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“On The Forecheck” Celebrates 8 Years

Posted on by Dirk Hoag

On July 25, 2005, I set up shop on ye olde Blogger platform, launching “On The Forecheck” as an outlet for some occasional hockey writing. My intent at the time was to write about the league at large as it returned from the Great Lockout of 2004-5, but a few months later I moved from Indianapolis to Nashville, and suddenly had a local team to watch up close again after a 7-year hiatus.

Over the course of time, things have grown far more than I ever would have thought back then, through the addition of multiple writers who have added their unique voice to the content here, including Aditya Thawardas (graphic artist extraordinaire), Chris Burton, Sam Page, Marc Torrence, and many more, such as Jason Zito who has done a marvelous job taking the daily Dump & Chase off my shoulders. Some of the milestones we’ve reached as a community over the last 8 years are downright staggering:

  • More then 6,300 posts (including articles, game threads, etc), 700 FanPosts, and 1,000 FanShots
  • Over 3,700 registered members of the site
  • More than 4 million visits and 8 million page views from over 1.4 million people since February 2009, when OTF joined SB Nation
  • Named Writers Choice in 2011 & Readers Choice in 2012 for Best Sports Blog in the Nashville Scene’s Best of Nashville edition, and a 3rd place finish last year for Best Blog in the Tennessean’s Toast of Music City.

All the old stuff was brought over to the site you see today when I joined SB Nation, so check out the original OTF post right here.

Thank You

My thanks go out to all of you who stop by and contribute to the developing culture of hockey fans here in Middle Tennessee and beyond (or walk up at a Preds game and say hi, that’s the best), the Nashville Predators for their outreach to the local blogging community, and my SB Nation comrades & overlords.

But most especially, I owe a debt to my wife Amy & the 3 Little Forecheckers, who have put up with my foolish hobby for a long, long time.

The question now becomes, where do we take this ride over the next 8 years?

More from On the Forecheck:

Talking Points