Our weekday morning column, 5 Things You Need to Know, provides you with information that can help you plan your day and give you some fodder for water cooler conversations.

1. Last month we ran a story about the Potenzones, a local family struggling after Ralph Potenzone lost his job. Yesterday we found out that Ralph has taken a job with his former company, Fidelity, in New Hampshire. While the article on Patch probably didn’t affect Ralph’s career, a little awareness never hurt anyone. If you or anyone you know has been affected by the downtown in the economy and want to share your story, email sean.odonnell@patch.com.

2. Today the Hillers Varsity Hockey Team will be playing a 4 p.m. game against Assabet Valley Regional High School. The game will be held at the New England Sports Center.

3. Did you know that you don’t need a Patch account to comment on articles anymore? You can now comment by logging in with Facebook! While an account is still necessary to add events, announcements and become a blogger, we hope the change to commenting will help get more people involved. If you want to try it out you can go to any article on the site, including the letter to the editor we posted yesterday about the Downtown Initiative.

4. Tomorrow Hopkinton Patch Editor Sean O’Donnell and Advertising Manager Rebecca White will be at Hopkinton Gourmet at 9:30 a.m. for office hours, which are held monthly. Stop by to talk to us about anything going on in town, or just to meet us.

5. Have you been using the Traffic and Gas page that was created as a tab on Patch in December? Now you don’t need to wait for a story to be posted to know what’s going on on the roads; it’s always at your fingertips.