Lament for Todd Milewski

Don't worry, I'm not going to write an actual lament, as I'm hardly that poetic. But I since I just wrote It's Friday I'm in Love but wasn't able to say who won this week's shootout, I'm feeling a bit maudlin about the loss of Todd on the Badger Hockey beat. In addition to the shootout update, other things I've missed this week include: Todd's Thursday rink reports, whatever feature article Todd would've written about the team or one of the players this week, "All Eyes on" and "Points to Ponder" in Todd's series preview, Todd's Tuesday alumni/recruit posts with links and stats updates, and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff that just isn't occurring to me right now. And of course this weekend I'll miss his game stories, as well as his gameday blogs with "Did You Notice", "3 Stars", and interesting blurbs that don't make it into the game stories.

I'd now like to point out a final blog post by Todd - which, unless you've been checking his Ice House blog since it's untimely demise, you probably haven't seen. (Honestly, I don't know what it says about me that, despite knowing that Todd is no longer writing his Ice House blog, I continue to check it on pretty much a daily basis. )

Thanks from The Ice House

We got an inquiry the other day as to my whereabouts, and I figured this was the best place to answer. I have been reassigned to be a multimedia producer for The Capital Times, so I won't be on the Wisconsin men's hockey beat.

To be honest, the news was a little hard for me to take because I have a passion for covering college hockey and, probably foolishly, thought I'd be doing it forever. But things change in life, and I'm happy to still be able to work for the CT. And I'm excited about my new role, which has me involved in video production and other multimedia efforts like we did at Minnesota a couple of weeks ago.

I won't be dropping off the college hockey scene completely, though. My blog at USCHO.com will keep going -- maybe even grow -- and I'll still be writing for that site as long as they'll have me.

Thanks to everyone who sent along comments or info in the past six seasons, and to everyone who made The Ice House one of the best-read blogs at captimes.com.

I do hope, as intimated by Todd, that his From the Press Box blog at USCHO will grow.

And in response to Todd's thanks to his readers, I'd like to thank Todd for the fantastic coverage that he's provided over the years. Thanks again, Todd!

I again regret the decision that the CT made in eliminating their Badger Hockey beat writer position. If you'd like, you can share your thoughts (hopefully in a polite, non-ranting way) about the CT's decision by emailing the following: Editor Paul Fanlund (pfanlund@madison.com), Managing Editor Judy Ettenhofer (jettenhofer@madison.com), and Sports Editor Adam Mertz (amertz2@madison.com).