The editor of Drop the Puck recently subscribed to HOCKEY-L.  I've
swapped a few notes with him about various things.  I know he mentioned
that this is a busy month and so I am guessing he might not be able to
reply very soon to Bob's questions.
 
One thing I wondered is whether he should/could plug DtP on HOCKEY-L
since he has a financial interest in its success and I am not sure we
want people using HOCKEY-L just to sell things.  Either way, it seems
to be okay for people not connected with the publication to critique
it, for the benefit of everyone, so I will add my own response to
Bob's question:
 
>What do you people think of Drop the Puck.  Which publication was it
>that didn't come thru before?  and any other relavent publication
>questions that come up annually on the list.  ;-)
 
DtP is one of several pubs I think is worthwhile (even for readers of
HOCKEY-L :-)).  I don't read many college hockey pubs, but I have
ordered the DtP Yearbook the last 2 seasons and after seeing several
free copies of the newsletter last year, I think I will subscribe to
that also.  The yearbook has 1 or 2 page previews of each DivI team,
with last season's stats, rosters and schedules.  HOCKEY-L is a good
place to find previews of some teams, but it is not yet at the point
where you'll find previews of everyone.
 
The newsletter, if I recall, had stats for every team every week along
with every DivI box.  I think it comes out weekly and maybe someone
else can tell us how soon you tend to get it in the mail.  I know I
would want to be able to receive it by Friday if possible (assuming it
covers the previous weekend's games) so I could refer to it on the air
that weekend, else it would just be too out of date.  But, I did
notice that in St Paul they had final four preview issues everywhere.
It seemed to me that it would be a good way of having all the
boxes/stats from a season in one place.  HOCKEY-L tends to have some
boxes but not all.
 
They also have a weekly feature article from each conference, usually
focusing on one player or team.  Another HOCKEY-Ler was kind enough to
send me an issue which had a feature on Merrimack goalie Martin
Legault.  I'd guess as the season goes along, a fan of any conference
team could expect to see at least one feature on his/her team.  I
don't know if they have plans for expanded coverage of Independents.
 
So, depending on the price (I forget what it is) and how much you can
budget for these things, I would say that it's one of several
publications that are worth it for fans to subscribe to.  College
Hockey Magazine, or whatever it is called now :-), is another, but the
focus of DtP and CHM have been different in the past - DtP seems to
have more stats and boxes, and CHM has more features.  It depends on
how much you can spend and what your interest is.
 
I think CHM is the publication Bob was referring to that had problems
last year.  Last I heard, they were going strong again.  If anybody
has more info, please post...
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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