A bit of a reflection on the state of the blog as the summer development camp comes to a close

The Detroit Red Wings’ summer development camp has ended. The Wings’ prospects have stuffed their hockey gear in their equipment bags, and they’re going to spend this afternoon and evening engaging in exit meetings with the Red Wings’ player development staff, coaches and front office.

It always feels weird when these summer development camps end. It’s so incredibly intense to follow the camps, and so draining to try and assess 30-plus players with whom I have varying degrees of familiarity.

I’ve still got today’s write-up to do, and I’m running on four hours of sleep. I got up at 5 AM to get to the rink by 7 (it’s a 45-minute drive to LCA from South Lyon, but I had to post overnight stories and get my slow-to-wake butt out of bed and dressed), and I’ve been at work ever since. I’ll be driving home shortly, which will give me an hour break, but after that, it’s write, write, write…

Add in unrestricted free agency day being yesterday, and getting booted from the rink by security in the middle of said unrestricted free agency, and it’s been an incredibly long five days (some of my first days back after a 7-month involuntary sabbatical).

But the long story long is that I’m doing what I love for a living again, and as the World Junior Championship, redux will be held in Edmonton starting on August 10th, we’re going to have a particularly busy summer leading up to the prospect tournament and main training camp in September.

And yes, this is the summer that, after covering this team on a professional level since 2006, and being on hockey boards and websites since 1999, I’m going to inquire as to whether I can come to actual games at this rink. But that’s a story for another day…

So, before I leave LCA for the last time this summer, and before I engage in my final write-up with my mushy brain, I want to thank you very, very much for being patient while I dealt with my stupid depression and anxiety, and thank you for coming back (or being a new reader!) to read the prospect reports.

I’m not quite sure where we’re going here on TMR in terms of things like commercials, more opinion pieces, or the potential podcast carrot, but as long as Aunt Annie affords me the opportunity of splitting caring for a wily 80-year-old with doing what I love for a living, I’m gonna try to make it work. Mostly because I’d follow the team this closely anyway, and it doesn’t make much sense to not share it with people when I can find an audience to share secret Swedish stories with.

Thank you, thank you, and also thank you for reading.

You’re the reason I do this…

And the friendships I’ve made and support I receive from the hockey community, here and on Facebook and on Twitter, help me keep going when my chronic mental illnesses are at their worst. Somebody might as well be open about living with them.

Again, thank you for reading. There’s more to come, and an upward trajectory on the horizon. See you on the blog, soon.