A part of hockey history will go away at the end of this season. The Minnesota Wild will move their AHL affiliate, currently the Houston Aeros, to Des Moines to presumably be closer to the NHL club. Here at LCOB we find this disappointing for a few reasons because we share a special attachment, even kinship, to the Houston Aeros.
Houston, like Kansas City, is not what you would call a "hockey hotbed." What it makes up for in being three times bigger in population than the KC Metro, it loses points in location. Sure, Dallas has seen it's share of successful years with an NHL club, but cities like Atlanta, Phoenix, and at times Miami have not. Houston, like Kansas City, used to be on the shortlist of cities vying for an NHL team before we all learned how ludicrous it was to field another franchise south of the Mason-Dixon parallel, before the advent of your Seattles, Hamiltons, Winnipegs, and Torontos X 2. Who would be crazy/bold enough to buy a team from an ice-centric sport and plop them smack on the Gulf Coast. Houston, for lack of readily available research and a Gary Bettman interview, is not an NHL city. But for no reason of its own.
For your viewing pleasure – shot on NOT a cell phone camera but a real camera instead – here is a fight between Dody Wood of YOOOOOUUURRRRRR Kansas City Blades and some guy named Mick Vukota who played a few seasons in the NHL and fizzled out of existence shortly after this game. Wood, meanwhile, went on to greatness in the British Ice Hockey Superleague, and retired as the most popular Blade of all-time.
This fight comes from a regular season game in 1999 – two years before the Blades' demise – and although this fight leaves something to be desired, the best part of the clip is the Kemper Arena crowd reaction. You can't see how many fans were at the game, but you sure could hear them. Ah, the old Kemper stands, the cool respite from the bitter cold outside. The scores of intoxicated hockey fans, constantly screaming for blood even during the intermission break. The thrill of a Blades goal, you could feel it from the other couple of thousand of your closest friends around you, and the despair of an opponents victory, how everything got quieter in the concourse despite the increased volume of people. Kind of like a Mavericks game now. If you go to a Mavs game, it sucks you in, and for that night you live and die with the team. But, that's not the best part of the clip. That would be the guy wearing the full Western gear, cowboy hat and everything, losing it over a hockey fight. I'm sure he's seen some crazy scraps out on the range, or gun shop, or wherever he came from. Props to you, Mr. Cowboy-Hat-Wearing-Hockey-Fan-Guy, we miss you. That, in essence, is Kansas City hockey. Those who love it, love it, and they love to see it. Those who are indifferent – when giving it a chance and with enough hockey saturation within the city – will grow to enjoy it. Remember when you were a burgeoning hockey fan in the middle of America (or wherever), what experiences did you have that brought you back to the sport? Maybe you didn't fall in love with it at first, but now you can't get enough. This city does not satiate your appetite, not by a long a shot. But you won't let your hockey fandom just disappear. Nope. Something keeps bringing you back. Back to the Sprint Center. Or the IEC.
So, as we approach the Greatest Month of Hockey in the History of Kansas City Since 1976™(debatable), and you go out to the Ice Breaker Tourney, or a Mavs game, or (possibly) the NHL exhibition game, remember to take someone along who may not enjoy the game as much as you do. Show them what they are missing.
Or, just go to a Mavs game whenever. Watching minor league hockey fights might be the best fights you see all season...
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Thanks to the random people that upload old IHL clips to YouTube. You really don't know how cool it is to have your existence validated because something you care about meant something to someone else enough for them to take the time to upload it online. Or something like that.
This is a nice litte article (I'm assuming online only) by the KC Star's Alan Burchardt previewing the NHL Conference Finals matchups and giving local connections of each team. Under the Phoenix Coyotes, Burchardt writes:
Former Kansas City Blade Ray Whitney racked up 77 points in his second season in the Valley of the Sun. The Coyotes are his seventh NHL team.
I had to look back, and, yep, holy crap, he did play for the Blades during the 1992-93 season. He played 46 games with 20 goals and 33 assists, so yeah, he wasn't with the Blades too long. Whitney won the Stanley Cup as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2005-06.
Also, this just in: Ray Whitney is old.
After the jump, you will find a photo retrospective of Ray Whitney as a member of the Kansas City Blades. It's pretty touching. Break out the tissues!
This is a fictional review based on actual person/ people
you probably know. Today’s review
is of the Kansas City area’s only hockey bar, The Blue Line. You can find The Blue Line in the River
Market district downtown at 529 Walnut, Kansas City, MO. And online at thebluelinekc.com
My personal opinion: It’s quaint, it has a lot of cool
hockey stuff on the walls, and it shows hockey. All you need as a hockey fan, right? For bar food, the food is actually
pretty decent. When hockey isn’t
going on, they show sports and whatnot, so it’s just another nice place to hang
out downtown. Nothing flashy, but
cool to have here in town. But
don’t take it from me, check it out yourself!
Today’s reviewer: Some middle-management type bro in his
late-20s from a downtown corporate office nearby going to the bar with some
friends from work. He’s totes
pumped about a new hockey bar in KC!
And, don’t be offended if you think he is shouting at you, because he
is, but it's not your fault.
Last Friday, in a 7-4 win over the Laredo Bucks, the Missouri Mavericks donned the original red and grays of the Kansas City's last semi-successful hockey franchise, the IHL's Blades. The jerseys were auctioned off after the game, with a portion of the money going to Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City.
The throwbacks look pretty true to the originals (except the number and name text looks a little bit off), and it's good to have a team in the city that can relive a part of Kansas City hockey past. Here are a fewphotos for comparison. I imagine this is what the Blades jersey would look like if they were still around and went retro with a "modern look" like oh so many American sports franchises.
Here are the highlights from the other night, if you care to see more shots of the jersey. Just imagine you are in Kemper Arena with twenty-seven other people in the upper deck. Ah, memories...
Since
I am not sure who actually watches Comedy Central's Nick Swardson's Pretend
Time, I will
just assume I'm the only one who has seen this skit. (editors note:
Yeah, it happened last year apparently, but whatever.)
The above picture appears to show comedians Nick Swardson and Natasha Leggero in a version of the original Kansas City Blades logo/jersey. You can watch the entire video here.
The
short cut-away of hockey shown at the beginning of the clip features the Blades
playing at the Grand Rapids Griffins (the favorite team of the DeVos family). The most recognizable player name in the video is that of the Griffins Mark Conforth (#12). Cornforth played eight regular season games and three playoffs games for the Griffins during the 1997-98 season, which probably means he played at the end of that season.The Blades only played the Griffins in Grand Rapids once in the last month of the season, a 6-1 victory. That would mean that the Blades players shown are defensemen Steve Jacques (#3) and Steve Heins (#5), and forward Dean Sylvester (#11). I
cannot find a box score of the game, so I’m not sure if Sylvester scored or
not, but Swardson sure thought so. The Blades would go on to lose to the Long Beach Ice Dogs in seven games in the Western Conference Semi-Final, in case you were wondering about any of this.
I'm not exactly sure why they chose that footage or the Blades faux jerseys, but I think we should be honored or something. Actually, I'm not really sure how to feel.
