Blog Update: 2015

After taking a recent summer vacation, I am back and ready for another season of Hockey posts and nerdery. It has been a tough couple of weeks, with the first anniversary of my close friend's death. For those who were following my blog last year will know, my friend, Liam Sweeney, was travelling to New Zealand to watch Newcastle United play a series of exhibition games. He was on a flight travelling between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpar on Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 when the plane was shot down by a Russian Rebel Missile. We still don't have answers as to what really happened and this first year without him has been tough. The only thing I can take from this is that as he was so well liked he had lots a great friends and we have all bonded over this. As bad an event this was, being around such good people makes it that little less tough.

Around this time of year, I like to take stock as to what has happened with the blog and where it might be going in the upcoming year. Firstly I cant believe it has been three years since I started the blog. No sooner had I started than we had the lockout of 2012. It couldn't really have got off to a worse start, with no actual hockey to talk about. Other those next few years I have tried to improve the format and content of the site, and this year will be no different.
The focus has mainly been on four core teams in the NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins, Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks and St Louis Blues. That is not going to change, in fact I want to try and improve the quality of the content of these teams.
As some of you may have noticed I have started 'NHL Central' a kind of extended round-up of the remaining teams in the Central Division (Minnesota, Chicago, Winnipeg, Colorado & Nashville). The main reason for that is I am fond of all those teams to some degree and think the Central Division is the most interesting of the four in the NHL.
After that the remaining teams will be covered in a more concise round-up. The idea behind this is why spend time commenting on teams I despise like the Mighty Goons of Philadelphia when I could spend more time on more exciting events involving the Vladimir Tarasenko-lead St Louis Blues.

There is a lot of Hockey outside of the NHL and I want to try and focus on that a bit more too. You will have noticed I mention my local team the Whitley Warriors, quite a bit. Coverage should increase more this season as everything points to an exciting season ahead and I will be attending more games.
I have also decided to pick a team from each of the minor leagues in North America and focus on them too. Milwaukee Admirals & Lake Erie Monsters (AHL), Indy Fuel (ECHL), Quebec Remparts & Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL), Mississauga Steelheads (OHL) & Everett Silvertips and Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL).
After the NHL the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the next best league in the world. I will be aiming to focus a bit on this, mainly on five teams CSKA, Dynamo and Spartak of Moscow, SKA St Petersburg and Ak Bars Kazan. I am hoping it will increase interest in the KHL and also to a friend's excellently written-blog https://conwaysrussianhockey.wordpress.com/
Finally I am going to focus on the DEL (Deutsche Eishockey Liga). A recent trip to Germany influenced my decision and being a Pittsburgh Penguins fan there could only be one choice, the Krefeld Pinguine.

I hope these changes will prove to be popular. This does not mean my coverage of the NHL with reduce. I still aim to cover every single Regular and Post Season game.