I’ve gone back and forth for a few days on if I wanted to write something about this topic. I’ve decided to type out some words. That’s the nice thing about having your own site, you can do what you want without having to answer to anyone. As I’ve said before, at times I’m going to use this outlet as a way to discuss thoughts or emotions I have on different topics that may not relate directly to hockey.

The last few weeks have been a little wild in the Buffalo media for different reasons. I’m not going to touch on Jerry Sullivan’s extremely inappropriate and incorrect comments about women. What I will say, is that there are a handful of women in the hockey world that I learn from almost daily.

What I want to talk about is the continued gatekeeping in media in 2022, almost 2023. Blogs or “non-traditional media” continue to get disrespected by I guess I’ll call them credentialed media members.

The Shifting Landscape

I’ll talk about my own experience first with Mike Harrington two weeks ago on Twitter. It wasn’t the first time Mike and I squared off. This was the first time, however, that it ended the way it did. Mike was making his usual uneducated comments about analytics in hockey and I offered to explain the situation which he was disputing. I’ll be honest, the conversation went the way I expected. Having said that, if he was open to hearing me out I would have tried to help him understand.

Instead, he dismissed my comment/questions. The interaction ended with Mike telling me I was irrelevant and blocking errrr I mean muting me. Which is whatever and I don’t care that he thinks I’m irrelevant because I have the same opinion of him in the realm of hockey conversations, to be honest.

What did bother me was his insinuating that this site, the writers on this site, and myself are fake and acting like we’re in media. I couldn’t believe the audacity when Mike knows I stood in the locker room with him at times for three years before Covid. Anthony and I were in the same scrums as him over the summer at the NHL Scouting Combine.

@SabresSocialist Irrelevant. You don’t go to fake teachers, fake doctors, fake accountants. Why go to someone who isn’t in the media acting like he is? Makes no sense. I choose not to listen. People should be more discerning.

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) December 8, 2022

I don’t have a journalism degree, but I do have eight years of experience now doing this. I’ve watched excellent writers such as Joe Yerdon, Lance Lysowski, Tim Graham, and John Vogl work. I’ve sat at conferences and listened to people like Alison Lukan, Ryan Stimson, Micah McCurdy, Corey Sznajder, Luke, and Josh Younggren. I’ve tried to pick up things from just being around them and listening to their advice. I’ve asked some of them questions I’ve had so that I can grow.

Not to sound arrogant, but I truly believe that this site has built enough of a following that we are relevant in what is considered media in current times. The line isn’t clear anymore. Sports have evolved to the point that non-traditional media has earned a seat at the same table as traditional media. There are different segments now that have their own niche and we’re one of them. This site isn’t trying to do what Mike does, which I still think has value today. We’re numbers guys that like to look at the game differently. Both have a place in the conversation. A media credential doesn’t decide who is real or not anymore.

I don’t want this to feel like it’s just about me and my experiences because it’s not. The good folks at Cover 1 dealt with something similar on the Buffalo Bills side of things this week. A credentialed writer was losing an argument and pulled out the “that’s why I’m where I am and where you are are” card. The amount of hours that the Cover 1 guys put into breaking down film and recorded videos as a SIDE JOB is insane. I have incredible respect for Erik, Aaron, Nate, Greg, and their team over there. Nobody should see what they do as second-tier or something.

Mike pulled a similar thing with Die By The Blade in the preseason when they tweeted something that was said on the broadcast. Mike decided to tweet that the “uncredentialed blog” was wrong. Irrelevant to what happened, but he just took the shot because that’s what people like him who fear change do.

We all remember the podcast from the Golden State Warriors’ credentialed writers, right? The one that said non-credentialed podcasters are basically a joke and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

These people that put down these blogs, podcasters, or just individuals that provide content are just shortening their road of relevancy, in my opinion. Times have changed in the social media age.

Changes

I’ve spent a few weeks reflecting on all of this and I have come to a realization that came from some of the conversations over the last few weeks. What we do on this site can be confusing and hard to understand.

I try my best to explain charts in tweets so people can try to take away some value, but it’s hard in a 240-character tweet. I want to try to help people who want to understand the data that we’re sharing and how they can get value from it. I also want to have an outlet for those that may not be big fans of what we do but are willing to try to understand.

Therefore, starting the week after Christmas, I’m going to start posting routine videos describing what certain numbers mean and going through videos to show how we can see those numbers feeding into the game. I don’t know the exact outlet I’ll be doing this on so stay tuned for that. This won’t be an Expected Buffalo subscribers-only thing. It’ll be open to anyone that wants to watch and have a discussion.

I feel like I can do a better job trying to help people better understand what we do and how to think about it when watching a game.

So, that’s it. I just wanted to get some things off of my chest and I’m honestly not sure much will change. However, if I got one person to understand where people like myself are coming from and open someone’s mind to accepting content from a non-traditional media outlet then I feel like I succeeded here.