Girls Don't Really Write Hockey Blogs

3/25/2013 

If you’re reading this post, I just want to say thank you for overlooking the incredibly corny play on words in my site title (consider this my most sincere apology) and choosing to read on. I am an avid Twitter user, and over the past couple of years I have started using my Twitter account to tweet increasingly more frequently about hockey. Well, as it happens the majority of my followers (read: friends, like people who actually know me, so I have to think about their feelings) don’t actually care to read hundreds of my sometimes-emotional and probably way-too-invested tweets about hockey, and I can’t say that I really blame them. For this reason, in early March I decided to create an anonymous Twitter account dedicated solely to commentary about NHL hockey.

            However, I quickly realized that my feelings about Twitter’s 140-character limit are similar to my feelings about watching Major League Soccer – I can’t stand it. I thought, “Why should I allow Twitter to control my expression? Why not expand my operations?” These thoughts, combined with my recent decision to pursue a graduate degree in statistics (specifically athletic statistics and sports analysis) are what sparked this blog. Given that I aspire to one day be the Queen of Canada as well as the proud wife of a hockey player, I felt that “The Ice Queen” would be an appropriate title.

Until recently, statistics was something that many hockey fans and media personalities (bloggers, broadcasters, etc.) tried ardently to keep completely off the agenda for discussion within the hockey community; hockey fans and professionals alike prefer the tradition of using superstition and luck to explain why things happen the way they do in the NHL. Many have stated that the rise of statistical analysis in hockey takes away from the fun that guessing and the notion of chance or ‘fate’ add to the sport, and even argue that statisticians and analysts are only interested in the numbers and are rarely actual hockey fans. The latter, however, is not the case – in reality, the majority of NHL analysts are people who love hockey and watch a lot of it.

            What a coincidence- I love hockey, and I watch a lot of it. I read a lot about it, I watch old videos; I peruse CapGeek and statistics websites in my spare time (wait, spare time? By that I meant ‘at work’). I hope that my love for hockey shows in my candid and spirited writing, and I hope you as a reader enjoy my contributions.

Here's a link to my favorite hockey blog: http://www.downgoesbrown.com

Want to know my take on anything? Want to be the Canadian king to my queen? Hate me and everything I stand for? Let me know! Send me a Blogger message, or feel free to e-mail me at emma.frizzell@gmail.com.