I've recently told you about decisions I've taken to continue the site, and alluded to the changes this would require. Because we're all grown up now, the posters at this site have responsibilities that weren't a problem in other seasons. But we adapt.
Timing
Those who've evolved from full-time Habs news junkies over the past years will understand that the biggest impediment real-life places on running a blog like this one is in the timing. Filing a full summary after watching a 3-hour game is a big chunk of time commitment in one shot. So, to make this more efficient, we're going to remove the expectation of same night coverage.
Each game forms part of the fabric of a bigger game that is the season, and that is what we'll be covering this year. Some games will compel us all to spend hours discussing it afterwards, while others will be viewed, tabulated and fed into the bigger analysis.
If you're thinking: "Wow, Topham, that's pretty vague". You're right. We still love the Habs, still enjoy watching them and still really enjoy sharing our thoughts through a lively discussion and debate. What we want to do though is unshackle from the structure of the NHL schedule and take a more free-form approach that is more driven by areas of interest. Instead of writing about every player in a loss, we may choose to write instead a more in-depth story on the impact of Carey Price's ventures outside the crease.
I think this will be an improvement.
Structure
We can't thank all of you enough for the compliments we've received over the years for this particular aspect of the site. And while we'd love the accolades to continue, it's this part of running the blog (the ties to a fixed schedule in particular) that have become the most onerous. But we adapt.
A first change is a passing of the torch of sorts. For years, the sacred task of selecting the dome (and deflecting the rush of criticism) has fallen mostly to Tobalev, with occasional help from myself and Ian. We feel the time has come to pass this responsibility to the faithful followers who know just as well as we do what constitutes a dome worthy performance. Thanks to the magic of the instanet, we can democratize the dome. Hence, the Reader's Dome(TM).
After all, the Habs opened up three star voting to the public to the delight of OT scorers, Habs goalies and visiting Quebecers. Given we know we have a much more sophisticated electorate than the Habs 3-star panel, we thought it it would make a fitting legacy for the dome for it to be kept alive by the readers who came here to criticize our picks.
It will be simple. We've set up forms. They'll be available after every game. I'm sure this will give us lots more to discuss at Lions in Winter.These domes will be part of the broader discussion, which I now expect to take place every few games rather than on the tail of each game.
I do still believe in structure, and we've come up with other ways to deliver it that aren't so time consuming for the authors. As you all know, we are quite fond of statistics. And as other statsheads know, the new world of NHL statistics is vastly changed over the past few years. One of the things I intend to do on my own is share the stats that I collect from each game's data with readers here.
On the very eve of the season that we feared lost, I want to wish you all great enjoyment and excitement (and minimum anguish) for the games ahead. We look forward to watching and analyzing this season with you all. We hope that our changes will deliver what you've always expected from us and won't leave you wanting (to the point you tune into the post-game show on radio or something equally as horrific)...
Go Habs Go
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