Welcome to my latest endeavour - I managed to pick my new address before Mike Babcock did his.
A new outlet for my observations and thoughts that I can't keep to just 140 characters on twitter dot com.
But more on where this blog is going later. For my first post, particularly for the newcomers in the crowd, I'll begin with where it has come from.
WHO AM I?
I'm not a journalist. But I sometimes play one on radio and the 'net.
My name is Dan Kramer (@DanKramerHabs), and my Monday to Friday full-time gainful employment has nothing to do with the sport of hockey (in fact, I'm a McGill MBA alumnus working in pharmaceuticals). I'm a Montreal native who moved to Toronto some two and a half years ago to follow that career path, but my passion for hockey - and most specifically Montreal Canadiens hockey - tagged along for the ride.
In June of 2011, I decided to begin sharing my love of the Habs, as well as my hobby of writing, with the world wide web on a blog I titled Dan's Daily Dose (the old). For fun mostly, and a little because I felt like I had an opinion worth sharing. I talked lots about the Canadiens, but always kept a close watch on the team's prospects, as it has always been a particular area of interest for me. I was fortunate to have many of my posts discovered and shared by members of the mainstream Montreal media, including the likes of Brian Wilde, Arpon Basu, Eric Engels, Dave Stubbs, and more, which grew my Twitter following. Somewhere in the mix, Abe Hefter was kind enough to recognize my perfect face for radio and allow me to become a regular guest on his shows, at first as part of a blogger panel on weekend afternoons, and eventually as a regular on the Locker Room on Saturday mornings. Amanda Stein and others of the TSN690 crew would provide me more opportunities to spread my opinions to the non-social media crowd.
The following June, I was honoured to be approached by Rick, the editor of AllHabs.net, about joining his fine staff of writers, and was thrilled to do so, as it is one of the top fan-based Montreal Canadiens sites there is. At that time, I hadn't expected I'd be moving to Toronto just three and a half months later, but sometimes life throws you an unexpected curveball, and this for me was one that paid off in many respects.
After hearing of my move, and having previously exchanged pleasantries with him through social media, then Hamilton Bulldogs play-by-play man and communications director Derek Wills reached out to me to ask if credentials might help further my coverage of the team. Something I'd only dreamed of from my couch prior to that moment, I was of course very excited and appreciative of Derek's offer, and thus began three years of getting a peak behind the curtain of the organization I've followed my whole life.
2012-13: BAPTISM BY FIRE
I'll never forget my first game. With the NHL locked out, the American Hockey League was teeming with top young talent. Not only that, but with no parent clubs to talk about, much of the mainstream media was focused on the AHL, eager to cover any form of professional puck. After finding the media entrance to Copps Coliseum and making my way downstairs, I collected my pass and headed for the door leading towards the press box elevator. As I reached out to grab it, it swung open from the other side. "Hi," said the voice of the person walking through and past me. It was Michel Therrien. And behind him followed Marc Bergevin, Trevor Timmins, and Rick Dudley.
I've been fortunate to meet many interesting individuals in both my personal and professional life, so I'm not one to be star-struck, or get befuddled by celebrity. But in that very moment, the first time feeling like you've got a membership card to the same club as the men that run the team you've poured your emotion into since childhood, it was something I'll carry with me forever.
Of course, it became the norm over the next weeks, months, and years. Watching Therrien eat popcorn. Bergevin get a coffee. Sharing a table for a pre-game meal with Patrice Brisebois and Martin Lapointe. This may seem the norm to those who earn their keep as writers and commentators, but like I said: I'm not a journalist. Only recently upgraded from streaming games on my laptop, my first season on the beat was the one I'll cherish the most.
There were other highs that year. Getting to watch Brendan Gallagher make his professional debut, and interviewing his always smiling face after numerous home games. A mid-season trade for Dustin Tokarski that nearly turned the team around, and produced one of the year's most memorable quotes (When veteran Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters asked Tokarski if one particular loss represented a "new level of despair" for the struggling 'Dogs, Tokarski quipped, "You can write it any way you want in the newspapers. A loss is a loss."). Greg Pateryn outshining both Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi as all three broke the seal on their AHL careers. The long-winded post-game rants of Joey Tenute. The guessing games over where Alexander Avtsin had disappeared to. The only games Danny Kristo and Sebastian Collberg will likely ever play in the Canadiens' organization. And possibly the best stretch of hockey Patrick Holland will ever play.
As a collective group, the young bunch just didn't gel, and the results weren't there. Even as competition weakened after the conclusion of the lock-out, the team couldn't produce sufficiently to climb out of the American League cellar, finishing last overall.
Derek also gave me another media first in my first year of coverage, as I was invited to join he and colour commentator Al Craig on air during intermission of several games; something I'd get to reprise on occasion over the following two seasons as well. I owe a lot to Derek and Al, and couldn't have been happier for Derek when he was hired as the radio voice of the Calgary Flames before the 2014-15 season.
2013-14: A SECOND HOME
If 2012-13 was a lot of firsts, in 2013-14 I was able to find my stride. With Ken Peters and Canadian Press freelancer Fraser Caldwell on either side, the Copps Coliseum press box became a Friday and Saturday night home for me. I'd gotten past the intimidating, icy stares of Sylvain Lefebvre post-game, and worked to get my audience the information and news they wanted, as quickly as possible. The addition of Justin Dickie helming the club's media relations definitely kicked the gameday operations up a notch, and I enjoyed my status as a regular.
Results on the ice, however, were not much improved from the year prior. Despite leading the team in scoring, the hyped signing of Martin St. Pierre was mostly a bust, and the most entertaining thing about many nights was listening to Ken make songs out of rookie Sven Andrighetto's name or spontaneously shout "Quailerrr!" whether Steve was in the line-up or not.
Attendance became an obvious problem in the building. People would show up if the Toronto Marlies happened to be in town on a Friday or a Saturday, but the club's marketing group scrambled to schedule promotions for every single home game on the calendar with little impact on the empty seats.
The long-standing name of Copps Coliseum was dropped in favour of sponsorship money from First Ontario Credit Union. And on the team itself, fourth liners like Joonas Nattinen and Justin Courtnall were the players that stood out the most for the right reasons on many a night, highlighting the problematic lack of true top end talent. The Canadiens tried to help a late desperate playoff push along by bringing in an experienced NHL netminder to make up for Dustin Tokarski heading to Montreal, but his play reeked of a guy who would certainly never be deserving of another professional contract. I mean at the least, not a guy who'd ever have an impact in the big show, ever again.
And so it was that the team a city had given up on had seemingly given up back on them on the ice.
2014-15: SO HERE WE ARE
There's a beautiful thing about sports. No matter how crummy the previous season, or how disappointing its end, "there's always next year." Or there was always next year.
And so a new season brought renewed promise to the city of Hamilton, as returnees Sven Andrighetto and Christian Thomas were expected to carry the brunt of the load offensively, while free agent signee T.J. Hensick could only be an upgrade over the disappointment that was Martin St. Pierre the year prior. On a personal note, I'd opted to depart from All Habs, as I wanted to focus on scouting reports and prospect write-ups rather than game summaries, and wasn't sure if the site's readership was the best fit for my less frequent pennings (still, a tough decision, as Rick and his team supported me in many ways, which I greatly appreciated). I was again honoured by an offer from connections I'd made to share my work on a site I held a ton of respect for. Gus Katsaros and Rob Howard invited me to contribute to McKeen's Hockey, a premier source for draft and prospect coverage.
Unfortunately, sometimes things just don't work out the way you'd drawn them up in the locker room. A 'Dogs roster that was way too good to not make the post season couldn't string wins together, despite getting many unexpected "loans" down from Montreal (never thought I'd pass the likes of Rene Bourque or Bryan Allen post-game). Early season struggles were too much to overcome down the stretch when injuries and call-ups left holes in the Hamilton line-up, resulting in the club coming up short once again.
Similarly things didn't work out for me quite as I'd hoped, as insanely busy times away from the game forced me to renege on my commitments to McKeen's after only a couple of columns. I did manage to keep up my weekly radio spot, but had to greatly scale back my Tweets and writing for a whole host of reasons, including (on the downside) a pretty serious illness and then (on the upside) my girlfriend and I purchasing our first home (moving is a pain!). Big thanks to Gus and Rob for their support and understanding.
But of course, my move wasn't the one that had 'Dog fans talking. This time around, there literally was no tomorrow for Hamilton, at least not as an AHL team. Why the lack of support that ultimately made the sale of the club a financial necessity? Being the affiliate of an NHL team in its enemy's territory certainly didn't help, but other factors included the lack of results on-ice, a failure to sign impact free agents to drum up excitement, an arena located off the beaten path (away from those who might've chosen the game as a leisure activity), or a commitment to the same promotional tactics year over year without a change in result. In an ideal world, the Canadiens probably would've ridden out another two years of empty buildings to move the team directly to the greater Montreal area, but an opportunity to usher in the Belleville Bulls as an OHL franchise in the building accelerated the transition. So here's to you, St. John's. Look after our boys.
No doubt, I'll miss the Hamilton Bulldogs. I am grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way, to get to experience all that I have the last few years. But like the team and the city, I'll move on. So this blog will not be dedicated to the new OHL Bulldogs. Nor will it focus solely on the St. John's Ice Caps. Instead, it'll cover anything and everything related to the Montreal Canadiens. I'll provide my two cents. Try to contextualize it and give you all the info you could want to know. Hopefully a bit of humour here and there. And maybe some personal experiences/anecdotes along the way.
So welcome! We'll kick things off with actual posts this week. I hope you enjoy!
A new outlet for my observations and thoughts that I can't keep to just 140 characters on twitter dot com.
But more on where this blog is going later. For my first post, particularly for the newcomers in the crowd, I'll begin with where it has come from.
WHO AM I?
I'm not a journalist. But I sometimes play one on radio and the 'net.
My name is Dan Kramer (@DanKramerHabs), and my Monday to Friday full-time gainful employment has nothing to do with the sport of hockey (in fact, I'm a McGill MBA alumnus working in pharmaceuticals). I'm a Montreal native who moved to Toronto some two and a half years ago to follow that career path, but my passion for hockey - and most specifically Montreal Canadiens hockey - tagged along for the ride.
In June of 2011, I decided to begin sharing my love of the Habs, as well as my hobby of writing, with the world wide web on a blog I titled Dan's Daily Dose (the old). For fun mostly, and a little because I felt like I had an opinion worth sharing. I talked lots about the Canadiens, but always kept a close watch on the team's prospects, as it has always been a particular area of interest for me. I was fortunate to have many of my posts discovered and shared by members of the mainstream Montreal media, including the likes of Brian Wilde, Arpon Basu, Eric Engels, Dave Stubbs, and more, which grew my Twitter following. Somewhere in the mix, Abe Hefter was kind enough to recognize my perfect face for radio and allow me to become a regular guest on his shows, at first as part of a blogger panel on weekend afternoons, and eventually as a regular on the Locker Room on Saturday mornings. Amanda Stein and others of the TSN690 crew would provide me more opportunities to spread my opinions to the non-social media crowd.
The following June, I was honoured to be approached by Rick, the editor of AllHabs.net, about joining his fine staff of writers, and was thrilled to do so, as it is one of the top fan-based Montreal Canadiens sites there is. At that time, I hadn't expected I'd be moving to Toronto just three and a half months later, but sometimes life throws you an unexpected curveball, and this for me was one that paid off in many respects.
After hearing of my move, and having previously exchanged pleasantries with him through social media, then Hamilton Bulldogs play-by-play man and communications director Derek Wills reached out to me to ask if credentials might help further my coverage of the team. Something I'd only dreamed of from my couch prior to that moment, I was of course very excited and appreciative of Derek's offer, and thus began three years of getting a peak behind the curtain of the organization I've followed my whole life.
2012-13: BAPTISM BY FIRE
I'll never forget my first game. With the NHL locked out, the American Hockey League was teeming with top young talent. Not only that, but with no parent clubs to talk about, much of the mainstream media was focused on the AHL, eager to cover any form of professional puck. After finding the media entrance to Copps Coliseum and making my way downstairs, I collected my pass and headed for the door leading towards the press box elevator. As I reached out to grab it, it swung open from the other side. "Hi," said the voice of the person walking through and past me. It was Michel Therrien. And behind him followed Marc Bergevin, Trevor Timmins, and Rick Dudley.
I've been fortunate to meet many interesting individuals in both my personal and professional life, so I'm not one to be star-struck, or get befuddled by celebrity. But in that very moment, the first time feeling like you've got a membership card to the same club as the men that run the team you've poured your emotion into since childhood, it was something I'll carry with me forever.
Of course, it became the norm over the next weeks, months, and years. Watching Therrien eat popcorn. Bergevin get a coffee. Sharing a table for a pre-game meal with Patrice Brisebois and Martin Lapointe. This may seem the norm to those who earn their keep as writers and commentators, but like I said: I'm not a journalist. Only recently upgraded from streaming games on my laptop, my first season on the beat was the one I'll cherish the most.
There were other highs that year. Getting to watch Brendan Gallagher make his professional debut, and interviewing his always smiling face after numerous home games. A mid-season trade for Dustin Tokarski that nearly turned the team around, and produced one of the year's most memorable quotes (When veteran Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters asked Tokarski if one particular loss represented a "new level of despair" for the struggling 'Dogs, Tokarski quipped, "You can write it any way you want in the newspapers. A loss is a loss."). Greg Pateryn outshining both Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi as all three broke the seal on their AHL careers. The long-winded post-game rants of Joey Tenute. The guessing games over where Alexander Avtsin had disappeared to. The only games Danny Kristo and Sebastian Collberg will likely ever play in the Canadiens' organization. And possibly the best stretch of hockey Patrick Holland will ever play.
As a collective group, the young bunch just didn't gel, and the results weren't there. Even as competition weakened after the conclusion of the lock-out, the team couldn't produce sufficiently to climb out of the American League cellar, finishing last overall.
Derek also gave me another media first in my first year of coverage, as I was invited to join he and colour commentator Al Craig on air during intermission of several games; something I'd get to reprise on occasion over the following two seasons as well. I owe a lot to Derek and Al, and couldn't have been happier for Derek when he was hired as the radio voice of the Calgary Flames before the 2014-15 season.
2013-14: A SECOND HOME
If 2012-13 was a lot of firsts, in 2013-14 I was able to find my stride. With Ken Peters and Canadian Press freelancer Fraser Caldwell on either side, the Copps Coliseum press box became a Friday and Saturday night home for me. I'd gotten past the intimidating, icy stares of Sylvain Lefebvre post-game, and worked to get my audience the information and news they wanted, as quickly as possible. The addition of Justin Dickie helming the club's media relations definitely kicked the gameday operations up a notch, and I enjoyed my status as a regular.
Results on the ice, however, were not much improved from the year prior. Despite leading the team in scoring, the hyped signing of Martin St. Pierre was mostly a bust, and the most entertaining thing about many nights was listening to Ken make songs out of rookie Sven Andrighetto's name or spontaneously shout "Quailerrr!" whether Steve was in the line-up or not.
Attendance became an obvious problem in the building. People would show up if the Toronto Marlies happened to be in town on a Friday or a Saturday, but the club's marketing group scrambled to schedule promotions for every single home game on the calendar with little impact on the empty seats.
The long-standing name of Copps Coliseum was dropped in favour of sponsorship money from First Ontario Credit Union. And on the team itself, fourth liners like Joonas Nattinen and Justin Courtnall were the players that stood out the most for the right reasons on many a night, highlighting the problematic lack of true top end talent. The Canadiens tried to help a late desperate playoff push along by bringing in an experienced NHL netminder to make up for Dustin Tokarski heading to Montreal, but his play reeked of a guy who would certainly never be deserving of another professional contract. I mean at the least, not a guy who'd ever have an impact in the big show, ever again.
And so it was that the team a city had given up on had seemingly given up back on them on the ice.
2014-15: SO HERE WE ARE
There's a beautiful thing about sports. No matter how crummy the previous season, or how disappointing its end, "there's always next year." Or there was always next year.
And so a new season brought renewed promise to the city of Hamilton, as returnees Sven Andrighetto and Christian Thomas were expected to carry the brunt of the load offensively, while free agent signee T.J. Hensick could only be an upgrade over the disappointment that was Martin St. Pierre the year prior. On a personal note, I'd opted to depart from All Habs, as I wanted to focus on scouting reports and prospect write-ups rather than game summaries, and wasn't sure if the site's readership was the best fit for my less frequent pennings (still, a tough decision, as Rick and his team supported me in many ways, which I greatly appreciated). I was again honoured by an offer from connections I'd made to share my work on a site I held a ton of respect for. Gus Katsaros and Rob Howard invited me to contribute to McKeen's Hockey, a premier source for draft and prospect coverage.
Unfortunately, sometimes things just don't work out the way you'd drawn them up in the locker room. A 'Dogs roster that was way too good to not make the post season couldn't string wins together, despite getting many unexpected "loans" down from Montreal (never thought I'd pass the likes of Rene Bourque or Bryan Allen post-game). Early season struggles were too much to overcome down the stretch when injuries and call-ups left holes in the Hamilton line-up, resulting in the club coming up short once again.
Similarly things didn't work out for me quite as I'd hoped, as insanely busy times away from the game forced me to renege on my commitments to McKeen's after only a couple of columns. I did manage to keep up my weekly radio spot, but had to greatly scale back my Tweets and writing for a whole host of reasons, including (on the downside) a pretty serious illness and then (on the upside) my girlfriend and I purchasing our first home (moving is a pain!). Big thanks to Gus and Rob for their support and understanding.
But of course, my move wasn't the one that had 'Dog fans talking. This time around, there literally was no tomorrow for Hamilton, at least not as an AHL team. Why the lack of support that ultimately made the sale of the club a financial necessity? Being the affiliate of an NHL team in its enemy's territory certainly didn't help, but other factors included the lack of results on-ice, a failure to sign impact free agents to drum up excitement, an arena located off the beaten path (away from those who might've chosen the game as a leisure activity), or a commitment to the same promotional tactics year over year without a change in result. In an ideal world, the Canadiens probably would've ridden out another two years of empty buildings to move the team directly to the greater Montreal area, but an opportunity to usher in the Belleville Bulls as an OHL franchise in the building accelerated the transition. So here's to you, St. John's. Look after our boys.
No doubt, I'll miss the Hamilton Bulldogs. I am grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way, to get to experience all that I have the last few years. But like the team and the city, I'll move on. So this blog will not be dedicated to the new OHL Bulldogs. Nor will it focus solely on the St. John's Ice Caps. Instead, it'll cover anything and everything related to the Montreal Canadiens. I'll provide my two cents. Try to contextualize it and give you all the info you could want to know. Hopefully a bit of humour here and there. And maybe some personal experiences/anecdotes along the way.
So welcome! We'll kick things off with actual posts this week. I hope you enjoy!