Before I knew of the wonderful world of hockey blogging, I was checking scores and stats on NHL.com, reading news on ESPN.com and TSN.ca, and being generally tech savvy about my hockey. It took the right google search at the right time, with the right click on the right link to find Hockey Rants, and then to branch out from there. If there is a good way of getting the word out in the first place to the less participatory of the internet hockey fans, I want to know what it is.

My main way of finding new sites is through my existing blogroll. I try to visit each site at least weekly, and keep an eye out for recommendations as I surf. Thanks for the pointers here, as you’ve given me some new reading material for tonight!

I agree, though– the number of hockey blogs is starting to grow exponentially. If there were 10 in 2004 and 100 in 2005, there’s now a thousand. I went through the same thing happening with print ‘zines, when I was a part of that little subculture decades ago. Maybe it’s time for a blog site that exists to review other blog sites, like Factsheet Five used to do with zines. (I’ve actually thought of starting a site like this myself, but I’m a bit wary of all the toes that would get stepped on along the way if I did it right and kept it honest.)

One of the ways I stumble across new blogs is by using the site tracker on Sidearm Delivery; I click on the Google blog searches that other people have used to find my blog, and see what other blogs pop up under the same search topic.

E – The random hockey blog generator is just too random. I like it for what it is, five a day that are a good roundup. But it doesn’t point the fans to what they want. If someone wants an Islanders blog, where do they start. The thing is, it should be easy. Really easy. You can’t push blogs on people, but you can make it easy to get to.

It is a huge task for one person. Just ask Mirtle. Even searching them out can be daunting, so an opt-in kind of thing would be better. But you can see how “well” that works with Hockeyblogs.org.

Actually, I’m thinking a little bigger. A list is nice. A list gets names out there, but like hockey, you have to get the butts in the seats.

i think it’s too difficult for one person to keep up with, the fractal way the blogosphere grows. you could probably do it as a collaborative effort- get a website and a group of people who spend a lot of time on the hockey blogs anyway, and have them drop in once or twice a week to add whatever new they’ve stumbled across. maybe supplementing it with little capsule profiles/posts on the various projects. hey, it might also fill your previously-mentioned longing for a ‘team blog’, or at least a ‘team blogroll’.

I completely agree with you about the medium of blogging as it relates to us, the hockey fans. Since mainstream media for the most part, simply doesn’t get it (too violent a sport, too difficult to learn, and so on), I think it will be up to us to spread the word and show the passion and skill this great sport has to offer.

I think the more NFL players they lock up, the more thugs infiltrate the NBA, and the more MLB players convicted of steriod usage, I think the casual sports fan may give the NHL a second look.

For now, the NHL should be very glad we’re here.

-Patricia (2MA)

But NHL teams and owners aren’t exactly the most progressive people in the world. Not all teams are like the Thrashers, who opened their doors to bloggers for a game and backstage look at the team, or Ted Leonsis, who activly promotes the blogs that cover his team. I think the rest of the teams are going to slowly come around.

Now, the question is, who’s going to do it?

Which is why I sort of think the teams should go around collecting them and listing them on their website. Then again, if blogs are critical of them, they might not be so gun-ho about it.