PicoBlog

Two years ago, I was making an obnoxious number of daily cold calls for a marketing firm. My main responsibility was to bring in new accounts.

It was a job. It paid the bills. But my heart wasn’t into incessantly badgering businesses and people who — if I’m being completely truthful here — didn’t need what I had to offer.

There was something internally unsettling about finally “closing” a deal, too. Oh, the person who has hung up on me multiple times reluctantly agreed to do business together after weeks of calls? Pop the champagne, I guess.

As time went on, I came to the realization that the gig wasn’t going to be a long-term solution.

Fortunately, I was scooped up by DK Pittsburgh Sports to write a weekly analysis feature on the Penguins prior to the start of the 2021-22 NHL season. The opportunity didn’t immediately solve my career problem, but it allowed me to break up the monotony of my day-to-day work life and lean into something that I was actually passionate about: Hockey.

You see, I have a rather addictive personality. When something manages to intrigue me to my core, I tend to go all-in on it. The problem, of course, is that going all-in can lead to burnout and, eventually, disinterest.

Plenty of my hobbies and interests eventually fall by the wayside. My love for sports and hockey, specifically, has never wavered.

I was the kid who’d frequently skip out on sleepovers, birthday parties and family gatherings just to watch the Penguins. Then I became the young adult who was spending the vast majority of his free time — and quite a bit of time while on hold with work clients — going through film, scanning data tables and jotting down optimal line combinations.

That was the kind of stuff that got me going, not trying to come up with a million different ways to get in touch with the marketing manager of a specific business.

It was imperative for me to find an avenue in which I could do what I know and love on a full-time basis, but I was unsure what that would look like in action, and even more unsure how I’d financially support myself.

Going all the way back to my middle school days, I’ve written for numerous blogs and websites, but none of them came close to the legitimacy and reach of DKPS. Suddenly, thousands of new people were exposed to my thoughts, insights and ramblings on the Penguins.

Even though I was writing only once a week for DKPS, it wasn’t long before people took notice that this goober from Columbus, Oh. actually knows his stuff. To say I was blown away by the feedback on my work would be underselling it by a country mile.

That feedback instilled confidence that there is, indeed, a future for me in the hockey world.

My plan at the time was to continue establishing myself within the Penguins community via DKPS and save up as much money as possible from my sales gig in order to start a hockey website.

Well, as you’re fully aware, things rarely go according to plan. Everything changed at the snap of a finger months later.

The morning before the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs began, I had just wrapped up with a sales meeting when I got a call. It was DKPS. They offered me a full-time position as a Penguins beat reporter. The catch was that I needed to be in Pittsburgh several days later to start.

Opportunity knocked, but I wasn’t sure if I was prepared to answer the door. I was still living in Columbus with my girlfriend, Maddie, at a house we’d purchased just a year and a half earlier. The majority of our friends and family were there. She was crushing it at her job and, while my feelings about my job hadn’t changed, I was coming off my best month of sales yet.

Still, this was my chance to get into the game. A chance that might not come around again.

Maddie, being the amazing human that she is, urged me to chase greatness even though it meant packing up and (temporarily) leaving her and our life in Columbus behind with zero time to prepare.

So, that’s what I did.

In what seemed like a blink of the eyes, I was at PPG Paints Arena covering the Penguins’ first-round playoff series against the Rangers, and then at Madison Square Garden in New York to cover Game 7 (no, I’m still not sure what Brock McGinn was thinking when he tried cutting to the middle at the offensive blue line).

Once end-of-season activities concluded, I found a place on the North Side for us to live. Maddie — selfless as ever — quit her job, packed up our belongings and sold the house in Columbus all by herself before making her way here. She’s the unsung hero of what I’ve been able to accomplish to this point.

The 2022-23 season came and went quicker than any other (82-game) season I can remember. I had the privilege of covering Penguins games all over North America, including the 2023 Winter Classic at Fenway Park in Boston. I had the privilege of interviewing professional athletes, some of which I even formed relationships with. I had the privilege of being on the inside. I had the privilege of getting to write about a f***ing game for a living!

The experience challenged me in ways that I’d never been challenged before. I’m a better writer and person because of that.

Despite being told — both internally and externally — that the work I did throughout the season and into the offseason was exceptional, DKPS offered me a demotion last month. Essentially, they wanted me to continue doing the exact same job I was hired to do without the benefit of being a salaried, full-time employee.

Kick rocks.

I began to doubt myself. I questioned the decision to move to Pittsburgh. Worst of all, I felt like the smallest person on Earth for dragging Maddie here with me.

But then hundreds and hundreds of you reached out offering support and encouragement, which reminded me why I love doing this in the first place: Helping people understand hockey.

I received offers to go cover NHL teams in other cities, including Columbus. There were more offers to do part-time work for various outlets. But you know what? I want to be a Penguins writer, and I’m going to make it work on my terms.

Thus, Breakdowns & Breakaways was born.

If you’re unfamiliar with me or my work, the vast majority of what I do is analysis-based. That isn’t going to change here. In fact, I’ll be leaning into that even more. My goal is to become the person you trust more than anyone else when it comes to analyzing the Penguins.

Part of the problem with beat work (for me, at least) is that it doesn’t lend itself to the truly deep, layered analysis that I love to do. The beat is all about churning content out. There’s not much time to breathe, let alone take on ambitious analyses that take a heck of a lot more nuance and effort than those “Instant Trade Grade”-type pieces.

Now that I have the chance, I’d rather focus on quality and depth instead of wasting half a day covering and writing about a meaningless morning skate, for instance.

This won’t be the place to come for practice reports or traditional game recaps. The vast majority of what you’ll find here will be analyzing specific, unique angles. I might take an angle based off something that happened during practice or break down a certain aspect of a game, but I won’t be focusing on news at all, unless there’s something to analyze within it.

Sorry to disappoint you, but that means you’ll have to find those inevitable Mark Friedman recall stories elsewhere.

As much as I would love for the content here to be free and accessible for everyone, that isn’t a viable path at this juncture. Monthly subscriptions are $5. If you plan on sticking around for a while, you can save some money with a $50 annual subscription.

Paid subscribers will gain access to a minimum of three in-depth Penguins analyses every week, plus all columns and quick-hitter takeaways and commentary. For the mathematically challenged, you’ll pay less than 40 cents per post as a subscriber.

Every post will be completely free and open for all to read over the next 10 days. After that, the paywall goes up.

If you’ve made it this far, please consider supporting me and my work with a subscription. The money goes directly to my bank account from Stripe, nowhere else. Eventually, it’ll be spent on my Peanut M&M’s addiction, bills and date nights with Maddie.

Even if you don’t become a paid subscriber, I encourage you to snag a free subscription. There will be occasional free posts that are open to all, as well as mailbags and other fun, light stuff that I haven’t quite worked out yet.

I’m also very excited to announce that my good friend, Eddie Provident, and I will be co-hosting a weekly Breakdowns & Breakaways podcast. We’ve been talking about doing a Penguins podcast together for over a year, so now’s as good a time as any, right? We’re going to have a blast with it.

I cannot thank all of you enough for your interest and support. I wouldn’t be here without you.

Now bring on hockey season!

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