Below is a list of bloggers I follow on Twitter who cover AHL teams. I tried to include those who were credentialed by the team they cover and included those who cover teams which don’t have any coverage otherwise. I left off other Pens blogs who cover WBS. Why go anywhere else than right here for your WBS coverage? 🙂
If you are a blogger and on Twitter and want in on this list please let me know and I will add you. Here you go:
Comments Off on Know your beat…
Posted by nafsnep on June 2, 2011
If you follow me on Twitter, you will occasionally see my retweet different people on different issues I find interesting. Sometimes people wonder who these people are and what team they cover. For the most part that information is in the persons Twitter bio and sometimes it isn’t.
I decided to make this post as a handy guide for anyone who is interested in the AHL beat guys I follow. This will move into a tab above as a page as soon as the next blog idea rolls around, so here goes:
Name
Twitter Handle
Team Beat
Newspaper
Jonathan Bombulie
@CVBombulie
Wilkes-Barre / Scranton
The Citizens Voice
Tim Leone
@timleone
Hershey
Harrisburg Patriot-News
Tim McManus
@PSPhantoms
Adirondack
Glens Falls Post-Star
Pete Dougherty
@Pete_Dougherty
Albany
Albany Times Union
Bill Cain
@Bill_Cain_
Albany
The Daily Gazette
Joy Lindsay
@PSBJoyOnTheSens
Binghamton
Press & Sun-Bulletin
Lindsay Kramer
@PSCrunchHockey
Syracuse
The Post-Standard
Kevin Oklobzjia
@kevinoDandC
Rochester
Democrat and Chronicle
Dan Hickling
@DanHickling
Portland
At-Large
Ryan Aber
@ryaber
Oklahoma City
Oklahoman
Andrew Ferraro
@n737af
Houston
Houston Chronicle
Michael Zuidema
@michaelzuidema
Grand Rapids
The Grand Rapids Press
Michael Fornabaio
@fornabaioctp
Bridgeport
Connecticut Post
Cam Tucker
@camabbytimes
Abbotsford
Abbotsford Times
Dan Kinvig
@dankinvigsports
Abbotsford
Abbotsford News
Shawn Rine
@WheelHouse87
Wheeling (ECHL)
The Intelligencer
Patrick Williams
@AHLReport
League Wide
The Hockey News (magazine)
This list will constantly be updated as new beat guys are discovered. I am also going to add a page for bloggers too, as some of them cover beats which do not have a beat writer, or one who is on Twitter.
If you know of any glaring omissions, please let me know in the comment section or e-mail me at nafsnep@gmail.com
Comments Off on Summer Slowness
Posted by nafsnep on May 30, 2011
Not much to write about these days. Hockey withdrawal is behind me. The Calder Cup Finals are in full swing with Binghamton and Houston tied at a game apiece with Game Wednesday in Binghamton.
I still have the poll up a post down on whether you think I should apply for a press credential next season. If you haven’t already, please vote.
Going to open up the Chirps from Center Ice mailbag. You can e-mail me at nafsnep@gmail.com and drop me a line on how you are spending your summer, what you would like to see different here on the blog, any questions you have about WBS next year or the AHL in general. If I get enough responses, I will run mailbag features. If not, well after the Calder Cup Finals end and affiliation silly season dies down the updates here may be few and far between until late August.
Comments Off on Pressing Questions…
Posted by nafsnep on May 25, 2011
Today, this blog passed 30,000 views. For only existing for about 9 months I would have to say for a blog which covers an AHL hockey team in Northeastern Pennsylvania that isn’t too bad. It pales in comparison to the bigger blogs such as The Pensblog,Faceoff Factor and others, which probably get 30K hits a day. Thank you all for reading!
I have no journalistic experience. I was a business major in college and push paper all day long in a big building in the city. However, “covering” the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and the AHL in general has become a sort of a hobby for me.Â
That said, I have had the itch to take this “hobby” of sorts to a higher level so to speak and had an open debate on the Twitter side on whether I should apply for press credentials for the 2011-2012 season. None of anyone who chirped in on the Twitter side said it would be a bad idea.
However, I have gotten to 30,000+ views here from giving you the “fan” perspective. Heck, the description of this blog is “A fan blog (emphasis added) about the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins”
One of the things that I worry about if I ever were to apply for and be given access to said credential I would be trading away the “fan” perspective and graduating to actual “media” member. Which means the following,
1)Â Â Â Â This blog would be held to a higher standard.
2)Â Â Â Â My interaction with the players would change.
3)Â Â Â Â My interaction with the team in general (front office, tickets, media) would change.
4)    We already have one of the best, if not the best, individuals in Jonathan Bombulie covering the team since the very beginning. He’s done so for a reason, as in he is extremely good at what he does. Someone with no experience walking into a credential with no journalistic experience covering the second best hockey circuit in the world? Who is going to want that?
I do not want to trade in my opinions which are reserved for fans, that is, say anything I want (with class) without having to worry about upsetting the wrong person. I have gauged some other bloggers from around the AHL and they all say pretty much the same thing in that no matter how involved you get in your credential, you are still held to some standard of accountability. In saying that though, I don’t think I would have any issues operating under that protocol, but the biggest fear for me would be trading in my “fan” card for the credential.
Comments Off on Flying and the Senators
Posted by nafsnep on May 24, 2011
Epic Game 7 out West tonight with Houston winning 4-3 after winning the first three games, dropping the next three until finally captain Jon DiSalvatore scores in a net front scrum and pokes a puck past Bulldogs goaltender Drew MacIntyre at 18:47 of the third period.
Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals is Friday in Houston. Here is the rest of the schedule…
Even though Wilkes-Barre is out, you can still follow along with me on the Twitter side, @nafsnep – for updates and the like as I will be watching as much as I can.
The league normally has these games on television too, if I see anything regarding that, I will have a post at the ready later this week.
Lots of chatter up on the internet and speculation on the Twitter side on what cities the AHL will be playing hockey next season.
We know that Pittsburgh will be supplying players to Wilkes-Barre for next year and beyond so if you are not in to rumor mongering, stop reading.
There have been tons of reports that the Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Winnipeg to bump out the Manitoba Moose. Including this report from The Globe and Mail. In fact, if the Thrashers move to Winnipeg, there have been rumors that they will take the Moose namesake.
So where do the Moose land? Reports today out of St. John’s, Newfoundland have them playing at the Mile One Centre in St. John’s. The article eludes to a Friday press conference however the Manitoba Moose deny such press conference from occurring.
If the Thrashers move to Winnipeg, it would then leave the Chicago Wolves without an NHL parent. The Wolves are currently the AHL affiliate to the Atlanta Thrashers. The Winnipeg AHL team, in this case the team rumored to move to St. John’s, would be the new Winnipeg NHL teams’ AHL team.
Tampa Bay could pull out of Norfolk and move to Syracuse.
Florida, late of Rochester, could then marry up with Norfolk.
Anaheim and Portland, left at the dance by their dates, could then marry up again and we will party like it’s 2005.
Imagine for a second what this is doing to the stomachs of the fans in all of the cities affected by the speculation. That is why I say that Penguins fans have it so well because of the stable marriage between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre and grind and gnash my teeth whenever I read how people get bent out of shape that the team didn’t salute the fans like this one fan did in his letter to the Citizens’ Voice editor.
Hopefully, this merry-go-round of affiliation switches and “who’s on first” game of hide the truth will be over soon and we can all get back to playing hockey.
WBS News
