November 6th Column

The NHL needs to make friends (pardon that obligatory joke) with MySpace. It can really promote anything to an audience that advertisers have been trying to get to for years: Horny old perverted men!



No, just kidding, there are one or two teenages on that site. Look at the movie "Borat." If there is no MySpace, does Sacha Baron Cohen's "moviefilm" go on to make more than No. 4 prostitute in Kazakhstan? Seriously, the film made much more than anyone expected, around $25-30 million. That's in only 800 theatres. To put that in perspective, Tim Allen's "Santa Clause 3" made $20 million in over 3,000 cinemas across the country.

Get Versus, NBC and Tom together and promote the league!

In honor of that idea, here's my list of 5 NHL figures that would make great MySpace friends:

5. Sidney Crosby - You know he's totally the guy who only has a lot of MySpace friends 'cuz they all wanna see the girl's he's friends with.

4. Sean Avery - Because everyone posts pictures of their girlfriend on MySpace! Kim Bauer in a Kings jersey, here we come.

3. Keith Tkachuk - Not as much a MySpace page as a map of every Burger King, McDonalds and Wendy's in the greater St. Louis area. Could come in handy some time.

2. Larry Brooks - A great friend, even though he would TOTALLY start drama between you and your friends, saying stuff like "He'll never give into your demands to go out this weekend, because he's too strong of a person. It will never happen. NEVER".

1. Gary Bettman - Who doesn't wanna wake up to a message about how everything is great in your life? Here's how one might go:

"Your friend amounts are up, and while you may be staggered by constant interferences during your day, more people overall are enjoying coming to watch you in person."

With that, we must encourage the NHL to be a leader when it comes to integrating with MySpace and YouTube...

Speaking of which, the NHL HAS gone in the right step including Google Video as one of it's partners, showing full games (on delay) as well as classics. I must say, it's a lot of fun to be able to watch Game 6 of the 1980 Finals on my time. The NHL, however, has a lack of classic clips from 1995-2004 so far. Are you going that far to hide the hideous Glow Puck from all of us?

Let's talk about Jobing.com Arena. Yes, you heard me, Jobing.com Arena. It's the new name for the Glendale Arena in suburban Phoenix, and I must say, it's really embarrassing. It would be more embarrassing however, if this team were actually worth the time of day.

Check out Islanders TV at NewYorkIslanders.com. It's on a free preview now, and it's free for Isles season ticket holders (and I'm sure Johnny from Uniondale enjoys it very much) right now. Great stuff, including full practices (with and without commentary), features on Isles legends, Bridgeport Sound Tiger games, and a feature on the Islander IceGirls. With the diminishing coverage of the NHL in the mainstream media, other teams need to hop on this bandwagon.

Don't expect the logjam in the Eastern Conference's Atlantic Division to die down anytime soon. These teams don't really mix it up with each other for a while. The Devils play the Rangers, Penguins and Islanders only a combined five times between now and January 1st, whereas after the new year, they meet those three 16 times. The Rangers play the other three teams only eight times, the Penguins only nine times, and the Isles only eight times. Do expect at least one of these clubs to drop down before a three-team sprint to the finish around March. It might be just as good as last year's race, which saw the whole thing won with five minutes left in the season.

-SFM-