State of the Blog Address 2017

Happy Sunday MHH,

Ryan here. You know, the guy who’s been holding the steering wheel on this beast of a blog for the past two-plus seasons? Yup, that’s me—the dude tirelessly throwing buckets of seawater over the edge while the ol’ revered SS AVALANCHE took on more and more leaks in its hull.

I take full blame too. This team was reaching for the stars following a remarkable 2013-14 season when I took the site over for AJ and Cole and the ship’s been heading toward a watery grave ever since. That can’t be a coincidence. Take your furrowed brows and chastising fingers and point them in my direction. It takes a real man to accept responsibility and I admit unequivocally: this whole catastrophe is on me.

Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know I plan to step down from my duties as managing editor at Mile High Hockey.

This was a really difficult decision for me to make because it’s been an extraordinary pleasure serving the community here. I’ve absolutely loved working with all the writers and kibitzing with all of you about our favorite sport. But I’ve reached a crossroads in my life where I need to focus more on my career and make some headway on some personal goals. Yeah, the Avalanche have been a total chore to watch for the better part of a year, but that’s not my impetus for turning over the keys. I could have gotten through it because this community is really wonderful, and I trust the Avalanche will get through this.

It’s more about my schedule and focus. When I started here, I was a despondent, late-20s, bored-to-death accountant, desperate to get my foot in the door of a writing career. So I was freelancing and had all the time in the world to follow hockey Twitter and write up breaking news and other thoughts that crossed my mind. And now, having recently pivoted toward a regular-paying creative gig, my daytime bandwidth has been reduced considerably and that’s just not fair to the site. It’s slow now, but it won’t be.

This isn’t to say I’ll be stepping away entirely either. When I talked to Travis (head editor for SBNation’s hockey operation), I told him I’d love to still contribute features when I can. And the MHH Podcast with Earl and Steph is way too much fun to give up. It’s the day-to-day stuff, the content calendars and organizing regular features, that needs fresh blood and new energy.

And I thoroughly recommend it too.

You know how I just said I went from being a terrible accountant to attaining the creative career I wanted? This was due in no small part to Mile High Hockey—seriously. Managing this site gave the skills and experience I needed to find work in creative writing, social media and marketing. If you’re young, ambitious, have some time on your hands and are serious about doing this kind of work, totally put your hat in the ring. I did it—with no expectations either. Some of the things you can put on your resume eclipse any possible college training and most formal entry-level corporate jobs.

There should be some fun things on the horizon for MHH too. The front-end is getting a face-lift in the coming week or so to match all the upgrades they’ve been making to the back-end of the site. (If you want a preview, check out the SBNation home page.) But more importantly, I’ve been trying to make some inroads with the Avalanche about getting credentialed access. Frankly, we probably could have pursued it this past season too if I hadn’t moved away from the city. It would be huge for the growth of the site and it’s been a goal of mine since taking over.

When will all this happen? No timetable. Who will it be? No clue. Though I did recommend to Travis sending over a “mentor” from one of the other blogs in the network to perform an “audit” and institute some new feature ideas and whatnot. Promise to keep you all posted as it transpires.

Thanks for everything. You all mean a lot to me!