Well, as a season ticket holder that just ponied up a few grand, two for one is a little discouraging. I love hockey so who really cares how they promote the sport. Why are we still talking about the Canes surviving? As far as I can see, the team is on solid ground. They will be back in the playoffs this year and back in the black.

As far as the Canadian attitude, who cares. Maybe Winnipeg would still have a team if they had run some promotions like that.

Just remember friends, sometimes thinking your right is all a guy has to hold on to.

I, as one who gave up my tickets, see this as the continuing issue.

At this point only one good thing can happen.

The team wins. It wins in a consistant and authoratative way.

If not, Lavi get’s axed and get like Maurice or Nolan. Player moral goes in the toilet, another losing season…..yadda yaddda yadda.

In general I don’t have an issue with promotions and two for one or even free tickets have thier place. Pro hockey tickets at a minor league baseball game is like tits on a boar or a two story outhouse.

I thought they just hired some genius to do marketing?? Must of been money well spent.

I think the telling point will be that miserable fair. If the ‘Canes have a LARGE offering there, they will touch alot of folks. It ain’t too far away from the offices, so let’s see if they can muster some enthusiasm at a down month. Only two home games, one is Detroit, that game has to be sold out. We played them in the big dance once, they are the defending champions and an icon in the NHL. I really think that game will be a water mark. We are in the midst of fair set of road games, we need all the wins we can, we have a team that’s known everywhere coming to town. We need the stands full and the boys skating at the top of thier game. A win for the ‘Canes would be good mojo, but even a great effort will pay off. If not I think you will see the ol’ porcelin swirl of death (getting flushed). That will be game number 9, we need to have 6 or better wins that night and then if LA has a team playing stomp them and be 7 for 10 at least. I think it’s at this point the front office will be evaluating the whole scheme of things. The players, the coaching, the fans, etc.

I believe they need to get tickets out there, but that’s a small piece of the puzzle. As for the Bulls, who cares, I throw more free Bulls tickets out every year than seems possible they printed. I would suggest any venue other than that to try a ticket drive.

Negative Nancy strikes again, I know.

I bitch and whine because I care and I hate what I am seeing.

Some of the best hockey games I have ever witnessed were with the ’Canes. I expect more from the franchise than I felt I have got. The future worries me.

So I bitch and whine. I hope I am wrong and the world of hockey shines bright once more at the RBC.

A aka NN

well as was evident in the forums when I posted about this, I’m freakin’ ecstatic about getting 2 for 1 tickets to the Canes (especially since I didn’t get season tickets).

I agree that this is actually a good idea to promote a sport event at ANOTHER sport event (especially one in Durham). As evident at my place of work, many Durham Bulls fans are more than happy to see the Hurricanes play, but aren’t always excited about the regular price point to see them. A 2 for 1 deal will get more butts in the RBC Center.

It may not be the best way to promote, but at leas t it is promotion.

As far as the other blogger goes, who cares. There will always be those who will dismiss hockey in the south. If Every team in the soputh were in the black and filling their building every night for a decade, there would still be naysayers. Their will always be haters. Hockey in the south will survive, maybe not everywhere, but it will survive.

I agree, Paladin – the State Fair will be great place for this team to market itself – being able to reach a large swath of NC in a few days. I hope they take advantage of it.
This “illegal curve” article is laughable at best. An unmanned table with a 2 for one ticket voucher at a mid-summer minor league baseball game spells the doom / underscores the mistake of professional hockey in the south? That is HUGE stretch, and makes me chortle at this “journalist’s” ability to look at the whole picture. It sounds like he saw a table at the DBAP, and ran with whatever his imagination told him to. He needs to get a fiction writing gig somewhere.
 While I agree with Paladin on a lot of his points as well, I’m not as doom and gloom about it. Missed playoffs would be a disaster, but it would take far more than that for the ‘Canes to move or fold or do anything drastic. It will just increase the nonsense found at sites like illegalcurve. There are too many of us Yankees here now – I don’t even follow basketball or football, and can’t even pronounce “Krzyzewski” properly – who love sports in general. But still, Paladin lays one of a possible million outcomes going into that Detroit game. I prefer to let it play out as it plays out – I can’t predict possible futures because it would cause me too much hand wringing and worry, and I would become obsessed like Gollum.

The telling point will be the fair? Step away from the bong for a sec. I’m sure the point of “marketing” at the bulls game was to appeal to assumed sports fans, if theyre at a baseball game then there is a better chance they would be interested in another sporting event. A big part of marketing is getting people who never attended a game in the arena and hope it peaks their interest. If the Canes made the playoffs the last two years this wouldnt be an issue, two steps forward, two steps back.

Marc- I believe the correct pronunciation is “bleh.”

Marc,
  Amen!!

BTW, that drew puke comes down from the great white north to see a bulls game with his girlfriend.

First, WTF?

She must be a nun or on restricted release from prison if they can’t find anything better to do.

Two, Marc hit it on the head, how in the heck did he make that stretch about all of southern hockey by seeing a table with some vouchers on it.

I’ve read it a few times now and incoherant comes to mind.

“Bubba”,

Jeezuz, has it really come down to this is all we have to bitch about???

I may have to turn on the Olympics or something.

Isles got a new coach.

Anyone think Dougie really thinks they will smoke the Rangers 6/0?

I think the best thing that happened this summer is that jagr left the NHL.

Puts a smile on my face just typing it.

A

They have done this promotion with the Bulls for the past three years that I can recall so this isn’t some new marketing scheme. If you notice the Bulls’ marketing team reaches out to the Canes’ marketing team throughout the year and wouldn’t you expect that? I would have to guess since they have continued this promotion for the past few years it has to be somewhat successful or why continue? And is it really important what other people think about our fan base and hockey team as long as we enjoy it?

Hot Chips n Salsa – I think it is a base desire for most people to feel validated by others. As a species we really dig approval. Having said that, I try to be better than that and let what most people say slide right of my back. Sometimes it works, and sometimes you just feel you gotta say something. Either way, you are right, what is most important is that we enjoy this team, win, lose, or draw…..er ummm go to a shootout.

1) We can see how an outsider like this guy could have been ‘shocked’ to see all those coupons go unused. Many in Canada or in some of the bigger US markets would drool over such a possibility
2) Although we HATE the manner in which the NHL assesses attendance(Tickets distributed NOT tickets sold) its not like Carolina is playing in front of an empty arena each night.
3) Last season despite the issues that Bubba listed the Canes still averaged 16,633/night. Not bad for a non playoff team. Contrast that with Boston who DID make the playoffs, are in a hockey crazy part of the US, averaged a mere 15,436.
4) So when will the articles that ‘hockey is dead in Bean town’ commence? yes, some franchises in the south, Carolina included, aren’t where they need to be yet. Some (Nashville/Phoenix) maybe shouldn’t be there at all, but many like TB and Dallas have been huge successes, and to brush over all southern based hockey as dead is myopic in the extreme

Mark,

Explanation of the fair comment (I hate the fair),

Point of the fair is the timing of the fair, not the fair itself. The ’Canes have to come out swinging and by the time fair time rolls around, they had better be doing like they did last year.

It also goes to your point of target markets. Everyone at the fair has driven to that spot at least once now (ie:going to the fair)for recreation/amusement. So with a good marketing effort get them to come back for a ’Canes game.

I think we agree?

A

I actually just moved to bean town from montreal and i can tell you that the level of interest in hockey here is nowhere near as high as it is in montreal. it’s actually shocking to me how few people care about it.

I (obviously) would love for this team to grow and grow and become popular all over the state. I’ll never forget how all of raleigh instantly became friends during the cup run. But at the same time we do get plenty of support and its like Faux said, we play to an avg of 16,600. At the same time I really enjoy the “fraternity” of canes fans we have. Its almost like some kinda club. Here your either all-in or nothing for the most part. Die-hard or nothing. Thats fun to me. When I go to a bar to watch a game I may meet fewer fans that other markets would, but for me it just weeds out the half way/fair weather fans, the ones you do meet at these bars are just a crazy as me or you! Its more fun to be “in the know”……others that just dont get it make me laugh!

Tokyo, Part of that is the Red Sox doing so well while the Bruins have been going in the opposite direction. (Demolishing the old Garden has something to do with this as well). Boston (in one sense) is similar to the triangle in that there are NCAA sports to contend with. The Beanpot tournament, NCAA football and basketball, etc. The Patriots have also been doing well (minus the last Superbowl). The difference between here and Boston is the population that can support all of those teams through the lean times & the good. The Sox are a great example of that. Previous to their first recent WS win, the last time they won the WS was BEFORE radio was invented. That is fan perseverance.
I don’t know Montreal that well and don’t know the particulars, but I don’t hear too much about College Sports coming out of Montreal, and I do know that the Expos were relocated (I can just see the articles – BASEBALL DOES NOT BELONG IN CANADA! IT’S AMERICA"S GAME! LOL). It must be awesome to be a hockey fan in Montreal, with the Rocket Richard history, the original six rivalry, all those cups – heck, I even watched one of my daughter’s cartoons called “Jacob Two-Two” that is set in Montreal and did a take off on the Canadiens and hockey superstardom and the history of the love of hockey in Montreal. You don’t get that in very many cities. The relationship between the city Montreal and the hockey club remind me of NYC’s connection to the Yankees, and their great rivals, the hated (but respected) Sox and their relationship to Boston. I haven’t seen much evidence of relationships like this – maybe Green Bay?

Good morning friends! Nice to see so much love coming to me from down south on this beautiful August day. And to think I was telling all my hoser friends up in the Great White North (eh) how nice everyone in Raleigh was. A couple of points: 1) I have never been called an elitist before, in any walk of life, so thanks for that. In fact, I am not sure I know how to spell elitist so I hope this is correct. 2)I don’t wish anything but success to all NHL franchises, regardless of their location. I was just using what I saw as a means to educate our illegalcurve readership who may not have the opportunity I had to see how much of a struggle it is to get a market-share in non traditional hockey towns. I have no doubts similar promotions are taking place in Nashville, and Atlanta, and probably in markets like Boston and Chicago where poor ownership has killed a once thriving market. Credit to ownership/marketing departments for doing what they need to do to build their base. Third, and finally, to Marc who accuses me of both being a journalist and of inventing /imagining what I saw, I don’t go around inventing things to write about. My description of the events in question was accurate, and I didn’t even bring up the discussions occurring around me as I exited the ballpark where more than one person was saying they have no interest in attending a hockey game, even when free tickets are being offered. Oh, and don’t call me a journalist, because I am not one.

Drew Mindell – I’m Canadian, and a hockey fan, and it’s articles like yours that make it difficult for me to convince Americans that Canadians are not all jingoistic assholes who hate American franchises.

Do us all a favour and please stop writing about something you know so little about.

And don’t worry – it is CLEAR that you are not a journalist. No one will ever mistake you for that.

marc – I agree with you re: boston. It also doesn’t help that the team has been so bad for so long. the light is clearly at the end of the tunnel with their recent performance, and I am now a season ticket holder, so I am hoping for some good hockey this year.

Being a hockey fan in Montreal is good and bad. I have never been a habs fan, always a Whalers / Canes fan, so I had to endure a lot of over the years. It is also super difficult to get tickets to games at a reasonable price. But it’s nice to have the media coverage, as long as you ignore local coverage of the Canadiens (because it is totally psychotic). And the atmosphere at the games is like nothing else in the league – it ranges from super intense to bizarro world.

“My description of the events in question was accurate, and I didn’t even bring up the discussions occurring around me as I exited the ballpark where more than one person was saying they have no interest in attending a hockey game, even when free tickets are being offered.”

I’m a southern hockey fan and I’ll agree with you, everything you said was true about an unmanned table of free hockey tickets. I was shocked too when I saw the free vouchers. But being a southern hockey fan, I snatched up about 4 of these vouchers, and plan to put them to good use.

Drew,

You have to understand that we are CONSTANTLY being told we don’t belong. We are always being told how our team is going to fold up tent and walk away. Are we touchy, maybe, do we have a right, you better believe it. I think the point Marc was making, and doing so quite well, was that our biggest struggle is not that we are non traditional, it is that we are in a market that is rich with other sports (and sports traditions) with which hockey competes. Combine that with the fact that we are a small market and yeah we do have to work harder to grow. It does not, however, mean we don’t belong. BTW keep in mind when you blog on this topic, you are the one who inserted the Canadian sterotypes, not us.

Drew-

I appreciate that you took the time to come here and leave a comment. Hopefully, you had a good time while visiting and enjoyed yourself. I’m glad that you told your friends how nice people are down here are, but it’s a shame you couldn’t have mentioned that in your article. :-)

You must admit, using terms like “unmitigated disaster” and “NHL Southern Expansion. Born 1995. Dead 2008. Never fully emerged from an amorphous state.” is a touch inflammatory. Not unlike the term “wannabe elitist”, I suppose…L

No offense intended.

Hopefully you can use a voucher and come back down here for a game. If so, shoot me an email and I will treat you to a cool one.

Cheers!

I guess the issue, Drew, is you made an assumption about the Hurricanes’ market in August, when there is no hockey (anywhere … not just in the South). You go out of your way to bash the team’s attendance (20th in number of people, 19th in capacity), yet don’t bother to mention that New Jersey (where you can watch “the best goalie ever” every night) was behind Carolina and had just opened a new state-of-the-art building, and Boston (Original 6) was even worse.

It’s way, way too easy, I’ll admit, to take stats and skew them the way you’d like, but you can’t argue the success of non-traditional markets like Dallas and Tampa. Carolina’s market has improved, in case you haven’t noticed, from one of the worst in the league (29th in 2001) to the middle of the pack franchise they are now. In reality, they can’t be expected to compete for tops in the league every year when their are elite level college basketball programs thriving all over the place, NASCAR to contend with and, overall, a sports scene that’s a lot more cluttered than most small markets in the nation (or Canada). That’s like acting the Blue Jays to be near the top of the league in MLB.

It wasn’t long ago that Anaheim was at the bottom of the league (2002), or Buffalo (27th in 2003), or Pittsburgh (30th in 2004). And now that Colorado isn’t as good as they once were, their attendance, while still good, has dropped. The real facts? Winning solves a lot of attendance ills throughout the league. Markets like Montreal and Toronto will always sell out (for vastly diff. reasons, not always having to do with the actual games), and it’s absurd to compare other markets to them.

Drew-
I am not saying you didn’t report facts, just not the whole picture. The facts you put down were that a lonely promo table, at a minor league baseball game in August was unmanned and no one appeared interested. From that you spun ANOTHER in a long series of articles about how hockey in the south doesn’t belong here, and that it’s collapse here is imminent. It’s taking a grain of truth and spinning it as far as you can take it in order to rile people up. THAT is the fiction I’m talking about – and gives a false sense of what hockey is in the south. I a not a southerner – I am a Yankee. But this is my home now, and I have lived here for 10+ years after living in hockey mad cities like NY and Buffalo. I can list many “grains of truth” about hockey in the south, but do not need to spin yarns about how it has taken hold here. One observation about 2-fer ticket offers does not tell one iota of the story. But just posting that one little part of the story is irresponsible journalism. But you’re not a journalist – my apologies.
Actually, Drew, I want to avoid bad blood. I would love for you to visit this area during the season and come down to the Rec zone and watch local guys play, as well as attend some Duke or Carolina or State games, as well as attend a ’Canes game. Maybe even take in some ACC b-ball games. Then you will have more to work with when writing a piece.

man … I had a lot of typos and grammar errors ^

Tokyo-
That media description sounds just like NYC media surrounding the Yankees. And the games.

Jumping in late here, but I just paid $663 for a 26 game plan in North Carolina and it turns out I could have gotten a full season ticket in about the same seat for $60 less at the United center and gotten tickets to the Winter Classic. And hockey in the south is failing? Really? The third biggest city in the US and it has to mark season tickets down to $600 in the upper bowl?

Drew
most southerners are nice, there is a lot of relocated yanks down here who are not (as) nice and will call your bluff. For verification purposes, did those people you heard saying they have no interest in going to a hockey game have “3” stickers on the back window of their pickup truck? If so, that makes sense.

C-Leaguer-

You just touched upon my next topic. I’m still researching, but Canes fans pay more for season tickets in similar seats than fans do in Chicago, Buffalo, and believe it or not, even Detroit. It’s amazing. More to come about that later.

That’s very funny Mark, but if you think I am taking the bait and getting on the bad side of Nascar/Earnhardt (sp?) fans, you are sadly mistaken. Next, you will be encouraging me to wear the jersey of an opposing team inside the Black Hole at a Raiders game :)
Next time I am down south visiting my supposed nun/ex-con girlfriend I will be sure to look y’all up for some wobbly pops. Anyone able to get me on Pinehurst No. 2?

Drew-
Golf? Bring your hockey equipment down! I’ll find you a spot on my team & you can play a REAL game alongside a team full of a good mix of Southerners, Yankees and Canadians.

I never understood golf…

Actually, a good interview on “Illegal Curve” with Luc DeCock;

http://www.illegalcurve.com/2008/08/13/an-interview-with-luke-decock-of-the-news-observer/

I bet he’s a Jeff Gordon fan, too.

Hmmm, ex-con, ex-nun girlfriend with a Jeff Gordon T-Shirt….

Hell, I might of met them….

A

P.S. Hey Marc “A good mix of Sotherners, Yankees and Canadians”

Picture that as a caption for a T-Shirt (MANY ideas spring to mind), man we could make millions!!

Drew Mindell – I’m Canadian, a NASCAR fan and a Canes fan who has lived his entire life in Quebec – does that blow your tiny mind wide open?

Regarding season tickets – $600 and change will get you upper bowls in Boston too.

I also find it amusing how Mindell continues to target Marc in his replies, ignoring any of the points a fellow Canadian like me is making at him. I am willing to bet I have been to 10 times the number of hockey games in both Canada and the U.S. that this loser has. But he’s the expert at piecing together his poorly researched opinions in almost grammar-free prose.

I also love that it is the middle of the SLOWEST time in hockey, and there’s over 30 posts. Look at the rest of the summer – Bubba gets over 20 on most. If this isn’t a testament to at least the hard core hockey fan in Carolina, I don’t know what is. Kudos to all who come here & comment.
(Paladin – it SHOULD be a t-shirt. You’re right. hmmmmmmm……)

It is also a testament to this awesome blog that Bubba has set up. To summarize another die hard Southern hockey fan, Wylde4 had previously said that Bubba’s blog is like morning coffee. Gotta have it no matter what, can’t start the day without it, and tastes good when it’s heated up. I couldn’t agree more.

For you Lavi fans

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/hockey/other_nhl/view.bg?articleid=1112756&srvc=rss

I won’t ven comment…

A

P.S. note where i got it!!

A

Anyone know if M. Nylander is gonna go? I heard his house went up for sale, remember Olie did the same thing…

A

Olie was also FA.

Don’t know anything about Nylander. I wonder where his wife wants to move next? :-)

Interesting article on the DeCock interview. This portion of it might raise a few eyebrows…

“First of all, I thought the poll was kind of silly. I threw it up on the blog as a sort of comic relief and it ended up getting mentioned in a very grave way on a couple other blogs — of course, often without any attribution or acknowledgment that they would have had no idea the survey existed without our blog, present company excluded”

I know he isn’t referring to Canes Country, because I always acknowledge LSB if I am referring to something on that blog, but his blog wasn’t the first to go public with news about that survey. The first time I saw it, it was listed under my Google newsreader. Maybe he doesn’t think anyone else uses news service readers? He might have been referring to Puck Daddy or 850 The Buzz, who both ran with that story, but that particular survey was all over the internet. To claim that no one would have even known about it’s existence without his reporting, seems a bit pompous. I’m surprised at the statement, especially considering Lord Stanley’s Blog has rarely if ever acknowledged or attributed a single reference about any other Hurricanes related blog.

Very interesting indeed.

Thanks for posting the link, Marc.

Marc,

This blog does seem to bring out some of the best and most passionate fans of our team, and OUR sport, for that matter. BTW you got to send me your schedule so I can come out and see you play.

sorry for the double post but I am sure Luke is probly talking about Bomani Jones

yep, I figured 850 The Buzz, but still, that statement is a stretch.

RE Nylander:

http://nhl.fanhouse.com/category/nhl-rumors/

Just trying to get some hockey stuff in the mill.

Though excon, ex-nun, Jeff Gordon t-shirt wearing girlfriend could be a contry song.

A

great article and site bubba. we definately have top tier blog as from what i have seen. keep up the good work

paladin6

I might actually write that tune………

It was rainin’
the day
sister Mary, got out of prison…

A

isn’t it:

i was drunk
the day my mother
got out of prison.

Hello again friends,

I hope all of your Wednesday afternoon’s are going along swimmingly.

I would like to personally thank each and every one of you for your contributions in this debate/slagging of my character. I had fun, and we should do it all again sometime soon. Don’t forget to keep reading www.illegalcurve.com where all of my old columns are archived, including some of my better works on why I hate ice cream, and why puppies aren’t cute. Or you can simply go there and see better and more informed writers than myself ply their trade multiple times per day.

All the best, and Go Canes!

Drew

Drew, if you actually do play hockey when you are not cutting individual letters out of magazines to paste into the pathetic scrabble-like passages of text you call ‘articles’, you might want to consider taking your name off the back of your jersey, because I’m tired of jackasses like you giving Canadians a bad name. I have to eat the shit you shovel onto the internet every time your press the ‘publish’ button. You might find yourself a marked man on the ice.

Nice….Repenttokyo’s an Enforcer….give em hell Repent!

Geez, I tried to end my input on this thread with some nice words and positive attitude. I guess that was all for naught. My bad. Still, this was fun. Have a good day everyone. Until next time!

Drew… Most of us appreciate your nice comments as well as we enjoy a good debate. Have a great week sir and we will keep tabs on your writings.

:-)

Drew- I think the hostility comes from the obvious avoidance of valid remarks pointed at your article. You came here and typed a LOT… yet said NOTHING. Kind of like your article.

You can’t just skate into someones home rink with a ‘positive attitude’ and smile on your face and expect them to forget the Avery-like inflammatory comments you made to reporters before the game.

Time to unplug the computer and stop giving my country a bad name in the south. I am sure that with your talents you’ll be able to find an opening in either the waste-disposal or sanitation industry. Finally, a place where you can shovel manure and people will actually appreciate it! Think of how proud your parents will be.

Repent,

yup ’em’s the “other guy’s” lyrics.

Was trying to avoid plagerisin’ the world’s greatest country song….

I take it, it ain’t workin’?

Hey Drew, even I haven’t pissed these folks off that much and have had narry a kind word most of the time. Though I am still a ‘Canes fan. Though I cheat and like Detroit, too (oh and just fyi, that’s not a good thing around here).

Maybe it’s my accent….

or my mullet

maybe the leather pants

;-)

“Got runned over by a danged ol’ Kronwall, er TRAIN”

Never could sing

A

Alright, on the T-Shirt deal, picture this:

Alfred E. Newman in a Habs uniform over a blender with a bunch of players in the blender with ‘Canes, ’Wings etc jersey’s on.

Or, howabout:

 The Canadian Jerseyed group on a knoll overlooking a Civil War era battle filed with the Grey and Blue hued uniforms of the North and South teams going at it and maybe the guys on the knoll are pulling strings on some pop ups or are using slingshots to egg the others on.

Then we can get into food. Let’s just say bacon in all it’s forms could be fun.

Maybe one could venture into other realms, like racing. South is Nascar, North would be IRL/Indy and then dog sleds for the Canucks.

I gotta tell ya, this could be cool, the next big thing.

Oh wait, I got it. Yea it’s in bad taste, but we have our three groups, they are at a lynching. Someone in the group says, “I dunno he said his name was Bettman, but he don’t look like any hockey player I ever met”

I’m gonna get censored for sure!!!

Anyone own a silk screening outfit?

A

Since I’m sick of not responding in kind to articles like this and since I’m sick of ignoring them I’ve gone a step further. I’ve invited Drew to the November 1st game against the Oilers. We’ll see if he shows and what his thoughts are after the fact.

Look forward to the report.

Obviously my offer of a cold one didn’t go over as well. L

He wanted to come down and play golf. I offered him a spot on my team instead to actually play HOCKEY, and he never responded. My offer is serious. He obviously is not if he’s writing articles on hockey in the south, and then wants to play golf. What’s up with that?

Whats golf?

;-)

A

Good afternoon again everyone! My apologies for not writing earlier today but real life interfered. (I hate when that happens.) Anyways, for those people who feel slighted that I didn’t personally respond to your comments on this thread, I promise you that if you send me an email to drew@illegalcurve.com I would be pleased to respond to your individual points. For those who invited me to come to Raleigh to play in their respective hockey leagues, I am flattered, and am pleased to accept your invitation and will advise accordingly as to the next time I will be making my way down to your fair city. Fair warning though, I am not an especially skilled hockey player, which might be a fancy way of saying I suck. Now, Bubba, to accuse me of not liking beer, those are fighting words:) Anytime any of you make your way up to my fair city I would be pleased to return the gracious offers you all have extended to me.

BTW, Paladin6, where can I get one of those T-Shirts?

You know I would be interested in the level of interest, but, in a previous life I was a gunsmith and we tried some T-Shirts with cool ideas similar to this for web sites. We were politley informed about copyright and trademark law.

I’m pretty sure the teams and the NHL have the logos protected and in all honesty in the miserable age of PC I doubt any of those ideas would float with the teams/league.

You can, I think, one off or so an idea like this, but dam sure can’t sell one. Feel free to pursue any of these ideas, I have minimal intellect that requires no rights to protection.

BTW, at least deny the Jeff Gordon thing for Christ sakes…..

A

Paladin6, I know even less about Nascar than I do about hockey (and as I have been told repeatedly in this thread, that is apparently little), but if you tell me to deny that I am a Jeff Gordon fan than duly noted that I will. Now I just need to find a Jeff Gordon fan club blog and slag him repeatedly on it.

:)

thanks for not responding to any of the comments I made in this thread, as a fellow Canadian who is embarrassed by your attitude and lack of credibility. Of course, why should I expect anything less.

Oh, and I don’t live in N.C. Or anywhere near it.

Hmmm, the ol’ “It’s hard to believe you know less..” low hangin’ fruit is tough to resist…

I guess in the spirit that you have taken a taste of that which you have flung here is to be respected.

I gotta say I am more of the Repenttokyo and his Avery analogy mindset, but, you didn’t dump on my biscuit.

I just ask that you see here in a meager few on this blog the fire that resides in about 16,000 on average every game, every night at home and we will not go away. When a team comes in our house we are heard, it may not cause ripples in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans or crack ice in Canada. It doesn’t have to. When you come to Raleigh, you just need to know the crowd is part of the game. Look at the tape of the Cup run, these “Southern Fans” put a raucus up with the best of them and I have seen the best of them. In ‘06 it was The Carolina Hurricanes, no dynasty, hell we dropped the ball last couple years. That in no way shape or form means our players and fans are not true ice lovin’ hockey folk.

Hockey is alive and strong in Raleigh. It is well supported.

We can drink and discuss the rest of the “Hockey business side” at some other time. I think the Oilers and most teams have had the ups and downs. That’s why we play, if we knew Detroit was the Hockey God’s Home and would destroy all comers this year most teams would bail. It doesn’t work like that, that’s why we play and that’s why hockey is alive and well down here.

How sweet would it be to knock Detroit off the barstool?

To snag a phrase “There can be only one”

Most years, most teams have a shot.

I think the feathers get ruffled when what has been years of true NHL level hockey and hockey support get crushed up on one table of vouchers in a rather simplistic example.

If Bubba’s buying, I wanna be there. Free beer is my favorite flavor!!

A

I don’t care how bad ANYONE sucks at playing the game – as long as there is effort. Playing the game helps to understand the game, and I would like for Drew to see NC Hockey at ice level, amongst the fans and players who love this game. Not just the Hurricanes, but the game itself. THEN we can drink copious amounts of beer. It always tastes better after you play.

BTW, for clarity and maybe a suggestion for a topic. I used the Oilers as they have the best entrance of any team.

Period.

Bar none.

They also owned a decade dam near.

Most of you know I like Detroit and while I like the octopy thing, it has lost it’s place kinda, there ain’t 8 anymore. So I just will live with the fact that I suck and still like the ’Wings

Anyway, I was drawing on my VAST hockey knowledge and history and when I reread it, well, it looked like I just chucked some arbitrary teams up. I didn’t, I actually have feelings about most of the teams and have watched most of the teams and even follow most of the teams.

I love me some hockey.

Anyway, just to clear up the team ref.

Bubba, how about a thread on the best venue (that’s a real hard one, seriously) or the best area or get into the teams. I think it’s hard to argue with the Oilers entrance and I don’t even like ’em. The original 6 have mega history, bunch of others have dam near 40 yrs, some of us new comers have less.

I may not be Johnny On The Spot, but I believe the ’Canes were the first with the girlies…..

If that ain’t cool, go pound sand!

I think they were actually donated the first coup[le years too. Anyone remember the skinny on the Storm Squad?

That there, if true, is one helluva contribution in my opiny!!

A