Friday night, the Yanks don’t play until 10p, so how about the Islanders Army “Bag of Pucks” link dump makes an appearance this summer?
This coming season will see the return of 3rd jerseys returning to the NHL after a one season hiatus. This tip comes from Howard Berger’s blog, one of the Toronto Sports Talk radio guys - who says he’s seen pictures of most of them. Seems like a pretty solid tip to me, I’ll keep my eye open for pics.
The Isles are going back to their original road jersey from 1972-73, when they joined the NHL along with the Atlanta Flames. It is a royal-blue base, with broad orange and white stripes on the arms and at the bottom of the jersey. The uniform numbers – as they appeared during the club’s inaugural season – are orange with white trim. Player names will also be orange. The Islanders switched to white jersey numbers after their dreadful first year in the league; when they compiled a 12-60-6 record… worst, to that point, in NHL history.
…so consider the following SI.com photo gallery link 27,000 words about how the Islanders became synonymous with “suck”, “circus”, and “farce”. Thanks to an old co-worker/Toronto fan for the link. No really, you shouldn’t have. Great to hear from you too…how’s that Jason Blake signing working out?
Watch the Isles go from this proud moment - Stanley Cup Champions, top of the world…
To this confused mess, throwing money into a seemingly bottomless pit…
All your favorite Islander low-lites are accounted for…Ron Hextall, Fishsticks, John Spano, Alexei Yashin, Dale Hunter, Dave Chyzowski, Brett Lindros, Don Maloney, Kirk Muller, Mad Mike Milbury, Neil Smith, Cryin’ Ryan Smyth, and the aging Nassau Coliseum. Normally I’m not big on Vanilla Ice quotes, but “Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know!” is just too fitting for this franchise.
We don’t know who will be behind the bench that night, but we now know when the Islanders 2008-09 season will start. The NHL released the 08-09 schedule yesterday.
The New York Islanders 2008-09 full season schedule has been released and features 15 Saturday home games, nine matinee home games, including five on holidays, and two home games on Sunday afternoon. The Islanders will open the season on the road on Friday, October 10th at New Jersey before returning for the home opener on Saturday, October 11th vs. St. Louis.
Single-game tickets are scheduled to go on sale at the Nassau Coliseum box office on the morning of Saturday, September 13th. The Islanders will also announce the 2008-09 partial plans in the coming weeks.
Also of note is the 2009 NHL Winter Classic which will feature the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings taking on the Chicago Blackhawks outdoors at Wrigley Field on January 1st, 2009. I’m disappointed they didn’t choose Yankee Stadium for this game, but considering the NHL was going to leave the Islanders out of the game anyways, it’s just as well. The rumor mill has it that a future Winter Classic could still come to NYC at the new Yankee Stadium.
Do you like hockey? Do you have a degree in business, marketing, or PR? Then you could be the NHL’s next Marketing Manager!! Hang with Gary Bettman and make bad decision after bad decision, like glow pucks, Versus over ESPN, 30 new jerseys just to make your corporate cronies at RBK happy, and All-Star games on a Wednesday.
Summary:
The Marketing Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management and implementation of League directed marketing efforts for the National Hockey League.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities:
The ideal candidate will communicate insights from consumer research and develop integrated marketing strategies, plans and tactics that leverage those insights into achieving the League’s short- and long-term marketing and business objectives. Facilitate day-to-day relationships and implement the integration of League-directed marketing efforts across internal departments, the 30 clubs, NHLPA, broadcast partners and corporate partners. Lead the production of fully integrated marketing communications campaigns that include television, radio, print, digital, outdoor, collateral/POS and integration into editorial content. Facilitate day-to-day relationships with marketing and advertising agency partners to ensure the work being created meets all League expectations and requirements – including the development of briefs, presentations and productions.
In addition, the Marketing Manager will lead the production of fully integrated marketing communications campaigns that include television, radio, print, digital, outdoor, collateral/POS and integration into editorial content, collaborate with internal departments to develop marketing plans that meet their objectives, and then manage the execution of that plan with the Creative Services department to concept and produce marketing/advertising materials.
The Marketing Manager will support the Events department on the development of creative ideas and materials for League events, support the Corporate Sales department with updated consumer insights, marketing strategies/materials and sponsorship ideas customized to the company being pitched and manage and determine the proper distribution of League-controlled marketing assets/inventory across all of the organization’s marketing needs.
In addition, the Manager will develop, manage and maintain media and production budgets for both the League marketing department initiatives, as well as the marketing initiatives of other internal departments as well as identify new and creative marketing ideas and partnerships to benefit the business objectives of the League.
Too. Good. To be true.
The NHL filed court papers Wednesday that included a draft letter from commissioner Gary Bettman proposing discipline against Madison Square Garden, L.P., that could lead to suspension or termination of its ownership of the Rangers.
In its court filing, the NHL asked a judge to agree Madison Square Garden breached its contract by challenging league rules.
This may be the best move Gary Bettman has made in his entire tenure as commish.
In case you missed the (yawn!) oh-so-exciting news out of Toronto last night, the NHL held the 2008 Draft Lottery last night in Toronto. Absolutely nothing changed - Tampa Bay ended up with the #1 pick, Islanders the #5. What was the point of last night again?
Anyways, Sean Leahy’s got some humorous pictures from last night and fake Bossy quotes on his blog. Check it out.
The NHL just posted their playoff promo commercials to YouTube. There’s “Tighter” with Ryan Getzlaf, “City” with Roberto Luongo, and in a most unfortunate pairing of bad timing and bad wording…”Shorthanded” with Daniel Alfredsson.
Oops. Is anyone in the NHL Marketing Department an actual hockey fan?? Do they not get the NHL Network in the office? Did they not see this hit last night? None of the NHL suits thought it might be a good idea NOT to release that last commercial?
The Sens (if they make the playoffs) are going to be “shorthanded” for the first couple of weeks of the playoffs. Captain Alfredsson is expected to miss 1-2 weeks time between that hit and a knee injury also suffered last night.
The NHL Tournament of Logos blog has graduated from logos and is moving onto determining the “best goalie mask” with a series of polls. Today’s matchup pits the Isles’ own Wade Dubielewicz vs. Nikolai Khabibulin. Sorry Doobie, but I H-A-T-E that stupid %$#^@&*! Gordon’s Fisherman logo with a passion…I had to vote for “The Bulin Wall”. Get your vote on either way, and check the Tournament of Logos blog often to see how the voting turns out.
We haven’t covered the possible Yankee Stadium NHL outdoor game very much here this season, despite talks about the game coming closer and closer to reality. That’s because every article about the game has the Rangers scheduled for the game in permanent marker, while the list of possible opponents is written in pencil, with the Islanders at the bottom of that list. The NHL (and NBC) suits feel a NYI/NYR outdoor game is too NYC-centric and won’t draw any interested outside of the metro area. It’s really not looking good for the Isles to take part in this game if it happens. However, the Isles now have one notable supporter in their corner - ESPN’s “Bucci” - John Buccigross makes a case to include the Islanders in his latest blog column. We’ll take all the support we can get, even if half of Bucci’s support is based on pity for our fallen franchise.
The Rangers-Islanders rivalry would light up a rink, burst through the television screen and earn very good ratings. It is one of those regular-season games that truly feels like a playoff game. Thats what makes any outdoor game better. A hard-hitting, meaningful battle is the cherry on top of all the Yankee Stadium marketing the game will receive.
You might find two other U.S.-based teams with a rivalry close to Islanders-Rangers, but you wont find a better one. And having the game in New York makes the most sense if its Islanders-Rangers, as much sense as a Blackhawks-Red Wings game in Wrigley Field or a Penguins-Flyers game at Penn State.
It is good sense and would help a franchise in need of a little help, a franchise that has a passionate owner who had a passionate-GM-turned-good-television-analyst make very bad trades. Sports are meant to be played, watched and experienced with passion, but administered with cold, calculating thought. The Islanders learned that the hard way.
Cmon, NHL, give the Islanders a break. Give them a reason to believe, some faith, some hope. Everybody will win. Even Oleg Kvasha.
