Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Two Quick Things

This post was actually written a few hours later than the date-stamp, but I rolled it back to get it beneath my Konstantinov tribute, since that's more important to me today.

Dominik Hasek's rumored return is now pretty much official. He hasn't signed a contract, but Holland says that he's returning and they don't anticipate any problems getting him signed. Whoo-hoo!

Deadspin just put up a very interesting article. The New York Islanders are going to credential bloggers, section off an area in the upper bowl for them to sit (meaning that cheering is still allowed), watch the game, and then allow them to ask questions to select players after the game.
It's a pretty great idea if you ask me. It's a way to encourage people to start blogs--and specifically blogs about the team. They appear to be the first organization in this struggling sport to realize that the more people there are covering the team, the better. This is in stark contrast to the NCAA, who booted a reporter at the University of Louisville for live-blogging the NCAA Baseball game. The NHL needs all the coverage it can get, and this is one way to accomplish that. I applaud the Islanders for doing something that fan-friendly. I don't expect the Wings to adopt a similar policy for a couple of reasons: 1) Their press box is too small to accommodate anyone as it is. 2) Games are almost always sold out, meaning that it'd be very difficult to block off a section of seats for the bloggers like the Islanders are doing.

It'd be cool though.

Anytime U of M wants to start giving me credentials to go sit in the stands for games, I'd be more than happy to accept when I'm in town.

2 comments:

colin said...

Could you really live blog them though? I'd be too busy yelling to type.

Packer487 said...

That's true...it would be kind of tough to live blog a Michigan hockey game while at the rink.

I'm hoping for lots of games on CSTV, ESPNU, Big Ten Network, and Fox Sports (any of them...I get em all) this year. Even if they'd show the BU games on NESN or something that'd be cool.

I'm curious to see if it'll be easier to do game analysis when I can watch with the benefit of my DVR--or if I'll miss so much stuff that happens outside the view of the camera.