Unveiling Of New NHL Reebok Jersey's - The Wait Continues

Still waiting to see Reebok's 30 new NHL jerseys?

Yeah, so am I.

Seems all were getting for now is a prudent sneak peak via the All-Star duds, of what's to come.

Today was supposed to be the day of the big unveiling. Or was that last week?

The brainwashing this new idea will need in order to fly has the NHL proceeding with caution it seems. They have Sidney Crosby as its prime posterboy, conveniently signed as a Reebok spokesperson leading the way.




























They have carefully placed articles online loaded with spin about the duds effienciency that is said to make the average NHLer a whopping 8% faster due to lightness.

I wonder if former goaltender John Garrett, who once flew about a WHA ice surface in only skates and a jockstrap, took part in the testing?

Apparently, the water repelling aspect of the fibre reduces the amount of sweat a player carries, as the jersey does not soak it up. Tests on Sergei Samsonov proved inconclusive!




























What I'm the most curious about, is will the jersey's fibres still allow it to be pulled down over an opponants head during a knucklefest? Will it then shrink back, giving their puggish grins that bankrobber-in-pantyhose look?

Will Ed Belfour still be able to untread the armpit stitching all the way to his wrists, giving himself batwings the envy of Gene Simmons?

All these questions will just have to wait, I guess.

Seems the NHL feels all this time off due to the All-Star shutdown might not be the wisest time to spring these radical duds upon us.

Anyone knowing when and where they can be checked out, I'd love to know.

On second thought...


Here's a bunch of reading on the subject while you wait.

At NHL.com: Players Will Have The Edge in 2007-08 and Phil Coffey and John McGourty go "Head To Head" on the issue of the Reebok duds.


Maple Leafs Share Views Of New Jerseys






















Out To Pasture: Fire breathing horse logo not at the glue factory but don't expect to see it soon..if ever again


Lighter On Their Skates.



NHL Considering Fining Players Who Alter New Uniforms.



Bettman Defends Uniform Switch.

Colin Campbell and His 3/10 Solution

So the NHL has a big, big problem on it's hands! Scoring is down from last season's peak of 6.1 goals per game, to a sacriligious, unthinkable 5.8 percent. A whopping drop of 3 tenths of a percentage point.

You know, I've been watching games lately, wondering just where went that additional 3/10's of a goal per game. At first I surmised that it must have gone the way of Niklas Sundstrom, when he took his offensive dynamite with him to Modo in the Swedish Elite (?) League.

Then I got mathematical and deduced that the fraction in fact needed to be blamed on two teams, as it does take two teams to bring down that whopping total together. So now, that three tenths percentage actually worked out to 0.15 goals per team, per game - still totally unacceptable!

Finding myself in decimal territory - I was decimated beyond a fraction - I realized I now had to multiply this huge sum by 30 teams, if I were to find the true culprits of this critical decline. Even worse, I would have to project that total to stretch across the 36 games each team has played on average, and divide that by two once more, because is still take two teams to play a game.

All this I thought, was another job for that genius of hockey theology and reasoning, the smart as he looks, Colin Campbell.

I did, by accident, discover the source of that twitch that Gary Bettman has developed over the years, when questioned on anything to do with Canada, money, or television contracts. You know the twitch, where Bettman's chin jerks slightly to the right then up a quarter inch like an old misfunctioning typewriter.

Each time the thought of Campbell enters my mind now, I get that twitch!

Especially now that he's blathering on again, like he did last week, about the need to look at larger nets one more time. When I re-envision the enlarged nets used in the Ricoh Cup pre-season prospects tournament between Toronto, Montreal and Florida, I not only twitch, I get nausious also.

The prototype nets feature curved posts and an angled crossbar giving them an oval appearance. Either that or it was an acid hallucination!

Habs prospect and current Team Canada goalie Carey Price had nothing but fits cencoring his own expletives when asked about a bad performance he endured while being used as a ginea pig to test them out. He said that goalie would never be confortable in front of them. Price added that he could not cuddle the post without looking for holes. It was a brutal experience.

There has to be a better solution!

So back to decimating decimals I went, looking that vanishing three tenths of a goal that somehow went the way of the straight stick blade, the end to end rush, and Maple Leafs Stanley Cup parade's that faded off into the ozoneless sunset long ago.

I watched some game videos and thought I almost saw three tenths of a goal go in. I know I saw 0.15% of a goal disallowed!

I came up with some less drastic solutions like making the goal line thinner - those almost goals that almost cross the line would be make it over and be counted now. That would up the goals scored by 0.036%, at least. Shave a sixteenth of a inch off the puck - who'd even notice! More pucks would surely fit in between the pipes and avoid hitting them as obliquely. That could raise goals scored an additional 0.712. While we're at it, scrape some of that red paint off the posts themselves - there must be a good 10 coats and touch ups on there per season. There goes another 0.252!

If I can just find something / anything that provides for another 0.50 increase, well then, then...we're right back where we started last year.

After rolling back salaries 24%, and reducing goalie pads in size, maybe this is what's coming next?

Maybe they should try something novel, something that's not been done in decades. Something akin to leaving the game well enough alone.

Stick with re-aligning those divisions. Flip-flop Atlanta and Columbus - nobody really cares. Balance the schedule so everybody sees all teams in a given year and it will please the majority.

I haven't heard one person yet, speak up to suggest they do not want to see Crosby and Ovechkin play their teams. In a few years they might wish they had!

As far as my previously suggested alterations go, I've sharpened my aim. Make Colin Campbell's portfolio of responsability thinner. Shave his time spent speaking to the media with an axe. Scrape the clueless expression off his face. Reduce the amount of access to he has to league statistical knowledge - he's quite dangerous with numbers.

Maybe then I'll get a 24% rollback on my twitch!

What's a Commissioner To Do - Part 1

In the Funk and Wagnell's dictionary, a commission is described as follows: The act of committing to the charge of another; authorization or command to act as follows.

Commissioner is thus defined in this manner: A public official in charge of a department; in baseball, etc, an official selected as a supreme authority.

I have my qualms with the "official selected as supreme authority" statement.

While there is a tendency to see it that way, in general terms, it is somewhat misleading. "Selected" should read "hired", "supreme authority" should be considered "focal point" or "person entailed with the enforcement of policy."

Who determines the commissioners agenda? Who entrusts the commissioner with undertaking and executing the wide scope of league issues? Who fires or relieves a commissioner from duty?

The answer to all the above is, of course, the league itself - meaning the various team owners, team presidents, and members of those teams executive boards of governors.









The "supreme authority" misnomer is most often associated with baseball, where the commissioner acted in "the best interests of the game", which in truth means, the best interests of the ownership group.

In summary, he acts as he is told to, in protecting the owners financial investment in the league.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's job description could almost include the terms "target of wrath", so despised is he among hockey fan circles. Of course, the owners prefer it this way, as it removes blame for the games woes from them. It reduces the vitriol of public accountability for their ideas, smokescreens their true intentions, and hides their motions and manoeverings inside the games backrooms.

Bettman is a lawyer, not a hockey man. He is an owners commissioner, not a players best ally, and not a fans best voice.

His job and bottom line are all about dollars and cents, not hockey sense.

He has been set up to appear as the game's spearheading, trailblazing, voice of reason. It's an illusion he has always worn in discomfort. When asked any pointed question, Bettman skirts the issue with legalese ease. He's never played hockey, but he sure can skate around a hit! In essense, it is the job he is being paid to perform.
He will never be remotely liked by fans and knows it. One the other hand, he will always appear oblivious to looming trouble on the horizon. It's good game, smart game even, to never discuss publicly, the bottom line concerns of the league. In a PR mode, Bettman will always swipe away such concerns.

In the end, he don't work for us fans and ticket buyers.

If hockey fans had their way, the commissioner of the NHL would be some type of amalgamation of Wayne Gretzky, Brian Burke, Bob Gainey and Don Cherry. If that person could ever exist, it would suit every fan and hockey thinker, good or bad.

If that person did exist, the NHL board would never elect him. His agenda would never be theirs.

For the time being, fans are stuck with Bettman, but the real issues reside inside a group of dysfunctional owners from opposite perspectives. In their quest for hockey growth, each step forward has been two steps back. As things come to a head this season, they can only agree to disagree.

Are hockey fans prepared for things to get worse before they get better?

Gary Bettman would be best to brush up on his doublespeak dictionary and prepare for the wrath.