I'm a big fan of listening to podcasts on my way home from work and I have a few that I listen to fairly regularly. In hockey blogging world, it seems that podcasting is the new blogging so there is lots to choose from. Two favorites right now is the Kurtenblog through the Team 1040 and the 6th Sens, both do a really fine job at it. Now not all the podcasts I listen to around about hockey as my tastes are pretty varied.

But one of the podcasts I listened to today made me think about whether the example they were using could be applied to hockey.

Today's podcast came from Freakonomics Radio which is hosted by Stephen J Dubner. He's the same guy that co-authored the book of the same name and the book SuperFreakonomics. This weeks podcast focused on the why the NFL doesn't sell the adspace on its jerseys like soccer (football) jersey's do in Europe.

The podcast is about 20 minutes long and is worth the listen, but here are the main points to summarize why jersey adspace in the NFL is not sold:

1. Players who are individually sponsored by corporations could run into sponsorship conflicts
   
2. Companies that buy jersey adspace may be just diverting their dollars already spent on advertising through television commercials to placement on jerseys. So the money spent on this ad space may not be new money at all
   
3. Tradition - the tradition of having jerseys without ads in the NFL
   

In the end right now, the NFL hasn't made the allowance for corporate sponsors on jerseys, outside of the jersey manufacturer Reebok being able to put a small logo on it. This is currently the same in the NHL.

Dubner brings on many different individuals on the podcast to offer their take on the adspace and why right now it won't happen right now. Interesting to note that more than one of the individuals interviewed said that they could see it happen in the future. Jerry Colango said that he ranks the order of the sports to adopt the adspace on jerseys would be the NBA>NHL>NFL>MLB. He does also add in that the order could switch depending on how high an offer from a corporation for the ad space to the sport may be. What is really interesting is that if corporate sponsorship was allowed, "people would get over it" if it happened.

I think all the same reasoning's apply to the NHL, at least right now. But in any sport, the focus of having a successful team is generating revenue and eventually leagues may allow for corporate sponsorship on jerseys to bring in more revenue. If you think about it, people would probably get over the initial outrage over the sponsorship over time. Sure it would make people angry because of the change in tradition, but would it make them stop watching the sport? No probably not.

Right now, like the NFL, some NHL teams like the Chicago Blackhawks (Giordano's pizza) and the Calgary Flames (Rona) already allow corporate sponsorship on practice jerseys. And your Vancouver Canucks are currently looking into bringing in a new sponsor or a current sponsor that would like to buy space on their practice jerseys. So it may just be a matter of time till we'll see them on the game jerseys, but I'm hoping that it won't end up in my lifetime.

If/when they do, let's just hope they end up more tasteful like this:

Instead of what the European hockey jerseys look like:

which is a monstrosity

One night of hockey in a week is not enough for this girl.

Dear NHL schedulers, I could care less if there is some baseball game going on, if there was hockey on instead, I would be watching it.

If I find it this rough already and it's only Thursday, I cannot imagine what I'm going to be saying come Saturday when the full realization that there are no.Canuck.games.on.all.weekend finally sets in.

So during these past few days off I've had some time to think about this new Ring of Honour initiative that the Canucks launched during the game on Tuesday night. It is an on-going initiative that is intended to "celebrate and salute Canuck heroes who have made a lasting impact on the franchise".

The first inductee was Orland Kurtenbach who was the first Canucks captain for the first four seasons and went on to be a coach of the Canucks for two seasons afterwards. There are three more planned for this season which is planned to occur on November 24th, January 24th and March 14th, but the identities of the inductees haven't been announced yet.

I will be the first to admit that I don't know that much about the Canucks' history. I also don't know many stats about players either, but that is because I'm not really interested in remembering stats. But back to what I was saying, I don't know much about the Canucks pre-1994. I don't consider myself to be a bad fan because of it and attribute it instead to two major reasons. The first is, well I'm not that old. I'm still under thirty (just barely R), and thus I really do not have much memory of what went on before their big cup run. Sure I watched games as a kid, but only when Pavel Bure hit the ice with the Canucks during the 1991-1992 year did I really start paying attention. There was something about Bure's speed and excitement that every time he stepped out on the ice, how could you NOT get excited as a kid? It was with the 1994 cup run, that my fandom was cemented.

Of course afterwards there were good years, bad years and a helluva lot of mediocre years during my following of the Canucks. But what this organization has missed teaching its fans over the years is about the history of the Canucks. What the Canucks organization has done so far this season with regards to that has been top notch.

The home opener against Los Angeles was very well done. It involved honouring the past with many Canucks alumni present, throwback jerseys and the naming of Henrik as captain was both light and showed respect to the team's history. Having the first captain of the Canucks give the C to the newly named captain of the Canucks was something truly special. And big points to the Canucks for keeping the ceremony short. One of my biggest fears about this season is that the Canucks would join the club of the long-winded-way-too-many-ceremonies-to-count club of Montreal and Toronto. I swear Montreal's Centennial went on for three years. Am I right or am I right?

So far, the Canucks have kept all ceremonies that have occurred at GM Place moving swiftly, but was still able to bestow the correct amount of admiration, respect and class on the player/players being honoured. I guess with this organization, this really started two years ago when they retired Trevor Lindens jersey. I was a jealous b-tch at home (friend got the tickets to go) watching the ceremony on tv. I cried even though Linden didn't.

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If you had the job of picking the 3 stars of the night, it was a tough job, non?

The three stars that were announced on the Canucks website were

Manny Malhotra got two goals.

Jannik Hansen with two assists, 6 hits and was a +3 tonight

and

Cory Schneider stopping 23 of 24 shots. He currently has a .968 save % and a .86 GAA. He looks solid in net with barely any rebounds coming off of him. In the 7 periods he's played, he's been increasing his trade value as a starting goaltender.

Manny, Jannik and Schneider are all great choices,

but there were so many more stars out on the ice tonight, so let's go over some of the alternate three stars as picked by Benched Whale:

The player that during the warm-up could wet his hair with a water bottle and flip it up with a move that makes the ladies swoon??

Ryan Kelser. He also got 1 goal and had one deflected puck go off the crossbar.

The two players who are the best at playing telephone?

Manny and Ryan Parent

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Now if we are all done discussing Rick Rypien's antics, his current suspension (indefinately) or how many games he should be suspended for (10 games)...let's move on to the game tonight.

If Rypien was trying to remove the focus from the big game this week. Congratulations. But seriously, we still have a game to play against the Blackhawks tonight, which to me is a bigger deal.

Not going to lie, I'm more than a little jealous of this photo

Opposition blog: Head over to the guys we met last year at Blackhawks Down Low

After two years of meeting them, and getting out asses kicked in the playoffs, you could call this a heated rivalry. Tonight, as was the first Hawks game of the season last year, is one for the Canucks to prove to themselves that they can win against the Hawks. It should help the Canucks that so many of the peripheral/character guys are gone from the Blackhawks, which should reduce the amount of possible stupid actions to come out of the Canucks tonight.

Luongo is starting tonight. Let's not talk about him being tired, he's a professional goalie and I'm sure he can handle one back to back. Jeff Tambellini is in for Rick Rypien tonight. Ballard is out on the blue line but no word about if Hamhuis is out as well, will update later

The Canucks need to keep the game simple and players who are not swedish and not have the last name Sedin, need to start scoring some goals. Luongo needs to forget about last nights six goals he let in and play a solid game. Sounds easy? For this team it never is but tonight, let's just play simple hockey.

Game time: 6:00pm on TSN and on the radio on the Team 1040

There's a Canucks tweet-up tonight at Joey's on Broadway and Granville. So I'll see you there? I'll be one not tweeting because my phone is lame

As if being down 5-1 in the game wasn't good enough,

Rypien teaches us: things you should not do to a paying customer

I've neglected my blog since the season opener. Been so caught up in other things, like the Lightning actually winning some games and with the Canucks playing less than stellar, it's just been hard to write. But the Lightning lost on Saturday night, more than just a loss actually, it was like meltdown city.

But I've come back now blog.

First up, I was catching up on some episodes of Fringe today, getting caught up on the show. Did anyone catch the first episode this season?

It's filmed in Vancouver so there is always lots of shots around the city that I recognize (Fringe HQ is the Vancouver Public Library), but today, aside from Bubbles from The Wire showing up as the cab driver, I recognized the rehab center:

Which looks an awful lot like this:

Nice appearance there by the Canucks dressing room.

A few scenes later we get this shot of the boys deciding to go after Olivia:

Which looks like this:

In real life, it's the Canucks change room. This is one of the things I love about shows that are shot in Vancouver, the endless spotting of locations. But this is a first for the dressing room being used in something I've seen.

Bullet points for stuff I've missed:

• Schneider got his first start of the season at home. He looked good in his first game this season. And miles better than any memory I have of him from last season
• Good for Schneider getting the start at home instead of just getting starts on the road when there's a back to back
• Big goals from the players who needed to get them: Kesler, Raymond, Samuelsson
• Obviously Alberts goal was a surprise. Big hits by him against his old team
• Manny Malhotra was a beast. Two short handed breakaways and was 15-1 in the circle
• AV's line juggling seems to have its desired effect, but I still don't think the juggling was a good idea
• Keith Ballard has a "slight concussion". How many players has had a concussion in the NHL this season? And we're only five games in to the season
• Derek Jory with an interesting article on 6 things he's noticed while he was between the benches for a game

And lastly there is a Canucks tweetup on Wednesday at Joey's on Broadway for the Blackhawks game. So I'll see you there?

Vancouver had a great ceremony to kick off their 40th year anniversary and name the 13th captain in franchise history. As expected it was Henrik Sedin. One thing I liked about the ceremony: it was short and sweet.

Here is Henrik being receiving the C from Orland Kurtenbach:

The alternate captains, Daniel Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Manny Malhotra and Kevin Bieksa will rotate the A's. Yes Kevin Bieksa. According to The Province, Henrik chose the alternates himself, which is something to think about. We'll have to discuss that later.

I am kinda in love the Kings' jersey's. They look good in purple and gold, very regal. Don't do it full time because those black ones you have are pretty fierce too, but once in a while ok? Especially love Quick's pads that take on that whole retro look. Whichever training that was in charge of getting those should receive full marks.

Full recap after the jump...

Hockey season is *finally* here. I'm pretty freaking excited about it. More than a little nervous. So much is going on tonight at the game. First off, a 40th year anniversary is something to celebrate. And it's nice that as we are celebrating 40 years of this franchise, we also have hope that this could be the year. Imagine that. So it's kinda nice to start off the year playing a team that we started off the franchise playing against (we lost that one).

Tonight we will announce our new captain, *cough* Henrik Sedin in a pre-game ceremony. We will have Willie Mitchell making his first return to the ice, albeit wearing purple and gold tonight, but still will be good to see him skate tonight. We have the debuts of new Canucks Dan Hamhuis, Keith Ballard, Manny Malhotra and Raffi Torres. And it will also be the last game that Tom Larscheid will provide colour for on the Team 1040.

Enemy Blog: We welcome back our friends from the Royal Half that we met last year before their exit of the playoffs.

The party starts at 4pm at the Party on the Plaza with live music, free smokies and coke zeros (for the first 1000) and a good place to meet up with your buddies before you head into the game.

Tonight the boys will be wearing their 'original sweaters' with the Kings wearing their retro purple and gold jerseys and there will be no name bars on the backs of their sweaters.

I'm very excited for this look. And as I said there will be a pre-game ceremony to announce our new captain. Canuck ticket holders are told to be in their seats by 6:50pm. Fans in attendance will also receive a commemorative opening night pin. If you like them and are not there tonight, you can pick one up at the Canucks Team Store for $9.99.

So much pressure on the Canucks doing well this season, but pressure on tonight? Yes and yes. Even though the Kings are still a good team, there's pressure on the Canucks to look good, an expectation. The fans want to see what this team actually looks like, want to see what this team can do. We have questions about Bieksa being promoted to the top line. About the whether we look gritty enough. And how does Luongo look in goal.

Tonight will not only be Willie Mitchell's first time back since he signed with the Kings this summer, but the first game he'll play in Vancouver since playing his last game on January 16th against Pittsburgh. Will be great to see him on the ice, and I'm sure within a few minutes I'll be back to hating that long stick of his as he tries to shut down our boys.

Line-up Notes for the Canucks:

• Defensive pairings: Hamhuis-Bieksa, Edler-Ehrhoff, Ballard-Alberts

What the Kings will look like:

• Defence: Mitchell-Doughty, Scuderi-Johnson, Muzzin-Drewisky

Your pre-game reading links:

• Willie Mitchell's return to the Canucks already has him securing tickets for his friends and family through Luongo
• Video interview of Willie Mitchell on his return to Vancouver, why he picked #33 as his jersey number and the Sedins
• Interesting read on Drew Doughty missing both Team Canada busses to get to the rink before the Gold Medal game
• Season preview by Cam Davie over at Canucks Army
• The Canucks Hockey Blog on the Opening Night Smorgasbord (not really smorgasbord unless you are up in the BB seats)
• Nucks Misconduct's game preview

Game time: 7:00pm PST on CBC (HD) or on the radio on Team 1040.

As I said earlier, it's Tom Larscheid's last game doing colour on the Team 1040 as Dave Tomlinson will take over going forwards. Although I'm not a big fan of his (o captain my cap--shut the #$@....), and that I find him a bit grating, I gotta respect that he's been doing it a long time. He also speaks his mind and perhaps that's the reason the Canucks don't want him doing colour anymore. Nevertheless, respect for an American football player who has been one of the voices of hockey in our city for so long. And if you have a few minutes today, check out Tony Gallagher's column in The Province that made me even more impressed about the guy.

Now I'm pretty stoked that I'll be able to write my first game preview tomorrow for the first game of the season (!!!!!). So the night before our kick off to the big season celebrating 40 years gets underway, this post may make me come across as some ungrateful b-tch.

But I ask the question, why is hockey starting now?

Like why didn't it start like two weeks ago? This pre-season was even worst than last year.

Last year the Canucks had a condensed training camp in Whistler where the fans could show up and watch without having to buy tickets, a pre-season which then led to the NHL kicking off the season in Europe. Because of the Olympics the season start date was also moved up which for the Canucks that was on October 1st

This year we started off with a young stars tourney in Penticton, then a training camp and then a pre-season that seemed to drag on forever. Then a break between the pre-season and the first puck drop of the regular season comes for the Canucks on October the 9th. Quite seriously, this is ridiculous.

First off, we really could have done without the Young Stars tournament. Maybe some of you enjoyed it, but was it really needed? Or the training camp up in Penticton that they sold tickets for. I think that if you want to open up your training camp to the public, it should be free. There are things you can charge your fans for, and somethings that just don't seem justifiable.

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On the Team 1040 yesterday, Vigneault tells Pratt that there will be a captain by Saturday.

So are we announcing Henrik today or tomorrow at a press conference?

Update:

Sportsnet Murph says on twitter that he thinks the announcement comes on Saturday