Today is Dan Wood's last day for the OC Register, where he essentially became the primary Ducks advocate and specialist at a time and in a region where one really had to battle in order to get hockey properly covered in local print. He's moving on to become the Ducks' radio color analyst, and while I know he'll do that capably, I'll definitely miss what I considered THE go-to source to confirm or deny any Ducks-related rumor. Basically, nothing to me was ever official until Dan Wood reported it, and I'll definitely miss that. Not to mention, Dan was a major push behind the success of the OC Register Ducks blog, and the two times I ever e-mailed the guy, he answered promptly and personally -- very cool. At BoC, we're definitely not sports reporters or sports journalists -- we'll likely never achieve the basic levels of professionalism or class that time-honored media delivers. And while it's easy in the blogosphere to see a lot of criticism fly either way -- creating sort of a 'bloggers vs. media' emotional environment -- let's not forget: we'd be nothing without the Dan Woods of the world. It'd be icing without any cake. So best of luck, Dan the man -- looking forward to hearing your broadcasts this preseason (since this is still SoCal, we don't televise preseason). And please, make sure the Ducks give you a place to write still on these interwebs -- if not, you're always welcome to send guest posts our way. :) Go Ducks.