DGB turns four

Blogs are like children. They’re a lot of work, there’s plenty of crying involved, people are endlessly fascinated with hearing all about yours, and every now and then you get the nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten their birthday.

That last one happened to me this week, but after checking a calendar I realized I was in the clear. It turns out that today is the fourth anniversary of the launch of this site. That very first post was a recap of a Leafs win over Montreal, because it was four years ago and beating the Canadiens still seemed kind of newsworthy back then. Ah, memories.

Once again, a sincere thanks to everyone for your continued support. Every time you stop by to read the latest, or pass a link on to your friends, or check in on facebook or twitter, or frantically race to the comments section to tell me about a typo you fund, you make it all worthwhile.

Stay tuned for some interesting site news in the next few months. In the meantime, here are the ten most popular posts from the past year:

1. A detailed look back at game seven, which due to a scheduling error had to be published twelve hours early (June, 2011) – As accurate today as the day it was published.
   
   
2. The official map of an NHL rink (April, 2011) – Mad photoshop skills, yo.
   
   
3. The Matt Cooke suspension hearing (March 2011) – Hey, remember when Matt Cooke used to randomly hit people in the head and then we’d all argue about the suspension? Those were good times for those of us in the hockey comedy business. Come back, Matt. We can make this work. (Quietly hums “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” while staring wistfully at picture of Matt Cooke’s elbow.)
   
   
4. Winners and losers at the NHL’s midseason mark (January 2012) – The beauty of the winners/losers format is that it virtually guarantees that at least a few commenters will completely miss the point and get really upset at how their team was ranked.
   
   
5. A review of NHL 12 (September, 2011) – This year, after four years of doing these, they finally sent me a free copy. And they said blogging wouldn’t pay.
   
   
6. A hockey fan’s guide to the World Series (October, 2011) – Enjoy it now while the joke about the Rangers never winning anything is still timely.
   
   
7. What an official NHL trade call sounds like (February, 2011) – Fun fact: “Brian Burke with tie done up” is the only google search in the English language that returns zero results.
   
   
8. Hidden NHL playoff injuries revealed (June, 2011) – I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to find that image. Totally worth it.
   
   
9. Winners and losers at the NHL draft (June, 2011) – This is the infamous “Mike from Philadelphia” comment thread that still gets referenced today.
   
   
10. The biggest free agent signings of 2011 (July, 2011) – They said you couldn’t work in a reference to the Hextall/Potvin fight and Robert Esche’s neckbeard in the same punchline. They were wrong.