Thank You

An Update on the Future of Gulo Gulo Hockey

At noon today, THN.com/Detroit will go live, and I will officially begin a new job as The Hockey News’ Red Wings correspondent.

I tend to cringe upon rediscovering things I wrote in the past, but when I look back on two seasons of Gulo Gulo, I can’t help but be proud. I enjoyed the challenge of balancing fandom with analysis.  I had no idea how rewarding it would prove to dive headlong into the beat.

When I began working on the newsletter two years ago, I was looking for a more productive way to spend my downtime.  I knew U of M was bringing back a loaded team, and, at the risk of self-delusion, I felt like I could write and think about hockey in a unique way.  It was sort of hard to imagine that anyone would want to subscribe, but I figured by putting my work on Substack, I would be more likely to hold myself accountable to a regular schedule.  I did not anticipate that doing so would put me on a path toward something resembling a career.

To anyone who has read, shared, or otherwise supported my work, I owe you a tremendous thanks for helping me along that way.  I owe a bigger thanks to my parents, who, regardless of what they may have thought, never expressed anything but support when I informed them a little over a year ago of my intentions to leave a full-time job to focus on a newsletter that had about twenty subscribers

To be clear, this message isn’t a goodbye.  Gulo Gulo Hockey isn’t going anywhere.  The jump to the Wings beat does mean I will no longer be able to provide full-time coverage to men’s and women’s hockey at the University of Michigan.  

My hope is to continue populating the site with features on U-M hockey, as well as using it to house some non-hockey writing that I don’t have a home for elsewhere.  There will be something of a summer break forthcoming, as I sink my teeth into my new beat with THN, and I’m not certain what Gulo Gulo Hockey will look like come the fall, but I assure you you aren’t reading its final piece now.  Though neither schedule is official, I assure you I can’t and won’t miss the chance to cover next year’s Duel in the D at the very least, even if it’s probably impossible to top the last one.

For the time being, the only thing else I have to say is thank you.