Starting at 1 PM ET on Wednesday, the NHL will start a weekly broadcast “Men in Blazers on Ice.” Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie will be featured in the first episode, which can be streamed across NHL social media accounts. Select episodes will air during NBCSN’s “Wednesday Night Hockey” broadcasts.
The show will be hosted by Roger Bennett, who became a Capitals’ fan when he immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom in 1993. He became a hockey fan when he went to Capitals game at US Airways Arena, which used to be Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. He was surprised by the play of the likes of Olaf Kolzig, Peter Bondra, and Craig Berube, and knew that he had to somehow play a big role in promoting the game.
“It’s an honor, a joy and a delight,” Bennett said. “I’ve learned so much not just about hockey, but about life itself by talking to these gentlemen.”
“Oshie is, to me, not only a hockey hero but a life hero,” Bennett said of Oshie after he heard about his routine with Ovechkin that involves the two pumping each other’s gloves and screaming at one another. “To watch a guy game to game, to watch this joyful, exuberant and incredibly hard-hitting … to see guys lock into him and try to take him to the shadow realm, and instead they bounce off him. To be able to talk to him about that, ask them why that is, he just looked at me and said, ‘little guy syndrome.’ It’s amazing.”
“To be able to work in the NHL now is an absolute honor and a wonder, and something I’ll never take for granted,” Bennett said.
By Harrison Brown
