Entries with the tag: hockey+fans

Third Jersey? Pfffft.  Just Get Naked and Play with Crayons.

by Alanah McGinley on 07/11/08 at 11:36 AM
Comments (9)

Busted Coverage comes across a new art form:

We’re not sure how Philadelphia Flyers center Jeff Carter’s jersey was selected to grace the naked body of this model. It doesn’t really matter.

The most important nugget here, brahs, is that naked body painting has now invaded the sports world…

Naked Body Art + Flyers Fan = ??

Photos of one serious Jeff Carter fan…

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Unexpected Hockey Fans

by Alanah McGinley on 06/23/08 at 04:02 PM
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Baroque—who contributes her entertaining genius frequently to the comments of this website, as well as her own posts at HockeyTownTodd—made a comment on this post yesterday that stuck in my head.  She said, “It’s funny how people fall for hockey that you wouldn’t expect to.”

Earlier today I was sorting through the piles of junk on my hard drive and I came across this article I’d kept handy from the LA Daily News.  Written by Tom Hoffarth, it was originally published in January of this year.

I think it’s a great story and it relates to Baroque’s remark rather well so I thought I’d point to it now.  Enjoy.

Paying Up Foolish Hockey Bets

by Alanah McGinley on 06/10/08 at 01:31 PM
Comments (3)

Noted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

When the Penguins lost to Detroit, so did Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers. He made a bet with Detroit Free Press cartoonist Mike Thompson that he’d don a Red Wings jersey if the Pens went down. Today, Rob made good on his wager.

Go here to see the video. 

I have a pile of sympathy for that guy—I lost a similarly horrid bet about a year ago.
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*with thanks to Stu Hackel in the NYT for the link

Perspective on a Nice Kid

by Alanah McGinley on 05/29/08 at 06:12 PM
Comments (16)

A warning in advance—this post is more personal than hockey-ish. But that seems appropriate today.

When the news came in about Luc Bourdon’s death this morning, I had been idly writing a post I’d been pondering over the last few days.  I’d been thinking on the subject of how hockey fans might sometimes benefit from a perspective served by less “analysis” and more “passion.”

I think that hockey fans—while blessed with a remarkable depth of media coverage (particularly online) of their favorite sport—also lose something with all that exposure.  That after a point, perhaps the endless analysis and critique makes us cold to the emotional connection and passion we once had for the game.

And so hockey becomes something which is no longer about our childhood heroes and their beautiful, skillful plays. Instead we become preoccupied with the most finite statistics and breakdowns, and occasionally mean-spirited (rather than useful) criticism. 

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Chicks and Sports Don’t Mix?

by Alanah McGinley on 05/21/08 at 01:22 PM
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Den Cotton at the National Sports Review is having some fun… although maybe a bit more than that:

Perhaps I’ve been drinking too much of the Colin Cowherd Kool-aid, but I’ve realized female sports fans are messing with the natural order of things — and that is turning me into a chauvinistic, repressive fool.

As I recall, Colin has spoken about the upsides — a requirement even — of having a relationship with a girl who doesn’t love sports. Now I don’t want to get Colin in too much trouble because he has a lot of smart female fans who call into his show. But I don’t want to date them, no matter how hot they are.

And for bonus points:

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Technology & Hockey Fans

by Alanah McGinley on 05/05/08 at 02:17 PM
Comments (11)

Video may have killed the radio star, but HDTV has sure been good at resurrecting the hockey fan.  I came across this from Lynn Kiesling at the Technophobiac Finance Blog:

But the economics of technological change is reviving my love of hockey. When we moved back into our renovated house at the end of March, we also bought ... a 40” LCD 1080p high-definition TV. We hooked it up on a Sunday, and what was the first thing we saw when we turned it on? A Penguins-Rangers game. In Pittsburgh. And the Pens won.

All I can say is this: woof. Hockey is fabulous in HD. Of course I’m watching my Penguins (and I got home from my woolly weekend in enough time yesterday to see them win the series against the Rangers in overtime, yay!), but I’m also watching the other series. Because it just looks so freaking awesome in HD.

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Canucks Fans are Certifiable

by Alanah McGinley on 04/23/08 at 04:38 PM
Comments (3)

In ESPN The Magazine they’ve taken 122 sports franchises (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL) and had 80,000 fans rank their favorite team by a variety of measures. (Check out all the rankings, or your own favorite team, here).

Looking at Vancouver, fans’ dissatisfaction is seen in ranking their team at 91st place—meaning fans of 90 other teams were happier with their organization than Canuck fans are.  (Of all the Canadian teams, only Toronto fans were more disgusted with their club, ranking at 121st place). 

Which prompted this quick assessment from ESPN’s Brian Kamenetzky:

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Leafs Fans Need a Safe Haven

by Alanah McGinley on 03/04/08 at 09:28 PM
Comments (4)

Toronto fans: Are you looking for a team to make it through the long, cold nights ahead?  William Houston at the Globe & Mail inspired me tonight when he questioned: Whatever will CBC do without Toronto on the schedule?  And it’s coming.

Despite the cheery optimism of Mats Sundin & Co., the Toronto Maple Leafs are unlikely to make the playoffs.

Still, the conversation on the most recent Hockey Night focused almost entirely on the Leafs, 12th in the Eastern Conference.

The national hockey media’s preoccupation with the Leafs is hardly news, but it does encourage me to extend an olive branch to Leafs fans. 

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Hockey Kitsch

by Alanah McGinley on 12/17/07 at 01:09 PM
Comments (1)

Like nearly everyone else lately, I’ve had the urge to window shop around the internet for hockey-related gift ideas one might stumble across. 

I started out by thinking about what we, as fans, could give our favorite teams this year.  But nothing they need is all that easy to find (*or Vancouver would have picked up a couple of scoring forwards by now); and besides, they can afford their own presents. (I did manage to find a nice personal gift for Kirk Maltby however, which I’ll share later.)

Meanwhile, I wandered through some major retailers to find some unique hockey items for fans.* (Of course “unique” generally just means odd.)

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