NHL Connect...hockey fans unite.

Last year the NHL introduced NHL Connect, although it was invite only and was in a Beta stage for the latter part of the season and through the summer (if I remember correctly). This year however the service, which one could call a "hockey dedicated social networking community site", has been unleashed upon the masses and is close to reaching 20,000 members...including the Stanley Cup.

The premise of NHL Connect is pretty simple, it's a place for hockey fans to connect with other hockey fans and share pictures, videos, as well as create groups and blogs. Consider it Facebook without all the clutter and distractions....and as one big group under the name of "Fans of Hockey and the NHL." But, what on earth goes on there? Good question...

I had passively looked into signing up since the Beta stages, I'm not sure exactly what first got me interested, but it was a hockey community set up by NHL.com so it was obviously intriguing. So, the other day I finally decided to sign up and find out just what the whole thing was about. (You can't really find out till you become a member.)

So, what is it? Hard to say really. I'm not even sure if it knows what it is, or what it wants to be. You sign up, fill out some basic information about yourself, ie. favorite books, favorite movies, favorite sports teams, hockey players, NHL team, how long you've been a hockey fan (are there people who can actually pinpoint this?) etc etc. Then you go about recruiting friends, which is surprisingly simple since unlike Facebook there is nothing in the back of your mind telling you that you can't just be friends with anyone who asks you. Because, this isn't YOU, this is the hockey you...or something similar to that effect. Within an hour I had 4 people asking me to accept them as my friend, which was amusing since I hadn't filled out any of the profile information at this point. One can assume that being listed on the "newest members" list will get you at least 4 friends.

So, what's there? Well, besides a basic area for people to write messages to you/about you (or rate you), they can also send private messages, you can post pictures (decidedly hockey related ones obviously), post videos (decidedly hockey related ones obviously), start a blog (haven't done this yet, I have enough trouble with this one), you can join groups (for specific teams, Lovers of Don Cherry, Bring Back the Whalers and even the Brian Boucher Fan Club -4 members) or start your own (People Who Make Little Digital Sweaters). All in the spirit of hockey. It is a strange underground lair of hockeyness...and it's kind of bizarre.

What have I learned? People are friendly. Hockey people tend to be friendly, and these people seem to genuinely reflect that real world quality even on the net - which is not a common thing. Granted there will always be some types out there who enjoy ruining people's good time by being snidely and inconsiderate, but for the most part NHL Connect seems free from most of this. (Now imagine if something like YouTube was...) I've also learned that content is what you make it on this site. Unlike Facebook with it's near disease like craving of you to take this test and install this and do that and send this crap to so and so, NHL Connect is content to just let it's members add their opinions, videos and pictures. That's it. And frankly, that's enough. If anyone started sending me "Which Boston Bruins Player Are You?" quizzes I'd already be off that site. Likewise it they'd try to use the word "net" in social networking in some fun way...

Face it, Facebook is about to go supernova and it will soon collapse under it's own weight and implode back in upon itself. Which means the masses will go scurrying about looking for a new place to avoid work and it's a good bet that any self admitting hockey fan will find their way to NHL Connect at some point. You've got nothing to lose, not even your integrity and personal privacy!

Seriously, if you're a hockey fan it's at least worth a look see...you're guaranteed at least 4 friends...and you can find out what the Stanley Cup's favorite movies are.

You can sign up at: fans.nhl.com.

If you're already a member the HockeyWidgets (read:my) profile can be found at fans.nhl.com/HockeyWidgets. Ignore my taste in music, just hit the Add to Friends button.