"On the Forecheck" turns 5...

On July 25, 2005, as the NHL began to emerge from the darkness of the Great Lockout, I launched "On the Forecheck" on the old Blogger platform, seeking to work off a little creative energy and get thinking about hockey again after too long of a break.

I'm coming up on 2,000 posts since then, and it's definitely come a long way, mostly in directions I never could have predicted!

To celebrate, I just wanted to share some of my favorite articles from over the years:

• 21st Century Hockey Analysis Begins - My initial foray in NHL stats analysis, looking at which centers helped generate quick shots off a faceoff win.
  
• Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics... - A college professor seriously published an academic paper claiming that taking major penalties helped teams win games. I, and a few other hockey bloggers, enjoyed ripping the article to shreds.

• A modest proposal for the Nashville Predators - during the 2007 playoffs, I got frustrated with how the outside world treated the team, and offered up my own marketing suggestion.

• My Letter To Gary - When Jim Balsillie started taking deposits for the Hamilton Predators, that truly crossed the line and I penned an open letter to the commish.
• A deeper look at the NHL schedule - the first of my Super Schedules, which makes it easy to compare the difficulty of each team's 82-game journey.
• Hook Me, Trip Me, Tell Me Lies... - In the fall of 2007 the NHL first started recording which player drew a given penalty, which led to Penalty Plus/Minus analysis.

• Steve Sullivan injured as Shea Weber's slap shot claims another victim - at first I had something different in mind that day, then this idea came out of the blue...

Thanks for reading, and let me know where you'd like things to head going forward!