BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

The Hockey News has finally realized that Glen Sather is an utter failure as the GM of the Rangers!

"... Sather keeps swinging and missing like a blindfolded kid at a piñata party in a wind tunnel ..."

What is it with MSM guys taking so long to realize what us fans have known for so long? First Brooksie, now Proteau?!? Are they blinded by their desire to remain "objective"? That, in itself, is a joke but I won't get into my ethics and journalism rant. Sather may be a horrible GM, but he may just be the smartest man in hockey - you have to be brilliant to be so very, very bad and stay completely out of the line of fire. And he has.

The Ranger Pundit, a diligent fan for more than 70 seasons, long ago dubbed Sather the Stealth GM. As usual, he is right on the money. By being a recluse, Sather has no media presence and zero interation with the fans. At the Garden we joke that we need to hire some hookers to infiltrate the organization as interns so Sather can pull an Isiah and thus be fired. For every good move Sather has made during his tenure, he has made three others that are horrific. I mentioned to some friends the other day that we have to pray for another labour stoppage when the CBA runs out so they can get another round of those no-penalty buy-outs so we can rid ourselves of Dru, Redden and Rozy.

Think about that.

It will take a second horrific season without hockey for the Rangers to have any chance of success in the near future. That's pathetic. Just like the Bible of Hockey taking a decade to see what we have said from the start.

Sather has got to go.

Following Up: Hockey Blogs

Since my blog about the Hockey Night In Canada piece about blogging generated so much traffic and controversy, I thought I would follow up.

First off, for those of you that don't read the additional comments, I was called out by a fellow blogger for blasting the piece, saying "It sounds like a case of sour grapes. You were not chosen for the story so it must be bad." Its a valid conclusion but one totally offbase as I have had opportunities to be on television and have turned them down (face for radio, voice for the deaf ... thus I blog). But said blogger, from The Puck Stops Here, is also defending the CBC piece because he was in it. Some blogs, like his, regurgitate every hockey story and add their $0.02 and that's fine - I read plenty of them on a daily basis - but my point was the omission of team fan blogs from the piece. It spoke up the blogs that have MainStream Media (MSM) connections while tossing a few negative connotations towards the sites of diehard fans.

Rather than go over my individual responses, you can click on the first link at the top and reread them for yourself. Then head over to Tom Benjamin's page for his response to CBC's work. To cut to the chase, he sums things up so: "At best, we add to the existing coverage. At worst we keep the real media on their toes." And to add to that, I think that fan blogs like this one and this one and this one and even this one deserve mention when talking about the hockey blogosphere, and not with a negative connotation.

Why? Because basically we do the job of columnists better than the columnists themselves. Those MSM writers are beholden to their editors and the credentials they are given where we can call it as we see it. We help jumpstart those bar-room discussions and will call things how we see it. Does it mean that we have no journalistic integrity? Absolutely not. We still have to be correct, or we are called on it. Just look at the comments on my original piece where Taste_of_Flames pointed out that Heatley drove a Ferrari when he killed Dan Snyder, rather than a Porche. I was wrong, and owned up to my mistake. Henceforth I will be more cautious. When was the last time that you saw a MSM writer retract something incorrect? The only case I can think of recently is the one going on right now in Toronto, and that is only under duress of possible legal ramifications.

I think that blogging and the different forms that weblogs come in will certainly be a ongoing topic so I will just close this entry with this - CBC did a decent piece, but it looked like they suddenly discovered the internet despite it being 2007 and they didn't do a comprehensive news package. It omitted a major part of the story and then tossed negative opinions out there without allowing for rebuttal. If they are supposed to be an objective member of the MSM then that is simply not good journalism.

I hope they do better next time.

Save Your $$$!!!

DO NOT, repeat DO NOT buy this magazine!!!

The Sporting News Hockey Yearbook this year is a disgrace. Easily the worse one I have ever read, this year's edition is garbage. It is incredibly poorly written, has astoundingly vague statements backed up by nothing and misinformation. Second or third-hand opinions masquerade as generalities. It was clearly written by people who do not watch hockey, and talked to some who did before looking at some year-end numbers in an effort to sum up last season and predict the next.

The front of the book articles are almost as poor and outdated. They run a story on the Staal brothers that was news six, seven months ago. They, of course, have a piece on television ratings and Versus but hey, here is an idea on how to drum up interest - don't put out shitty magazines! Big glossy pictures are nice but people who want to learn more about the game aren't fooled no matter how many nonsensical factoids you crush onto a page. Utter trash.

So far I have only read through one other yearbook for the coming season: the Hockey News' and it (of course) is top notch. The articles were well-written, the team-by-team previews/previews were done by beat writers who know what's going on ... it is an all around good read. My only complaint is that they had such an early deadline to get it done and on the newsstand that some moves are missed. But usually they account for them in the writing so I had no problem with it; after all, its September and we still don't know if Teemu or Scott Niedermayer are coming back ...

I have yet to read the Hockey News' fantasy guide or any other books but will check in if they prove worthy. Just don't bother with TSN, its trash ... well, unless you are in a fantasy league with me. I could use the advantage!