Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic Eleven Years Anniversary

Well, another year has come and gone and Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic is yet another year older.

I am hoping for a whole new direction for this blog and a whole lot of participation from the fans over the summer. I'm planning at least 3 new projects for the upcoming off-season. So, please keep tabs on this website as well as the series of social media sites devoted specifically to this hockey blogging website.

As hockey blogging's pioneering website, that is exactly what I'm going to do. I've already found a new home for the live streaming. You can watch the shows as they appear in the right hand sidebar underneath the writer's bio. I don't do very many live streaming shows that much, but if you go there and subscribe to the channel, then the page will let you know via e-mail when I do go live.

Honestly, outside this blog, my life is really busy with a lot of new challenges and sometimes I can't always devote the kind of time that I want to my writing. But I'm going to seriously challenge myself to get things going again here this year.

Let me know what kind of content you would like to see me attach to this blog in the future by leaving a comment or two. Maybe I can find some more creativity when it is more reader-driven than author-driven.

So, Eleven years of doing this and I'm not going to stop - ever. Things may slow down a bit, but I'll always enjoy this, my one true foray into expressing my love and appreciation for hockey.

Playoff Beards

The latest Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic video is up and available for viewing.

This topic today is all about playoff beards and how popular they've become. It's been a standing tradition that the NHL hockey players disregarded some of their hygiene routines during the playoffs so that they can turn their attention to their job. But hockey fans are a different breed all together. They often pick up on the same things that their favorite players do and call it solidarity.The hockey playoff beard is such an overwhelming mainstream phenomenon that hockey teams often organize it into charity causes.

What would you rate my hockey playoff beard in the video? Do you like it? Am I more "distinguished" now?

COHF Takes on NHL Trade Deadline Day 2013

This is the place where hockey fans can meet and talk live with the author of the Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic about the trade deadline day. You can watch it here on this page, participate in the chatr oom on Vaughn Live.tv or on Rumor Me This website.

Screen Capture 4/3/13

It's like "Christmas Morning" for hockey fans all over the world! The breaking news on how a team faired amongst all the others in the trade deadline is what makes things exciting.

2013 NCAA Frozen Four Predictions

Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic, since it is Pittsburgh-based, is proud to have the NCAA Frozen Four championship tournament hosted in the city of Pittsburgh and played in the new CONSOL Energy Center.

Here is my tournament brackets filled out with the predictions (like NCAA Final Four) in the proper brackets. If you want to participate with me, then get your brackets into me by THIS Saturday March 30th.

Dallas Stars Get Last Laugh in Twitter Altercation With Cowboys

The Dallas Stars were clever enough to get the last laugh recently in an altercation on Twitter with their local NFL team the Dallas Cowboys. It seems that the anti-Hockey bigotry had reared it's ugly head on the Cowboys twitter page.

Via: Stars Twitter

There can be no better description to the Stars' classy retort - "Epic Burn". But, later on in the day, the two representative twitter accounts made amends.

[Via: NESN (New England Sports Network]

PIHL Knights vs Spartans at Penguins Pond

Even after the big event of the Winter Classic outdoor event in Pittsburgh, it seems like every year, that the city tries to re-create the same wonder and feeling of an outdoor game to celebrate the resurgence of hockey interest at the early stage levels. The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to build interest in the city with the Penguins Pond project that I blogged and did a little video about last time around. This year, I made sure to take in some more of the high school PIHL action that I missed out on last year.

So, my alma-mater Norwin was scheduled to meet up with one of their neighboring arch-rivals in Hempfield on the relocated outdoor rink. Even though it was a beautiful set-up with the city in the background, it was still sitting on the new multi-purpose athletic field set to open up later this year. It was cold. Some might even say it was way too cold to be a spectator. The outdoor rink itself was kept frozen by a large mobile refrigerator unit, but I would insist that if it were to fail, the ice wouldn't been in any danger.

The stands were all filled with snow and made the metallic floor very dangerously "slippy" (as we yinzer's like to say). But the short level of risers were dwarfed by the regular seats off into the distance where I found many other PIHL fans sitting and freezing.

I made a YouTube video along with it to highlight some of the action.
You can check out the rest of the story in the Norwin Star hosted by TribTotal Media. in the link below.

Do you have some memories of the game? Why not leave a comment below.

[Via: Norwin Star] 

New Years' Resolutions for 2013

This past year has been one of frustration and disappointments. I hate to say it, but speaking in personal terms, Twenty-Twelve served up more negatives than positives. In a lot of ways, I'm glad to see it go.

Due to the changing nature of the the blogisphere and in my private life, I can no longer keep up with this blog the way I want to. I know this has cost me dearly, but with a greater effort (and loads more confidence), I can get back to building this blog back to where it was all along.

What I Learned in 2012
• Hockey fans are the most passionate fans on the internet. We, the fans, maintain a strong appeal in the internet and social media.
• The anti-Bettman sentiment is also very very strong on the internet. Sure, the players are likable, but NHL managers aren't the ones totally to blame for this lockout.
• Other hockey leagues experienced a mini-rebirth and ticket sales reportedly grew in areas.
• Connor McDavid may be the "savior" of the Erie Otters OHL franchise.
• Florida is slowly becoming a hockey state with the return of the Orlando Solar Bears. All it takes is years of having the teams around to be allowed to build a fan base.
• It's easier to tweet out game observations and comments than to compose a whole blog draft.
• USA Hockey is finally catching up to elite status among the international programs. It could be the many kids of former Canadian NHLers starting families in the USA.

Resolutions for 2013
1. The resolutions made for 2012 are still resolvable.
2. With a deeper interest in building up a YouTube presence, I will continue to publish more regularly scheduled blog videos.
3. I reaffirm my commitment to building a hockey weblog that provides cutting edge content as well as feature unique blog ideas.
4. I resolve to become even more provocative in my blog entries as to encourage more comments and much desired feedback.
5. Advance my career in broadcast journalism by continuing to make great media connections and continue trying to crack the starting line-up of a major media company again.