Hawks get the Cup. Our site gets some line changes

First, that was simply the weirdest anti-climactic, delayed-revelation sudden-death ending to a Stanley Cup final that I ever did see. (Even weirder: I saw it on a mobile phone's three-inch screen, on the bench of our pick-up hockey game. What an odd century this is.)

Second, that was one of the worst goals to give up to lose the Cup in OT. (Seriously. How did that bad-angle shot go through Michael Leighton? Bummer for him.) Third, that stunned silence was the coolest sound that I ever heard from Philadelphia fans. (Yeah, I've gotta hate. These Patrick Division roots run deep. 1980, baby.)

Not that I'm happy for Chicago and 20-Cent, though. As a bitter partisan fan with no love lost for either franchise, the whole series was hard to swallow. I will try to erase it from memory by tomorrow. ("Who won the 2010 Cup? Don't know. I think there was a lockout or something. But Philly lost.") But if we're lucky, one day we'll get our jubilee moment like the folks at Second City Hockey. Hell, it had been 49 years, so maybe they deserved...nah; we've been through worse.

Anyway, the Cup has been awarded. We now move on to the business of getting the Islanders #5.

Site News, Line Change: Welcome Dave and WebBard

Introducing the new Hans und Franz, same as the old Hans und Franz. If you regulars wondered where regular commenter Hans und Franz went, I am happy to inform you he had a name reassignment surgery, and doctors say it went off without a hitch. That's why the byline for this post about transfer agreements and draft strategy changed from Hans und Franz to David Hanssen overnight.

In the interest of keeping you fed with fresh content on the site (and maintaining my own sanity, which I'm told would eventually escape me if I went mostly solo for much longer), I invited Dave and WebBard to be official authors and moderators at Lighthouse Hockey, which means they have front-page keys and will be part of my charmingly irregular editorial rotation. They also have the ability to deal with trolls when necessary. Dave used the opportunity to have his username changed (note: if you ever want to change yours, just let me know). WebBard, as one of the first regular commenters here, will keep his, as I begged him to.

Please welcome them both. If you're interested, after the jump I'll share a few more words about the direction of this site.

What do these changes mean?

In a way, nothing -- the vibe and focus of this site remains. In another way, they mean a lot. More authors means more ideas and more fresh content, and hopefully means I don't get stale. Building the biggest possible audience has never quite been my goal -- mass appeal does not, um, appeal to me -- but building a fun-loving, Islanders-passionate community always has.

To make sure what we've built here -- not me, but we have built, with your loyal help and participaiton -- stays relevant, I've always wanted to include more people with the power to manage and create content (and selfishly, cover when I hit the beach). It just took a while for me to share my baby, you know? It's been two full seasons and almost two full years building this thing. Practically writing every day -- and I'm not a creature of routine, so you know my passion for the Isles is strong, and your visits and feedback has been an outstanding motivator.

So this way if I'm mauled by a sea serpent or felled by quarterly sinus infection, I know we have reliable members who will keep the site alive. Beyond that, we have more contributors who provide voice beyond my own. Plus Dave's Norwegian loyalties and WebBard's Flyers fan roomie.

But I fear change. Now what?

Keep doing what you're doing. Keep writing FanPosts. Keep posting FanShots. Keep proposing, and debating, and respectfully arguing, and knee-cripple joking, in comments. Those contributions are absolutely key to keeping this community healthy (and growing).

I like to front-page well-written FanPosts and such when I can, though sometimes I prefer them where they are on the side, since FanPosts remain on the front page for much longer than featured items in the center thread. As for staffing, I will probably not stop at adding two more contributors, though I never know how exactly I will proceed with this thing. I know I want certain things (a fun place to talk Isles, mainly), but beyond that this bus is always flying down the road with my hands slipping off the wheel. If you're burning to do more with this site, I'm always happy to hear you out.

So what's this all about then?

In a nutshell, I always want my motives to be clear to you, dear reader. Generally, it's best for blog life to have regular fresh content. As you can imagine, sometimes that is beyond my reach. There isn't really a limit to how much this site can grow nor how many "official" authors there can be, but I've always aimed for the slow build rather than the Milbury slash-and-burn approach.

Again, my chief goal of having a welcoming site where thoughtful people can talk up the Isles, have barroom debates, crack each other up, and provoke new ideas, remains. These changes will help.

Meantime, there's lots of fun stuff planned. And I get to interview a Hall of Fame favorite of mine today. So party on, and thanks for reading.