The Rangers Tribune

Rangers Tribune Announces Partnership with The Hockey Network

Ever since I started The Rangers Tribune in January of 2009, I've always been looking for ways to expand the blog in different ways, and also broaden the audience in the process. After all, the most important piece of any business is the consumer, and in this case that is you, the reader. 

So back in January of this year I was contacted by now good friend George Steiner, who is the CEO of a growing hockey community called The Hockey Network (www.TheHockeyNetwork.com). He was very interested in creating a partnership in some way, shape or form because of the solid community of hockey fans we have here on the blog (yes, you guys are regarded very highly by other sites within the hockey world). So George and I met at a Ranger game (in the MSG suite I might add) and came up with some exciting partnership ideas for the future that will greatly benefit the readers here as well as everyone over on THN. 

Before we made any major announcements, though, I wanted to first introduce The Hockey Network to all of you and get you acquainted with what it’s all about. Basically, it is a Facebook for hockey fans. Now I know many of you have probably seen (failed) attempts at this in the past, but George is the real deal. Look, I get at least one email per day from some random Joe attempting to build a partnership and a majority of them are ignored. But what George has created made me look twice, and I'm happy I did. 

But The Hockey Network is much more than just a social networking platform for hockey fans. Here are some of its other features available to both members and non-members:

- Social networking, hockey style

- Discussion for all areas of hockey (forums)

- Hockey equipment reviews

- Free marketplace to sell old gear

- Rink locator

- Store locator

- Camp directory with reviews

- Earn points for using the site, redeem points for free prizes

- The site is completely free to use

That's a hockey fan's dream destination if you ask me. 

Like many of us are, George was very disappointed in many of the hockey communities out on the Internet, so what he's done is devote all of his time and effort into taking the best features from all of those sites, improving them, and eventually creating one outstanding platform. 

To break it down for you, you begin by creating an account/profile, much like you would on Facebook. You then get your own wall where you can post statuses, interact with other members/friends and earn points, which are redeemable for free hockey-related prizes. Yes, that's right, you basically get free stuff just for using the site. That's pretty damn cool. 

After creating a profile, you will now have access to all of the features listed above, including the forums. The forums, in my opinion, are the best part. Each team has their own forum where fans of that team gather to discuss anything relating to their hockey club. And the best part is, each team's forum already has a growing membership, so you would be jumping right into an already established community. 

I've been using the site for about a month now, and I've purposely waited to make this post and officially announce our partnership because I wanted to make sure for myself that THN was better than some of the other lame hockey communities out there - I can now confirm that it is. Hell, George even has commercials on NHL Network... what other hockey site has that? 

Also, I am now a part of the staff at The Hockey Network as I am the moderator of the New York Rangers section in the forums. In fact, you can access the Rangers forum by clicking the link I added on the navbar up top here on the blog. If you click it, you'll notice that The Rangers Tribune banner heads the entire Rangers section of the site – I know, we’re cool.

In all seriousness, though, joining The Hockey Network is definitely worth your while and I strongly suggest creating an account. The community there is very knowledgeable and believe it or not it is also a quick place to get news since people are constantly posting statuses and forum topics; perfect with the deadline coming up. 

I've been linking some of my articles on there as well, and we've been discussing them so I obviously would love for my readers here to jump in over there as well. You can find my account, by the way, under "Nick Montemagno". 

So sign up by clicking here, join in on the fun and get ready for some of the great things George and I will have coming your way in the coming months. Trust me, it’s worth it!

* Be sure to let me know if you join and what your username is, because I've created a group on there solely for the readers of this blog. I would like to invite all of you into the group - it has some great features.

Rangers Tribune and TiqIq Partner to Bring You "Rangers Tribune Ticket Hub"

From day one the main goal of this blog has been to give readers the best possible experience around. In order to do that I've made countless changes and additions in order to keep the site modernized with the latest technology and features, guaranteeing the reader experience here is very unique compared to the other blogs/sites out there. Today, I am thrilled to announce that The Rangers Tribune has made yet another spectacular addition to the blog that will continue to improve the reader's experience. We have partnered with TiqIq to bring you the "Rangers Tribune Ticket Hub". 

Basically what TiqIq does is gathers the best possible deals on tickets (in this case Ranger tickets) from around the web and combines them into one online storefront for you. And everything is secure as they are gathering the tickets from services such as StubHub, eBay and TicketsNow. This partnership makes The Rangers Tribune your one-stop shop for tickets to all New York Ranger games (home and away). 

Now to explain how to go about purchasing tickets. First of all, I will be posting the latest deals on upcoming games on both Twitter and Facebook. From there, what you will want to do is click the "Ticket Hub" tab on the navigation bar up top. Or you could always just go to that page's direct url address: www.rangerstribune.com/tickets. I made the address very simple so that it is easy for everyone to remember. You will then be brought to a screen that looks like this...

What you see there is the storefront. It shows how tickets for the upcoming games are selling, which sections have the most available tickets and at what price. Also, if you click on the seating chart you can view available tickets for any section in the arena and for any price. Also, for some arenas it will show you the seat view from that section with a little snapshot, kind of how they do on the official MSG website.

Puchasing is as easy as selecting a quantity and then clicking "Buy". I should also mention that you can view tickets for any game on any date by clicking the box in the top right that says "View Events From" and a dropdown calendar will appear for you to select a date. 

The Rangers Tribune Ticket Hub will also give you access to the following information:

• The current average price of tickets in any given TiqZone of the arena
• The complete pricing history, from the day tickets went on sale to today, of tickets in any given TiqZone, allowing us to look at trends and figure out when the smartest time to buy tickets might be
• The weekly change in the price of the tickets in a given TiqZone
• The percentage above or below face value a ticket is currently selling for
• The percentage above or below the average ticket price a ticket is currently selling for
• A simple little icon, color-coded to easily note if a ticket is a good deal, a bad deal or a neutral deal, and more.

I think this is a great thing TiqIq runs here for many reasons, but the biggest thing for me is that it is completely safe and secure. You no longer have to stand in Penn Station asking if anyone is selling extra tickets. And if you are one of those people, my God you are annoying.... Just kidding, obviously. 

But seriously, there is no more risk taking. You get what you see when you go ticket shopping on the Rangers Tribune Ticket Hub. For this reason, I did not think twice about going into this partnership when TiqIq contacted me. 

And again, you can access the Ticket Hub by either clicking on the assigned tab on the navigation bar on the blog's main page, or you could visit by going to www.rangerstribune.com/tickets. You can also find a miniature TiqIq box in the sidebar of the blog's main page as well.

Tickets for upcoming preseason and regular season games are already on sale, so be sure to check them out and buy up if you are interested! And if you have any questions at all, check out TiqIq's FAQ or you can e-mail me at [email protected]. 

Happy shopping!

The Hockey New Year

We've officially made it through the worst August in the history of Augusts. I always go into August knowing that it will be relatively dormant as far as hockey goes but my God, you would think the league was going through a lockout with the lack of fireworks in the last few weeks. Did I really make a post entirely about Reebok's black jerseys? That's when you know there is nothing going on. At all. 

I mean, the Rangers didn't even have a player holding out on them that we could discuss and speculate about everyday like we normally do in the summer. On the bright side, though, I guess that reflects the incredible job by GM Glen Sather this offseason. And I'm being completely serious, Slats was immaculate this summer. He did everything he could to give head coach John Tortorella the best pool of players possible to choose from for the finalized roster in training camp.

Speaking of training camp, it's just around the corner. The Traverse City Prospects Tournament begins on Saturday, September 10 and will run until September 14. Soon after that will mark the beginning of training camp and then preseason. This is why I consider September 1 the Hockey New Year. It's all hockey all of the time from this point forward and with the Blueshirts you can always expect a roller coaster of a year. 

This will be the third full season we will be covering the team here at The Rangers Tribune. I don't count the 2009 season as a complete one since the site was only published in January of that year, but still, it feels like we've been around for quite a while now. The blog has obviously undergone some drastic changes as we've grown, and I should add that the pace in which we've grown has been absolutely astounding. 

As a blogger, I've tried many different approaches as to how I deliver news and analysis to my readers over that time. You've probably noticed my changes in flow if you've been following from the early stages, but now that I guess I can be deemed a "veteran" blogger I think it is time to buckle down and really start getting this blog pumping. 

If you noticed, I basically took this past summer off. Aside from the morning Ranger Reads (which Pat did a great job of helping me with) and the occasional article, after free agency was over I tried removing myself from hockey as much as I could. Last season felt very long to me, and at times it was very stressful and took over my entire life. I needed the summer to sort of get my mind back moving on the right track so it would be fresh for September when we prepare for the new season. 

Don't think I entirely forgot about the blog, though. First off, I'm sure a lot of you have picked up on a lot of the behind-the-scenes plans that have now been put into action. For example, the new media bar that appears at the bottom of your screen when you visit the site is something new that I looked forward to adding. Also, I finally found the best program out there to deliver a constantly updating blogroll as well, which you can see by clicking the "Blogroll"box on the navigation bar up top. And pretty soon you will be able to purchase tickets to games from right here on the blog, but that official announcement is hopefully coming soon. 

Also, I did a lot of thinking about how I deliver news and analysis to the fans. The blog has undoubtedly improved since the beginning, as has my writing, but I feel like last year I sort of got away from the passion that makes this blog so great. I was caught up in the media way of doing things, which basically consists of lifelessly reporting what happens and not really showing an opinion or bringing the fire to the table that I used to. Some of that has to do with the fact that I've gotten in trouble for some of the things I've said in the past, but that's not something we are going to get into right now. 

Anyway, while thinking this summer, it struck me that I have to bring the passion and the fire back to this blog. I realized that if readers want that straightforward, lifeless reporting, there are a ton of beat writers out there to choose from. Blogs give fans the chance to read about the same topics, but from the perspective of one of their own, and that's how I plan to run this site for the upcoming season. It's taken a few years, but everything from the layout of the blog, to the following and now my writing style, it's finally perfect and the way that I have always wanted it to be. 

No more boring reporting or cautious articles - that's just not me and I'm not writing to please a small group of people anymore. I know that the large majority of you want the fire and the truth because you cannot find that in the daily paper. Sometimes I may go over the line with my opinions and sometimes I'll be called anything from an idiot to a, well, any other expletive you can think of. Believe me, I've seen it all whether it has been on Twitter, email or sometimes even in the comments. 

Look, I write what I think and what I believe, and if you feel the need to call me those names, then I have advice for you; take your ego and get the hell off my blog. I don't mind a good debate and quite honestly I like when people disagree with me because it allows me to see something from your perspective. But you can disagree and debate with me without the trashy name-calling. 

Now that I got that out of the way, the purpose of this post was to give you guys an overview of how things will be done on the blog this year. It was sort of that first day of class kind of thing where the teacher spends the period outlining the course for the entire year. 

I am looking forward to this season more than any other because I think the new atmosphere and layout here on the blog will be better for everyone and not to mention we have a pretty damn good team to talk about this year as well. I want to thank all of you who religiously read the site each and every day and always come here for your Rangers fix. It really means a lot and I hope you enjoy following and interacting with the site as much as I do running it this season. 

And again, we still have a few special announcements coming before the season officially gets underway. 

I also wanted to remind everyone to please use the comments section on each post if you have something to say. Please do not feel shy or embarrassed to write a comment on a post. This blog is here for fans to express their true feelings and beliefs, not to hold them back. I want the readers to be just as opinionated and open as I am, so please, if you have something to say, leave a comment. That's what it's there for. 

And lastly, social media is the best way to follow us on the web. If you haven't already noticed, you can pull up both our Twitter and Facebook pages just by clicking the designated buttons on the media bar on the bottom right of your screen. All you have to do is click "follow" or "like" and you will be getting our updates everywhere and at anytime. And the best part is, with that bar, you don't even have to leave the blog to do so anymore. 

Together, we can make this the best New York Rangers Hockey blog on the net, and that's what I intend to do this season. I'm extremely anxious for this season and I'm sure you are too, so let's get this party started already - Let's Go Rangers!!

Vote Rangers Tribune as New York's Best Sports Blog

For those of you that have followed The Rangers Tribune since its early days, you've seen the evolution that has went on between January of 2009 and now. From covering events like the All-Star Game as members of the media, to being linked on NHL.com to the recent overhaul we made here on the blog when we switched over to TypePad. We've come a long way and this past week we went even further. 

CBS is running a contest in which the best sports blog in New York will be chosen. We are both pleased and honored to announce that The Rangers Tribune has been selected as a finalist for this contest and is up there among the best sports blogs in all of New York. This is a tremendous honor and an incredible accomplishment, but there is still work to be done. 

This is where you, the reader, comes into play. In order to choose the best sports blog, CBS is allowing the public to vote on their favorite site. I am asking all of you - the thousands of readers that hit this blog up for the latest Rangers news everyday - to vote for The Rangers Tribune as the best sports blog in the big Apple. 

In order to do so, just click on the following link and click the "vote" button. There's no registration needed at all. It's easy as 1-2-3 and you can vote once per day. Here's the link (or click on the badge in the right sidebar): http://newyork.blogger.cbslocal.com/most-valuable-blogger/blog/692-ranger-tribune/

For your efforts, I am willing to throw in a reward here. If we happen to win the contest as New York's best sports blog, I will run a contest on here in which a reader will be chosen as winners of a free (FREE) pair of tickets to a Rangers home game during the 2011-12 season. That's two tickets we will be giving out - one to a lucky winner, and one to their gust of choice.

So get out there and vote, make us proud, and we'll be sending one of you, along with a lucky guest, to a Rangers home game free of charge. Sounds good to me. 

Now get out and vote! Once again, here is the link to do so: http://newyork.blogger.cbslocal.com/most-valuable-blogger/blog/692-ranger-tribune/

Thank You to the best readers a blogger could ask for!

Vote for our New Twitter Logo! (UPDATE: Logo 2 Wins)

Over the past two weeks we have been running a contest here on The Rangers Tribune in which readers can submit designs for our new Twitter logo. Yesterday was the deadline to send in entries, so today begins the voting. As you see below, we received some wonderful designs, and these are only some of them. I narrowed down the entries to the ones that I believed were the most likely to collect votes. 

Each logo design is numbered, so in order to vote find the corresponding number in the poll located towards the bottom of this post and vote for that logo. Anyone can vote and we encourage everyone to vote so that we get a variety of opinions. The winner will be decided based on which design has collected the most votes by Wednesday evening. 

Logo Design #1:

Logo Design #2: WINNER

 

Logo Design #3:

Logo Design #4:

Logo Design #5 (more as a joke than anything):

Vote Here:

A big thanks to everyone who submitted entries into the contest! Winner will be announced tomorrow night.

UPDATE: Congratulations to reader Dave - the designer of Logo Number 2 - who you all voted as the winner of our contest. Thanks to everyone who voted and a very special thanks to everyone who submitted logo designs. This was a great success!

Contest Reminder: Design Us a Twitter Logo!

A little over a week ago I first posted about the contest we were holding to design The Rangers Tribune a new Twitter logo. To this point I have received some fantastic entries with great designs, but I just wanted to remind everyone that the deadline to submit a logo is this coming Monday. On Tuesday, after all entries have been submitted, we will begin the voting. The logo design to collect the most votes will be used as our new logo on Twitter and the designer will also receive a free hat and puck from this year's Stanley Cup Final. 

In my opinion, here are the two best entries that I have received so far:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Think you can beat that? Send me your design at [email protected] or send it to us via Twitter (@RangersTribune) and you automatically will be entered for a chance to win the free Stanley Cup Final gear. 

Full contest details HERE

Contest: Design The Rangers Tribune a New Twitter/Facebook Logo!

Over the past two or three years that I have been using Twitter, I have circulated through quite a number of different avatars, or logos if you will, and just cannot seem to find one that I truly like or one that sticks. For some reason I am better at designing that sort of stuff for other people than I am for myself, so in this time of need, I am going to turn to you - the reader. 

Yes, I am calling upon all readers with photoshop skills and/or computer graphic designing skills to help make The Rangers Tribune a new Twitter/Facebook logo that will stick once and for all. It's quite simple to participate: all you need to do is design us some sort of logo that includes the words "Rangers Tribune" and includes the Ranger colors and possibly even a Ranger logo if you so desire. Beyond that, the floor is yours to come up with whatever you would like. 

For ideas of what I mean, here are our three previous Twitter logos which, to me, lacked originality and creativity, therefore didn't last very long:

Depending on the number of entries I receive, at the end we will do a vote to see which design will be chosen as our new Twitter/Facebook logo. By the way, the reason I include Facebook too is because whichever logo I use for Twitter, I normally apply it to our FB page as well. 

And of course the winner will not walk away empty-handed. The creator of the winning logo will receive a free 2011 Stanley Cup Final hat as well as a free 2011 Stanley Cup Final puck, both of which I picked up in Boston this past Monday.

 When you are done with your design, you can either send it to me via e-mail at [email protected], or just tweet it to me on Twitter. I'd like to begin the voting on Monday, June 20, which is just short of two weeks from now, so make sure to have your entry in by then. 

And thank you very much for participating (if you do). We already have received some entries that look fantastic and are looking forward to seeing what some of your other intelligent minds come up with. Happy designing!

Welcome to Our New Home (Update)

As you can see, the transfer of The Rangers Tribune to its new host has been completed. There are still some kinks we need to work out and some things that need fixing, so bear with us while we get that all worked out.

One of the problems is that all of the comments from the previous host are not transferring over to the new one, but the commenting platform itself did transfer so you can make new comments - you just cannot see old ones. Hopefully we will get that fixed asap. 

But other than that, the transfer went quite smoothly. Our usual domain (www.rangerstribune.com) now directs you to the new host, all of our posts transferred successfully, so like I said, the only outstanding problem right now is importing the old comments. 

Once everything is set up, I will make a post detailing everything that is new or has changed so that we are on the same page. 

Again, thank you very much for your cooperation. 

UPDATE (6:40pm): All comments are currently migrating over to the new host so they will gradually begin appearing here on the blog. It will take a while for all of them to migrate, though. Any other problems or strange activity you notice, please let me know by e-mailing me and I will look into it. 

Upgrading The Rangers Tribune

So you all saw what happened this past Thursday and Friday when Blogger completely shutdown and I was unable to access the blog and get new posts out to readers. It was a mess and probably not the only time it's going to happen. This is not the only frustration that Blogger has caused us over the years, and it's not the only promise they have broken either, so as a result, I am in the process of changing hosts here on The Rangers Tribune.

Basically what a host does is it gives you a home to edit your blog, make new posts and get information out to your readers. In simpler terms, it's what powers all the work that goes on behind the scenes. Blogger is struggling to maintain a pleasurable product and for some reason they refuse to modernize their platform, which would make it easier for me to make posts and add cool new features to the blog. Because of this, we are switching from Blogger to TypePad.

TypePad is a more modern service that will make my life as a blogger much easier, but will also greatly improve your experience as the reader when visiting the site. Don't worry, though, you do not have to do anything during this switch - we have everything covered.

All posts that were made using Blogger will be transferred to the new host. Our recently installed commenting system, Disqus, will also be transferred over which means you can use the same account or login that you used to comment on articles while the blog was hosted on Blogger.

The only major changes that you will notice is in the actual appearance of the site, which is going to look cleaner and more professional than it did while it was here on Blogger. And the best part about this all is that you do not even have to worry about a new site address because that, too, will be exactly the same. When everything is ready to go over on TypePad, I will simply change the direction www.rangerstribune.com points readers to so that it directs to the new blog hosted over on TypePad. So basically at some point you will type in our address and the blog will suddenly look different. That's when you know the switch has been made.

I've been working endless hours over the course of the weekend to get this done as soon as possible and thankfully I've hit a minimal amount of bumps in the road. The entire switch could be made as early as late tonight/tomorrow morning. When it is made, I will be sure to put a new post up explaining what's different so that readers are aware.

TypePad is a quality product and, although pricey, it's going to be worth switching to. To get an idea of the quality, TypePad is used by many professional hockey writers such as the Rangers very own Andrew Gross (Ranger Rants) and the Devils Tom Gulitti (Fire and Ice).

Trust me, the experience here on The Rangers Tribune, for both blogger and reader, is going to be better than ever.

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We're Back

If you haven't already read on our Facebook or Twitter, we experienced a series of technical difficulties and until now, have not been able to publish to the blog. Blogger, the platform we use to run Rangers Tribune, was experiencing a temporary outage that took away our ability to make posts and also erased all posts from the past two days. Unfortunately this was something that was out of our control, but thankfully Blogger restored everything and we are back up and running.

I know there is a lot that went down in the Ranger world while we were gone, so over the next hour or so you are going to see multiple new posts going up within 15 minutes of each other. Our goal is to catch up with everything that we missed.

Thank you for your cooperation. It is appreciated.

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Follow me on Twitter or e-mail me at [email protected]