Hey gang,
Frozen Sheets Hockey was a blog I ran for a few years starting around 2009, covering the Tampa Bay Lighting. I ran it as a creative writing project, introducing goofy characters in fictional settings to provide wacky opinions on the team's ups and downs. The unconventional writing style drew the eye of Raw Charge, SB Nation's Lightning blog, and I started writing there as well for a while. Frozen Sheets had some success and was an active part of the Lightning's blog-o-sphere for a few years until fatigue, shifting interests, and time constraints reduced the frequency of my posts. I eventually gave the whole thing up.
Until now?
I'm bringing it back this season, with a focus on writing game recaps in free verse poetry, which is something I enjoyed in the last stretch of the blog's existence. Whether I do more than that, or even if I can keep up with that... well, just like the Lightning's fortunes this season, we'll see how it all plays out.
The Lightning have won two consecutive Stanley Cups. They've changed some pieces, but they are still stacked and have a good shot at winning a third. Does that serve as a season preview? That will be enough. The season starts tomorrow with the banner raising ceremony at Amalie Arena in Tampa before the Lightning host the Pittsburg Penguins. The Pens will be without Sidney Crosby and Gino Malkin. Will they be any good? Will the Lightning? We'll see.
Steven Stamkos will take part in the whole banner ceremony. He's the old man on the team now, the captain. When I was doing this the first time around, he was the rookie, the kid being held out of the lineup by Coach Rick Tocchet so he could watch and learn, and get in some reps in the weight room. I don't miss those days. The team under OK Hockey's ownership was a fiasco. Things are better now. But the chaos made for some funny blog posts, I guess. Will it be funny this time? I don't know. We'll see.
I'll be back with a recap of the Lightning-Pens game soon. We'll see how the Bolts do, and how I do. Peace.
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