By JD Lagrange – As many of you know, I have been writing about the Montreal Canadiens, one of my passions, for about 25 years or so in both languages. In French, I wrote for Tricolore.ca, Vestiaire.ca and All Habs Le Mag. In English, I was a senior writer for All Habs, and had short stints writing for The Hockey Writers and Habs World. Through it all, I developed the strong desire and freedom to write what I wanted, when I wanted so for many years now, I have carried along my blog.
It started as Habsterix.com, before deciding to change it to my real name, JDLagrange.com, bringing in some slice of life blog posts as well. Each time, the entire content was on me, and I wasn’t publicizing it much. But like many people that I know, it got to a point where I grew tired of the constant negativity and bickering on social media. I then decided to shut everything down, blog and social media accounts. It didn’t take long for me to miss writing, which is another passion of mine, along with hunting and fishing. So I thought… why allow a few keyboard warriors keep me from doing what I like?
A new approach
Through the years, I had noticed that there were many great hockey minds who have very good thoughts and ideas, things that they would like to (or should) share with other Habs’ fans, but they didn’t have the platform, the knowledge or the means to carry on a blog or a website.
That’s when I got the idea of starting a website that is ever so slightly different than others on the web. You see, I’m not a reporter and I didn’t want the pressure of reporting everything about the Montreal Canadiens. Particularly not that there are plenty of outlets out there doing just that, so it becomes redundant. How many times on Twitter do we see 10-12 outlets/people reporting a Habs’ news as their own, immediately after the Canadiens’ official account – with 1.6 million followers – had just done so? Do people need a 13th account doing the same? Nah.
No, I wanted something that was still opinion-based. To me, reporting is taking the news and informing people. Opinion-based pieces are taking that news and bringing it into perspective. Or it can be by going totally off news-base and coming up with something out of the mainstream. It makes for unique articles and one of a kind pieces. That’s what I like. More like a blog than a media website.
But what about those folks who don’t have a home? What about those who share the love of writing but don’t have a platform, or cannot commit full time to writing? There are some very good writers, some very knowledgeable hockey fans, whom I feel are just as good (sometimes even better) that some in traditional media. I decided to offer them a home here, by creating CheeringTheLogo.ca.
Amazing growth
So a year ago, on October 4th, 2021, I launched this website. I decided to change the way I was doing things by created a separate entity all together, and separating myself (the writer) from the site. I created its own Twitter account, its own Facebook page and Instagram account. Even if I haven’t used it yet, I have also created its own TikTok account, which I’m planning to learn some day.
Thanks to your support, it only took a few months for Cheering The Logo to make it to the Top-15 Montreal Canadiens’ blogs and websites, where we currently sit at number 12.
Cheering The Logo currently has four contributors: Bob Trask, Marc-André Breault and JAG are producing quality pieces for the website whenever they have something to share. And I try ensuring that there is new material being published every single day by writing some of my own. If that’s something that interests you, we welcome quality, positive people as contributors. You will find the information on the website in the Become a Contributor section.
We have also created a Rumour Mill section, dedicated to any rumour on the Montreal Canadiens from legitimate sources. What does that mean? It means that you won’t find any of the faceless, nameless type of rumouroids in there. Only rumours from people working in the mainstream media, or people with some pedigree. One of the people I like and respect the most is Lyle Richardson, owner and founder of Spector’s Hockey. We try using a similar model when it comes to what’s legitimate and what’s not.
Future
With your help and support, we have reached levels we did not expect to reach in our first year and aside from the great material provided by our contributors, the credit goes to you, dear readers, for your amazing support. Much like it is for the Canadiens, the team we love, the future is bright for the website as well.
With growth, my good friend Sylvain Perreault (HabsInVegas on Twitter) and I decided to launch the Cheering The Logo Podcast, which can be found on the CTL Youtube channel and in our Podcast section from the main page. So far, we have only produced a few episodes at the end of last year but we are planning on being more regular this season.
I strongly encourage you to “follow“, “subscribe” or “like” all of Cheering The Logo’s accounts. All are on a Linktree that was also created. As well, Habs Rumour Mill is a subsidy of Cheering The Logo and it has a Twitter account and a Facebook page. We’ve also created a Facebook Group called HABSitivity, where other blogs can post their own articles. The group was created in the name of sharing information and positive relationship with other bloggers. You see, we believe in supporting each other as we’re not competing. We’re wanting to promote good material for the reading pleasure of all Habs’ fans.
And if you like what you see, it would be greatly appreciated if you added or encouraged your friends to also join the different platforms.
