New England Hockey Talk

[MGB Boy]

[bethandlouis]

See that's what I'm tallking about! Really get your heart pumping music. Much better than the Price is Right theme.

Finally persuaded Louis out of his cocoon. We will be up around noon on Saturday. Where are we meeting? I'm really excited!!

A very bad day at work. Well, not really a bad day at work just something bad that happened. Louis found out that his company is sending him to Dublin for a week of work. The week happens to be the week of Valentine's Day. So I came up with the great idea of going with him. I've always wanted to see Ireland and hey it's on someone else's dime (I would just have to pay for my airfare). So I requested it off of work. Forgot that it was the week of our inventory until I put it in. So wasn't sure I would get it off. Tonight I said to one of the managers I need to know if I got it off so I can buy the plane ticket (Aer Lingus having a sale right now). And he said the GM hasn't talked to you. All he said to me was you know that is the week of inventory. Then the GM comes over and starts with the "I can't give it to you because if I give it to you I have to give it to everyone...Remember the meeting where I said there would be no more vacations approved during black out periods (to wit I said that there were plenty of people out for Christmas).... Then he said why do you people always ask for time off when you know you can't have it? That statement made me mad. Don't give it to me you don't need to explain why but don't make it sound like I planned it this way. I let work know the day that I found out. There wasn't any malice in it. Louis and I both knew that it would be difficult to get off (since I actually work) but it was almost like it was a punishment for being a good worker. There were 1,000,000 different ways he could have said that so it didn't make me feel like he thought I was being sneaky. I just hate that!

[MGB Boy]

Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive...

Yeah, I think I'd rather have "The Price is Right" stuck in my head. Actually, I prefer something like "Warrior's Code" by the Dropkick Murphys or the Real McKenzies version of "Swords of a Thousand Men". Something to anger things up.

In the interests of my own laziness, it would probably be easiest to meet here at my place. You've already got the directions, of course.

I'm unfortunate insofar as I have a job with no fixed schedule (some days I have meetings at 9am, some days I have meetings at 9pm) and involvement with people around the world (which means at this time many nights, I'm trading notes with the Singapore part of my team). But turn that around and I'm also fortunate insofar as I have a job with no fixed schedule (just do your job and get your stuff done, boss doesn't care if it's 6am - 2pm or 11am - 7pm or whatever else, if you need to take a couple hours midday for lunch or appointments or whatever, go for it). I'm also glad that I have no requirement to be anywhere in particular (working remote is encouraged, I can work from anywhere with wi-fi, including home), and most importantly I have a boss who understands that our lives outside of work are more important than our lives at work, so if something comes up outside work that we need to take care of, if an opportunity comes up that we want to take, if we have a vacation we want to go on, go for it. So that's nice. Just about the only time when I really really really couldn't go anywhere, when I'd really need to be there would be during a corporate audit of our business practices (since I'm the business controls guru for my department), but aside from that (which is a once every few years event, meaning we're due to have one soon), it's all wide open. And for stuff like going to Latham/Peabody to get the MINI serviced, my boss tells me to just go and don't worry about burning a vacation day. So that's nice. My job can be very free-form and there's no one looking over my shoulder, which is nice because I can do things my way on my time, but bad because they give me way more than enough rope to hang myself, so I need to exercise a fair bit of discipline, which is sometimes a struggle. But I'm figuring it out...

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

Louis works from home. Has since we moved. About 7 months ago his company was bought out by another company (locally in Maryland). This company has offices in Dubln, Portland (Or) and China (as well as the Maryland office). He had to make a trip to Portland. He rarely has to go to Maryland (I think he's had to go 2 times). But other than working at home he doesn't have any flexibility. Since the merger he's hated his job. He doesn't feel like he has any job security (even though they constantly tell him he does) He one of those negative thinker who thinks he has no marketable skills (even though he does). I was just really upset at how the situation at work was handled.

Looks like the Caps lost. Louis worked until midnight last night and didn't check to see if there was a game on so I didn't get to see it. But it's never fun watching a 5-2 loss so I'm sure I didn't miss anything.

[MGB Boy]

There's a column on NHL.com today (NHL.com - Community) trying to allay fears about the new jersey designs that are about to be unveiled. The NHL seems to be really nervous about it, and they seem keenly aware that there is a great deal of fan sentiment against any change in the jerseys even before the changes are shown. So they are rolling out the PR campaign full steam, to try and make it seem like there's someone out there besides Gary Bettman and the folks at Rbk/CCM who think this is a good idea. They've designated a few players to be the official voices of the players on the new unis, and naturally these hand-chosen few (such as Daniel Briere and J.P. Dumont) are giving well-scripted answers about how much they love the new jerseys and how the league, Rbk, and the players all worked together to come up with a great product, etc. When you start hearing from players who are outside that circle, the ones who haven't been pushed into shilling the new jerseys, opinions are less supportive. From Larry Brooks in the NY Post:

Propaganda Alert! Scheduled to unveil its new uniform design at a press event in New York on Wednesday, the NHL will attempt to control the message from the players through talking points distributed by a PR agency.

"To assist us in the launch, we have hired public relations agency Fleishman-Hillard to collaborate with NHL players in the role of player advocacy, so that we will build consensus, keep everyone informed and educated, and work toward a product launch that will reflect well on the league, Reebok and the players whose input was - and will remain - critical to all phases of this project," reads a memo distributed by the league to its teams last week, and obtained by Slap Shots.

"Jim Woodcock of Fleishman-Hillard will lead this player-advocacy effort on behalf of the league. It is imperative that you make connection with Jim this week to arrange a phone meeting with your player(s) who have been identified as advocates and leaders in our transition to the [Reebok] Edge Uniform System.

"With the timing of the New York news event only one week away, time is of the essence as we build toward a successful introduction of the uniform system."

We have a couple of questions. Well, more than a couple, but this will suffice:

If the new "uniform system" is welcomed by the players, why would the league need to identify three players per team as spokesmen to flog the product?

Why would the league need to instruct the players how to answer questions from people like me?

We have this question, too: When will the players stop going, "Baaaahhhh?"

Articles like that and like this one from San Jose and this one on NBC Sports (one of the NHL's own broadcast partners, no less) have the league feeling pretty defensive about the changes. Honestly, the "this is bad" stories that I've read about the new jerseys have outnumber the "this is good" stories by about 15 to 1. We'll find out soon enough. Who knows, maybe it will actually look good. I'm trying to keep an open mind but I'm fully prepared to be righteously indignant about yet another wrong-headed change to my game. Hearing lots of murming about how these new unis are going to be "edgy" and "out there" to appeal to the kids, all of which makes me exceedingly nervous. Past attempts by the league to be "edgy" and "out there" to appeal to the kids have been disasters...





Speaking of which, next year they're switching back to having the home team where white, which I'm not a big fan of. Back in the day, the home team wore dark (Bruins wore black at home, Leafs wore blue, Wings wore red, etc.). Right up thru the Bobby Orr days, that's how they did it. I prefer it, but apparently it confuses Americans because they are used to the home team wearing white. Whatever.

Oh, and here's a uniform note for you: Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said, “We will eventually go back to red, white, and blue [as the team’s colors].”

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

So is this the end to the third jersey? Rumor was going around with the new uniforms they are phasing out the thirds. There are a lot of people that are fans of the old Caps jerseys. People still wear them (and companies still make them) It wouldn't upset me to go back to the same color scheme. I really hated the old caps logo though. The Caps are currently wearing their white aways and the dark thirds (at home). I also prefer to have the dark colors at home. It didn't make any sense to me to have it be white at home. As a non-follower of other sports I have no idea how to tell the difference between home and away (does it really matter that much?). In high school our football team wore black at home and white away I don't think that high school sports is a completely foriegn thing to Americans.

I really wish they would stop shoving hockey down people's throat, people aren't going to start to like hockey because of svelt jersey's. This is really about RBK making money not making the league better. Is KOHO still making jersey's? or were they part of the RBKing of the NHL?

[MGB Boy]

No more third jerseys, supposedly. I like the "throwback" third jerseys that teams like Boston and Toronto and Vancouver use, I wouldn't mind keeping those.

When Reebok (they were still Reebok at the time, not Rbk) bought The Hockey Company (THC), they got ownership of all the brands which THC had accumulated over the years; CCM, Koho, Jofa, Titan, Canadien, and Heaton. They have since killed off or are in the process of killing off Koho, Jofa, Titan, Canadien, and Heaton, leaving only CCM and Rbk. Now Adidas has bought Rbk, but at this point they have no plans to kill the Rbk hockey brand and replace that with Adidas. Although a special "Run DMC" edition goalpad would amuse me. Anyhow, when they killed off the other brands, it became a bargain shopping bonanza. I got my current Koho skates dirt cheap because they were discontinued (only to be replaced with the exact same skate with a Rbk logo).

Likewise, when Nike bought the Canstar Group (Bauer, Cooper, Flak, Daoust, Micron, Mega and Lange) in the mid 90s, they killed off every brand except Bauer. For those of us who grew up outfitted in Cooper gear, this was particularly galling. My first goalie pads were Cooper. I play with a few guys who still have Cooper gear they wear.

Tradition means nothing anymore. All these brands were part of hockey history. Over time, market economics meant that dozens of scattered little brands were merged up into bigger and bigger groups, then the two big overlords of the sneaker business came in, bought the two main groups, killed 90% of the old brand names, and installed themselves atop the food chain. I'll be interested to see what happens to Bauer next. Nike took the step this season of officially merging the two brands, so there is no longer Nike hockey gear and Bauer hockey gear, it is all branded as "Nike Bauer" and contains both the swoosh and the Bauer logo. I wonder if they'll eventually ditch Bauer completely.



So you have the two 900 pound gorillas, plus some smaller gorillas like Itech/Mission, Easton, and TPS, then some truly smaller independents like Warrior and Eagle. Eagle started out doing just goalie stuff, they've since branched out into forwards too. Just about the only places where small independents are still "major players" is goaltending, with companies like Vaughn, Brian's, and Sher-wood taking significant chunks of marketshare from the 900 pound gorillas (Sher-wood still do stuff for forwards, but mostly just sticks. They are focusing more and more on goalie equipment these days). Plus there are little companies like Brown, Smith, and McKenney that still make only goalie gear and do it by hand. Actually, Nike Bauer has pretty much fallen right on it's face in the goalie world. They've only got a couple pros using the Bauer Supreme, and as far as I know only one (Budaj) using the Bauer Vapor (which was their big revolutionary pad that they bet the farm on, which then failed completely to get a footing in the marketplace).

I like supporting the independents, guys who actually listen to the customers. When I get new pads, I can trade notes directly with the production manager at Vaughn about what modifications I want done, and they'll do anything I ask for, no extra charge. Structural changes to the pad? No problem. Change the graphics? No problem. Same for Brian's. Rbk, on the other hand, are notorious for doing no customer requested mods. If you aren't in the NHL, you can get your pads one way and one way only: Stock. Rbk reps have been known to actually throw the line "and what team do you play for?" when piddly little non-NHL customers ask for mods. And they won't do custom graphics even for NHLers, they don't want it to mess up their "brand awareness" efforts. The Vaughn gear I buy is made in one of two plants in London Ontario and Oxford Michigan. All Christian sticks are made in Warroad Minnesota. All Brian's gear is made in Kingsville Ontario. Companies like Rbk and Nike Bauer, the majority of their gear is now farmed out to contractor factories in China, even the "pro level" stuff. So I stick with companies like Vaughn for my pads and Christian for my sticks, smaller companies who care about the little guy and make custom gear by hand in non-sweatshop locations...

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

Christian is a brand that I've heard of (only heard of it because of the 1980 olympic team). I thought that I saw a goalie a couple of nights ago with a Bauer stick (no nike business at all).

[MGB Boy]

The Nike Bauer goal sticks look like this:

Maybe the swoosh was lost in a reflection. Or maybe it came off. The graphics on these particular sticks are a decal, not painted on, and there have been a lot of complaints that they peel/flake/chip off with just minor contact with pucks or the ice. Or maybe it was a goalie with an old stick that he just won't let go of...

-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

Nope, didn't have the swoosh. It was old school LARGE letters Bauer across the paddle. I wish I could remember who it was...It took me a while but I finally figured it out. It was Khabibulin (http://www.chicagoblackhawks.com/ass...paper_1600.jpg) I don't know how recent that shot is but I watched the Hawks game and that's where I saw it. I was starting to think it was Thomas Vokoun but some searching has him with Sher-Wood.

So the cupcake factory starts tomorrow. Baking tomorrow, icing on friday. I'm not a fan of chocolate so I opted for the always safe yellow mix. It should be fun.

[MGB Boy]

Ahhh, Khabibulin. He was one of the last hold-outs (since he was using a wood Bauer 4500 rather than the composite NikeBauer Vapor), but even he's given in now. Here's a few shots from Chicago's games against Detroit, Columbus, and Buffalo in the past week... Everyone must submit to the all-powerful Swoosh sooner or later! I think his pads and gloves are actually from last year when they were still labelled as just "Bauer". All they did was remove the old graphics and put new ones on...

-Ricardo

[MGB Boy]

Some more backpedalling from the League on the new uniforms. At first, they were supposed to be tucked in. The players and the GMs hated it, and it was dumped. Then they were supposed to be as tight as Nike's "swift jerseys" from the Olympics. The players and the GMs hated it, and they were loosened up. Then everyone was supposed to follow the new template and re-design their jerseys to emphasize vertical lines and constrasting side-panels, with the traditional horizontal striping on the elbows and hemline due to go extinct. As of even a few days ago, that was still the party line. Now here's the latest revision, as quoted in Thursday's USA Today:

All 30 NHL clubs will have the opportunity to redesign their individual looks this summer, says Jennings. Hockey uniforms for teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens are revered as the best in any sport. Any change causes fierce debate. The Buffalo Sabres unveiled a new jersey last season. While some fans like it, critics say the new logo looks more like a "Buffaslug" than a bison.

Says Jennings: "There will be teams that skate out (this fall) and don't look very different. Others will have more of a vertical design."

The Jennings quoted is Brian Jennings, the NHL's executive vice president of consumer products marketing. Not sure it's ever a good thing when someone with the phrase "consumer products marketing" is involved in messing with the core traditions of the game (although it does lay bare exactly what this is all about, in case there was anyone still left doubting). But I do like the fact that the party line has changed from "all teams will redesign their jerseys" to "all teams will have the opportunity to redesign their jerseys." That leaves hope for the nice old school jerseys like the Hawks, Bruins, Habs, and Wings. Every step of the way, since this whole uniform redesign issue first reared it's head just after the lockout ended, Rbk and the NHL have come into fierce resistance from those who understand and respect hockey's traditions, and every step of the way they've dialed back just how different and radical the redesign will be. It amuses me. In the end, I don't know how different things will even be.

Sidney Crosby in the 2007 All Star uniform, which uses the new jersey template:



Looks a lot tighter in the arms, and the socks look like spandex. The real fun will be when all 30 teams show what they will be wearing next year, that's when things have the potential to get ugly if some teams go too far. I suspect we won't have answers to that until late in the summer. But hey, it ought to make it cheaper to buy an "old style" authentic jersey for a while, as they churn thru all the old inventory!

-Ricardo


-Ricardo

[bethandlouis]

I don't like them. Nope, not at all. I've wanted to order a Germany sweater and keep wandering over to the sight that sells them but the thing holding me back is the stupid cut. Does the new uniforms make it easier to play in? I think that will be the real question. Is there any benefit at all to the play or is this purely for looks? The socks (if that's what you can call them) look very strange. Do they stand up better? Will the players have to tape them on, like they do now? Men aren't supposed to show their sexy curves, they are supposed to look as big as possible. Has Gary Bettman ever hear of evolution? Survival of the fittest? (Of course I'm not being serious) I am serious about hating the new jerseys.

Maybe Boston will bring back the bear, wouldn't that make you happy ?

[MGB Boy]

Word on the street is that there are pros and cons to the new socks. Pro: They are tight enough that you don't need to tape up your shinpads. Con: They have a smooth texture. With the knit socks they've been wearing forever, when a player hits the ice it's moderately abrasive, and you slow to a stop pretty quickly. I'm told that with these new ones, if a player falls to his knees, he'll just keep on sliding until he hits something (boards or another player). I don't wear hockey socks (I wear soccer socks in really garish patterns just because it amuses me), so I'm totally indifferent to the functional pros and cons. I just like the look of the knit socks better.

The cut of the jersey: From what I gather, for Johnny Average buying an authentic jersey in the new style, there will be a learning curve. Replica jerseys aren't made to the same cut (either now or in the new style), so no biggie there, your size is your size with those. But I'm told that someone who likes, say, a size 52 in a current jersey (be it for on-ice or for casual wear), might need to order a 56 in the new style in order to get a jersey that has a similar degree of roominess. So if you want a jersey to look like a current jersey and fit like a current jersey, you have to order bigger. The intent is that in the NHL, they won't order bigger, a guy who wears a 52 now will wear a 52 in the new cut and will just have to get used to the different fit. But for someone looking for a jersey to wear to the rink, that's a different matter.

Supposedly, because of the materials used, even though it's a tighter cut, it feels even less restrictive than the looser current jersey. At least that's what guys like Lecavalier and Crosby are saying. Bear in mind that they are both paid CCM/Rbk endorsers, so they have a good motivation $$ to say so. The new jersey is supposed to weigh about six ounces less (the weight of a puck), and the fabric changes are supposed to wick away water better (although I've heard complaints that this water wicking means that all the moisture from your arms just pools into your gloves). So there is some "performance benefit". Although many have been saying "okay, fine, why not just continue to make the jerseys as-is but with the new materials, rather than making such a big stink about it?" Which is a fair question.

Other thoughts: Like I said, I think the advance reaction/speculation was so negative (and the early player feedback was so negative) that they intentionally backed way off from how radical it would be and instead moved it to something fairly conservative, essentially a new material and a somewhat altered cut. But I'll be interested to see what some teams do with it. I expect the old-school traditional teams to stay old-school traditional, but I can see some of the newer/recent expansion teams being easily swayed by Rbk's design team to go with something fairly wacky. But hey, they aren't NFL-tight, they aren't cyclist-tight, they aren't even Nike Swift jersey-tight, so that's cool. But I don't think I'd buy one without getting to try it on in person first, just to see how the cut feels.

Then again, I don't know if I'd buy one anyhow. I don't care how hi-tech the "Double knit polyester/spandex four way stretch pique core body" is, $350 for a non-customized blank authentic jersey is re-god-damn-diculous. US$425 if you want it lettered. If that's the pricepoint they plan to maintain when the authentics for all 30 teams go on sale sometime late this summer, then I'd suspect that sales are going to take a hell of a hit. $110 for a non-customized replica is pretty silly too. Congrats on your new plan to attract young people to your game, NHL! You will now have by far the most expensive replicas and authentics in the sports world, beating out the NFL, MLB, NBA, and top-level/premier soccer! Way to go!

But hey, think of the bargains there might be as the folks at places like River City Sports and Ice Jerseys are dumping their inventories of those icky out-of-date current jerseys when 3/4ths of the league redesign their unis over the summer! That'll be nice. Maybe it'll be like the bargains you used to be able to find a decade ago. For years and years, CCM had the exclusive jersey deal for the NHL. Then it expired and teams could go with whomever they wanted. A bunch of new faces entered the market, and teams would do things on one year deals, and they kept swapping between CCM, Starter, ProPlayer, and Nike jerseys every year. Thus the previous season's "authentic" would no longer be quite "authentic" since the team had changed brands, and they'd cut the price. Got a few bargains that way. Got a Flyers authentic customized with John LeClair (another UVMer and Vermont native) for about $115. Those were the days! Then of course the NHL stepped in and put an end to all the brand hopping, so there were no more "last year's authentic" bargains, but it was nice while it lasted...

-Ricardo

[snid]

So... umm... what's the plan for this weekend? When do I need to be where?