Tag: sports (Page 3 of 27)

Five Questions With…Matt Johnson of TwoEightNine

22 March, 2010 / Kat

twoeightnine's "Franchise Quarterbacks - Buffalo Bills" shirt. (Photo: TwoEIghtNine)

Featured several times on Yahoo Sports’ Puck Daddy (the pantheon of hockey blogs, if you will), twoeightnine Design’s t-shirts have become a hot commodity for hockey fans all over. With shirts featuring those always present allegations of diving towards Sidney Crosby, and an Shepard Fairey-esque salute to the single man who turned around Washington (hockey, that is), the online shirt shop struck a chord with fans that wanted witty and intelligent fan t-shirts.

Of course, once I found out Matt Johnson, the founder of twoeightnine, was running his business out of Western New York, and that he features the following “Franchise Quarterbacks – Buffalo Bills” shirt in his store, I had to feature him on the blog. Besides talking t-shirts, I of course had to ask Matt’s thoughts on the always depressing state of the Buffalo Bills. Continue reading

Why I Can’t Help but Root for Minnesota-Duluth

18 March, 2010 / Kat

Tonight, the WCHA will kick off the Final Five with a play-in game between #11 University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and #5 University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux (or whatever they may be called these days.) The winner of Thursday night’s game will take on Denver University, the #1 team in the nation, on Friday – a game that frankily will be a hundred times better than either Hockey East matchup this weekend. (Take away my East Coast college hockey card, go ahead.)

University of Minnesota-Duluth features sophomore forward Jack Connolly, the little brother (despite being the same class year) of Boston University sophomore forward Chris Connolly. Chris is a sturdy little forward for the Terriers, currently second in the team in scoring with 10 goals and 21 assists, despite being thrown in seventy-five different line combinations this season. Jack is a powerhouse for the Bulldogs, leading the team in scoring with 18 goals and 31 assists. Jack is 7th in the nation in scoring, and his impact on the Bulldogs has been immense.

The Connolly’s have caused many BU fans to become slight UMD fans (although still many more pledge their WCHA allegiance to North Dakota), and many UMD fans to become slight BU fans (although many WCHA fans find East Coast college hockey grossly inferior). But what sealed the deal on my slight UMD fandom was the following shirt:

The one. The only. UMD Hjelle T-shirt.

The Bulldogs have a sophomore goaltender named Brady Hjelle, who played lights out last year, and found himself in a goalie rotation with junior Kenny Reiter this season. Reiter started last weekend’s quarterfinals against Colorado College, and will most likely start tonight’s game against North Dakota. Hjelle’s play last season – leading them from a seventh seed in the WCHA playoffs to the NCAA Regionals – spurred on this fan shirt, sold on the UMD fan blog Running With the Dogs.

For those of you not familiar with the reference, the shirt is based off the popular 2008 YouTube sensation, “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time.”

What can I say – I’m a sucker for a funny and punny fan shirt, and the Peanut Butter Hjelle shirt is one of my faves this year. Between this and Jack Connolly’s dominance, I have to root for UMD tonight over North Dakota.

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

The Giveaway for Your Favorite Giveaway

11 March, 2010 / Kat

A girl’s got to be able to pay hosting fees, so a few months back UPrinting.com, an online printer, agreed to advertise on my site. No biggie – you will see their ad on the sidebar. I appreciate their help.

This month, UPrinting is providing me 100 color postcards to giveaway to one of my commenters. I design and order a ton of custom printing both in my personal life and my full-time job, and 4×6 color postcards honestly are the product I order the most of. This giveaway is super useful – you can use them for invites to a shindig (like if any of ya’ll want to plan me a bachelorette party, cough, cough – no, I’m just kidding. My bachelorette party was the Frozen Four), or use them to advertise your own website.

How could you win these custom postcards? Seeing that one of the blog’s big themes lately has been featuring funny and unique minor league promotions, I figured I would giveaway this prize to the commenter describing the best sports team giveaway you’ve ever heard of. A giveaway for a giveaway, if you will. Comment on this post with the best giveaway you have ever heard of before Wednesday, March 17th at 10pm Eastern Time. I will pick the winner based on a stringent criteria of whatever makes me laugh the hardest. If there is a tie, I’ll just draw a name out of a hat.

The winner will be notified via email, announced via a blog post, and then contacted by UPrinting to obtain their prize.

Ready? Set? Tell me those awesome game giveaways!

The fine print: One (1) winner will receive a prize of 100 4 x 6 Postcards on 14pt Cardstock Gloss. Full Color Both Sides. 3 Business Days Turnaround. FREE UPS Ground Shipping. Limited to US Residents only (sorry my Canadian friends.)

Tales from Intermission

6 March, 2010 / Kat

Your typical Chuck-a-Puck. But if a Chuck-a-Puck takes place and no one chucks a puck... (Photo: Flickr user Travis S.)

After weeks of missing live hockey because of my upcoming wedding, I am finally in the midst of a multi-game weekend. Thank goodness, because this multi-game weekend allowed me to see two of the oddest intermission events I’ve witnessed in years of attending hockey games.

Friday night, the Boston University men’s ice hockey team hosted Northeastern University in their last regular season home game. BU beat Northeastern 4-2, which would go miles towards improving their status for the Hockey East playoffs. It was a double mites team game, with both intermissions host to a youth hockey team scrimmage. The teams usually have around five minutes to show their stuff, with the announcer and music timing their scrimmage, before the waiting Zambonis rev their engines and warn them off.

During the second intermission, I was chatting with a friend and not paying attention to the mites. Around me, I vaguely heard the announcement thanking the mites for their time and congratulating them on a scrimmage well done. Briefly after, my fiance nudged me.

“They won’t leave the ice.”