Monday, April 4, 2011

Hockey Blogs Thrive in Smashville - Thanks to the Predators for Their Support

Several years ago, when the Predators were struggling financially, there were few local hockey blogs. Dirk Hoag was one of the few in the early post lockout era that still survives today.

From those troubled times, the Nashville blog community has flourished. Kevin Wilson and the Nashville Predators formally established a "Blogger's Row" in the press box this season that gave local writes access to players, coaches, and information in order to grow interest for the Predators both locally and nationally. Thanks to Kevin and the Preds for the opportunity.

There are many great and talented writers that have participated in "The Row" including Dirk and his On the Forecheck stable, Ryan Porth and his RLD writers, Amanda DiPaolo of Predlines, Jeremy Gover and the Section 303 group, Robby Stanley of Hockey Night in Nashville, Kris Martel of Predatorial, David Singleton of Hockey Independent, Jas Faulkner of The Hockey Writers, and us at PredsOnTheGlass.

Paul McCann who writes for Hockey Buzz has a unique perspective from the public address announcers booth. Mainstream Media guys Josh Cooper and Bryan Mullen also blog aside from their Tennessean gig at Inside Predators.

Other wonderful writers that are no less talented that have chosen to write from outside the row include, Mark Willoughby of The View from 111, AJ at Pull My Fang Finger, Rachel at What the Puck, Josh Farrar at Fang Finger Fever, and the newest addition is a group at Bloguin writing under Fang Faction.

This group of folks give their heart and soul to an effort that pays nothing (or a few token dollars) and is enormously time consuming. Most of the above group have new posts anywhere from several times daily to a few times a week. It is done for the passion of the game of hockey and to support the efforts of the Predators' organization.

Out of this effort, three local blogs are ranked in the top 15 hockey related sites nationally by the Wikio Ratings Service in their latest release.

1Kukla's Korner
2Japers' Rink
3On the Forecheck
4The Hockey Writers
5Hockey's Future
6PensBurgh
7Canes Country
8On the Wings
9The Blueshirts Blog
10Red Light District
11Nucks Misconduct
12Western College Hockey Blog
13Five For Howling
14Mile High Hockey
15Preds On The Glass
16St. Louis Game Time
17Raw Charge
18On Frozen Blog
19Die By The Blade
20Greatest Hockey Legends.com
21Slap Shot
22Goon's World
23The Ciskie Blog
24Sixty Minutes. No Alibis. No Regrets.
25Canucks Hockey Blog
26PucKato
27mc79hockey.com
28Runnin' With The Dogs
29Sharkspage
30Faceoff Factor

Ranking made by Wikio

Congrats to all the folks listed above. Each blog has an easy link so everyone can check out the wide variety of content that is out there.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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