Luke's shoes and a new beat

interesting, i'll be back later

Despite some of the apprehensive comments, there are many of us out here in reader-land that respect your long career in sports writing and welcome a fresh perspective. Luke’s done a great job of covering the Canes and facilitating a great blog. And I’m confident that you can continue the tradition and expand upon it.

So now that you’ve got the position, run with it, and run hard! At the moment, the N&O sports pages are filled with coverage of the Olympics and the upcoming football seasons, interspersed occasionally with a little bit of NASCAR and golf articles. As you’ve seen from the readers’ comments to your introduction, the fans of this blog care first and foremost about hockey (although there are quite a few of us that also care about the ACC. Go Wolfpack!). And we’re not seeing much about hockey in the N&O these days. Show us your stuff.

There are lots of stories to be written about the Canes. Training camp is coming up – give us some previews. There are lots of questions about how the new incoming veterans are going to jell with the existing core. Is Rod really recovered and ready? How are the new youngbloods looking? There were some great looking prospects at prospects camp that didn’t get any coverage – but some of them are likely to play a big role in the team’s future.

And who is going to lead them there? Tell us something we don’t know about new assistant coach Tom Rowe and what impact he is likely to have. What will happen with Jeff Daniels going to Albany? What will Laviolette do differently this year to make sure that the Canes don’t fall out of playoff contention at the last minute? Will the return of Jason Karmanos make a difference? Will it cause Daddy to do something he might not otherwise do?

Those of us that are avid hockey fans are in a hot dry desert of news coverage. Slake our thirst! Chip, please show us that you are the number one choice for this position by giving us lots of coverage. Put that puck in the net, soon, frequently and often.

Very sorry to see Luke go. His articles were solid but his work on this blog was outstanding. He truly grasped the concept of blogging. Frequent, timely, and very detailed info. The folks who read blogs are not looking for the typical post-game articles, they want line-up info before games, they want extra quotes from players, background on stuff that happens during games, practices, and the like. Basically, this is the place to find stuff that is breaking news and won’t make the cut in the regular articles. It’s a place for folks to feel like insiders.

If you can keep this blog up to that standard, as well as keep personal opinions and vendettas out of your work, I’m sure you’ll do fine. I went to State, but I visit this blog and subscribe to the N&O for it’s hockey coverage. Luke has kept me coming back repeatedly. In fact, I have 3 places I go to frequently for hockey news and this is one of them. Hope it stays that way and doesn’t become an old forgotten Favorite link.

Equally important as sharing his hockey knowledge with the fans (some of whom could easily match or even surpass him), Luke managed to make this a "check first" website for me with his timely and frequent updates. For years, I made the rounds to various fanboards to see what was happening during the day, relying on them to birddog out breaking news first. Luke managed to change that habit into checking his blog first, even before heading to those fanboard sites, because he was quick to post what he knew at the moment, even if it was "not much, but I'm digging for more". I would strongly urge you to do the same. Small bite-sized posts will make this website a reader habit, moreso than longer posts that appear less frequently. Thanks, Luke! Benefit of the doubt to you, Chip...for now. But, have to admit I am apprehensive about this change.

All he was doing was making an analogy...and you folks go crazy about it.

Talk about being a stereotypical thin-skinned Canes fan.

give the guy a break. Best of luck Chip and I, for one, am lookign forward to your coverage of the team.

Good luck and best wishes to Luke, and welcome aboard Chip.
The biggest thing I can tell you as a "Caniac" Chip, is to just keep it about hockey and it will be all good.
Caniacs are just like any other rabid fans around here, we love our team and we care about our team.

Best of luck and hope to see you at some home games.

Luke, I've really enjoyed reading this blog and I've appreciated your coverage of the Canes over the years. Best of luck to you in your new responsibiities! Chip, welcome to the beat. Sorry some seem to have a "chip" on their shoulder and can't understand that college basketball and professional hockey CAN co-exist in the hearts and minds of sports fans here. We have room to support excellence in both sports! Just don't treat hockey as an afterthought and remember that the Hurricanes have very dedicated, passionate, knowledgeable fans and we'll all get along fine. Look forward to your reporting and commentary.

All I can say is "lets not pre-judge".  I look forward to your reporting and inside information you give me to read.  I will continue to have your page loaded and refresh through out the day. Continue to make TSN second to this blog in regards to the Canes.  Best of luck.  I'm so sorry you had to cover NC State for so many years. (smile)

Ignore all the rude comments. Just do your job and we will be loyal. Best of luck!

Well if there was anyone other than Luke who was going to be covering the Canes for the N&O, glad to see they tapped you on the shoulder. You've done a great job with your Canes-related work in the past, and looking forward to seeing you in action in your new role.

It seems that a lot of people already have burned their Chip Alexander dolls in effigy. I'm getting shades of Aaron Rodgers for Brett Favre here.

Just in that situation, Caniacs, we can't place unreasonable expectations on the replacement of such a great predecessor. It will only serve to close us off from the team even more to distance our only voice from our opinions and jade him from the very base he is covering. I seem to recall our friend with the unintentionally funny last name getting the same kind of treatment upon his appointment.

If you feel that you know his job better than he does, then be sure to send him emails to keep the lines of communication open and help add direction to his coverage where you think there will be room for improvement. However, this is all very premature as we haven't even given him the opportunity to prove his supposed ineptitude. Tough crowd, indeed.

Welcome aboard, Mr. Alexander. After the initial shock has subsided i'm sure you will get a much warmer reception from the fans in the league notorious for such. As long as the single most important coverage trait is there, which is the desire to constantly improve your scope and understanding of the game of hockey, you will have no problems at all keeping this fanbase happy and informed. Sadly, we've seen examples in the past of sleep walkers and deadline buzzer beaters enough to appreciate what we had in Luke and quite a few of us fear that change and possible regression in coverage. But hey, that isn't really your cross to bear until these concerns are either absolved or confirmed.

Keep it honest, keep it informative, and keep us entertained and you'll win over even the toughest faceless critics of this post. Looking forward to seeing what you've got.

Good luck and welcome aboard! I really hope you surprise me, Chip. Right now, I'm feeling cheated-- going from a guy whose hockey intelligence rivaled the best hockey writers from north of the border to a guy who covered the ACC. I care about the NHL and the Hurricanes and hope you'll be able to develop your own hockey creds that make me want to read the News and Observer's sports section or even come to this blog.

You're going to do a great job, Chip. But I'm going to miss you over on the NCSU beat. Oh my, did I say a bad word, referencing the ACC? I can actually feel transplants all over the Triangle going apoplectic right now. But forget them - just wanted to say Good luck!

... I don't agree from a sports perspective. I have no doubt Chip will put the same effort into this beat as he has done for the ACC. I enjoyed reading his work there often.

This blog has always been a lot of fun, especially this summer with the weekly discussions Luke started. XM 204 is the first place I go for general hockey news. TSN.ca/nhl second. I'm always impressed with the work Luke has done because of how often his articles are referenced. Oh, and for local hockey news, this blog is a daily stop.

From a diehard Cane's and Wolfpack fan, best of luck Chip!

I tink that you will do great chip even thought Luke was really good.