Getting the inside scoop on what it’s like to cover the Boston Bruins while studying at Boston University
Sports journalism is her specialty.
Belle Fraser, a senior at Boston University, studies journalism in the College of Communications. She is the Director of the Daily Free Press Boston Hockey Blog and covers Terrier hockey. She’s also a reporter on the Boston Bruins for The Hockey News.
Fraser worked with many outlets, including The New England Hockey Journal, College Hockey News and The New York Post. Hailing from New York City, Belle began watching hockey with her father. He was a huge Rangers fan with a season ticket that allowed Fraser to be exposed to the sport from an early age, so she grew up going to games.
Once she was in high school, Fraser began to read about the games in the New York Post and started to love the reporting side of the games. She loved MSG Network and watched pre-game and post-game interviews, and she discovered that she could be a hockey fan and also make a career out of it.
During her internship for the New York Post last summer, Fraser had the opportunity to visit the Rangers development camp and do a feature story on Ryan Lindgren. Working six days a week, nights, mornings and afternoons, Fraser learned from the best of the best and had an incredible experience.
She credits her work to the Daily Free Press for helping her accrue the tools to use in her career. In fact, a fellow BU alum who worked with her on the school paper was the contact that helped her secure a spot in covering the Bruins part-time for The Hockey News while attending BU.
A day in the life for Fraser starts at 8 a.m. when she goes to class. The Bruins have their morning skate at 11 a.m. at Warrior Ice Arena, where Fraser gets the morning lines and tweets them out. She attends the player and coach availability after the skate, which consists of game updates, injuries and everything you need to write a preview for the game.
After wrapping at 12:30 p.m., she writes a preview that includes all the information from the morning skate, five things to know about the other team, and any other information. She then comes back to campus, goes to class, and then heads over to TD Garden two hours before puck drop.
There are media meals, and sometimes the opposing team will have media availability. Then, she watches warm-ups because they do line rushes again, all while she tweets out updates and information. The rest of the game, Fraser writes, tweets and takes video clips. Post-game, she will talk to and report on coaches and players to write a recap and prepare an article for the morning.
Growing up, Fraser thought it would be New York or nowhere in terms of where she would live and expand her journalism career. However, after the past four years in Boston, she has built a network and a community –– and in a hockey town no less.
While New York and the Rangers were her introduction to the game, she feels like there’s something special about going into a random restaurant in Boston and having a college hockey game on. Fraser would like to continue covering the Bruins next year and expanding on the incredible hard work she has done these past four years.
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