First off, a late Happy New Year to you. It has been a while since I put one of these together for the site. Truthfully, the plan was to put this out late last week, but we had some trades that got in the way of that. I wanted to take some time to reach out to our readers on the site and give some updates on where my head is at with the content we’ll provide you this year.
Let’s start quickly with what has been happening over the last month. I appreciate the patience and understanding of the readers while I took a little bit of time away from the site. My wife and I welcomed a new daughter to our team on Christmas Eve. Over the last few weeks, Anthony Sciandra and Ryan Wolfe kept the site running and did an excellent job. In December I know that content production declined a little at times, but we’re back to full-go.
Also, I’d like to thank everyone for the support and understanding during our decision with other SB Nation NHL sites to go dark in support of our colleagues in California a few weeks ago. I was personally disappointed with how that was handled by Vox Media/SB Nation and I hope that we never see that type situation unfold again.
Year Three
This is my third season as Managing Editor of Die By The Blade. Believe it or not, I’m still learning new things and finding the best way to provide you with content for our frustrating hockey team here in Buffalo. I’ve been pleased with how the site has evolved over the past few years and I feel like we have an excellent team assembled. My goal is to have this site be your go-to for Buffalo Sabres content from writers that are fans of the team and provide fair (good or bad) analysis of the team.
Speaking of the team, if you didn’t see it, we did add a new Staff Writer to our team. Well, you could say we made a call-up. We moved Jason Moser up from a Contributor level to a Staff Writer. I’m looking forward to Jason becoming more a voice on this site. Along with Jason, we’ll be adding a few new Contributors to site as well, to help provide more content for your consumption.
Recaps
Another thing I want to discuss is something that I’ve seen in the comments section, game recaps. I’ll be honest with you; I strongly dislike recaps. Of course, I understand that the readers of the site enjoy them, and we’ve continued to put them out with some changes to the structure this season. I’ve seen complaints about them being “late” and I’d like to quickly address that.
The writers that are on for a specific game have until noon the following day to put up the game recap. The reason for this is because I understand my writers have a life outside of writing for this site and sometimes it’s not ideal for them to stay up until 10 or 11 PM if they must work the next morning. I apologize if that’s not ideal for the readers, but it’s not something that I’m going to change at this time.
Also, we’ve agreed on a rotation of writers that are going to help to consistently put out the Outlet Pass/links articles on non-game days. We’ve tried this a handful of times in the past, but with some staff changes we’ve gone through recently, it fell through the cracks. One of my goals in 2020 is to focus on that and make sure it’s done starting on Friday of this week.
Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone for cleaning up the comments section. At times last season, it was becoming aggravating to consistently issue warnings for inappropriate comments. There are still going to be days and discussions that can fly off the handle. However, for the most part, that area has improved significantly.
On behalf of the team at Die By The Blade, I’d like to thank you for coming to the see, interacting, and reading our content. We’re all passionate about this team and sport. We put our best effort into the work we provide and I’m proud of how my group has performed. Feedback positive or negative is always appreciated. Feel free to leave some in the comments section here as well.
Now, how about a strong second half from the Sabres that could lead to some playoff hockey!
Cheers,
-Chad