Meet The Blogger – Pat McLean

When we at the Oilers Rig started discussing the meet the blogger series a while back we spoke of who we thought would be good people to include. There are so many good writers out there and the list of people we are interviewing is literally growing by the day. There was one person on the list that, to me, was a must and that person is none other than Pat McLean author of Black Dog Hates Skunks.

Pat is a literary genius, he has a knack for telling personal stories and intertwining them with hockey. There is no one else like Pat when it comes to writing about the Oilers. In fact I can’t wait for him to write a book. If and when he does it should be a national best seller.

The thing I like most about Pat is more than anything he is a father and husband first blogger second. I can relate to that, his stories are moving, I’m not going to lie some of his articles have had me in tears, others had me in gut splitting fits of laughter. Pat is also very personable; we’ve had many conversations in the last few years, not just about hockey but about travel, kids, work, and life in general. While there are so many good bloggers out there, in my mind none of them even come close to Pat and his wonderful style of writing.

I was extremely excited when he agreed to be a part of this series, although I knew all along he wouldn’t say no. If you aren’t familiar with his writing or who he is make sure you go to his site and read what he has to say, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Before you head over there though, read below for a little more insight to just how this brilliant man is;

1. When did you start writing about hockey? What got you into it?

In winter of 2006 I was reading up on the Oilers and discovered Covered In Oil and from there the other blogs – Lowetide, Battle of Alberta, Mc79Hockey and Irreverent Oil Fans. Also Colby Cosh and Erin Loxam wrote a lot about the Oilers on their websites. The writing and analysis was like nothing I had seen before. I had always loved writing and hockey and talking about hockey and I thought ‘I can do this’ and so I started Black Dog Hates Skunks in February of 2006.

2. Are there any writers that you look up to? If so, who are they and why?

Oh man well I’ve learned a lot about writing from all of the folks from the aforementioned blogs. I love Dennis King’s writing, he used to write regularly on IOF and then on Tyler’s site. He can weave his analysis of a game all while dropping references and anecdotes along the way. A very funny guy. Lowetide is cut from the same cloth and he has that conversational style that I really enjoy. Plus he’s so prolific but that is probably because he’s retired now and other than working on his garden he has a lot of time on his hands. He’s retired right? He’s pretty old.

All of that old gang could write though. I always tell folks they should go back to those sites. Chris Boutet, Mike Winters and Dave Berry were absolutely hilarious and Andy Grabia, Cam Thomson, Vic Ferrari and of course Tyler Dellow brought a lot of insight into the game, all while adding humour as well. A lot of great writers there.
3. If you could give any advice to people interested in getting into writing about sports…what would it be?

There are a million sites out there and in a lot of cases it’s very competitive, especially if you’re talking about the Oilers. Out of those original six blogs from early 2006 only LT and I are still active and I write far less than I used to but there are still so many very good Oiler sites with fine writers that every time Edmonton makes a move you get a hundred articles about it. I think that it is important to find your own voice and to write well. If there are fifty game recaps out there then you need to make sure that your take on it is accurate and well written and that it stands out. I don’t read a lot of the newer blogs, mostly because I don’t have a lot of time, but when I do I want to make sure that I’m not reading more of the same. If I wanted tired takes on the Oilers then I’d read the papers.

That said I would also say that it is important to keep at it. When I started BDHS my writing was crap compared to the other sites out there. I stuck with it, listened and learned and worked at my writing. I got better at it.

4. Do you specialize in types of writing (analytical, post/pre game blogs, prospects, opinion pieces…all of the above)?

What is ironic is that when I started the blog my plan was that I would write about different topics and that the Oilers would be a small part of it. It almost immediately became all about the Oilers. This was 2006 so of course it was a great time to be a fan of the Oilers. A couple of years later after they had sucked for a while Fernando Pisani was coming back from a bout with colitis and I was pretty excited about his return as he had a lot of qualities that team lacked even though he had begun to decline as a player. For some reason I wrote a story about how my Dad and I had ended up in a pub while on a beer run during a massive winter storm and I linked it to Pisani’s return. The feedback was unreal and so I wrote another similar article and the whole thing took off, I found my niche I guess.

I don’t write as much as I would like anymore, life is very busy and it’s difficult to find another way to say ‘The Oilers suck’ but I will write a few articles a month through the season. I guess when it comes to the Oilers I would say my writing is more general analysis and opinion. There are more astute people than I watching the games who can tell you what to look for and I don’t know the first thing about prospects other than what I read at LT’s site. Write about what you know is an old rule about any sort of writing.

5. Do you have a favorite article that you’ve written or one that got a lot of positive feedback or criticism? Tell me a bit about it.

Yeah I have three. I wrote one in April of this year about how the media creates stories about players and teams out of nothing, the whole idea of creating a narrative based on the mythology of intangibles and character. I don’t think I have ever had an article that had as many views and retweets and the majority of the feedback was very positive.

A few years back I did a series on the 1972 Summit Series. I have the DVD set and I watched each game with a few other folks. We recorded scoring chances and some basic stats – Corsi and such – and then analyzed each game and the Series as a whole. It really blew a lot of the myths about that Series out of the water. Canada absolutely outplayed the USSR in pretty well every game, even early on when Canada’s conditioning was supposed to be so poor. If it weren’t for the Russian power play and some terrible goaltending by Ken Dryden Canada probably would have won six games and if they had played Esposito in net as well as their lineup for the final four games for the entire series they likely would have swept it. I was very proud of that work.

And lastly I wrote a eulogy for my dog after he passed in 2010. While it was very emotional to write I feel it was one of my best articles and I will always appreciate the outpouring of well wishes from the online community.

6. What sites do you currently write for? Favorite team(s)?

Just my own site, same as always. All Oilers though they certainly test my patience.

7. Where can we find you on social media? Twitter/Facebook etc

@blackdogpat on the tweeter

There is nothing more I can say other than add Pat to your must read list, you won’t regret it. Thanks Pat for doing this, it was/is an honor.

Thanks for Reading