It’s Only The Beginning!
By Frank Rekas
Welcome to “Too Many Men On The Site”, the new NHL main page for the FanSided Sports Network. Putting this together was easy. Choosing the contributing writers and the content of their stories was the simple part. The name? Well that’s another matter. When we decided to move forward with this idea there was a name that surfaced among the inital choices that we came up with. Of course perfectionist’s that we all are, and believe me there’s alot of us, we kept trying to improve it. As we sifted through the suggestions, all of them excellent, everything was taken.
So, in honor of the fact that we will have a total of 10 contributing writers and that the infamous Too Many Men On the Ice penalty has been called 36 times so far this post season, we went back to the original idea, with a slight twist at the end. And here we are.
I’m going to introduce our staff to you, however not before I give you a sort of “pregame” view of what our plans will be for the site. Our featured writer’s that have been gathered from our long list of NHL lead writer’s, will be providing the content with featured story lines. Each writer will be covering a specific topic, or specialty that they’re passionnate about, on a regularly assigned day. Tim as an example, will provide video highlights and commentary. Bobby will cover the six Canadien teams. Each of us will also contribute more often as well, on news we feel you need to know.
Too Many Men On the Site is not just a bunch of guys pumping their chests. We have a female writer as well. But let me tell you up front, don’t try to out wit her, or challenge her knowledge. Sue will knock you into the fourth row through the glass faster than you can say oops-my mistake. We’ll be reporting on trades, free agency, firing’s, hiring’s, player interviews, and maybe even get a celebrity here from time to time. Also things like, hot streaks, cold streaks, and teams we love to hate. You name it, we’re going to do our best to do it. This is really the beginning. Like a good team that makes adjustments between periods, we’ll be adding additional spots, trying different things, and striving to maintain you’re interest. Kind of like “finding our legs”.
I’ll now introduce to you the staff of Too Many Men On The Site. As we move ahead and settle in, we promise that you’ll enjoy what we have to say and encourage you to comment. One thing for sure, this lineup can play it anyway you want. Fast, gritty, in your face, funny, sarcastic. Who knows, maybe even make you fall into a “trap” every now and then. So without further babble, here are the contributing writer’s of Too Many Men On The Site.
Lead Writer and Featured Columnist:
Frank Rekas: Born and raised in Chicago, Frank moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1993. Frank grew up a Chicago Blackhawks fan and is old enough (really?) to say that he saw Bobby Hull live. He also saw the Penguins skate around the Old Chicago Stadium with the Stanley Cup in 1992. So you can imagine besides hating the rival Detroit Red Wings (Scum), he also has a very deep hatred for anything to do with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Frank loves the Hawks, their tradition, and believes the indianhead is the greatest logo in sports. Since moving to Florida, the Florida Panthers have become his second team. You might say he’s obsessed with hockey, but we’ll leave that to you. Frank covers the Panthers at his site The Rat Trick. Frank is also the NHL Director for FanSided Sports. Frank keeps his eyes and ears close to the game from various media outlets. His column “The Puck Whisperer” does not have an assigned day, and will cover various topics from player reports, salary cap issues, coaches in trouble, and other tidbits of news related items that you’ll want to know about.
Featured Columnist:
Myles Robinson: Right now, Myles is a bit of a cross between an obsessed hockey fan and a grad student starting to pursue a career in sports journalism, but he’s hoping that will start to lean more towards the latter as time goes on. Normally he wallow’s in misery over at Editor-in-Leaf, chronicling the stumbles and mishaps of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but here, he’ll actually have a chance to write about some successful players and teams. The “View from the Cheap Seats” will be just that, one crazy puckhead’s opinion on anything and everything around the NHL. Although hopefully with a bit more level-headedness than you would hear from the fat, shirtless drunk in the nosebleeds that just spilled his beer on you. You can follow Myles on twitter @ editorinleaf, and feel free to
comment here or on Editor-in-leaf with any suggestions, complaints (which will be taken ever so seriously) or if you just want to talk some puck, he’s always game. Go Leafs as he would say. Myle’s column “View from the Cheap Seats” will appear every Monday.
Featured Columnist:
Jeff Bartl: Jeff was born and raised in Chicago, and he “Remember’s the Roar” in the standing-room-only section of Chicago Stadium during Game 4 of the 1992 Stanley Cup Final as Dirk Graham completed his natural hat trick. He then watched Mario Lemieux skate around the ice hoisting the Cup and hoped one day he would be able to see someone with an indian-head sweater doing the same. Jeff is the lead blogger for Blackhawk UP as he covers the Chicago Blackhawks for Fan Sided. Jeff is also the Director of FanSided’s growing College Network as well that began with the first site, Spartan Avenue. His column “Catchin’ Up With” will appear every Monday as well. Jeff will be covering former players, current players, media poeple. Anything that’s relevant to our game from the inside.
Featured Columnist:
Eugene Markman: Orange and black facepaint, a-hole chants, road trips? Yeah, he’s done a bit of that. Big time fan since the days of Eric Lindros. He love’s hockey because of how much of a team effort it really takes to win. Everyone plays a role, everyone contributes, everyone has to play hard. Flyers are his number one team, and he hate’s the Devils by far the most. Everyone else is kind of in between. Still, he’ll watch almost any matchup that’s on. Eugene covers the Philadelphia Flyers for Fan Sided at Broad Street Buzz. His contributions will mostly focus on players in their first few seasons, usually 24 years old and younger. If you’re wondering whether or not to invest in a jersey of that young guy on your team with an entry level contract, then this is a great place to get that info. Feel free to drop a pass once in a while about some guys he may be neglecting. Eugene’s column “Iced Up Youngsters” will appear every Tuesday.
Featured Columnist:
Susan (Sue) Lee: Sue love’s hockey because not only is it the most difficult sport to play, it’s the most challenging to watch. It’s such a thrilling “blink and you’ll miss it” sport. She know’s they meant well, but says “thank goodness Fox abandoned the glowing puck”! The Anaheim Ducks are her main men, as she covers them over at Ducks Daily Blog, but she also has a grudging respect for the Kings and kinduv feel’s sorry for the Evil Canadian Empire since they haven’t hoisted the hardware since before Y2K. She may be a female hockey fan, but don’t lump her in with the “Puck Bunnies”. She will headbutt you into next month. No foolies. I’ve heard that she’s dented cars with her cranium. Sue’s column also titled “Catchin’ Up” with appears on Wednesdays. Similar to Jeff’s in title, but could be slightly different in content. You’ll just have to read it and see.
Featured Columnist:
Bobby Zijiac: As your humble writer from FanSided’s Ottawa Senators Blog, SenShot, Bobby Zijiac will be covering “North of the Border”, analyzing all Canadian Teams in the NHL from the Canadiens to the Senators. And if he does get a bit biased against teams such as the Maple Laffs, please do excuse him. He can’t last more than an hour without jokes on Brian Burke and his big head. Bobby’s column will appear every Thursday.
Featured Columnist:
Steve Fetch: Steve has been writing about college hockey for two seasons now, the most recent of which being at FanSided. He became interested in the game growing up in college hockey mad North Dakota, and he continued that obsession while attending the University of North Dakota where he saw many future NHL stars, including gold medalist Jonathan Toews. Steve covers both Twinkie Talk for the Minnesota Twins and The College Hockey Blog for FanSided. In addition to college hockey he will discuss NHL draft matters and junior hockey. Steve’s column “Inside the Classroom” will appear every Friday.
Featured Columnist:
Gavin Humes: Gavin has been a hockey fan for nearly two decades, and has been covering it via the internet for the past several years. He’s a die-hard Kings fan, who has gradually evolved to be able to at least appreciate (if not root for) the other excellent teams and players in the NHL. Gavin has a Masters degree in Communication from Pepperdine University, and has owned and runs his own fundraising company Innovative Event Solutions for the past three years. Gavin covers the L.A. Kings at Rink Royalty. His column “Who’s hot/Who’s not” will appear on Friday’s as well.
Featured Columnist:
Austin Waldron: Dallas Stars and hockey fan since the mid-90’s during the playoff years of the greats of Modano, Nieuwendyk, Zubov and Hatcher. Over the years Austin has gone from a fan of just Dallas to a fan of the game and the sport of hockey. Austin says, “Sure it can be hard at times to have grown up where football is a religion and hockey to some is still below minor league baseball. But when you love something you can’t help but be excited to be around it, to talk about it. So I always sought out chances to watch hockey, or get an opportunity to talk about it”. Austin is a former and future season ticket holder, and has been a member of the Stars’ Havoc Fanatics since the 07-08 season. He still has memories of staying up later then he was allowed to when he was in junior high to listen to overtime games that went into the hours of the next morning. Always open to talk hockey or even just sports. You can always email Austin at Blackoutdallas@aol.com or always follow him at Twitter.com/Blackoutdallas. Austin covers the Dallas Stars at Blackout Dallas. His column “Buzz Between The Boards” covering free agency, trades, firings, hirings and rumours will appear on Saturday’s.
Featured columnist:
Tim Redinger: The only thing Tim hate’s more than the Bruins and Flyers is the off season. The only thing that makes up for that is he will watch/play hockey in any form. The Sabres are his bread and butter, as he has bled blue and gold since birth – and has stuck with the boys through the best of times and the worst of times. He covers Buffalo at his site Sabre Noise for Fan Sided. Tim will watch any hockey game if its going to provide him with three hours of entertainment. How deephis love for hockey is reflected in the fact that his two year old can’t see a television without asking for hockey. Tim’s column called appropriately “From The War Room, covering video highlight’s and commentary will appear on Sunday’s. Tim also is the mastermind and main co-host for the critically acclaimed Rink Side Rants live podcast, appearing every thursday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern time.
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Shortly, our first featured post will be up. We hope that you’ll check us out daily and that you enjoy our site. We appreciate you coming here and in spite of the title, we can never have too men or women reading our site.
Cheers