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We here at The Rink love to get our podcast episodes out in a timely fashion, so we recorded this a few hours before the puck dropped for the start of the season, and got it posted the morning after.

I’m happy to talk to new co-host James O’Brien of ProHockeyTalk and formerly of Cycle Like the Sedins.  We hit upon most of the teams, as well a some of the more controversial issues like no-touch icing, and Brendan Shanahan and his Shanahammer.

We had a few technical issues when recording, so James O’B doesn’t sound quite as good as he could, but we will have it ironed out for next time.

James O’Brien on Twitter (@cyclelikesedins)

James O’s Stanley Cup predictions on PHT.

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The Rink finally pokes it’s head out of the sand and returns for the 2011-12 season.  Kicking things off, I’m talking with Cornelius Hardenbergh of The Hockey Blog Adventure about his favorite team and defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Boston Bruins, as well as starting the season overseas, injuries and retirements, and even a little bit about the Minnesota Wild.

Cornelius on twitter (@HBAdventure)

Tyler Seguin’s first NHL Goal:

The hockey podcast season is starting to ramp up with training camp around the corner.  The Rink will be returning this season, with a few new voices, and some new ideas for more and different episodes.

One of the challenges of podcasting is getting feedback from the audience, and what they like and don’t like about the shows they listen to.  With blogs, it’s easy to add a comment to an blog post, but when you listen to a podcast on your mp3 player, or from a podcast aggregator (like iTunes), there isn’t a simple way to speak your mind as a listener.

So if you can take a minute, I’ve made a simple and quick survey to help myself, and other podcasters, make the kind of shows you want to hear more of.  Ten questions that will help us get a handle on how people listen to hockey podcasts.

This isn’t just a poll just for my own information.  I will share the data with any podcaster who wants it.  I may even just do a separate post with the results.

And this poll doesn’t collect your personal information.  It’s completely anonymous.

Thanks for taking a minute to help other podcasters do the best shows they can do. Hit the poll up after the jump.
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I don’t like doing posts like this.  The ones that beg people’s forgiveness, and explain why the posting hasn’t been as frequent, or things have just gone completely off the rails…

But here goes.

Back in September, right about the time the last episode was posted, I was asked to work on a project that was interesting to me on several levels.  It took a lot of my free time, including my one day off a week (Monday, an inconvenient day for people to be a guest on a podcast, FYI) when I usually recorded The Rink.  I poured more time into that project than would allow me to work on The Rink (as well as my regular job that pays the bills).  I was in a few cities in a row that had poor internet (a poor excuse, but also making the cornerstone of podcasting – the Skype call – near impossible).

That project fell apart, and in the end, I fell out of the habit of recording The Rink.  Getting back on the horse has proven difficult.  There is no lack of technical tools, and with those tools, technical frustrations.  But returning to a regular podcast recording schedule has been hard. It’s almost like starting over again, except that I have all the tools I need, and the editing skills to do the job as well.

There are a few other frustrations you may not be aware of, but I want to keep those to myself, and not publicize them.  Still, they exist.

Time is opening up now, right as the regular season has come to a close.  What I don’t want to do is put out an episode, and then quit for a month.  What I  need to do is recommit to The Rink, and make it happen on a regular, weekly basis again.  I need to decide how to make that happen, and what it will take for that to happen.

There hasn’t been an episode of The Rink for almost six and a half months.  And it may not seem like it, but The Rink is something has given me a lot of satisfaction.  I loved talking to other podcasters and bloggers, and meeting some of those people face to face.  I’m really proud of some of the work I have done on it, and want to bring it back.  But I don’t want to do it lightly.

I am going to be in some great hockey cities soon, like Toronto and Ottawa.  And while there won’t be playoff hockey going, there are people there I’m looking forward to seeing and talking to.  Will that be a jumping off point for The Rink relaunch? I hope so.

To those who have been wondering, thanks. I hope that I haven’t completely blown your trust or faith.  That The Rink has languished this much has been gnawing away at me for some time.  I hope I can re-establish some of that faith when The Rink relaunches.

And thank you to the people who have asked, cajoled, and offered to be guests, especially Jon Swenson of Sharkspage, Jay Kumar from Completely Conspicuous, and Jay Vean of The Avs Hockey Podcast.

Thanks for your patience. I appreciate it more than you know.