The Project begins

As I'm sure most readers have observed, the number of posts at Unfinished Business have been reduced dramatically. This has not gone unnoticed. The fact is that I gave myself all the freedom in the world to write whatever I wanted; in doing so, the blog lost its focus. Rather than getting myself into a groove, I began to write half-pieces of essay length. The whole thing became a strain and borderline stressful as I was so worried about what to write that I just didn't write anything.

Today, I change all of this as I announce the Habs 365 Project. Beginning July 1, I will be writing something everyday on the history of this great franchise. I picked July 1 as free agency begins on that day. From my vantage point, this is official start to a new season were every team has the chance to shuffle the deck and deal themselves a winner.

Why do this? For starters, the Montreal Canadiens are a 100 year old hockey club, the oldest remaining hockey team and the last team that ever played in the old National Hockey Association. The history from that alone is massive. There's easily one thing that can written every day with topics ranging from trades and signings, birthdays and days of passing, wins and losses and of course, Stanley Cups. There are literally thousands of stories that can be told about the Habs and their history; I'm going to write about 365 of them.

Next, in revisiting the past, I believe that we can use the information to comment on the present and look at future. Not to give anything away, but did anyone think at the beginning of the season that the Canadiens could make the conference finals? Probably not. Maybe through looking back at the beginning of the season we can find why. And, looking back on other seasons, determine why many things in Habs' history have occurred.

Finally it gives this writer motivation and structure which are two things that all writers need. Some of these posts will be no brainers, others might be head-scratchers and some will be personal. But most important, it gives me an outlet that I've been missing for a while. I hope everyone enjoys this project.