Photograph

A photo is worth a thousand words, right? In case you missed it Thursday night, Cam Ward is sporting a fancy new mask and his mask is worth a thousand words. Check this out....

This picture is taken right from the manufacturing website, www.sportmask.com. It seems the mask is a tribute to many things including his wife, the Stanley Cup, his late grandfather Frank Ward, and his favorite band Nickelback. Cam describes the new mask in his own words on the Nickelback website. Check out the band's link below for more pictures and information.

Here's a little description of the mask that you can't see from the pics: On the right side, it has Chad playing the guitar. On the top right side, it has Ryan playing the guitar plus a cool head shot of Chad. It also has guitar and music notes in the background. Also has the name "Nickelback" written in a mirror image across the portraits, so you can only see it depending on the angle you look at it. When the light hits the mask it makes a tinge of blue over the potraits. On the left side, it has a pic of Dan holding his drum sticks. On the top left side, it has Chad belting out a tune with a mic, then has a head shot of Mike beside it. If you look close at the first photo with Chad singing you can see where the name Nickelback shows up. The backplate is the album cover with a tribute to my grandpa with his name under the cross. Then the stanley cup on one side, the number 30 on the other. Then CWC (wife) on the road sign.

Nickelback's Site

Like or dislike this mask, as a hockey fan you have to love this idea. Hello Gary Bettman? Hello NHL? This is called marketing. This is called growing your market and your fanbase. Now some Nickelback fans who never heard of Cam Ward before will be checking out the band's homepage and they just might think this is pretty cool. They just might check out a Hurricanes game so they can see the Mask and fellow Nickelback fan in action. Then they just might end up enjoying the game and climb on the hockey bandwagon. Why aren't more players doing these types of things? Granted, Cam probably didn't have the intent of marketing hockey when he ordered this mask, but the professional marketers for the sport should be thinking along these lines. I've never been a big fan of NASCAR but I will admit that they are second to none in marketing their sport. The NHL needs to do more of this if the sport is to get more popular. Get the players faces out there, and more fans will come!

Okay, enough of the marketing lecture and back to hockey! The Canes play the Bruins tonight at the RBC and hopefully the boys can continue "having fun" the way they did Thursday night. Wardo should be in net again and I expect Lavi will leave the rest of the lineup the same as it was in the win against the Habs. We handled the baby bears pretty easily in Boston last week, but this team beat the Leafs twice recently so they are capable of playing good hockey. Tim Thomas has been steady if not outstanding in goal. While Erik Cole owns the Habs, Eric Staal usually does well against Boston. He scored his very first NHL goal against them, so I will make a bold prediction that Eric Staal will hit the score sheet at least once or twice tonight. See you all at the game! Go Canes!

Nickelback