Interesting notes from NYI Point Blank
I’m a big fan of ex-media relations guy for the NY Islanders and his blog, NYI Point Blank. In today’s post, Chris addresses two interesting topics to think about.
The first one is one that Wings fans have certainly thought about plenty of times and I even used this reasoning to explain why I wanted to play certain teams in the postseason.
In a related subject, an NHL higher-up told me earlier this season that the difference between the travel schedules of the Eastern (easy) and Western (insane) conferences is “practically scandalous.”
Just for a goof, estimate how many miles the Detroit Red Wings had flown this season compared to their rival in the Final, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
When you’re done adding it up, you’ll realize the Red Wings winning four Stanley Cups in 11 years is an even more remarkable accomplishment.
While the Wings schedule was horrific in terms of miles logged in comparison to their Eastern Conference counterparts, the MLB certainly has their schedule compressed and when you read the Mets recent game schedule you’ll be amazed (or at least I was).
That’s 21 games in 20 days, folks, and it gets even better.
Tonight, after flying 6 hours after the Padres game yesterday, would be the one night off before the Mets play another 9 games in 9 days - the last 3 in Los Angeles before a day off and continuation of another road trip. It would be the only night besides June 26 when David Wright and the boys could stay at home.
However, God bless them, it’s not.
Here’s the press release:
FLUSHING — The New York Mets today announced that Carlos Beltran, Ryan Church, Carlos Delgado, Aaron Heilman, John Maine, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, Brian Schneider, Scott Schoeneweis, Billy Wagner, David Wright, and Mets Hall of Famer Tom Seaver have confirmed their participation in the Mets Foundation’s “Teammates in the Community” fundraiser Monday night, June 9 at Richards in Greenwich, Conn.
Incredible stuff.
It wasn’t until this year that I started to understand how much time and energy it takes on behalf of the players, coaches, equipment/medical personnel, and PR staff to make it through the regular season. It takes a lot of time as a fan to simply watch each game, but between travel and preparation for the games, it really adds up. The NHL season is truly a marathon, which makes a Stanley Cup victory even more enjoyable!
Wall Street Journal: The Return Of A Great Game
Joe here. The NHL has an unbelievably good article in today’s Wall Street Journal online. Entitled “The Return Of A Great Game,” it leads with a stunning piece of news: Don Cherry is going to file reports for ESPN during the Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals. If you recall, last year Cherry went on NBC during an intermission and verbally beat down Brett Hull.
Beyond that, the article gives a great overview in a place that you’d hardly expect it. Not a long piece, but one that has to make them happy in Toronto and New York, especially in light of the Fortune fiasco.
Opening the SI Vault
Just last week, Sports Illustrated released it’s newest web portal, the SI Vault.
Essentially, it’s an online version of their magazine archives. You can search for certain players, teams, or stories and have them appear going way back in time. Here is a link to all of the NHL covers over the years.
I love it because you can read complete articles from each of these issues, which were previously unavailable for free. So I can read the Wings cover article from June 1997 entitled “Down and Dirty.” Pretty cool, huh?
If the NHL was a high school…
HockeyDrunk said that if the NHL was a high school…
Anaheim would be the kid that beats you up and steals your lunch money.
Detroit would be the foreign exchange student.
Nashville would be that kid with the dad in the military. He’s cool, but you don’t want to be best friends with him because you know he’ll be moving soon.
Ottawa would be the kid that breezes through the school year and then blows the final exams.
New York Islanders would be the kid who has his/her whole life planned out already. Or at least the next 14 years.
San Jose would be the kid that always over studies for the finals and ends up bombing them.
St. Louis would be the smooth talking kid who gets you to trade your snack pack to him for half an apple.
For the rest of the entertaining post, be sure to visit HockeyDrunk.
And this is why I like Ovechkin…
Ever since the beginning, I’ve been a bigger Ovechkin fan than a Sid the Kid fan. Don’t get me wrong, I think Crosby is the better player and he’s a joy to watch (he even reminds me a bit of Yzerman), but Alexander Ovechkin’s goofy personality wins me over everytime. You can see it when the team took a Segway tour of DC in the clip below followed by my favorite Ovechkin quote from the trip.
Dan Steinberg at DC Sports Blog wrote about what went on during the tour including this fun tidbit of information:
I asked why he was riding a Segway around D.C.
“Have fun,” he said. “Why do I have to stay home? No. It’s good. Watch beautiful city, watch girls….”
“Have you seen any girls?” Backstrom asked.
“No,” Ovechkin replied. “Girls, where are you? I can’t find you.”
And I’m not the only one who thinks Ovie is the more fun alternative…
From all accounts, Ovechkin was the life of the party, yelling out to pedestrians, joking with a protestor at the White House, and off-roading before receiving a warning from police.
It wasn’t a planned PR stunt - it just fell into place. This is the sort of thing that happens when Ovechkin is around.
He’s a star blessed with talent and loads of personality.
He gives a great sound bite, in direct contrast to the polished media-savvy truisms that come from current favorite son Sidney Crosby.
Ovechkin just tells it as he sees it, and has great fun doing so.
He is, my friends, a marketing dream.
Part of the charm is his quirky Russian accent and not-yet-fully-mastered command of the English language, but you can tell he’s trying awfully hard to fit in.
HNIC talks hockey blogosphere
This past Saturday, the HNIC crew covered both sides of the discussion surrounding hockey bloggers in the press box. The clip was around 8 minutes and 15 seconds in length, which you can view below.
Personally, I thought HNIC did a great job showing viewpoints from both sides. It was great to put some faces to some names (like IwoCPO @ Abel to Yzerman). I also loved seeing Ron MacLean go, “There’s James Mirtle. Look at that, Hockey Night in Canada - he’s talking about us!”
Both James and Tom Benjamin have some great thoughts/reactions to the piece so I definitely suggest checking those two posts out.
I don’t have too much to add to the discussion that hasn’t already been said, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was not to react to a Wings’ goal in the press box. As a PR intern, I’m not allowed to cheer either (although I guess it’d be more acceptable for me to smile over a goal than a beat reporter covering the game). In my first game, I was actually concerned that I wouldn’t conduct myself in a professional manner in terms of not acting too much like a fan in the press box. To be honest when you get up there, everyone’s professional and I didn’t even flinch after the Wings’ first goal of the season. It really isn’t that hard once you are up there because you are surrounded by professionals. But that’s just my two cents…
Great job by the HNIC crew and to all those bloggers who were interviewed for the piece and the Washington Capitals’ owner, Ted Leonsis, for allowing bloggers to enter the press box.
Hockey Adventure interviews Fedorov
I’m getting to this a little late, but Lucas Aykroyd of HockeyAdventure.com has a great interview up with former Detroit Red Wings star Sergei Fedorov. I definitely suggest clicking on that link to read the entire interview, but here’s one of my favorite snippets from the piece.
HockeyAdventure.com: Jimmy Devellano once said he thought you could have won a Norris Trophy if you stuck with defense.
Sergei Fedorov [chuckles]: I think that was a long time ago! Obviously I feel comfortable playing defense. It’s a no-brainer with the speed I have as a forward and the ability to pass the puck. I wouldn’t say it’s that difficult for me. At times, it could be. But I’m a natural center forward. I can play defense part-time. Scotty [Bowman] asked me many times when we had injuries in Detroit, and then again it happened last year, like I said. You make your choices and hopefully you’re happy with them. I certainly was, because I had the chance to go back and play.
Revenues, payrolls & winning in the NHL
I am currently taking Sports Economics at UM and earlier in the semester, I had to complete a project regarding revenues, payrolls, and winning in the NHL. I got an A- on the paper and would have gotten an A except I did not include the two-team diagram graph that was apparently required. The paper analyzes the correlational relationships between the 1993-1994 and 2003-2004 seasons in terms of revenues, payrolls, and winning.
After analyzing the data, I believe the two-team diagram theory appropriately applies to the NHL over the ten-year span from 1993-1994 through 2003-2004. After completing this project, I was able to interview the Wings’ capologist (Ryan Martin) and ask him if he believed that higher payrolls led to more winning in the NHL. He said, “Generally speaking no…The New York Rangers have the revenue to pay the big payroll.†Last year, which was just two seasons after the lockout, the top four teams in terms of payroll under the salary cap were the New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, and the Detroit Red Wings (Martin). Only two of those four teams, the Red Wings and Devils, made the playoffs that season. Detroit was the only team of the four to make it to their respective conference finals. As Martin suggested, these teams are able to have the big payroll under the salary cap because their market generates the revenue enabling them to do so, which is supported by the two-team diagram.
To read my 8.5 page paper, which is considerably less if you remove the graphs and tables, simply click here.
I am currently working on my final project, which I got to create the topic myself and is centered around the Wings’ attendance woes so I will definitely be posting my paper sometime in late December after the project has been turned in and graded.
“Heroes” attend LA Kings games
So I just finished watching the first season of the NBC hit show Heroes this week and it was amazing. Definitely my favorite TV show over the past few years (and I’m a 24 addict). Anyways, I saw that a couple members of the Heroes cast have attended LA Kings games this season, including my favorite actor of the Heroes cast (Milo Ventimiglia). I support any attractive actor who likes hockey so to honor that statement, here are some photos:
Milo (from Heroes) & John (from The Office)
Hayden and Milo (from Heroes)
Hayden and Milo with the Stanley Cup
Milo before a Kings meet and greet this season
I love Center Ice
Now that I’m out of the dorms and in my own apartment, I was finally able to purchase Center Ice for my TV. It’s pretty much amazing. Thursday night I got back home late, but I was still able to catch the San Jose and Edmonton game in the third period and then as it went into overtime and then a shootout. Upon completion of that game, I switched over to watch the Flyers beat the Flames in Calgary with two goals by Daniel Briere. It’s so nice to actually be able to watch Eastern Conference teams that I normally don’t get to see very much. I’m especially looking forward to seeing the Pittsburgh and Rangers match ups.
Since I’ve been busy working the Wings games, I haven’t had a real chance to enjoy an entire game. Center Ice lets me do that and just appreciate watching the game of hockey even if I don’t particularly care for which team on the ice wins and I love that.
It’s definitely worth the $149 it cost me and I can’t wait to enjoy it the rest of the season! You can enjoy a free preview through October 9th.