Tag: ECHL

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.

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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…

And They Shall Lead Them With Jersey Gimmicks and Bobbleheads: Christmas Carols with Jackals

9 December, 2009 / Kat

Elmira, New York is a small city to the south of my hometown of Rochester. In my nearly twenty-eight years, Elmira has been most memorable in my mind for being near the Arnot Mall, the most unfortunately named mall in the history of mankind. (“You are-not a mall.”)

That is, until today.

On December 20, the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals will present “Christmas CD” night during their game against the Johnstown Chiefs. Attendees at the game will receive a Christmas CD of Jackals players singing Christmas carols. Yes, residents of the Twin Tiers and Southwestern New York, you can celebrate the holidays by being serenaded by ECHL players such as twin forwards Justin and Tyler Donati and minor league hockey journeyman Olivier Proulx (Look at his Hockey Database profile. Journeyman might be too mild of a term.)

In anticipation of their CD release, the Jackals posted the following behind-the-scenes video of the recording session. The voices. The majesty. The command. The….resemblance to thirteen year olds with cracking voices.

If this isn’t the perfect accompaniment for your family’s various holiday activities – such as driving around to find that street with the paper candelabras and white lights only to realize that the two feet of lake effect snow has buried the candelabras and knocked out the power (or maybe that’s just my family?) – I don’t know what CD is.

And They Shall Lead Them With Jersey Gimmicks and Bobbleheads: I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

17 November, 2009 / Kat

In an effort to make myself post more (don’t I lead a post with that phrase at least once every six months or so?), I bring you yet another reoccurring series: “And They Shall Lead Them With Jersey Gimmicks and Bobbleheads,” a look at interesting sports promotions. I’m always noising around the web for creative event promotions, especially when the office I work in full-time is asked to collaborate with Athletics in promoting soccer, basketball or hockey games. I’m not going to always bring you the funniest promotions – Deadspin and Puck Daddy do that far better than I ever could – but I will bring you promotions and teams that catch my eye for a number of reasons.

For those of you who follow my Twitter account, you will know that I have recently become obsessed with the ECHL. Sure, as a good hockey fan, I followed the minor league a little in the past. But this year, since my favorite Terrier of all time is playing in it, along with what seems like nearly every single college hockey player from the last two years, I’m following the league with much more gusto.

bakersfield_condors_2007 The ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors, located out in that Terrier-freshmen-class producing state of California, gets a lot of press for their inventive promotions. Already this season, they have held a Michael Jackson jersey night, which was featured all across the blogosphere. The Condors wore MJ styled jerseys with one white glove, and auctioned off the jerseys to benefit Children’s Miracle Network.

The promotion that caught my eye, however, isn’t as bold as the Condors’ tribute to America’s favorite petafile. The Condors announced this week their “Who Ya Bringing” program, where the encourage existing season ticket holders to bring friends by giving them a free ticket per every seat they own per month. For example, if you own two season tickets, you are eligible to claim two free tickets per month during the length of the promotion.

The hope of this promotion is to convert these guests of season ticket holders to ticket plan holders themselves. The Condors will offer $100 to any season ticket holder whose guest subsequently purchases season tickets, and $25 if a guest purchases a flex-plan. Continue reading

The Everyone’s Favorite Goalie Watch: Riding a Taxi Without Paying a Dime

8 June, 2009 / Kat

033108_curry It’s been a while since we checked on Everyone’s Favorite Goalie – well, I mean, Everyone’s Favorite Goalie before Terrier fans were introduced to the John Curry clone that is Kieran Milan. (Thanks to blog commenter “Ogre” for jogging my memory to cover this topic.)

When we left last BU’s former starting goalie, Curry had returned to the AHL after impressing in his NHL debut around Thanksgiving. He then went on to set the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins team record for number of wins in a season in March, ending the season with 37 (33 in the regular season, 4 in the playoffs.) Curry earned those 4 playoff wins by leading the Baby Penguins team through the first round of the playoffs against the Bridgeport SoundTigers, but not without suffering a knee injury in Game 5 of that series. (Of course, the SoundTigers are the team in which Curry participated in the now famous “goalie fight” last year. Can I just tell you that still, a year later, we play that video in the office when we’re having a particularly rough day? Or maybe it’s just me.)

Due to Curry’s injury, backup Adam Berkhoel received most of the starts in the Baby Pens series against the pesky Hershey Bears, which the Bears won on their way to the Calder Cup finals (in which they currently have a 3-1 series lead over the Cory Schneider led Manitoba Moose.)

But why is it then that a detail-oriented hockey fan might find Curry’s name on the active roster for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals? Because despite his knee injury, Curry was called up to be the third string goalie for the remainder of the playoffs for Pittsburgh. He is on what sports fans and writers call “the taxi squad.”