The Hangover With J.R. Mannigel

So I have been kicking around this idea for awhile now. When I first started this little hobby of mine I had one purpose in mind, to give myself the space and opportunity to rant and rejoice about the team, and sport, that I love. And to meet some really cool people in the process. Okay, that is two purposes but I think they kind of go hand in hand.

Somewhere along the way I lost my direction and this is my chance to get back on track.

It used to be that sports blogging (or any blogging for that matter) was about giving your opinion on something while trying to entertain your audience in the process. It was about being a person and relating to other people instead of trying to be some aspiring journalist who is only using this as some sort of stepping stone to something bigger and better. It was something you really only did for fun.

Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a place for that kind of content and I know that there are a lot of people out there who really enjoy that kind of writing, #fancystats and all. But that’s just not who I am.

So starting today I am going to have a weekly post which will just be me unloading everything I have watched, heard and read throughout the week and then give my biased opinion on them. In short, I plan on using this Blues blog to do a little blogging.

I understand that this will not be everyone’s cup of tea and that is perfectly fine. But for those of you that do give it a once-over please feel free to share your own opinions in the comment section below.

However, there are a couple things you should know. I don’t always read every comment so if you want to get my attention you either need to email me at jmblues83@icloud.com or hit me up on the twitter tweets. Or if there is anything you would like addressed or want to talk about please feel free to drop me a line. I love meeting new people.

Let’s begin shall we.

Thank goodness the month of August came and went so we can finally start to start thinking about hockey, officially.

This month is always kind of bitter-sweet for me. I am excited that hockey is coming back into my life but it also means that I am gearing up for a lot of sleep shortened nights writing for the paper and the website.

It means summer and all of things that I love about the season are coming to a close and before long you won’t be able to go outside without three layers of clothes.

On the other hand, between the NHL, the AHL, the WHL and every other HL there will literally be more hockey to absorb than there are hours in the day. So who has time to go outside anyways.

The big Blues news that was driving this week was the prospect tournament that kicked off on Friday and will finish up on Tuesday.

The tournament is being streamed on Fox Sports Go but so far I haven’t been able to watch any of it. I don’t mean to be a negative nelly and I really do commend the NHL, or whoever, for making the tournament available to the masses but those start times were kind of shitty.

Friday at 3 o’clock, Saturday at 6 p.m., Monday at 2 and sometime on Tuesday. This tournament is actually something that I wanted to watch but geez, nothing like having to take off work to watch minor league hockey.

I did see that the Blues prospects managed to blow a four goal lead in the first game and railed from a three goal deficit in the third period of the second game.

On second thought it’s probably better that I didn’t watch the games. It is way to early in the season to put myself through that kind of drama.

It was officially announced on Tuesday that Jeremy Rutherford, formally the Blues beat writer for the Post-Dispatch, was head to the Athletic, a web-based sports page.

Personally I think this is fantastic news. Not only has Jermey been a big supporter of Game Time over the years, I think he is a terrific writer who has been somewhat stifled at the P-D.

Be forewarned, the Athletic is subscription based. But, as some have pointed out, so is the Post-Dispatch (the actual paper) and Game Time for that matter. Personally, I would rather pay for my news if it means that the writing is more focused on content instead of selling advertising. I would rather read one in-depth piece about my team than three boring recaps of games that I have already watched.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a change in sports journalism. When the internet first caught everyone’s attention I think that traditional news outlets didn’t really know what to do and because they feared being left behind their focus shifted from quality to quantity and speed. Gotta get them clicks.

However, I think that people have become increasingly sick of click bait headlines with no substantial content to back it up and are searching for any kind of avenue possible to find what they are looking for. I hope.

A perfect example would be this piece from Pierre LeBrun about a day in the life of NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. I have given the NHL a lot of shit over the years but it is nice to been reminded that there are still really good people who honestly do care about the game of hockey and not just about making a dollar.

That is probably enough rambling for now. Once the season starts to take off I promise there will be a lot more content to talk about. Things are a little slow right now but there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

Don’t forget that Blues training camp begins on the 15th and is open to the public. The first pre-season game is September 19th in Dallas and it is less than a month before the regular season begins. Get plenty of sleep, it will be here before you know it.

Thanks for reading and Let’s Go Blues.