Blues vs. Stars - Kansas City's Brief Date with the NHL in 2014

Have you heard the news? It was reported a couple of days ago that the St. Louis Blues will face the Dallas Stars in a pre-season exhibition at the Sprint Center on Sept. 27, 2014.

While the Blues and Stars aren't exactly my cup of tea, I'm thrilled about the NHL making a return to Kansas City. My guess is it won't match the record attendance from the last exhibition game back in 2011, but that's fine by me. There were only a few hundred people, including Flubber and I, at the Kings/Islanders fight on ice skates game in 2009 and it was a great time. Of course now that we know record attendance isn't going to bring an NHL team this way, we can all kind of sit back and wait to be entertained rather than speculating in the coming months whether or not the city will show the league that there is a market here.

Tickets are on sale now using the presale code ICE. Presale ends and normal sale begins Friday (02/14) at 10am. I don't know what the difference is, but there you go. Makes for a great Valentine's Day gift! Right?

Links:

NHL preseason hockey returns to Kansas City — Dallas Stars v. St. Louis Blues September 27

Blues, Stars to play NHL preseason game at the Sprint Center

St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars Face-Off on Sept. 27

ICYMI: Tickets Selling For Preseason Game Despite Lockout Worries, McGannon Hopeful for KC-Friendly CBA

What was the deal with the bow?

An article early last week in the Kansas City Business Journal took a look into ticket sales for October's preseason game at the Sprint Center.  And, hey, sales are good despite the looming storm clouds of a lockout.  Sooo, bully for that!

Of course, NHL21's own Paul McGannon was interviewed on the issue, and the most surprising thing about that is NHL21 still apparently exists despite not really still existing.  You may remember early this summer the formation of KCIce, spearheaded by McGannon and former KC Blade Ken Morrow, McGannon's foray into youth ice sports and ice rink management.  Perhaps NHL21 still does exist, it's just McGannon with a plaque above his bathroom door (or whatever) that says NHL21.  Anyway, he had something to say about the new CBA, and let me tell you, he's siding with the players on this one:

“We’re hopeful that the new collective bargaining agreement will be Kansas City-friendly, meaning we’d like to see some revenue sharing in there, like baseball and football, that would help a city like ours flourish in the NHL,” McGannon said.

Kansas City friendly?  Well, that depends on the owner.  David Glass takes the MLB's shared revenue and does with it what he pleases.  And Clark Hunt benefits as much as any other NFL owner in the league, but, again, that money does not have to go towards team salaries or stadium repairs, etc.  Obviously.

But, to be fair to the situation, McGannon is referring to the desire of the players and poorer owners to have revenue sharing – along with the current hard salary cap.  This, in turn, would disperse a portion of all league revenues to every team, instead of allowing the rich to get richer.  Sure, this would be great for a small market like Kansas City...if there were a team.  What McGannon is implying is that he hopes to see an NHL team in KC over the course of (let's say) the next six to eight years – the likely duration of a CBA.  And why shouldn't he?  As little influence as he may have over NHL ownership in Kansas City (which should be pretty obvious by now), he, like us all, expected to have a team shortly after the construction of the Sprint Center.

Is a team in the next six years realistic?  Well, the Coyotes are in an odd position with Greg Jamison right now as he keeps gaining and losing possible investors.  Plus, there is no guarantee that things will go smoothly with new ownership in Glendale.  A franchise like New Jersey is financially struggling.  Florida is always in a bad place because they are Florida.  There is always talk of expansion, but there's just as much talk of contraction.  Anything is possible, but it's not like McGannon is doing much to help the situation.  So, really, he's just like the rest of us.  Hopeful.  For now, let's just hope we have a preseason game to go to this season and just go from there.

So don't be afraid to buy tickets, because you will get a refund anyway.

Stop Asking Henrik Lundqvist Frivolous Questions

The other day the New York Rangers twitter folks did a Twitter Tuesday question and answer thingy with All-Star goalie Henrik Lundqvist.  Basically, you tweet a question to the @thenyrangers account with the hashtag #askhank and Henrik makes a video responding to your question.  Simple enough, right?

Nope.  People had to go ask outdated questions about nothing.  Good job, people!  As you can see in the photo above, someone asked Hank his favorite Blink 182 song.  Yep, that Blink 182.  It doesn't really matter if he listens to Blink 182 before games or whatever the hell he does concerning Blink 182 because, seriously, that's the best question you have?

Anyway, I have no idea what he responded because the accompanying video was deleted for reasons undetermined.  Oh well.  Let's all just assume it was some popular song like All the Small Things (because he's a pro athlete...what else would it be?), or something obscure to show his zany hipster side.  Really, who cares.  Let this be a lesson that you should never rely on people to do anything.  That's exactly what this teaches us.

And that's the point, because, in contrast, the Sprint Center's official twitter account (@sprintcenter) went out of its way to ask Hank – the guy who will probably-maybe-hopefully-okay-definitely-not be playing an exhibition game in this city in October, and coming here for the first time in his life – if he has ever had world famous KC style barbecue.  Alas, Hank and the Rangers shrugged off this pressing question for some crap about a '90s punk rock band – who is fine in their own right, don't get me wrong.  Good show, Rangers.  That's strike one.  First to three loses out on my affection for that one cool night in October (psst...that's supposed to make you sad and beg for my forgiveness because you wouldn't like the Internet when it's angry...).

New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche Come to Sprint Center October 6th!!!

Hell yeah, another NHL exhibition game!  This October 6th, Kansas City-area hockey fans will have the treat of seeing the New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche play a late-preseason hockey game.  At the Sprint Center.  Here, in KANSAS CITY!!!  This is an interesting matchup between two teams that have absolutely no reason to come here to play a game (let's get the rumor started that the Avalanche are relocating, shall we?).  It's already been said and assumed, but this is the first game that does not feature the Blues (the club with the closest geographic proximity), the Kings (owned by AEG), or teams with a history of wanting to relocate (Islanders and Penguins–the Pens after the fact, of course).  This means, presumably, that the NHL and AEG are either a) continuing to test the waters in Kansas City to see just how popular the NHL brand is here or b) just giving us what we want.  I know I speak for all KC hockey fans when saying who gives a crap why we get another exhibition game here, I'm just glad we get one.  Also, OH WELL WHO CARES LOL HOCKEY!!!!!

Kings vs. Penguins in Perspective, Plus Pictures!!!

Zamboni-mania!

Well, if you attended last night’s preseason game at the Sprint Center, you certainly got your money’s worth.  The Kings and Penguins tied 2-2 after regulation and a five-minute overtime, and went eight rounds into the shootout before deciding a winner.  Pittsburgh’s Matt Niskanen beat Jonathan Bernier in the shootout to seal it 3-2 for the Penguins and sent the KC hockey fans home relatively happy.

Politics, and Tim Leiweke, and struggling downtown businesses, and all of that nonsense aside, this kind of game is what makes Kansas Citians desperate for pro hockey.