednesday afternoon, there is no guarantee of that, and the way the top teams in the NHL have been battling each other throughout the playoffs, the potential for a multiple-overtime game hangs over us with the cloud of menacing possibility.
When things run late, the adjustments involve people at every stage of our operation. Reporters and photographers have to think and act quickly, often preparing portions of their reports while a game is still going on so they'll be able to complete their work within minutes of its end. Copy editors organize and consolidate the work of multiple editions, clearing as much space and time as possible to allow themselves to concentrate on headline writing, captions and layout of the game stories at the last minute. Likewise, press operators arrange their work and, in concert with the copy desk on the front end of their cycle and the circulation staff on the back end, sometimes push press start times back to accommodate late finishes of exciting games.
As an example of the flexibility, resourcefulness and professionalism required to provide a top-notch report under the pressure of unpredictable, late developments, Neil Holdway, assistant managing editor for the copy desk, points to Memorial Day, when, down two goals with just minutes to go, the Hawks suddenly surged to tie the Anaheim Ducks in their Western Conference playoff and force overtime. "Don (Associate Sports Editor Don Friske) and I pretty much assumed we would not get a final score into the first editions," Holdway said. "We prepared the labeling on our pages as such, stripping any indication of a score and preparing neutral pictures. Then around 11 p.m., 15 minutes before our first deadline, the Ducks scored 45 seconds into overtime - in time for our first deadline. So oddly, we had to rush to put a score 'back' in and rewrite all the headlines accordingly, and drop in more telling pictures."
During the multiple-overtime games, early editions sometimes didn't get the final score, but our staffs continually updated editions late into the morning all along the production stream. After the first three-overtime game with the Ducks, sports columnist Barry Rozner quickly wrote a column for the print editions but later decided he didn't like what he had written and, after contacting editors, wrote a completely new one in 45 minutes. It unfortunately was still too late to make the next day's paper, but did go to our website immediately - demonstrating another component of our staff's commitment to providing the latest possible information. Even when stories or columns can't make the immediate print edition, they do go online and if you check our replica e-edition, you'll always get the latest version of the Sports section.
As frenetic as all this can be, we'll accept it, even if it means a repeat of the events of Stanley Cup Finals Game 6 2013. That night, with the Hawks down by a goal in the final minutes, our staffs began to prepare for a typical late-but-familiar finish - only to have to shift into building keepsake fronts and tearing up news and sports pages after those famous 17 seconds brought the Hawks their first Stanley Cup Championship in 39 years.
We don't have to have that much stress this time around, mind you. Like all Chicagoans, we're hoping for an exciting and successful conclusion to the Hawks' drive for the Cup. We'd just appreciate it if they'd manage it with a point or two to spare sometime before 11 p.m. Of course, if they have to go into OT and press late into the evening to get the win, we'll accept that. And we'll be ready.
Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on Twitter at @JimSlusher.