OHL Alumni Central

It’s Sunday again and time for some more great links from the world of hockey.

Five For Smiting – A light-hearted, yet very knowledgeable, look at the Ottawa Senators. Like the Leafs, if you start to take the annual disappointment seriously, you’re bound to go crazy. The author’s bio: Unapologetic sports fanatic, blessed with an incredibly patient wife…and my own Man Room.  If they keep a score, if there’s a winner and a loser, or if the participants stand a better than average chance of bleeding (especially that one), I’ll watch it, at least once.  Well…except for cricket.  I’ll never understand cricket.

The Goalies Archive – Everything to do with hockey’s goaltenders. The site has an extensive database of goaltenders throughout the history of pro hockey from the NHL, AHL, IHL and WHA. The site also keeps a current list of the lastest transactions involving goaltenders.

Puckdrawn.com – This is a great site evolving around the artistic side of hockey. The concept logos and jerseys are simply great.

The Blue Line Radio Show – The show has been halted but the archives will be posted ‘forever’ for hockey fans to listen to. The show is based in Rochester, New York but is about everything hockey and not just about the Amerks. The show may or may not return for the 2010-11 season.

On Frozen Blog – A blog focused on the Washington Capitals. A very informative and often updated site. Whether you’re a Capitals fan or not, this is a very good read.

Check out The Sensational Sunday Search For Sites – I

Check out The Sensational Sunday Search For Sites – II

Time for the second instalment of OHL Alumni Central’s Sensational Sunday Search For Sites. If you didn’t catch last weeks inaugural post, click here to view all the awesome hockey related sites.

Once again, we have five more great sites from the vast world wide web that will hopefully give you an enlightened look at the game from a different perspective than the mainstream media (boo, mainstream media!).

• WHA Hockey.tv . For those of us who remember the great World Hockey Association, this site is simply awesome. Packed with photos, memorabilia and stories of the long lost yet beloved league from the 1970′s. The best part of the site is the great, original video coverage that has materialized on the site.
• Elite Hockey Prospects . Thoroughly covering the world of hockey and probably OHL Alumni Central’s greatest resource when tracking players. This site covers most professional players and most professional hockey leagues in North America and Europe. The transfers coverage is expansive, accurate, timely and comes in three parts, confirmed transfers, rumours and doubtful rumours. The doubtful rumours are always fun to read!
• Joe Pelletier’s Greatest Hockey Legends . The Hockey Blogger, Joe profiles endless numbers of retired NHL hockey players but also provides a bit of current hockey news and opinion as well.
• Let’s Go Amerks . Keith Wozniak’s great blog on everything Rochester Americans. This is a great read for Ontario Hockey League fans as many OHL grads find themselves on the Amerks roster at some point in their career.
• Russian Hockey Fans . Two guys and their love of Russian hockey and Russians playing hockey. Great blog for news on the KHL, Russians playing in the NHL and the Russian National program.

The blogosphere, and the world wide web in general, is packed with great hockey sites. A great number of these sites are local and run by individuals who simply love the game. The quality and content is as good, if not better, than the mainstream press but these sites are hidden among the masses, waiting patiently to be heard (kind of like OHL Alumni Central…).

Starting now and coming every Sunday from this point forward, OHL Alumni Central will feature a list of five great hockey blogs / websites that provide a great read and a great alternative to the TSN’s and ESPN’s and NHL.com’s, etc.

SSSFS Top 5 for this week (in no particular order):

• EuroHockey.net . EuroHockey is a great site for finding out what’s going on in the European hockey scene. The site is maintained by a group of volunteers and is a shadow of what it could be as some areas have fallen by the wayside. However, to keep up on European hockey transfers (which often involve OHL grads), this is the site and because of that has been a great resource for OHL Alumni Central. Gerry Cantlon, radio man and AHL expert seems to be the top, if only, active contributor at the moment.
• Cards On Ice . This is a great blog on the world of collectible hockey cards. But wait, that’s not all. This is a good site with regular posts about hockey in general.
• Kuklas Korner . Kuklas Korner is a great collaborative effort to provide hockey fans with the latest news ‘around the clock’.
• Maple Stir-up . I’ve been a Leafs hater since the 2004-05 lock-out season because I pretty much blame the team’s ownership’s greed for the lock-out. However, it’s great to find someone who is a diehard Leaf fan who is based in reality. There will be no Kaberle for Crosby and Malkin trade suggestions on this site. MSU simply does some great work and the site is a great read even for those who can’t stand the team.
• OHL Arena & Travel Guide . Any OHL fan that hasn’t visited Kevin Jordan’s site has been seriously been missing out. Kevin puts together a great database of current and former Ontario Hockey League arenas as well as other information about the league. You can also submit your name for Kevin’s ‘I’ve Done All 20′ page if you have been to all 20 current OHL arenas.