Morning Skate: Post mortem

If you think back to where this long, strange trip started, we’ve really come a long way.

The Bruins opened this season in an empty arena in Newark; they ended it in a packed house about 40 miles way in Uniondale.

In between, we had ups and downs, surges and slumps, the heights of another COVID spike and the joys of a vaccine.

I guess the take-home point here is that this has been a weird stretch for all of us.

I count myself among those “all of us,” but that really goes back to last season for me. My first child was born during the Carolina series last summer, so needless to say, the offseason was a blur.

All of a sudden a new season had begun, and frankly, I think we all did a pretty good job here keeping up with the demands of running a website (basically for free) while balancing real life, during a pandemic.

Good times.

I suppose the other take-home message here is “thanks for being here.”

I’ve been writing for this site since 2013, running it since late 2016. That’s a lot of Public Skates, Morning Skates, and parody posts that might not land right away.

I think one of the good things over the past two or three years has been the increase in the number of commenters. Game threads routinely eclipse 500 comments, and simple previews now approach 100.

We have a good group here: Angelina and Adam were aces with game coverage, Sky continues to be the content King, Dan S. is great at covering prospects, Nathan does good stuff with women’s hockey, and Chris always has good (if jinx-worthy) takes.

We’ll keep the good times rolling as best as we can heading into the summer. It promises to be an interesting one for the B’s, and by extension, for all of us.

Take this as one long “thanks for reading.”

As you all know, none of us makes anything close to a living on this site, but it’s easier to do it for fun and for passion when there’s a good crowd to take it all in.

As always, I welcome feedback, new ideas, and new contributors.

Here’s to hoping that next season starts in a full TD Garden, and that we’re all here to argue about Opening Night’s bottom-six.

Today’s discussion topic

I’m doing this before the Vegas-Colorado game ends, so you can discuss that if you want.

If not, what’s your favorite travel destination you’ve ever visited?

Mine’s probably a tie between the Azores, Ireland, and Switzerland (I’m not good at making decisions).