It’s pretty simple why I’m here at The Athletic now.
I like to win.
The goal in the newspaper reporting business is to be fast, be first and be right—sometimes, unfortunately, in that order. Especially in this digital age, speed is of the essence. I embraced it; wins to me meant getting Islanders news out before everyone and sorting out the rest afterward.
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When I won in my time at Newsday, you won. Islanders fans got the news quickly and concisely.
From the moment that Paul Fichtenbaum called me a few days before Christmas to see if I were interested in signing on, I’ve thought more about what winning means to me. It means diving deeper, taking more time to craft stories, and utilizing all the relationships I’ve built with this team and around the NHL to give you something you haven’t gotten before in your years of following the Isles.
I’ll still tweet plenty. We’ll still have Q&As. I’ll still force my terrible taste in music on you.
But there will be more. Many of you over the years have voiced your frustration at not having more outlets covering the Islanders, reinforcing that feeling of being one of the NHL’s middle children.
Starting today, that feeling should be gone. Because it’s not just me. When you’ve got national writers like Pierre LeBrun and Craig Custance, Corey Pronman on prospects, analytics writers from all over the world and a New York crew that will cover teams in other sports that you also love, this is a real team.
And we’re going to win. I can promise you that. We win, you win.
Like I said, it’s pretty simple. Hope you enjoy the ride.
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(Photo: Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images)
