Welcome to the 2011 Avalanche Blogger Roundtable

It started small. Just about five years ago, eleven bloggers gathered in Joe's basement to feast on Doritos and Mountain Dew while discussing the Colorado Avalanche. The response was immediate and overwhelming, with a grand total of five comments. The following year, we got a little bigger in scope and even more so the following year (I'm sure Mike still has nightmares from editing the comments together from that secret hockey blogger forum we used for years 2 and 3). Last year was our biggest year, with 29 bloggers participating including the Denver Post's Terry Frei. (For those who want to walk down memory lane, we don't have them all archived and some of the hosting sites from the early years are now dead - *cough* ITCS *cough* - but what we do have saved can be viewed here.

Thanks to babies on the way (good luck Jay Vean) and other similar factors, the count is a little bit lower this year at 25 but we think this may be the best year yet. We have 12 questions this year running daily and taking you right up to the start of training camp.

We started putting this together to draw attention to the depth and diversity of the Avalanche blogging community. One of the things I've always been proud of is how we've been able to find some great new bloggers each year to add to the roster and this year is no exception. So, while you'll no doubt recognize a lot of veterans, we're also pleased to introduce you to some new voices. As always, we encourage you to check out all of the other sites below for some excellent Avalanche coverage.

Please welcome this year's participants:

Sean Payton from Anyone But Detroit

Nic Zamora from Avaholics Anonymous

Ryan Boulding from The Avalanche Guild

Austin from the Avs Chill Zone

Geoff Rosenthal from The Avs Factor

Angélique Murray from Colorado Avalanche Prospects, Mile High Hockey and Chicks Who Give a Puck

Adrian Dater and Mike Chambers from The Denver Post

David Púchovský, Pavol Hercko and Norbert Gruber from Eurolanche

Aaron Muzick from HockeyBuzz

Brett, David, AJ, Cheryl, Sandie, Andi, Derek and Mike from Mile High Hockey

Jaye Horbay from Mile High Sticking

Stephen Crociata from Mile High Sticking and SBNation New York

Mike Verminski from Put It On Ice

Matt Muzia from SBNation Denver

We'll be back at 9 am eastern to bring you today's question.