FROM THE EDITOR - Bringin' it in 2010: Phil Colvin

Happy New Year and welcome to the new Michigan Hockey.

This is shaping up to be a very good year for hockey, both in Michigan and across the U.S. In addition to the upcoming MAHA and MHSAA state tournaments, the 2010 calendar also includes huge events like February’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, April’s USA Hockey Tier II Girls National Championships in Lansing, the NCAA Frozen Four at Detroit’s Ford Field in April and the World Junior Championship in Buffalo (NY) next December.
And Michigan Hockey is committed to bringing it all to you with both print and digital issues and also online at our website michiganhockeyonline.com. Our goal is simple - we want to be the complete resource for Michigan’s hockey players, parents, coaches and fans.

With that in mind we’ve made some changes to the look and feel and to what you’ll see and read in Michigan Hockey in 2010.

Our printed and digital issues are now full color on every page. The print version of Michigan Hockey now uses a brighter paper and a higher resolution so that photos and text are sharper and easier to read. And Michigan Hockey is now stitched and trimmed for a cleaner, neater look on the outside.

And after hearing feedback from our readers, you’ll notice changes inside Michigan Hockey too. We’ll have bigger photos and more of them. For parents we’ll have a feature story in every issue on the people, events and trends that are shaping the game in the state, a tournament calendar to help plan the season and educational stories on topics like fundraising and the American Development Model (ADM), along with our Navigating the Frozen Waters series to help you make decisions on your player’s hockey path.

In addition to Lyle Phair’s State of the Game column, coaches can expect more drills, skills and instruction-themed content in our Get Better column. Players will benefit from the physical and mental tips offered in the fitness-oriented Training Table.

In-season, you can expect more coverage of girls and boys high school, junior and college hockey, in addition to Michigan players competing at those levels outside of the state. Michigan Hockey’s editorial mix will also include our Red Wings and NHL Insiders, more rankings, top 10 lists, interviews with people making an impact on the game and guest columns from hockey moms, referees and linesmen and Steve McKichan’s From the Crease goaltending instruction.

And in addition to next issue’s Hockey School Guide, the 2010 Michigan Hockey editorial calendar also includes a Training and Fitness Guide (May), Equipment Buyers Guide (July) and our popular Coaches Guide (September) and Holiday Gift Guide (November).

You can expect your Michigan Hockey twice a month on every other Friday all year long (except for one issue a month in May and June). And while our printed issues are still available free at over 100 arenas and sporting good stores across the state, more and more readers are getting their copy of Michigan Hockey via our digital issue sent right to their e-mail box. Just send us your e-mail address and we’ll add you to the list.
Our commitment to you is to cover as much as we can, from youth to the Red Wings and everything in between, in both the print and digital versions of Michigan Hockey.

But in between issues, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, our newly re-designed website michiganhockeyonline.com will include features, news and photo galleries, columns and blogs, coaching tips, fitness and instructional video, reader polls and reader comment sections.

Other resources on our website will include a monthly hockey calendar with big games and events, Tournament, Equipment Retailers and Hockey Association directories, a list of Michigan Hockey distributors and links to other cool hockey sites.

In addition to our 18th Annual Michigan Hockey Banquet of Champions on April 13, we also have some other exciting events planned for 2010. So stay tuned and don’t hesitate to tell us how we’re doing.

See you at the rink,