Nobody likes getting fired, but the way its done can have a huge impact on the experience. Hang around the internet long enough, and you’ll read stories about people getting fired in all sorts of creative ways: over Facebook, Twitter, text message, or even Skype.
Skype was the weapon of choice for the upper management of the Edmonton Oilers NHL team. Oilers GM Craig MacTavish contacted head coach Ralph Krueger via Skype over the weekend to let him know that the Oilers organization “felt it was necessary to hire a new head coach,” Krueger told Ryan Rishaug of TSN.
Krueger, who was just finishing up his first season with the Oilers, received the call while on vacation in Switzerland with his family. He said that MacTavish had contacted him to ask that Krueger accept a friend request on Skype so that they could talk. Krueger described the conversation as “short.”
The Oilers went 19-22-7 this season, which was shortened by a player strike. Krueger was the Oilers third head coach in four years. There is no word yet on who the next head coach might be.
The Florida Panthers organization today announced that the NHL team’s 20th anniversary will be celebrated with a special 20th anniversary logo.
In addition to the new logo, the team promises a “host of fan recognition and interactive opportunities.” The Panthers celebrations will include a tribute to original season seat holders, giveaways, collectible merchandise, a themed in-game presentation, and “visits from heroes of the Panthers’ past.” A new center-hung scoreboard will also make its debut at the BB&T Center.
“The Florida Panthers 20th Anniversary Season is going to be a special one for our fans, partners, supporters, staff, players, coaches, and the entire South Florida community,” said Michael Yormark, president of the Panthers. “From the franchise’s inception, to the 1996 Eastern Conference Championship, to our most recent Division title, there is a wonderful history that we are excited to celebrate, while also honoring our incredible fans for two decades of loyal and passionate support.”
Further details of the Panthers’ 20th anniversary celebration will be announced on NHL draft day, June 30. The team will be integrating its new logo into a season-long marketing campaign on TV, in newspapers, and online.
This week’s Eastern Conference quarterfinals match between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs went into overtime, inflaming passions and making the Maple Leafs’ loss that much more brutal. However, a couple of glances have now overshadowed the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Actress Elisha Cuthbert, who is currently dating Maple Leafs Captain Dion Phaneuf, was spotted rolling her eyes at April Reimer, the wife of Maple Leafs goalkeeper James Reimer. The incident occurred just after the final goal was scored by the Bruins. The pair’s upset-looking glances inspired speculation in the tabloids that the pair might be having a fued:
It turns out, however, that the two are just fine, and Reimer tweeted a pic out to prove it. She states that she and Cuthbert were, in fact, rolling their eyes at “the jerk beside us,” who she claims made a rude comment:
Upon close inspection of the video, Reimer’s explanation of the event seems true. The man sitting beside her can be seen saying something just before the eye roll, and Reimer even looks over at the man before casting her gaze up at Cuthbert. Though it’s impossible to know for sure what the man said, it’s a decent guess that it had something to do with James Reimer’s goaltending skills.
Electronic Arts is the go-to scapegoat for all of the anti-gamer decisions that have begun to creep into gaming. The video game publisher may be the internet’s favorite punching bag and America’s Worst Company two years running, but the organization does do some things right. One of those things is allowing fans to vote on which athlete will grace the cover of their sports titles.
This week EA and the NHL announced that voting for the cover athlete for the upcoming NHL 14 has begun. Fans can vote at NHL.com/covervote. The voting will begin with 60 finalists that will be pared down in two preliminary voting rounds. A 16-player bracket will then determine the winner, who will be revealed during the Stanley Cup Final.
“These 60 NHL stars are excited to be finalists in the vote campaign that will see the fans ultimately select the EA SPORTS NHL 14 cover athlete,” said Adam Larry, director of licensing for the NHL Player’s Association. “Following an impressive level of fan and player engagement shown in the cover vote last year, we are looking forward to seeing how the bar will be raised this year.”
The voting will not be a simple popularity poll. Fans can vote as many times as they want, and using player-specific hashtags on Twitter can count as two votes if tweeted on Thursdays.
NHL referee murder: Ladislav Scurko, who was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2004, has been convicted of stabbing a former referee, according to Yahoo News. The incident occurred in 2008 following a dispute between Scurko and Marek Liptaj, who once lived in the professional hockey player’s home. Upon learning that Liptaj did not have cancer, an argument promptly ensued. After attempting to get the referee to leave his home, Scurko admitted to stabbing the man 14 times and dumping his body in a shallow grave. His partially decomposed body was found about a year later in a nearby forest.
Despite admitting his crimes to authorities, Scurko claimed he was tricked by police into confessing to the murder. However, none of this seemed to matter in the long run, as the former NHL draft pick was convicted of murdering Marek Liptaj, and is currently staring down eight years in prison, which is the maximum sentence for this sort of behavior. Curiously, while he was awaiting trial for the stabbing, Scurko was still allowed to play hockey in Slovakia; since 2011, he has laced up for both HK Slovan Gelnica and HK Trebisov.
“After the final speech of evidence were presented. They gave the prosecutor, the injured party’s legal representative, advocate the defendant, substitute counsel and the defendant himself,” Slovakian authorities said in a statement. “The conclusions of the psychiatric examinations Ščurko act committed in a state of diminished sanity, the court considered a mitigating factor and therefore imposed a sentence at the lower rate. The court imposed a protective psychiatric outpatient treatment by a prisoner. The sentences him among the facilities for imprisonment with moderate surveillance.”
Following his stint with the Philadelphia Flyers, Scurko was drafted by the Seattle Thunderbirds. In 2007, Ladislav moved back to Slovakia to play professional hockey.
The Los Angeles Kings have won their first Stanley Cup in their 45 year history. The Kings also did something that is unheard of in professional sports today, they won Lord Stanley’s cup as the number 8 seed. in destroying the Eastern Conferences 6 seed, the Kings finished their unbelievable run having beat the West’s #1 seed the Vancouver Canucks in 5 games, the number two seed the St. Louis Blues in 4 games, and the number three seed Phoenix Coyotes in 5 games.
In backstopping the Kings to the cup, Jonathan Quick became the 3rd American to win the Con Smythe trophy which is given to the playoff MVP. He joins Brian Leetch (1994) and Tim Thomas (20011) in that exclusive club. In another great thing the captain of the L.A. Kings Dustin Brown joins Darien Hatcher as the only 2 American born captains to ever win the Stanley cup.
The game was never close after a vicious boarding call 10:10 into the first period led to a 5 minute major that had the Kings scoring 3 goals. “I wish I could take that play back,” said journeyman forward Steve Bernier. “I didn’t want to hurt my team. I wanted to help them. This is extremely hard. It’s been a long playoff run for us. To finish on that note, it’s not fun for sure. But there’s nothing I can do now.” They added a fourth goal in the second period and a fifth goal with the goalie pulled in the third period. The Kings also tied a record in only losing 4 games in route to the oldest trophy in North America.
The Kings shot out to an early 3-0 series lead before losing two straight elimination games. “You never know. You get to the dance, you never know what’s going to happen,” Captain Dustin Brown said. “We calmed down after losing two. It was the first time we had done that all playoffs, and we finally got off to a good start.”
“We never lost our confidence,” Goalie Jonathan Quick said. “We had to take it on the chin to keep moving, losing two, and we looked at it as, ‘Hey, we still have to win one game to win a championship. And we have two chances.’ Finally, we were able to do it at home.”
The National Hockey League has come a long way in the last 8 years. From a lockout that was the first in professional American sports to cost a league an entire season, to the overwhelming popularity of the Winter Classic. These go to show how far the league has changed and how far hockey itself has come in the last 10 years. One of the benefactors of this huge growth is David Singer, the purveyor of Hockeyfights.com. In a WebProNews exclusive we were able to ask him a few questions about fighting in hockey, his website, and the state of the game in general.
We asked David when his love of hockey fights began, and how the idea for the site came about.
“In one of the first few games I went to as a kid there was a fight. It’s impossible not to notice the energy it brought to the arena. It was just like a goal. I didn’t appreciate fighting until I was a little older and understood the role it could play in a game (something that’s been forever debated). I wanted to track fights the way others track goals and other statistics. Penalty minutes were always being kept, but I wanted to know how many times someone was fighting, and who they were fighting. I started keeping some numbers and talking about local teams. It snowballed from there.”
Moving on to the popularity of his site the question of his daily visitor numbers growing exponentially in post-lockout hockey came up. “It took a couple of years post-lockout for the site to have bigger growth,” said Singer. “The first, and most obvious reason, is there weren’t as many fights in the seasons after the lockout. A close second was just re-gaining the hockey community in general. Many, especially the diehard fans that visit hockeyfights.com, were turned off by the league shutting down for a season. While the league has rebounded, some have never come back.”
This brought me to wondering if his site sees a bigger uptick in views when 2 heavyweights go at it, or when there is an incident like last year’s Islanders v Penguins brawl, or maybe when a star drops em like Crosby or Ovetchkin? “The site is definitely event-driven. A brawl can trigger traffic.” He went on to say, “Some stars can, but it’s not as predictable as one might think. Sometimes a player from a European country that usually doesn’t fight drops the gloves and I’ve got a huge influx of traffic from his home country and ex-pats everywhere. Just as much as a fight, big news can do the same. There is the hockey in hockeyfights.com and big trades or signings or any other big news can drive visits.”
One of the more publicized things this year has been head shots and how the NHL is dealing with them. Many players have gotten suspensions. I wondered what is the one thing that could get rid of them? Smaller pads? The repeal of the instigator? David had a thoughtful answer about this touchy subject.
“Repealing the instigator would help in my opinion, but it would take time and lenient coaching. I’m not sure most teams have that sort of patience anymore. Either way, I don’t expect it to happen, even though I’d like to see it. Ironically, I think it’d curb fighting in the long-run. As for head shots in general, especially those that cause injury, I think there are a few things that can be done to help. Equipment should be an easy fix. Too many use it as weapons, or consider it armor. With technology today, there has to be a way to protect players without allowing that protection to hurt others. However, I don’t think that’s the main cause. A lot of it is players looking for a huge, video game-style hit. They’ve been taught to do that from the earliest of lessons. ‘Finish your checks.’ I can’t think of a coach that hasn’t said that. Sometimes, you don’t need to wipe a guy out to do that, but in a day of sprint shifts and the fourth line always wondering if they’ll be scratched or sent to the minors, they’re rarely going to let up on someone. I think it’s something that needs to be adjusted at the lowest levels and the higher leagues need to make sure they keep with that approach. Adding to that are players that put themselves in bad positions looking to draw a penalty, something else they’ve been taught. It’s a bad combination.”
For years all we see is talking heads on ESPN saying that fighting in Hockey is ruining the game and that if it ever wants to go mainstream they need to get rid of it. That got me wondering about who really wants to get rid of fighting in hockey? Is it just non-fans and journalists? Could we really see a day when there is no fighting in hockey? He said, “You’ve hit it: non-fans and some of the media are the largest supporters of trying to take fighting out of hockey, or adjust the penalties for it. Poll after poll shows the players, ‘hockey people’ (non-media, in the business) and most of all, the fans, like it in the game the way it is. I don’t think trying to remove it would benefit the game, and I don’t think it’ll draw in more fans, either. I don’t know if you’ll ever see a day with no fighting whatsoever. No matter what the rules are fights happen in all leagues and all sports, just at varying levels.”
Fights are good for hockey, whether people admit it or not, when stuff like this happens on the opening faceoff, not one single fan leaves that arena while play is going on for any reason, even if it is a blowout:
With over 45,000 likes on Facebook, he gets a lot of attention that was recently brought to the forefront by his posts on Facebook saying Goodbye, (Enter Team) when someone was eliminated from the playoffs. When he posted this, it gave him a barometer of fan hate towards a team. His assumption, by looking at the data, is what you would expect. That the teams with the longer record of being good have the most vocal fans and the most detractors means those posts get the most like and comments.
Every year Hockeyfights.com posts a little award type show with several categories for things like Best feud and best old school moment. Well the main category as one can expect is the fight of the year. This year’s list is pretty good:
The voting process is very simple. Just go to Hockeyfights.com and join. You can then vote on any fight, how good it was, how rested the players are, and you will never be the same. I know I have gotten caught in this website for hours at a time.
An NHL fan is suing the Pittsburg Penguins over what he thinks are excessive text messages sent by the club as part of a promotional campaign.
Fred Weiss says that he signed up to recieve texts that included special offers on ticket prices, and important developments like trades and breaking news. He says that he began receiving texts in excess of what they said they were going to send when he signed up.
Weiss complained that the team intentionally broke their own rule about the number of texts they would send. The team set a weekly limit of three texts per week. Weiss says he received five on the first week and four on the second.
In a complaint, he says the Penguins violated the Telephone and Consumer Protection Act by overstepping the agreed upon number of text messages. He filed it on May 25th with the Central District of California District Court.
The complaint seeks statutory and punitive damages of an unspecified amount and for the Penguins to stop sending texts to its fans in excess of the agreed limit. He is seeking class action status for the suit, so the Penguins could owe for all the excessive texts they have sent to fans, not just Weiss.
If the Penguins send texts in excess of what they said under contract, they could very well be liable for the data service the consumers had to pay for those texts. This is just one man’s opinion, but a punitive amount seems frivolous in this case, as no significant harm was done. They only exceeded the text limit by three in Weiss’ case. If he didn’t like receiving that many texts all he has to do is unsubscribe. There are other ways of following the news on your favorite team.
He obviously isn’t that big of a fan, anyway. He’s trying to cripple the team financially with a frivolous lawsuit.
In a follow up to a story I reported on last week, after the Bruins lost to the Capitals in a game 7 showdown, racist remarks flew in because the guy who scored the goal was black. Well, as it turns out, a few of those people were students who went to Gloucester High School in Gloucester Massachusetts.
The board of education got word of what happened and stepped in with punishments for the offending students:
“Students involved in a stream of racist comments targeting Joel Ward — the Washington Capitals’ player whose goal eliminated the Boston Bruins from Stanley Cup play April 18, and one of hockey’s few black players — would “lose participation in a sport for a considerable length of time,” and any of them with “leadership opportunities in extracurricular activities, or sports,” will forfeit those as well.”
The hammer was thrown down because the board felt like these students were poor representations of the school, so now this seems like a rule now that while you are a minor in school you cannot do anything without the fear of being suspended. Even in your own home.
Hockey has a lot of great traditions like the handshake after a hard fought playoff series. Unfortunately another of hockey’s traditions is also racism. Several times in the past have racist remarks by players and fans, marred an otherwise awesome and honorable game. In September of 2011 a fan threw a banana peel onto the ice just as Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds was about to attempt a penalty shot. Simmonds is black and has been involved in other racial controversies in the past. The banana incident was solved and the guy who threw the peel was charged.
Last night during the game 7 overtime, Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward, who is black, scored an overtime goal to eliminate the defending champion Boston Bruins from the playoffs. What followed is nothing short of disgusting. On Twitter the racism started spewing from Boston fans about Ward. Saying things like “Of course it’s the f***ing n***er. White power!” and “that n***er deserves to hang.” This is real unfortunate because it puts hockey into an unfortunate light. These days it seems like the only time the NHL is on the news is when there is a head injury or some talking head is trying to get fighting banned. This is so much worse than that though. This racism came from Boston fans in the US, other times it has happened in Canada.
I am a huge hockey fan, I have been a New York Rangers fan since 1996, this makes me sad because I want hockey to be the #1 sport.I cannot believe that people still do that! Listening to talk radio it seems that people in boston tend to be a little racist. I don’t really buy into branding an entire town or people as any one certain thing, but I do have to say that this is not the first time that I have heard the racist thing and Boston thing in the same sentence.
Below are some of the offensive tweets.
Be warned
that they are graphic and do contain racial slurs. There is a site called Chirpstory that compiled a lot of the tweets if you want to see about 50 of them. The majority of the offending Tweets have been taken down, but here are some that are still up:
Things are heating up on the ice, as the NHL’s best are in playoff mode. Yes, hockey fans, the Stanley Cup playoffs have arrived, and Foursquare has a brand new badge to celebrate.
It’s simple – all you have to do is follow the NHL on Foursquare and check-in at certain times, with certain shoutouts to get the badge:
Follow NHL on foursquare to get insider tips about your favorite teams, players, and arenas. And, even though you may never get to touch the The Cup, you can unlock the Stanley Cup badge by checking in to any playoff game, or by checking in anywhere during one of the games and mentioning your favorite playoff team (make sure to follow NHL on foursquare first!). Don’t forget to share photos when you check in!
The NHL is also promoting more Foursquare specials, including buy one get one free hat deals at the NHL store in NYC.
Tonight, last year’s champion Boston Bruins take on the Washington Capitals in Game one of the Eastern Conference finals. Make sure you put down your beer and check-in for this exclusive badge.
Despite suffering concussion-like symptoms that side-lined him for almost a year, Sidney Crosby A.K.A. Sid the Kid has established that he is still a strong player.
Crosby missed the first 20 games of the 2011–12 season due to the lingering effects of his concussion. He returned on November 21, 2011 against the New York Islanders, scoring two goals and two assists in a 5–0 shutout win for the Penguins. However, after playing another seven games, for a total of 12 points in 8 games, Crosby’s concussion-like symptoms returned in December 2011, possibly following an elbow hit by David Krejci in his eighth game of the season. Despite passing a successful ImPACT test, Crosby decided not to return on the ice until he felt perfectly fine, stating that he also needs to “listen to [his] body”. Crosby returned to action once again on March 15, scoring an assist in a 5–2 win against the New York Rangers.
Yesterday marked the 10th time in 48 games that the Flyers held Crosby without a point. Crosby was a minus-1 with seven attempts at the net and no hits in 17:37 of ice time in his third game back since suffering a concussion/neck injury on Dec. 5.
Crosby entered the game with 36 assists and 26 goals for 62 points in 36 career regular-season games against the Flyers. It was his first game in Philadelphia since Dec. 14, 2010, when the Penguins also had a lengthy (12-game) winning streak snapped
In response to his team’s subtle defeat, Crosby stated, “I had a couple of good chances in overtime. We just need to execute, hopefully those go in. We did some good things, but probably left it to the back end a little bit there in the third [period]. It’s just a matter of executing. But they are a good team and they battled back.”
But the Penguins are a force to be reckoned with: “Yesterday was just the 13th time over the last two seasons that Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang all played in the same game. That trio could spell trouble for the Flyers in the playoffs, as the two teams remain each other’s most likely first-round opponent in a 4 vs. 5 matchup.”
The Flyers have kept Crosby scoreless in only two of 11 career playoff games, as compared to eight times in 37 regular-season games.
Hopefully Crosby’s health will stay in tact for the remainder of the season.
Much like Melissa Kellerman’s disappearance, the reason for Paulina Gretzky’s departure from Twitter are uncertain. The Associated Press weighed in, and speculated the elder Gretzky didn’t appreciate his daughter’s “friendly” approach with her Twitter followers. You see, unlike the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, who didn’t really say anything warranting a removal — apparently, Jerry Jones wants his cheerleaders seen and not heard, or, at least, un-tweeted — the younger Gretzky used her now-defunct Twitter account to post images like the one leading this article.
There may be more to the story than just a dad not wanting his daughter to post such images, however. According to a story quoted by WithLeather.com, a potential business deal may be what motivated her Twitter removal:
Paulina’s Twitter feed has been discontinued, and the Toronto Star is speculating that her father’s involvement in a potential purchase of the Toronto Maple Leafs might have something to do with it.
According to the Star, before shutting down her feed, Paulina tweeted, “Having a nice sit down dinner with my dad about social media..haha #SIKEEE.” She then signed off on Saturday, writing, “Taking a break from Twitter for a bit. Happy Holidays!!! xoxo.”
So, is this a case of a mad dad not wanting his daughter revealing her partying ways on Twitter or is this case of the elder Gretzky trying to protect a business deal by hiding the fun-loving behavior of his daughter? To be honest, both postions make sense, but considering Paulina’s Twitter account survived her previous image postings, one begins to lean towards protecting a business deal.
If you’re interested in seeing a collection of the images we’ll be missing now that Paulina has stopped tweeting, make sure to check out the following slideshow. So long, Paulina. Your liberal approach to showing skin will be missed, especially by the sports blogs, and the Associated Press.
I love following athletes on Twitter. At its best, you get (what feels like) intimate access to their lives, which is really fun if you’re a sports fan. Plus, some athletes are genuinely funny. At its worst, you get guys like Rashard Mendenhall mouthing off about 9/11 and Osama bin Laden.
I’ll stop, as that could go on for a while. The point is, professional sports organizations have attempted to reign in the social media activity by instituting polices that a.) usually black out certain times as “social media free” and b.) spell out generic quality guidelines that keep athletes from saying things that reflect poorly upon the league.
Whether or not you agree with the social media restrictions, you have to admit that the league has an interest in doing so.
It appears the the NHL has become the latest major sports organization to institute one of these social media policies.
According to a release on NHL.com, the new policy will bar players and “operations staff” from posting during a certain window surrounding games. It also makes the same generic claims that we’ve seen before about holding players responsible for their communications, even when on their own time.
The policy, the NHL Social Media Policy for League and Club Personnel, governs both players and hockey operations staff and is designed to promote the value of social media as a tool for communication with fans. It also highlights issues surrounding social media, as well as limits the use of social media by players and hockey operations staff on game days.
As per the new policy, there is a total “blackout period” on the use of social media on game days, which for players begins two hours prior to opening face-off and is not lifted until players have finished their post-game media obligations. The suggested blackout period for hockey operations staff is longer, beginning at 11 a.m. on game days.
Also, the new policy makes it clear that players and club personnel will be be held responsible for their social communications in the same manner in which they are held responsible for other forms of public communications. As a result, discipline is possible for any social media statements that have or are designed to have an effect prejudicial to the welfare of the League, the game of hockey or a member club, or are publicly critical of officiating staff.
A couple of players have put their opinion out on Twitter –
@BizNasty2point0 Paul BissonnettePeople asking about NHL’s new policy on Twitter. I think its good. I don’t even play much and I don’t tweet on game days. Plenty of off days19 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto
The NFL’s social media policy, which was implemented in 2009, is pretty similar to this new NHL policy. Players, coaches and staff are not allowed to tweet or Facebook post within 90 minutes of kickoff or until post-game interviews are complete.
NBA’s social media policy shortens the pre-game window to 45 minutes and includes halftime as a banned period. It allows for individual teams to make their own determinations involving additional guidelines.
Sports-seeking cord cutters might have reason to rejoice, or at least reason to hope: there’s a possibility YouTube will become a major player in the way sporting events, specifically, the NBA and the NHL, will be consumed by their fans.
After the success YouTube enjoyed from streaming of cricket from the Indian Premier League, Google’s online video service is looking to expand its reach by including the NBA and NHL in their sports stream lineup.
While there’s a lot being made about how such agreements would potentially increase YouTube’s revenue stream, making them a viable with such services like Netflix’s Watch Instantly, Amazon and Hulu Plus, the fact that YouTube continues to pull in incredible amounts of traffic makes these concerns somewhat unfounded.
Nevertheless, there’s no denying how much stronger such features would make the already-powerful YouTube, but there more significant, non-business related issues at hand:
First off, there are no dedicated streams of NBA or NHL games. Yes, these many of these games can be found through unauthorized streaming services, but having a legitimate, powered-by-YouTube, service that offers legal streams would be a windfall both financially and as a method that further strengthens YouTube’s dominant user base.
Considering the way the NBA and the NHL have embraced YouTube, such a partnership seems quite natural, not to mention, beneficial for all parties involved.
Furthermore, when you take into account the NBA’s labor issues, an additional revenue stream as powerful as the Google/YouTube platform would certainly benefit the NBA’s coffers as much as the platform offering the streams.
Not only is YouTube looking to add the NBA and NHL, they also have their sites set on European soccer; but their vision doesn’t stop there. According to Bloomberg, Gautam Anand, Google’s director of content partnerships for Asia Pacific, says:
“It’s fair to say that there will be a lot more appealing sports content you’ll see on YouTube. We have ongoing conversations with pretty much everyone.”
Spokespersons for both the NBA and NHL were fairly mum on the topic. The NHL offered no comment and the NBA offered a compulsory response saying they’re glad YouTube recognizes the value of live sports. Hopefully, David Stern, Gary Bettman and any other sports commissioners involved in these negotiations recognize the potential value partnering with a service as powerful as YouTube can provide.
