Welcome to Hockey Unfiltered with Ken Campbell
A platform for those seeking undistilled and thought-provoking coverage on the greatest game in the world.
“Why do you hate hockey so much?” I get that question a lot, largely from NHL fans who wonder why I tend to zag when most other people zig. For those of you who truly believe I hate hockey, I have a bunch of terrible skaters with off-the-charts competitive instincts and awful hockey sense from Rosemarie Playground in Sudbury, Ontario, who would like to have a word with you. If you’re not familiar with Sudbury, it’s a place that has 10 months of winter and two months of bad skating, road construction and blackflies. It was there that my love for this wonderful game took root, even when the game didn’t love me back.
The truth is, I am absolutely, unabashedly, unconditionally and unapologetically in love with this game. I have been ever since I took my first tentative steps on the outdoor ice at Rosemarie Playground in the mid-1960s. Those awkward strides never did get much better, but my love for the game has endured. Prior to the pandemic, I was the third-leading scorer for the Lumberhacks of the Thursday night Adult Safe Hockey League in Toronto. In 2016, I coached the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen under-16 team to a championship in the Scarborough Hockey Association, and two years later, after I cried for a day-and-a-half, I was honored to walk with the people of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, and tell their stories as they buried their dead following the Humboldt 1Broncos bus crash.
Hockey has given me almost everything I have, the most rewarding of which is a career writing about it. So, no, I don’t hate hockey. I do sometimes, however, hate hockey’s culture of violence. I hate how Canada’s three major junior leagues pay their players poverty wages. I hate how an NHL player now has to expect to fight after administering a perfectly clean bodycheck. I hate when people tell me I should go cover figure skating or when they express fears that the game will be reduced to the Ice Capades if the NHL removed all the needless fights and violence and just called the rulebook as it is written. I hate that the most skilled players in the game are subject to the skullduggery of opponents who know it’s easier to wreck a masterpiece than create one. I hate how an NHL referee can stand and watches two players attack each other and yet refuse to call a penalty.
I think hockey is great. But it can be so much better. And so it is in that spirit that I announce the launch of Hockey Unfiltered with Ken Campbell, a publication devoted to providing opinion and analysis on the world’s greatest game. If you’re looking for sanitized reporting and commentary from an outlet that is beholden to the hockey establishment, you’ve definitely come to the wrong place. But if you’re seeking coverage that will inform, entertain and force you to think, even as you’re sometimes shaking your fist in anger at your computer screen, I’d love for you to consider coming on a journey with me.
From April 2, 1985, the day I walked into the newsroom of the Timmins Daily Press, until just recently, I had never been without a regular gig. I considered myself one of the luckiest people on Earth. Every single morning, my father would kiss my mother, pick up the steel lunch pail that squeaked every time he took a step and go to a job he hated. For 35-plus years I had jobs where I felt as though I hadn’t worked a day in my life. I’ve travelled the world, covered huge events, met hundreds of interesting people and watched a ton of outstanding hockey. I’ve never seen hockey played at a higher and more chaotic level than it was at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. I’ve never seen a player take over a team the way Chris Pronger did with the Edmonton Oilers in 2006. And I’ve never met any better people than those who are involved at every level in the game. But the realities of the media industry and a financial reckoning brought on by the pandemic conspired to change the rules for a 58-year-old in-your-face hockey writer who still has a youthful enthusiasm to create quality content. By going it alone, I intend to prove that those of you who consume hockey coverage will be prepared to pay a nominal fee for that and that I still have the chops to deliver coverage to those who might not necessarily agree with me, but can appreciate what I have to say.
In reality, Hockey Unfiltered is very much a work in progress, a platform that will be shaped by the demands of those who read it. Subscribers will get exclusive content, for their eyes only, with the occasional freebie thrown in for the hockey world to see. In return, I will provide content at a bare minimum of twice a week, likely closer to five times a week, sometimes more. And the scope of that coverage will be as broad as a frozen lake, from issues that face the NHL to the next young phenom who is doing special things at a small-town hockey rink. Women’s hockey will have a home here. So will junior, college, international, minor pro and youth hockey. If you take this journey with me, I can promise we’ll even go off the beaten path once in a while.
My biggest strength has always been my ability to “feed the beast.” My days of daily beat coverage of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL at the Toronto Star taught me how to provide comprehensive, reliable, discerning information and to turn it around quickly. Over the last 15 years at The Hockey News, I honed that skill with daily blog posts, while continuing to craft long-form magazine features that drill deeply and go beyond the superficial. I intend to lean on both skills in Hockey Unfiltered. To that end, I’m providing a Same Day Guarantee. If a significant story in the hockey world breaks, you can be assured this platform will provide coverage, analysis and opinion the same day.
Hockey Unfiltered with Ken Campbell is my new home, where you’ll be able to exclusively find me and my writing. Will this work? I have no idea. I do know I’m crap-my-pants scared of what lies ahead, but I’m also very comfortable in the knowledge that creating ample content for this platform will be the least of my worries. I still have a lot to say and a burning desire to share it. I continue to be intrigued by the best players in the best league in the world and want to tell their stories. I still get butterflies while driving to my beer league games.
Here’s how you can be a part of Hockey Unfiltered. You won’t be disappointed if you take the plunge:
In the meantime, tell your friends!