Get thee to the Lighthouse - lighthousehockey.com

Just a reminder post for those landing here via my Google/Blogger profile: this blog has moved to LighthouseHockey.com, on SB Nation. Go there and add your own thoughts via comments and FanPosts -- but feel free to peruse the lovely reading here, too. :)

This Frontier is now Lighthouse Hockey

Thanks again to those of you who shared your thoughts and condolences over the past couple of weeks. Without overplaying the violin here, you should know that as I checked email for business and estate-arrangement affairs, it was cool to see your sentiments come in. Cool to be reminded of hockey, too.

Dealing with my father's passing postponed what I had planned for the opening of the new season: A move, one more time, to a good home. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago -- and now that I've caught up on the season's opening games -- this little "Islander Frontier" blogspot hereby morphs into Lighthouse Hockey, a site on the SB Nation blog network.

There's an intro post here, with bio stuff you may have read before.

There's a welcome fanpost here, which goes in more detail about the features and ease of use that make it worth creating a (free!) SB Nation account.

I'm really excited about the move. I've always enjoyed the SB Nation format for other sports teams I follow (accept my apologies for the Wainwright/Beltran strikeout), and I wanted there to be one for the Islanders. SB Nation generally has a reliable function and clean design, and the easy user template allows not only comments but also live game interaction and visiting writer/fan Fanposts.

Thanks again to everyone for following along and chiming in here and at the old site. And if you'll bear with me for one last move and bookmark change, I encourage you to check Lighthouse Hockey out. That's where I'll be. Drop by, leave a comment or fanpost when the mood strikes you. Maybe chime in on the other SB Nation NHL team blogs when we play them, and of course (for you bloggers) link back to your spot(s) in the Islanders blogosphere.

Life interrupts

Sorry for going silent right as the Islanders' season is about to begin, what with all the storylines to follow on the Island and around the league, but life (and death) has intervened. My father passed away this week in his native Czech Republic, after a couple of years of declining health. He is of course who got me into hockey -- and, inadvertently, got me into the Islanders when he let me watch the Stanley Cup finals as a tyke.

Naturally I'm turning to those affairs and family grieving at the moment, so I didn't want to launch the new site without knowing whether I'll be available to post content. As it stands, I'll certainly miss the weekend's games (though DVR is set!) and hopefully resurface next week.

Best wishes and health to all your parents -- and you new parents -- out there. And Go Islanders!

The blogger ascendency continues

First lest the title be misleading, let me disclaim that I have zero interest in the bloggers-vs.-print reporter war that embroils MLB coverage and often erupts in every other sport, including hockey. My first priority is good information and enjoyable writing, period. It can arrive in a glass bottle on the shore, for all I care (actually, that'd be kinda nice).

That said, as eulogies continue to surface over the latest bad news for NHL print coverage in the U.S., it once again illuminates the growing role bloggers will have in how we NHL fans get our info fix. The news of further dropped coverage in L.A. and Palm Beach also stands in such unusual contrast to Newsday's recent decision (post-Cablevision takeover, naturally) to ramp up coverage.

*begins violin music*
I'm a newspaper junkie, wed to the ritual of the morning paper. So I will always nostalgically mourn its passing from central importance in our culture. But in the big picture, the shift in sports coverage is not nearly as significant as the dwindling budget and reach that print news departments have for covering (and uncovering) the issues that really matter in society -- the audits of politicians and public companies, the local investigations, the poring over raw source materials.

But that's a topic for another day, in another forum. Despite our gripes, in many ways, hockey fans' access has never been better. The best "print" reporters (and pubs) are paid or allowed to blog as well as file their daily print stories. The NHL's cup of blogging enthusiasm runneth over. Of the key assets print reporters bring -- budget and access to real-time player/coach reactions -- at least the latter is becoming more available to online writers, too -- paid or not.

So it is that you can go to the Islanders homepage and find banners for the BlogBox as well as Chris Botta's blog which, with his insight and access, is something akin to the way MLB has full-time reporters for each of its team's sites. Despite the economics of coverage that is altering output and reader habits, I'd say things are looking up.

Some Season Previews

On that note, one of the challenges of this "new" world is information overload: How best do you find, select and digest the info that works for you? With considerable legwork, FrankD over at Pensburgh polled his favorite bloggers from each team for their season previews or responses to his questions. How are the Pens dealing with Gonchar's loss? What do Lightning fans see from their owner revolution? Can anyone on the Rangers blueline hit? Some interesting thoughts he's collected over there, all before my Hockey News arrived in the mail ...

Yours truly is also included in the team previews. My Isles write-up there is aimed toward the non-follower of the Isles, but I'll add this caveat here: Since I answered Frank's questions a couple weeks ago, we've obviously learned much more about Scott Gordon. Also, to clarify, my sentence on Tambellini was to confess that I'd already written him off once (last season, when he seemed to lack confidence and was shown none by Ted Nolan) -- not to say that I've written off his chances this year. Obviously, the opportunity he is about to get this year will define Tambellini's career trajectory, and I'm looking forward to it.

'We're all Islander' followers

I hope to have news in the next few weeks about a new, final relocation for this blog. It will include a new name (you know, because the "frontier" of yesteryear has been razed and paved with new subdivisions). But more importantly, I'll have a better user-friendly format where I can add features and invite user posts, as well as interact better with bloggers from other teams. Then I'm done moving, I promise.

I tease this now because there are some exciting media developments that should make this a great season to follow the club: First, Newsday -- recently purchased by Rangers owner Cablevision -- has pledged to increase its coverage of both clubs. Second, the Islander blogosphere is abuzz with news that former Isles PR man, "blog[box]father" and prolific blogger himself Chris Botta has announced his return as a regular blogger of the Isles.

I’m not going to jump to grand conclusions about an upswing in popularity or coverage for this much-maligned franchise. But the success of the BlogBox last year – and the fact that Newsday’s Greg Logan cites the prevalence of blog coverage of the Isles and Rangers as one reason Newsday is expanding coverage – are undeniably positive signs. Lacking a foothold in the “old media” world of network TV, the NHL must nurture its already strong presence on the Web – including its growing fountain of stats information -- to maintain its relevance.

Our multichannel media world, I suspect, is going to continue to specialize or “niche”-ize fans’ interests in all the major sports. The more the NHL fertilizes its already strong online niche, the better off the league-player "partnership" will be. Although, admittedly, that will mean ever-higher ticket prices and Center Ice subscription fees for us fans, who are generally left out of the "partnership." Alas.

Regardless, it’s great that a very connected yet off-the-payroll (sorta) guy like Botta will be following the team closely. I guarantee we're going to get tips and insights on the team and the league that other clubs' fans will not. That, combined with expanded Newsday coverage and the club’s growing fan blogsophere, will absolutely make following the team this season even more fun than last.

Heh, off the ice, anyway. On-ice joy is still TBD.