Phoenix Rises Again

This young man may actually see his wish come true. Reports out of Phoenix today have Greg Jamison finally getting his house in order to secure enough financing to buy the Phoenix Coyotes from the NHL. The price tag is a cool $170 million, a number that seems downright ridiculous considering the hefty losses this team has suffered over the last few years. But it appears that the Coyotes are on the precipice of being sold to the San Jose Sharks' former CEO, and the franchise will be run by a man who at least knows a little bit about hockey.

The Ice Edge Group, once the frontrunners in trying to acquire the Coyotes, are part of Jamison's group, but the reports today have little information to reveal who the additional investors are. Again, the hefty losses that this team posted in recent years should have set off klaxons and warning lights for investors, but it's clear that Jamison has sold someone or some group on the merits of hockey in the desert.

With Jamison now in control of the purchase, expect Shane Doan to narrow his list to one team as he will most likely re-sign with the Coyotes since he and his family have settled in Phoenix. Getting Doan back will bolster the firepower and leadership of the Coyotes next season, and the Western Conference Finalists should be one of the favorites to capture a playoff spot again next season. Could 2012-13 be their season in the same way that 2011-12 was Los Angeles' season?

What might be most important in this purchase is Jamison's experience. Jamison worked in the sunbelt for a hockey team as the San Jose Sharks became a perennial Stanley Cup favorite while he was CEO. More importantly, they actually became a profitable NHL club, and that fact can't be overlooked. While the Coyotes have a lot of work to do in terms of becoming profitable, perhaps some of the lessons that Jamison learned in San Jose can be applied to the Coyotes.

I certainly am hopeful that this deal can be completed. As we've learned in the past with these types of owners who fall short in their initial attempts to buy NHL teams, nothing is guaranteed until everything is signed, sealed, delivered, and on the ice. Mr. Jamison's track record leads me to believe that I should have faith in the man, but the same could have been said for Jim Balsillie and Jerry Reinsdorf at various points in history as well.

Here's hoping that everything goes smoothly in finalizing this deal so that the young man in the picture above can continue watching hockey in his hometown.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Spelling Counts

Occasionally, I find myself aghast at what I see on people's uniforms. I'm not talking about some of the ridiculous names or puns that fans wear on their jerseys because, honestly, if you want to blow your money on some joke that you wear, be my guest. It's your money, after all. But I was scanning through some pictures today and I came across a few names that really looked off. It turns out that the equipment managers - men and women who do incredible work behind the scenes - occasionally make mistakes as well. We're all human and I can't fault anyone for making a mistake, but when you're under the bright lights of the big league, you probably don't want to make too many gaffes.

Bryan Hextall was a very good player for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1970s. He lit the lamp, he played hard, and he was generally a big part of the offence for the Penguins during his time in Pittsburgh. Normally, you don't see too many mistakes on a uniform of one of your star players, but a March 14, 1971 photo from the Pittsburgh Press shows Hextall wearing a singular "L" on his jersey.

If Hextall can be missing a letter, then why can't one of the greatest players to ever have played the game have his name messed up? The New York Rangers were Wayne Gretzky's last NHL stop in his illustrious career, and he certainly had made a name for himself long before arriving in the Big Apple. But the Rangers had some problems arranging the letters in his name.

Perhaps there's something in the water in the state of New York. The Buffalo Sabres had some trouble spelling Rob Niedermayer's last name. Granted, Niedermayer can be difficult to spell, but it's not like the Sabres couldn't have looked up Rob's brother, Scott, and found the spelling of his name as either a New Jersey Devil or Anaheim Duck. What's worse, though, is that Rob had his name spelled incorrectly on both his home uniform AND his road uniform!

Of course, some players suffer on more than one team. Nicklas Grossmann actually had his name spelled incorrectly his entire time with Dallas before finally having it corrected in Philadelphia! He actually played a few games with his misspelled name in Philly as well before it was permanently changed to the double-N "Grossmann".

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I remember most vividly. If there are others and you know of where to find the image showing the mistake, hit me with it in the comments! And just remember that we're all human, and we all make mistakes!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

It Just Looks Wrong

Occasionally, a star player will end up on a different team, and that first sighting of him in a new uniform is like the image to the left - it just looks wrong. Yesterday, there was a newly-signed player who took to the ice in his new team's uniform for some photos, and I have to say that everything about his new look just feels so wrong. It's not him per se, but it's just a look that's so out of the ordinary compared to what you're used to seeing. You can give your head a shake or rub your eyes all you want, but it still doesn't feel right.

In saying that, here is a picture of Jaromir Jagr in his new Dallas Stars uniform, and it is still sending my brain into a frenzy because it looks so wrong to me.

My better half, who cares zero about hockey, took a look at Jagr's photo and immediately keyed in on the fact that "the outline on the word and the numbers are different". That might be part of what is messing my brain up, but I think it comes down to seeing Jagr in a very foreign uniform. The Stars' look doesn't have the same tradition as the skating penguin in Pittsburgh or the Flyers' orange-and-black, so it just feels wrong to me, I guess. All I know is that my brain doesn't like it.

I suppose it's still foreign to see Gretzky in a Blues uniform for some, or seeing the legendary #4 playing for the Blackhawks. For me, though, I've never been a fan of this set of Stars uniforms, and seeing a player like Jagr in one doesn't sit well with my noggin.

I think Jagr will still score 50 points this season if the NHL schedule starts as planned, but I don't know if my brain will ever get used to seeing him in highlights for the Stars. It just looks wrong.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

SOS - Save Our Sport!

The image above represents a new low in North American sports. I'm quite aware that some leagues use corporate sponsorship to help keep them afloat, but this new twist on corporate buy-ins is absolutely disgusting. The uniforms you see above will be worn by six of the ten teams in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League that plays out of the American midwest. This is a NON-PROFIT HIGH SCHOOL league that has sold its soul to six corporations in Minnesota, and what we're left with are players playing for the corporation on the front rather than for pride and fun.

Made by Gemini Sports, the new uniforms will come into play this season. The non-profit Elite League decided to "take advantage of a model developed by European teams to increase league sponsorship". Says Elite League Marketing Specialist Robert Fallen, "We've been discussing (this) for a few years because in order for us to generate more substantial sponsorship revenue we need to develop inventory that was going to be attractive to corporate Minnesota."

Let me clarify that last statement from Mr. Fallen for you: "we need to attract more corporate dollars so we decided to sell six teams' uniforms to six different businesses in order to maximize the potential return in Minnesota."

European leagues are run as businesses, but they aren't the million-dollar franchises like they are here. There are perks that come with playing for a European team: an apartment may be paid for, there may be free car usage, or the likes. The sponsorship there is part of the deals that these teams cut with players so that the apartment they stay in is rent-free or the car they drive costs them nothing for a season. A high school team of elite players should NEVER be a billboard for a corporate sponsor because the Elite League can't make ends meet. That's absolutely disgusting, and I would hope that a number of hockey players walk away from these teams to play on teams where the team identity is more important than the dollars behind it.

In the picture above, from left to right, here is the breakdown as to who is playing for whom. Team Great Plains will now play for Luther Automotive; Team North will be playing for Muscle Milk; Team Southeast will proudly billboard for TCF Bank; Team Northeast will suit up for Mpls/St.Paul Magazine; Team Southwest will capture the pride of Starkey; and Team Northwest will represent Velocity Hockey Center.

High school students are highly impressionable, and I feel that this egregious grandstanding and billboarding will sway kids to think differently about companies. I'm not saying that a high school hockey player will switch banks because he plays for TCF Bank Southeast, but I can see there being some conflict of interest if Muscle Milk North players begin receiving free samples while the rest of the league does not. With high school kids already ingesting stimulants like Red Bull, the offer of another free product like a protein supplement to impressionable young athletes will not be turned down by the kids on that team. Supplements should not be taken without advice from a medical professional. See the quandary?

I would hope that the kids on these teams are smarter than the marketing people running the league. I would hope that they would question as to why they are wearing some company's logo and not their team's logo when they take the ice. And I would hope that some would find the idea of buying an entire team's uniform for marketing purposes disgusting.

Look, I get that non-profit organizations need to raise some funds every now and again so that they can move the business forward. That's completely understandable, and things like pledge drives and volunteerism should be encouraged to help keep costs down. However, the selling of uniforms in a league to the highest bidder is, quite frankly, disgusting, and you'll never see me speak positively about the Upper Midwest High School Elite League again for as long as I write this blog. I find the idea of selling six teams in Minneapolis to businesses to be beyond offensive to the players, parents, and areas they represent.

For the six businesses who bought into this idea, shame on you. This is a disgusting way to market yourself, and I wish nothing more than for your companies to falter in the business world so that your marketing dollars cannot be spent on buying a high school hockey team's uniforms.

To the players and parents who are involved in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League, speak out and tell the league that you and/or your child isn't a billboard for some company. Use your heads and do what's best here: walk away from the corporate-bought teams.

The comments on the league webpage are already piling up, and it seems that a number of people have the same perspective. Iron Range Hockey wrote in the comments, "This is the final straw for me and the league has lost all credibility with me and many others." Joe wrote, "This is marketing gone wrong in the worst way. Gross." And that's only two of many comments.

Honestly, I've seen a lot of questionable stuff in hockey in my time. But this, readers, is beyond the lines of acceptable. It's downright sickening. If you live in Minnesota, please phone the league and express your outrage. If you're a fan, player, coach, or parent of a player on one of these teams and you're reading this, please email me or leave a comment. I'd love to get your perspective on this situation.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Grin And Bear It

If there is one thing that professional teams in North America do - especially minor professional teams - I find that they like to commemorate anniversaries with uniform changes. I'm not sure why teams insist on doing this, but hockey teams seem to want to celebrate every five seasons with a special uniform. The one team that I've respected for their honoring of traditions and history was the Hershey Bears. But they are celebrating their 75th anniversary this season, and they have followed the same path as a number of minor-league hockey teams before them.

We'll start with a short video that Hershey showed before unveiling their changes. Note how they play up the tradition and history angles in this video.

So you got a glimpse of the logos at the end of the video. Let's take a closer look at each of these logos and their new uniforms. I'll give you my take on Hershey's new look, and you may actually be surprised!

The Bears have simplified their previous logo that featured a much more ferocious bear swiping his right paw down and to the left. I like the fact that the bear logo is simplified, but the circular logo has a definite Boston Bruins feel to it. The logo has a very traditional feel, though, and I believe that this logo could be in play for a long time. It just works nicely, and feels far more professional than the cartoonish logo the Bears were using.

A fantastic blog called Sweetest Hockey On Earth has a number of photos of the new uniforms, but let's take a look hem individually.

The white uniform looks pretty good. I'm not exactly thrilled with the piping that runs from the shoulder to just over the hip, but nothing is ever perfect, right? The lace-up collar is almost a given for any new uniform that harkens to an earlier period, so I'm not going to beat that dead horse. I do like the striping on the hem and arms, and the logo pops against the white background. If the piping was gone, this jersey would feel traditional but have a modern twist, and would be one of hockey's best. However, even with the piping, I'm still inclined to say that this one is a keeper.

The dark uniform suffers from the same piping problem, but the striping on the hems and arms on this uniform is excellent. The logo kind of disappears in the chocolate background, so a couple of changes here could go a long way. I would have loved to have seen a lace that matched the colors of the uniform used for the lace-up collar. That would have really set this uniform off. But overall, it's not a bad looking uniform, and will work for the Bears.

The alternate uniform is actually the one I like the most. Gone is the unnecessary piping, and the alternate logo actually works very well on the white background. I'm not a big fan of the font they chose to use, but it is an alternate uniform so a different font is almost a given. The alternate uniform works well, and the Bears have a solid third jersey.

Overall, I think Hershey did a decent job in re-designing the team's image. The Bears wore these uniforms for one of their heritage nights, and I think the team could have returned to these uniforms if they were looking for something different to honor their tradition and heritage. However, the new look for Hershey is growing on me, and I think it will work in the long run.

What say you, readers: good, bad, or indifferent towards Hershey's new look?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!