Skip to main content

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Nashville Predators fans have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day;

  • A team on the ice that has rebounded convincingly from early season woes to go 8-2-2 over their last 12 games;
  • A group of local investors who worked out a deal with city government and stand ready to take over the franchise in just a few weeks;
  • An outgoing owner in Craig Leipold who patiently waited for the locals to get their deal, rather than taking the quick money that would have sent this team packing;
  • A coach in Barry Trotz who, even after all these years, has this team playing hard every night;
  • A GM who, despite having to slash payroll, made sure that the players brought in were able to fill specific roles;
  • Players like Radek Bonk, David Legwand, and Alexander Radulov, who, among others, are providing offense through a genuine team effort. This team doesn't rely on a single star;
  • A defense corps that has buckled down in the face of injury;
  • A fan base that is rallying behind their team and their city;

All this, of course, and much, much more. Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

NOTES
Unfortunately I'll miss tonight's Predators/Red Wings tilt. The Wings toyed with the St. Louis Blues last night, so it will be interesting to see how Nashville handles them.

Too bad for Glen Hanlon, who just got the boot in Washington, where the Caps are struggling. Some coaches are particularly suited to certain teams and certain times, and while "Hacksaw" did a solid job the last couple years, the expectations have been upgraded along with the roster in D.C. and Hanlon just hasn't gotten things to click so far.

Happiness is flipping by a Canucks/Oilers game and seeing two of my fantasy hockey wingers, Marcus Naslund and Dustin Penner, trade power play goals within a matter of minutes. Mirtle's Merry Men, you're going down!!!
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Cheer up, it's the holidays...

Why is it that various media outlets continue trying to put their own spin on the "what's wrong with the NHL" story? Our latest example comes from The Hockey News , in a piece by Jay Greenburg entitled, "Excitement Level On The Decline." Take the opening sentence: Attendance is down and yet still up from before the lockout, leaving it arguable whether buildings in New Jersey and Florida are half-full or half empty. It's no surprise that attendance is down from last season, particularly if you compare the first half of 2005-06 to the first half of this year. Coming out of the lockout, there were legions of fans starved to see the on-ice product, particularly in light of the massive rule changes. This year is more indicative of business as usual, so the fact that the league is above pre-lockout levels is a positive. Toss in the projection that overall revenues are increasing despite a 1% decrease in attendance, and I'd say that paying fans have come back
Read more

How I'm Trying To Make Money Sports Blogging

To kick off this series of articles general sports-blogging articles here at OTF Classic, I think it's best to start with a comment that Brad left here last week, after I shared my goals for 2012 , which include specific revenue targets: I considered diving into the world of internet marketing myself, but I felt that my friends would hate me for bugging them about stuff. I mean, it's pretty low-risk high-reward, so it's tempting. I wouldn't mind reading about tips on how to maximize impact of blogging in general to make it a legitimate income source. Trying to make money at sports blogging can be a very touchy subject - for the vast majority of us, this is an activity we pursue to both exercise our creativity and share our love of the game, whether it's hockey, football, badminton, whatever, with fellow fans. Mixing that personal conversation with a commercial message can turn people off, especially if it becomes too intrusive for the reader. It's not unrea
Read more

Social Media, Internet Marketing, and Real, Paying Customers - it really works!

Applying the basic tenets of internet marketing (SEO best practices and social media network building) have helped me grow the readership and engagement over at On The Forecheck tremendously in recent years, but lately I've been wondering if those same techniques could be applied to small- or medium-sized local businesses, to help them drive real, tangible business results. I'm talking about not just drawing idle hockey fans looking to a blog so they can muse over line combinations, but helping businesses connect with potential customers in ways that otherwise wouldn't occur. Recently, I was able to help make just such a thing happen, and it shows just how great the opportunities are for small, local businesses which may not have the resources or skills available to extend their brand effectively on the internet.
Read more