The Copper & Blue's inagural season was filled with change. The hardest working man in the hockey business, Jonathan Willis, brought this place to life in April, right after the Oilers put us out of our misery. Jonathan was feeling lonely and in June brought Bruce and I aboard. In September, we landed the biggest UFA - Scott Reynolds - and we were off and running.
Because he's an outstanding writer and an all-around great guy, some minor outfit called The Score or something decided that Jonathan was worthy of a focused national platform and like Brian Burke we could not match the offer sheet. Jonathan promised to hang around as long as we found another pretty face to replace him so back to the free agent pool we went. The results of our search brought in the most requested man around here - Ben Massey. Since September things have been relatively stable, though I am wary that NHL.com is going to call Bruce and offer him a staff position - they seem to feature his stuff on a weekly basis.
However, a wise man once said "A true master is never satisfied with his work even though he has put his whole heart into it." In that vein we've added Johan Barrander, our favorite Swede, to keep an eye on the Swedish Elite League, the SM-Liiga and any northern European junior-aged talent. We've added a couple of Finnish contacts that keep us informed of the latest in the land 187,888 lakes. We're always on the lookout for anything that will lend more insight, more analysis, and more candor to The Copper & Blue.
The Copper & Blue 2009 Site Statistics
New Members
418
Total Stories
598
Most Active Commenters
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| SumOil | 1214 |
| Doogie2K | 563 |
| Kent Wilson | 131 |
| raventalon40 | 130 |
| Pat Mc | 91 |
SumOil, the kid with the nose for the books and the knack for the engineering texts; the kid that came to the Oilers during the finals run; the guy that's been let down ever since; the only optimist within earshot of this place is our most frequent commenter. Thanks to everyone that comments and contributes, the conversations and debates are the fun part of this site.
Most Stories
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| Jonathan Willis | 237 |
| Derek Zona | 180 |
| Bruce McCurdy | 91 |
| Scott Reynolds | 55 |
| Benjamin Massey | 32 |
| JohanBarrander | 3 |
Does anyone else feel icky that a Flames writer is among our top commenters? Come on RT, only two more comments boots that Flames fan out of our top three!
2010 promises to be interesting if nothing else, and the Edmonton Oilers are making sure of that. The Copper & Blue will continue to do our best to give you the thought-provoking work and analysis that you've all come to expect from us. If there's anything you'd like to see from us, let us know. Better yet, do it yourself - the FanPost section of the site is an easy way to get your point on the front page.