Enhancing Your Online Experience, Colorado Avalanche Style!

Hello again fellow Avs fans!  I know it has been a while, but the last thing I want to do is post just to post.  When something relevant comes up in my head though, I’ll be here!

I’ve had a few revelations having to do with some Avalanche online resources that I thought I would pass on to you guys.  These revelations have really helped me be more informed, and much less frustrated, between and during Avs games.  I hope you find these suggestions useful so you can enjoy your Avs online connections as well.

Let’s start with Twitter.  My initial thinking when it came to Twitter was, “Let me find as many Avs fans as I can on here and follow them all!”  Upon further review, that wasn’t a very good plan.  It didn’t work out well at all for me.  I found that most fans do a pretty good job of finding positives to balance out their complaints, and then I found a few people that complain about absolutely everything and totally overreact when things go wrong.  It’s not breaking news when I say that, during an 82 game season, there will be stretches when things just don’t go well for our team.  That’s the nature of sports.  If that frustrates you to the point that you have to rant each and every time your team or a player on your team struggles, it’s time to choose something else to fill your time.  Bringing up negative point after negative point doesn’t make me want to follow you and actually tends to make me feel worse about my team playing badly.  In fact, I recently unfollowed a few strategic people on Twitter and that has helped me enjoy things there way more.  So, when dealing with Twitter, choose the people you follow carefully and you will get more out of it.  Anyone that bugs you or rubs you the wrong way, just  unfollow them.  It’s nothing personal and it’s your account.  You can do what you want with it.

Facebook has some nice opportunities to connect with other Avs fans from all over as well.  I’ve had a great time there so far.  I’ve met a lot of passionate Avs fans through my Podcast Fan Page.  Same rules apply there though.  Befriending every Avs fan you know will just lead to headaches.  Stick closest to the people you know have similar fanatic tendencies that you do and you’ll be just fine.  I make an effort to balance the good with the bad when commenting about games.  I also try to not be overly “sunshiny” like the Altitude announcers we all know and love.  It’s definitely a balancing act.  I do my best to be strategic and thoughtful with my words when it comes to comments on players and how they’re playing.  “So-and-so really sucks tonight” isn’t going to cut it with me at all.

There are some outstanding sites that will help you keep you very well-informed too:

The Avs’ main site can be found here.  It’s your typical sports website, but it’s all about our favorite team, so how bad can it be?  Sure, there are always a few things they can do more effectively, but for the most part, if you need anything about our Avs on the official end, it’s obviously the place you’ll want to go.

Mile High Hockey is the #1 Avs blog on the internet.  It can be found here.  The two main Avs contributors are David Driscoll-Carignan and Joe Dunman.  They are intelligent, funny, and insightful with their posts and input.  You can’t say that about every Avs or sports blog in general.   If you need anything from a fan’s perspective, this is the place to go.

Aaron Musick’s Avs page on Hockey Buzz is another place to go for Avs information from a passionate fan’s perspective.  His page can be found here.  The guys I like to follow are the guys that have some sort of a comment on every game, and Aaron is someone I’ve learned to count on.  I realize people have lives and are busy, so a post a game can be tough to get done with life happening all around us.  Aaron does a great job of breaking down every Avs game and does it in a classy way.  His blog on Hockey Buzz is one you’ll want to bookmark as well.

There are many, many other bloggers/Tweeters/Facebookers/etc. who I could also mention here, but I just wanted to give you some ideas and places to start with.  It’s tough to get everyone in one post, but I think you see where I’m coming from.  If you need more resources, check our blogroll, or get in touch with Kevin or me.  We can help you out.  Overall, I just want to encourage all of you out there to not settle on following whatever Avs fans you can find.  There are people out there who cheer for the same team you do, for the same reasons you do, you just need to find them.   Follow people that help you become a better fan.  Follow people that help you learn more about the game.  Follow people that have the same passion as you do for our favorite NHL team.  Settle for less and you’ll definitely regret it.

See you around Avs fans, and, of course, hope to see you somewhere online!