Tag: AHL (Page 1 of 3)

Find of the Day: The Chuck-a-Puck Championships

8 April, 2010 / Kat

Not the Binghamton Chuck-a-Puck, but I imagine it'll be similar. (Photo: Ryan Treat's blog)

What would you do for a brand new car? For one Texan, he’ll travel all the way to Binghamton, New York to compete in a Chuck-a-Puck contest.

In a press release today, the AHL Binghamton Senators announced that Michael Supulski, of a town outside of Austin, Texas, will be making the 1,700 mile trip to participate in the finals of their season long Chuck-a-Puck competition, with a brand new car at stake. Supulski won a game’s Chuck-a-Puck contest during the Senators’ New Year’s Eve game, qualifying him to face all of the other home game winner’s in their last regular season home game.

Odds are, the majority of those individual game winners are from the Triple Cities. But the odds that one of participant would be from Texas, and even be able to return to Binghamton for a random weekend in April, were much higher. When you have the chance to win a brand new car, however, I guess the outlay in plane tickets and accommodations is worth it – especially if you have excellent aim. Best of luck on Saturday, Mr. Supulski.

Who Cares if Your Team’s Colors Aren’t Green?

17 March, 2010 / Kat

St. Patrick’s Day has become big business in the sports fan wear industry. It has become commonplace for teams across sports to eschew their traditional colors for the day and promote green and white fan wear and jerseys. All levels of professional hockey have been the biggest to jump on the trend, with special fanwear for sale and given away at games, and special jerseys worn for games played around March 17th. The following are three shirts that caught my eye for various reasons.

NHL: St. Louis Blues

Last night, the St. Louis Blues mixed their St. Patrick’s Day commemoration with environmental awareness, and gave away a “Green Game” t-shirt to all fans in attendance (quite a risky claim to advertise – from personal experience, you should always give an exact number of giveaways, a la “first 5,000 fans”). The shirt giveaway was sponsored by Monsanto, a Cambridge, MA based agricultural innovation company with an emphasis on sustainable practices. This was the second year for the Blues promotion.

Shirt Grade: B I like the muted, antiquey kelly green shirt and faded style of the print. It also helps that the Blues’ team colors happen not to horribly clash with green. Kudos for using that to their advantage and not changing the logo’s colors for the holiday’s sake. Environmental awareness initiatives during games are the new “it” thing to do in sports marketing – trust me, I participate in one – but the giveaway needs to be backed up with sustained, but subtle, green initiatives, otherwise it is just a t-shirt giveaway.

AHL: Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins

The Baby Pens (speaking of, we are long overdue for an edition of The Everyone’s Favorite Goalie Watch, but that’ll be another post) are selling two St. Patrick’s Day long sleeve shirts in their online store. The 2009 edition ($20) features their mascot, Tux, skating with a four leaf clover in the background on the front. The back reads “Happy St. Patrick’s Day.” The 2010 version ($22) features the logo in what appears to be a very dark green (nearly black), with a four leaf clover on the sleeve. Long sleeve shirts are always key in that part of Pennsylvania, where the damp gray chilly days seem to out number any other weather.

Grade: C The effort is there, but the execution is not. The 2009 version is too campy, and the 2010 version shows promise, but the green seems too dark. Kudos, however, for the 2010 edition’s four leaf clover on the sleeve.

ECHL: Gwinnett Gladiators

The ECHL Gwinnett Gladiators teamed with Old Time Hockey, the same Salisbury, MA based company who partnered to create some of the NHL’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Day gear, to create a green t-shirt to sell this March. The shirt ($20 with free shipping through today) features a rather disturbed and surly looking leprechaun brandishing a hockey stick, with a small Gladiators logo by his right foot. The all-caps font is rather 1950s style, and arches above Surly Leprechaun’s head.

Grade: A This is the first ever St. Patrick’s Day shirt I would ever consider purchasing, and not just because I’m in the market for a shirt from the team where two of my most favorite former BU hockey alums play. What sold me was the 1950s fonts – I’m a sucker for fonts. Plus, I feel like Surly Leprechaun is going to hurt me with that hockey stick if I don’t like the shirt.

ACR5GWEKYTEQ

Find of the Day: When Dad Overstays His Welcome

30 January, 2010 / Kat

Maksim Mayorov (Photo: Syracuse Crunch)

Lindsay Kramer of the Syracuse Post-Standard is one of my daily must-read journalists. He is not only one of the most prolific hockey journalists in the US (he also has a regular NHL.com beat in addition to his newspaper work), but his dedication to covering minor league hockey exceeds that of many of his counterparts on NHL beats.

My favorite part of Kramer’s coverage are his Notebooks of leftover material from Syracuse Crunch games. The following was buried at the bottom of his Friday night Notebook from Syracuse’s 5-4 shootout win over San Antonio:

(Starting Crunch right wing) Maksim Mayorov’s father, Oleg, is still visiting from Moscow, although Maksim has stopped being all warm and fuzzy about it.

“I’m so tired of him already,” Max noted. “You have these problems with parents. I just want to come home, sit on the couch, relax for a couple of seconds. Sometimes he asks me some questions. But that’s OK. I think everyone has those problems.”

Isn’t this quote felt at some point in every teenager’s life?

And They Shall Lead Them With Jersey Gimmicks and Bobbleheads: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

28 January, 2010 / Kat

On Beantown Athletic Supporters, I briefly discuss the Manchester Monarchs and their “Diamonds Are a Girls’ Best Friend” Contest, where women are encouraged to submit their worst breakup stories to win a diamond. While I sure have some doozys, I’ll refrain from entering right now, thanks.

Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy also featured the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers’ March promotion where their team will be dressed up in special Girl Scout jerseys.

Las Vegas's Girl Scout tribute jersey (Illustration from Puck Daddy.)

Former Girl Scout me would like to point out that that jersey is based off the Junior Girl Scout uniform, which when I was a Scout, came with the option of either the sash or the vest. In true Western New York fashion, I was forced into uniform hand-me-downs, so I wore the 1979 edition – flared paints and too-wide insignia prints! (Explains a lot, doesn’t it?)

Lastly, the ECHL Utah Grizzlies will be celebrating a pair of unique promotions over the coming days. Saturday is “Guns and Hoses” night – a charity game between local police officers and firefighters will take place Saturday afternoon, and during the Grizzlies’ evening game, the team will don special “Guns and Hoses” jerseys (picture not yet available.) I thought the name of the promotion was quite suspect, until @QuickFacts, one of the sources of hockey knowledge I totally defer to, informed me that many teams have such games annually. You learn something new everyday. I’m still interested in seeing how the Grizzlies will include both police and firefighter imagery in the same jersey.

Monday night, the Grizzlies are hoping down-on-his-luck and recently jail sprung Utah resident Gary Colman will join the team for the ceremonial puck drop. “The organization has reached out to his agent and attorney in an attempt to bring him to the E-Center and is hopeful to have him in attendance Monday for a ceremonial first puck drop,” read a Grizzlies press release on Thursday. Adrian Denny, the team’s Vice President of Communications and Broadcasting added, “Gary has struggled a bit since his move to Utah, but we’d like to take this opportunity to introduce him to Grizzlies hockey.”

Something tells me Gary’s not going to be there…

Demoted to Hartford? There’s a Facebook Group for That.

13 December, 2009 / Kat

Matt Gilroy had been named the best rookie in training camp by the Rangers staff just 3 months ago. (Photo: SNY.com)

Wednesday evening, former Boston University captain and rookie New York Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy was outskated by Chicago Blackhawks right wing Dustin Byfuglien (a last name more difficult than my own) to allow the game-winning goal in overtime.

Thursday morning, Gilroy was summarily dismissed by the Rangers and assigned to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.

And Saturday evening, I got a Facebook notification inviting me to the group, “Put Matt Gilroy Back on the Rangers.”

“We want to send a message to the Rangers front office that they need to move Matt back up to the NHL!” exclaims the description for the group. Created Saturday afternoon, the group already has 377 members with a wide variety of loyalties. (It grew from 324- 377 while I was writing this blog post.) A few BU teammates belong to the group, quite a few BU hockey fans, some New York Ranger fans, and a large contingent of members with the last name of Gilroy. (Not surprising, seeing that the Gilroy family is rumored to rival the population of Syracuse, New York in numbers.)

As the news of Gilroy’s demotion hit Twitter on Thursday, I learned that Rangers fans are quite opinionated, and were blaming general manager Glen Sather for the move right and left. They were calling for other defensemen, such as Michal Rozsival, to suffer a benching or demotion. Even ESPN anchor Linda Cohn got into the action, tweeting, “Can somebody explain to me why in the world the Rangers would mess with the head of Matt Gilroy and send him down to Hartford?”

In comparison, the Facebook group is pretty mild. A group member actually spoke up to explain why moving Gilroy is easier than demoting a more seasoned player and possibly exposing that player to waivers. Others continue to express anger at Sather, and still others are writing “keep the faith” messages to Gilroy.

Whether Gilroy’s demotion was warranted after his Chicago gaff, or this was a move to get him more playing time, the progression of this Facebook group will be quite interesting to watch. Will Matt Gilroy himself join? Will it catch on further among the Rangers faithful? Or will it go the way of those ubiquitous “I lost my phone – can I have your numbers?” groups?