Bloggers on the March

I wanted to draw your attention to an excellent piece over at Off Wing Opinion that proposes some guidelines for NHL teams to use in issuing press passes to bloggers. Hopefully some best practices can be put in place across the league, which ultimately will help both the NHL and its fans benefit from this still-developing medium.

Back in 1997, I wrote columns for one of the early online hockey magazines, which was then called In the Crease. We were fortunate enough to have an editor with connections to the league through a player on the Colorado Avalanche, and I was able to score press passes to cover three fantastic games: Red Wings vs. Avalanche on March 26, 1997 (better known as the Brawl in Hockeytown), and Games 1 & 2 of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals. At the time, I was the beneficiary of good relationships and connections that got my foot in the door, and the Red Wings treated me with the utmost professionalism. What's occuring now is the realization that the online world is too dynamic to rely upon the old methods of gaining access to the league and its players, and this is a much-needed step forward to building a new channel we can use to tell the world about the Coolest Game on Earth.

For another blogger's take on this issue, check The Ice Block...