Archive for January, 2007
Jes Golbez at Hockey Rants started the meme “If I were a hockey player.” It has taken off around the hockey blogosphere to include PB at One Fan’s Perspective, Mike, Battle of California, Behind the Jersey, Hockey Girl, etc.
So here we go with the NHL Digest version of If I were a Hockey Player!
Team: Habs
Uniform Number: 26 (Ode to Mats Naslund)
Position: Right Wing
Nickname: Skinny McKinny
Dream Linemates: Mike McPhee and John Kordic
Rounding out the Power Play: Larry Robinson and Chris Chelios (In his younger days)
Job: Resident Sniper
Signature Move: Toe drag-Spinnerama-Backhand-Slapshot-Top Cheddar-While riding my stick blindfolded.
Strengths: Sniping G’s and looking pretty!
Weaknesses: Fighting, hence John Kordic on my line.
Equipment: The New Nike Bauer Vapor XXXX skates coupled with Fur Gloves, a Cooper XL7 Helmet and Cooperalls.
Nemeses: The infamous Jim Kite and Stan Smyl
Scandal Involvement: Once caught trying on one of Don Cherry’s plaid suits.
Who I’d Face in the Stanley Cup Finals: Edmonton Oilers at the Rowdy Rexall Place
What I’d do with the Stanley Cup After Our Victory: Eat Chicken Flavored Ramen Noodles out of it…just because I’m original.
Would the Media Love Me or Hate Me: They’d love me for my skills, but hate me cause I’m beautiful 
Next Up: Andy, you up for it?…
Fred Sasakamoose enjoyed a short stint in the National Hockey League during the 1953-1954 seaon for the Chicago Blackhawks. Sasakamoose played in only 11 games and tallied zero points and just 6 minutes in penalties.
Known for his hard work and intensity, the Centre from Sandy Lake Reserve, Saskatchewan holds the distinction of being the first Native Canadian hockey player in the National Hockey League.
Sasakamoose rounded out his playing career with the Kamloops Chiefs of the Okanagen Senior Hockey League and the North Battleford Beavers of the Saskatchewan Intermediate Hockey League.
Fred Sasakamoose will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on June 16, 2007.
For those of you interested, Reebok has launched a microsite that is completely dedicated to the new Reebok Edge Uniform System that was unveiled at the 2007 NHL All-Star game in Dallas.
This site fully explains the design and functionality of the new uniforms. The site offers a full 4 minute video explaining the process that Reebok went through from start to finish in developing the uniforms.
- The video includes:
1.) Conceptual Design - 2.) Prototyping and Testing
3.) Advanced Testing - 4.) NHLPA Validation and Feedback
The site also offers a 360 Degree view of the uniform, modeled by none other than Sidney Crosby.
Here is what Chris Drury had to say about the new uniforms:
“I love the new Rbk EDGE jersey,” Buffalo’s Chris Drury said. “It’s a very comfortable uniform, much lighter than what we’re used to. It will help me and everyone in the league perform to our maximum capability, particularly late in a game when we can sometimes get a little slower and heavier.
This is a real step forward and it will be great for the league and our game. I wish I had it earlier in my career and if I could wear it as early as this week, I would.”
If you want a great deal on a RBK Edge Jersey for this season, you can order your favorite team’s jersey at IceJerseys.com
The Edmonton Oilers may need to consider shopping for some more scoring before the trade deadline as they continue to ride their unicycle, Ryan Smyth, who has 25 Goals in 40 Games this season. Their next closest goal scorer is Petr Sykora who has just 17 Goals in 50 Games.
Keving Lowe finally offered Smyth, what is said to be the “first serious offer” to keep the Oilers star forward in Edmonton. One wonders what Lowe had to question? Smyth is the heart and soul of the Oilers and one of the only true hard nosed players left in the National Hockey League.
While both the Oilers and Smyth have said that they would like to reach an agreement to have Smyth in Edmonton for the long term, free agency is now creeping into the picture.
Things couldn’t have worked out better for Ryan Smyth, who is close to having a career year (39 Goals in 1996-97) and is known as the “Face of the franchise” in Edmonton.
It would be nice to see Smyth nail down a contract of the 5-Year $25-$27 Million USD variety. A deal that many believe is well within the range of what Smyth is worth.
UPDATE - February 16,2007: According to TSN
While the Edmonton Oilers need a win in Toronto on Saturday to stay in the Western Conference playoff race, the team is also looking to get its most valuable player locked up. The Edmonton Sun reports that Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe and assistant general manager Scott Howson will meet with Ryan Smyth’s agent Don Meehan on Saturday to continue contract talks for the star forward.
UPDATE - February 27,2007: Ryan Smyth has been traded to the New York Islanders.It will be interesting to see what the boys at Battle of Alberta have to say on the subject.
Greetings fellow readers!
National Hockey League Digest is now 4 Months old and sometime today we received our 100,000th Unique Visitor!
We would just like to thank all of our visitors, some of whom have found us from as far away as Kuwait, Singapore, China, and Taiwan.
Most importantly we are glad that so many people love the great game of hockey and that we are to bring our thoughts and feelings about the world’s fastest game to life here at NHL Digest.com!
Thank you all so much for reading and we hope that you stick with us as we try to improve this site with every passing day.
Keep your stick on the ice!
Gary Bettman had a recent interview with Ad Age in which he praised sponsors and fans for sticking with the NHL brand. (Via Kukla’s)
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — After a lockout canceled its entire 2004-2005 season, Gary Bettman’s NHL returned last year to record attendance and record revenue. The commissioner credits the strength of the brand, and cites efforts to reconnect with the league’s tech-savvy fans via new media such as NHL.com, where traffic is up 100% over last year.
Gary BettmanPhoto Credit: Darryl EstrineAd Age: Now that we’re a year removed from the canceled season, can you talk about how you kept everybody onboard? You didn’t lose a single sponsor.
Mr. Bettman: Last season was about relaunching our game under extraordinary circumstances. There are few, if any, businesses — not just professional sports — that could endure not operating for a year and then come back to record attendance and record revenue. It’s testament to our great fans and the strength of the brand. We had to use all of our assets to re-engage our fans.
Ad Age: Did you feel like you had to reintroduce the brand?
Mr. Bettman: No, it was really to reconnect. When you look at the makeup of NHL fans — putting aside that they tend to be the most affluent, best-educated and most tech-savvy of all the sports — they’re also the most connected. Our fans understood what we were doing during the work stoppage, and they were supportive. The place where we could have gotten into trouble was if we didn’t openly fix our problems.
Ad Age: Yet nobody jumped off the bandwagon.
Mr. Bettman: Unfortunately, there was a ramp-up to the work stoppage. We took great pains to communicate with all of our partners, all our business partners, to let them know what was happening and why. It wasn’t a situation where we let them invest in a season that wasn’t going to occur. We gave them ample warning. It didn’t come as a surprise to anybody. Had our partners moved forward with plans and invested time and money in a season that didn’t occur, it might have been different.
Ad Age: What will be the next phase of your marketing push?
Mr. Bettman: One of the best results of what was accomplished was the partnership with the players, particularly as it relates to their accessibility to our business partners and the media. As a result, we’re now able to promote our players better than we have before. We have an unprecedented level of cooperation, and we’re using that to tell stories about our game and about our players in ways we haven’t before.
Ad Age: As a former sportswriter, I always felt — and I think a lot of my sportswriting colleagues would agree — if you compare sport to sport, hockey players are the best to deal with.
Mr. Bettman: That was true in terms of providing postgame interviews and the daily routine that players in all sports go through. When it came to marketing and promoting the game, when it came to access for TV and our marketing partners, we didn’t have the level of cooperation that other sports leagues had.
Ad Age: Tell us about TV ratings and your relationship with your main cable network, Versus.
Mr. Bettman: They have done remarkably well under difficult circumstances. We are their most important property, we are their priority, and we love the attention they’re giving to us. What we did to get that special treatment, we give up some short-term distribution that we believe will grow over time. Would we like our ratings to be higher? Yes, but that’s something we’ll work on in a marketplace where everybody’s ratings have gone down.
Ad Age: But there are other outlets. You’ve done a great job with NHL.com, with traffic up 100% percent over last year.
Mr. Bettman: We believe that with our tech-savvy fan base, while television will be important, sports leagues will need to connect with their fans through new media. This is something that is getting priority attention from our organization.
Ad Age: Your buddy David Stern is quite involved in the marketing end of the NBA. How involved are you in reaching out to your sponsors, to TV?
Mr. Bettman: I am involved and accessible. I wouldn’t compare myself to anybody else. While I don’t believe in micromanaging, I believe a sports commissioner needs to be involved; needs to be a cheerleader; and, in our case over the last couple of years, needed to be accessible to explain what was going on because we were in rather unique circumstances.
