RBH hits another milestone

In the absence of any earth shattering hockey news, forgive me for taking a moment to toot my own horn.

At some point today, some unfortunate soul became the 100,000th visitor to this blog. Of course some of the big dogs get this kind of traffic in a single day, and it took me just over two years to reach that plateau. Still, it's about 99,997 more visitors than I ever imagined I'd get. I'm amazed and honored.

I've said before, and I'll say again that I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time during the 2005-06 season when my Hurricanes led the pack all season long en route to winning the Stanley Cup. For some reason, many readers have kept coming around.

Even this past month or so when I've barely managed to eke out one post a week, the people keep coming around. I suppose I must be doing something right. Or at least partially right.

Truth told, I once referenced a photograph of Candace Cameron Bure, which has generated a lot of traffic here. If you want, you can click on it for a bigger image. I don't see what the big deal is.

This blog has been great for me, and I hope it's been worth it for those of you who continue to stop by. I've had more than my fair share of highs, and I've had some lows.

Because of this place, I got to participate in a four-member roundtable panel for CBC.ca during the 2006 playoffs. I was interviewed for a piece in the Christian Science Monitor about rookie goaltenders in the 2006 playoffs. During the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals, I, my ridiculous beard, and my poster proclaiing "my beard believes" were seen on OLN and TSN and broadcast throughout the world. Readers of this blog recognized me on teevee and I received lots of notes and e-mails from people I've never met in places like Stockholm Sweden and Edmonton and lots of other far-off places. That bit was especially cool.

On a personal level, I'm certain that this blog has played a large part in the demise of one of the best friendships I've ever had. As cool as the other stuff is, this bit sucks. Tenfold. Good friends are hard to come by. Great friends come along just a few times in a lifetime. I've gone and alienated one. At the risk of sounding like a preview for We Network original movie, I'd give all that other stuff back if I could have my friend back.

As the dog days of summer wind down, and the beginning of hockey season is in sight, there should be more stuff to write about, and I should be able to be more productive around these parts. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who's stopped by, especially those who come back on purpose. Thanks of course go to everyone in the blogroll. Every one of those has been an inspiration to me in one way or another.

Nucks poised to finish off Stars

Tonight in Dallas, the Canucks will have the chance to finish off the Stars and advance to the round of eight. Meanwhile, Ottawa will have that same chance against Pittsburgh.

I can't claim to be an honest-to-goodness Nucks fan. Sure, I bought a hat. Sure, I wear it. Sure, I've been keeping a close eye on them in the playoffs. They're still a distant second to my Canes, though.

Recently, one of my hockey-loving coworkers was baffled by my new lid and didn't think I was for real. He said "okay.. aside from the Sedins, cane you name even two players from the Canucks?" I think he expected me to name one and admit that I'm a fraud. First off, I'll openly admit that I'm a fraud and a charlatan, but I was still able to reel off a few without hesitation "Roberto Luongo, Markus Naslund, Mattias Ohland, Matt Cooke, Trevor Linden, Rory Fitzpatrick, ummmm. ummm..." I'm trying, though. Heck, I don't think I could name that many players on the Capitals, and they're in the freaking Southeast division.

Anyway, the Nucks will look to advance, and I'll be looking to hone my Nuck fan skills.

Take the time to check out The Crazy Canucks, which is a Canucks roundtable. It's run by (among others) JJ Guerrero (Canucks Hockey Blog) and Alanah McGinley (Canucks and Beyond), who are two of my long-time favorite hockey bloggers. As part of this project, they have a podcast which you can listen to and subscribe to from the site. They were featured on TV in Vancouver for their efforts.

These are good peeps, and while I can't physically be there with them to root on the Nucks, I'll be raising a pint for them.

Later, I'll give due props to some of my other favorite playoff hockey bloggers.

house cleaning

Although I refuse to clean my actual home, I like to tidy this place up once in a while. Usually this means dropping/adding blogs to the roll. That's what I'm doing today.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Season, which was Carolina's MVP network blog is being dropped. It's former author claims that he has a new job and doesn't have time for the blog anymore. The real reason is that he's a long time Avalanche fan and was only writing the Canes blog as a way to validate his ride on the bandwagon last spring. On a serious note, that blog is up for grabs if anyone wants to start writing it.

In the Crease, one of many fine Sabres blogs, has apparently given up the ghost (again). She hasn't written anything since game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. If she's remained silent during her team's phenomenal start, I assume she's not doing this anymore.

One recent add is Predspage. Far and away the best Preds blog I've come across. To be frank, most of the others I've seen are written by 14-year old puck bunny wannabes. This guy has excellent between games analysis and great game commentary. Even if you don't care for the Preds third sweater themed color scheme on his page, the content more than makes up for that.

Most recently, I've added the Ducks-centric Girl With a Puck. Because guys like girls who like hockey. Seriously, one of a very few Ducks-specific blogs out there, and a good one at that. An entertaining read with a very personal touch. Sure, there's some squee, but not nearly as much as some other female bloggers. Because one never knows when one might "bump into" Sami Pahlsson at Panera Bread, she carries an unsigned official Ducks puck (and, presumably, a silver Sharpie) with her at all times. Good planning. My friend Jenn once "ran into" Chad LaRose and Eric Staal at Panera Bread, but was unprepared for the occasion.

Abel to Yzerman is gone (changed URL?), and I think I'm still missing some others. Feel free to recommend adds to me. Sadly, though, I can't list them all. Hey, I don't make the cut on Mirtle's page. Everyone has to have standards.

Eventually, I still plan to have pull down menus with a more complete list for each team. For now, I'll stick with listing the ones I read (nearly) every day.

Because all the cool kids are already doing it, I'm going to start listing my own "3 stars of the game" in my game recaps. Hopefully, I'll quit being slack about those recaps, and not use "oh but I have two jobs" as an excuse for being a lazy blogger.