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(Logo by Couch Tarts)
Part I
Part II
The Prompt Why are you a blogger? What pushed you across the threshold to go from fan/journalist/whatever to someone who publishes hockey posts? Did it have anything to do with "proving" your knowledge? Describe your motivation for starting your blog(s).
The Bloggers
Read all about them after the jump ...
First, Dee Karl
I have a saying, “I Blog – Therefore, I am tired.”
I don’t really know how it happened. It was just something to pass the time while my husband was taking night classes and my daughter was too young to leave alone. I found the community that never sleeps and won’t shut up: The World Wide Web of Hockey Fans. The most web savvy, chatty, net knowledgeable fans in all of sports. They kept me company night after night. In return, I tried to keep them entertained.
It started with a message board addiction. But once my comments started reading like O’Henry short stories, the administrator offered to create a web journal for me to pen my hockey misadventures in the land of the NY Islanders.
That was 2004 and “misadventures” they were. The Season Ticket Holder events, the charity events, the concourse consequences, the airport stalking, and then the dreaded “work stoppage,” all became public chapters of hockey fanaticism viewed by tens. I made friends of hockey writers who had nothing better to do than chat with fans.
When I won the NHL’s 7th Man Contest for the NY Islanders in April of ’04, the world became my oyster. I had even more hockey adventures and with new access to the team, so many more stories to tell. Of course, I couldn’t tell ALL of them. I’m not writing Hockey Confidential here. I’m just writing about the misadventures of one fan following her love of the NY Islanders wherever it may take her.
In 2007, it took me to the NY Islanders “Blog Box,” a diverse group of Islanders fans who all had blogs of sorts who would promote the team on an ongoing basis in order to give the team more internet coverage. It is a great idea that generated great friendships and a lot of hard work on our part and a little free publicity on theirs.
Being the media whore that I’ve turned into, I’ve written on Bleacher Report, Hockey Barn and various others. I’ve been the Islanders reporter for HockeyBuzz.com, the website that started it all, since June of this year. It’s a challenge.
I never changed my style. My posts are STILL basically about ME. (Because isn’t it just always about ourselves anyway?) They’re about ME interviewing players, ME inadvertently turning the lights off in the locker room during post game, ME being told to sit in the front row of the Scott Gordon press conference and ending up in the Getty Images photos. (I was shaking so bad, I’m surprised I wasn’t just one huge blur.) Me, Myself and the NY Islanders.
In the past three years, I’ve slowly learned how to ask questions that won’t make a coach look at me with that “WTF” look in his eyes, how to talk to a hockey player standing in a pool of sweat in his underwear and I have even become comic relief for an oft times media reluctant GM. Some days, it’s just tough to be me.
My days are long. My nights are longer. I am sleep deprived. I play “sports reporter” but am always quick to say I am NOT one. No, I’m not a “journalist.” Journalists are trained professionals with a degree. I’m just a writer. Hopefully, one day, one with a book deal. I hate the term “blogger” as it has taken on some negative connotations in some circles and even seems encompass main stream media types.
I’m a suburban mother with a press pass and a book idea in her head. It’s taken me ten years to get from my couch to the press box. It’s been one hell of a ride. I am lucky to cover the sport and team I love with some of the most gracious athletes there could be. They call me by name. They put up with my inexperience and odd questions. They’ve never been rude or condescending. Every one of them has been a pleasure to know.
For this reason, maybe my work can be considered “homerism.” Personally, I don’t. My original web journal title was “The Unique Perspective of 7thWoman.” I was chastised for the word “unique.” I am watching these boys turn into men through a mother’s eyes. My husband sees them as multi-million dollar assets of the team. Yeah, my perspective is “unique” in my household at least.
I “blog” for my own satisfaction. There are days I’ll put out two or three different entries. Sometimes people will comment, sometimes people will rip me a new one, sometimes I will verbally mother slap them with a wooden spoon if I find their email address. Don’t piss off a mother blogger. Seriously… don’t.
‘Cause I blog – Therefore I’m tired – and I’ll smack you upside the head. Now go wash your hands for dinner.
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Sarah from Punch in the Face
Why exactly am I a blogger? I'd say that's a bit of a loaded question.
I've always been a huge sports fan in general, but hockey's relatively new for me. Actually, I started watching the NHL just last season. I suppose some would say I was a bandwagoner, but, truth be told, I didn't know anything about the Caps or the NHL or even hockey. I was just surfing the channels on TV, and it landed on a Caps game. I didn't know a single player's name or what their record was. I'm a fan of losing MLB and NFL teams, so I figured, What the hell? Might as well give these Caps a shot. Even if they do suck, I'll learn to love them just like the Orioles. But I think what really made me fall in love with hockey and the Caps was a game in December against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Joe Beninati had been going on about how the Caps hadn't won at MSG in a lot of games or something. We were losing 4-0 but started coming back after Ovechkin got it started. Then, BAM, tied 4-4 and going into the extra frame. All I remember was Joe B yelling, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAONE MORRISONN!!!" about a minute into OT. It was a beauty of a slapper from the left circle, if I remember correctly. Apparently, I'd have at least one team I thought could win more than what I was used to.
Punch In The Face started this past June after the playoffs. By this point, I knew a lot more about hockey, and I knew I was not a fan of Sidney Crosby. Everyone was bitching about him apparently snubbing the Red Wings in the handshake line after the Pens won the Cup. I actually started part of the post with "because I really feel like putting my opinion out there," so I suppose that's part of why I became a blogger, to share my opinions with whoever happened to stop by. (By the way, I just read over that first post, and I sounded like a fucking idiot...whose opinion has slightly changed after watching the Hershey Bears celebrate their tenth Calder Cup on Manitoba ice.)
I've grown up in Maryland, and we're mainly associated with churning out top notch lacrosse players and teams (JHU all the way, baby), not really anything hockey. My parents were never hockey fans and my brother played baseball growing up, so I couldn't really talk puck with anyone. The blog let's me do that. It's a lot about just writing up some posts on random hockey topics with an occasional vent or opinion. I've had some pretty futile attempts at being witty or funny, and I tried to keep other Caps fans up to date on players or events (like development camp, the draft, QOs) during the summer. There's been stuff from a massive post about fake Twitterers to Patrick Kane being arrested to the Caps' Hockey 'N Heels to the analysis of the Capitals and Hershey Bears fighting stats. Blogging for me is just about fun and writing about whatever. That being said, I've never wanted to prove my hockey intelligence because I knew I didn't know everything. I was determined to not be one of those people who puts out stupid shit that isn't even right. But I do hope that by now, anyone who reads PITF thinks that I have at least a few good ounces of hockey smarts in me.
I'm the Matt Bradley of these ladies. I'm the fourth line grinder(slash shootout specialist slash Ranger Killer) who gets seven in a season, while my much more skilled teammates make it look all too easy when they keep crankin 'em out for 20 goal seasons. But then again...everyone #needsmoreBradley in their life. (;
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Laura
Why am I a blogger? Where do I live? Atlanta. Is it easy to sit down and talk hockey with people outside of the internet? Not really. I love hockey, and have since I was a kid. Talking about it, following it, comparing ideas... it's my idea of politics. And it's just damned hard to do that in the South. The Thrashers have the 2nd highest trafficked (after the 'Nucks') message board in the league for a reason, and our blogs tend to be more in-depth and interested than others... and the little family of Thrashers fans and bloggers is pretty tight knit. Why? Because we have to be.
There's another reason I blog. I'm a HUGE Blues fan. Been watching them since I was about 7 or so. I absolutely adore them. And I'm living in Atlanta. It's the only way that I can share my POV about them, discuss them... I'm so very glad for St. Louis Game Time. Not for giving me a platform to argue with myself, necessarily, but for providing me with a slice of home, a place to keep up with the Note, and a great group of people to discuss hockey (and other randomness) with.
Occasionally, though, yeah - a little bit of it has to go with proving what I know. I absolutely hate being ignored about hockey stuff because I'm a woman. I've been following this sport for over 20 years. I know as much, if not more, than the guys that I know who are huge fans. The best thing is, though, is that with the internet hockey fans, all of the guys kind of expect the women to be just as spot on as they are about things. There's none of that "Oh, you're a girl, so what do you know?" thing going on. I guess it's because the guys I know on-line (and a few in real life now, which is nice) are actual real hockey fans who care enough to discuss them. A lot of the guys who think that women don't know much about hockey are usually the blowhard asshats who have to try to prove themselves, but then get on the in-arena trivia games and completely fail. Making fun of women's just their way of trying really hard to make themselves feel better about life. Or whatnot.
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Laura: Of course we have a few interests in common, so I promise not to call you a bigamist.
Dee: I know your story pretty well by now but it's still fun to read it. And this:
Hell yes. At the end of the day, with all snark and goofing off aside, it's still hockey, glorious hockey, and I frankly love the way it reaches so many people in so many different ways -- with Sarah's introduction just another case in point.