Wednesday, April 05, 2006

 

Good question

Sacamano brings it up, and it's not the first time I've wondered, or been asked about it: why are there so many more good Oilers blogs than Flames blogs?

Well, I dunno. For starters, there is a good Flames blog. Five Hole Fanatics, published by frequent commenter Metrognome, has good original content and analysis. I have been terribly negligent in not putting it up on the blogroll; it goes up today.

Apart from that, though... it's pretty barren out there. Red Mile: The Calgary Flames Blog is a terrific looking site that has lots of handy links. This is not to criticize -- it is what it is -- but the content is almost entirely game recaps and news, in most cases straight off of the wire. I'd like it a lot more if the author was more opinionated, like in the disclaimer at the foot of the page:
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. If you don't like what I write, you're obviously an Oilers or Canucks fan and I feel sorry for you.

Maybe you should go cry to your mommy when we knock your team out of the playoffs again.

That's the spirit! There's also CalgaryPuck.com - I understand that their forum is fairly popular. I'd also compliment them on some nice stats work linked from the sidebar, addressing special teams, strength of schedule, and ice time. It's not really a blog, though, it's a fan site. The blog-style updates on the main page are mainly game reviews, written with a bit of flair, so they got that going for them, which is nice.

I probably visit Calgary Puck about 90% less than I would if so many of their ads didn't flash and/or vibrate. But hey, it beats this site's business plan!

All in all, though, full credit to mc79hockey, IOF, Lowetide, and (still my favourite hockey blog) Covered in Oil: they have the Battle of Alberta (Hockey Blog Division) pretty well dominated.

Hilarious Postscript:
Found while "researching" this post: The Red Mile Revenge. In their own words:
The Group: Red Mile Revenge! An association of poets and other artists interested in bringing culture back to the so-called Red Mile
[...]
Performance poetry (dark, erotic and provocative) and more! So if you have a monologue, a diatribe, a work of fiction that you can perform in 10 minutes or less, come on down!

Awesome! How's that going, anyway?
I have no idea how I planned to measure success for this kooky venture, but I feel successful now. The March 7th event was fantastic, even with a game playing in the next room.

We turned a negative into a positive by mocking the sports fans in the next room and jeering when the obnoxious "goal scored" siren went off... only twice, those pansies!

I really like that we have so many regulars now, and new people are actually coming to me with inquiries. Very cool!

Nice! Stick it to those obnoxious sports fans! Spoiler alert if you're going to click through: the site author describes herself as a "Star Trek geek".

Comments:

Thanks for the inclusion, Matt...

I've also been wondering where the Flame's bloggers are. There's seems to be a definate lack relative to all the Oil bloggers around here...
 


On CalgaryPuck I never even look at the front page, and the forum is only google ads (usually for South Africa - what is up with that?) so they aren't disruptive. I knwo I've considered a blog, but a) I can't come up with with enough content on a regular basis and b) everything usually gets hashed out in the CP forums.
 


I resent that. Dunno why, but it seems to work, so...
 


Calgary Puck is worse than HF. At least on HF, there are fans of other teams around to keep the levels of homerism to a low boil.

There was a thread on there once (http://www.calgarypuck.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22765) about "which oiler do you hate the most" and one guy told a story about how K.Lowe verbally abused his Flames bedecked buddy and had to be restrained by Rexall security in the concourse.

Oh, and one guy has to mention Joey Moss, of course.
The place just has no grip on reality whatsoever.
 


Oh jeez, i'd forgotten how much good stuff there was in that thread. TWO stories about K.Lowe PHYSICALLY and verbally assaulting Flames fans at Oilers games, a parody "When K.Lowe Attacks!!" post in which Kevin beats up a grandmother, and the following brilliant observation :

'You know.. If you take the name PISANI, instead of dotting the "i", we cross it to make a "t" you get.. PISANT."



Forget the wisdom from the TSN fanboards, you guys need look no further than CalgaryPuck.

Oh, and when CalgaryPuck made that thread, on Oilfans there soon appeared a "Which Jokerit player do you hate the most" thread.
 


>a buddy and I are ripping off Covered >In Oil and writing about Jays games >we visit this year.

I really hope this doesn't mean doing half-assed drunken reviews that rely more on sub-pithy remarks rather than actual content. Is there a link to this blog? Of all things Toronto, the one thing I can proudly be is a Blue Jays fan.

Hinske: spazzy football player in the wrong sport. Try football, spazz.

Chacin: mothercukin maverick.

Towers: no velocity = ass

Lilly: Spaceman, in a not-cool way.

Also, as opposed to some creamed jeans around here, I'm merely hoping for a winning record for the Jays, kind of like my meagre hopes for a playoffs Oilers team this year.
 


Mike, the link is The 47 Million Dollar BJ, of course.
 


If you're going to rip off, ERRR, "be inspired by" Covered in Oil, the least you should do is the Game Ratings.

I'd give last night's effort 3 Dennis Lamps out of 10 Jim Clancys.
 


A bit of blog link coding advice. It can be done in your post or in the links to the left.

When linking a site, after the link code, ie "< a h r e f = "http://_____" put in this: "_blank" before the < / a >. It'll allow the page to open up in a separate window as opposed to having to back click to your blog again.

Been reading you for awhile. Oilers fan since before their first stanley cup living in BC. I always get the "did you grow up in edmonton or something" during hockey pool picks and I reply, "no, I just have great taste in hockey teams".

I blog about them occasionally but always have my banner or a post with one of my boys' pictures.
 

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