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

St. Louis Blues Alumni Could Mean Any Number of Things

After this past season's Mizzou-Kansas Border War hockey "game" – a shared dream some of us had where we thought the University of Kansas had a hockey team, but then we woke up and all was right with the world again – one could only imagine what kind of exciting hockey events could be on the horizon for our metro area.  Well, here ya go.

Friday, January 18th, 2013, at Independence Events Center, the University of Missouri hockey club will play against members of the St. Louis Blues Alumni.  Who is on that team?  Who knows!  Could be any number of players!  Phil Housley!  Derek Armstrong!  Tommy Barrasso!  Charlie Huddy!  Wayne Gretzky!!!  What an amazing lineup, I can't see why none of those guys won't play!  Anyway, there's probably more info coming on this event, so keep a look out.

Remember when Mizzou and Kansas were supposed to play on January 17th of next month?  Yeah, I don't know if that's going to happen now, but this other thing is, so yay!

UPDATE:  Oh, I guess some of the players include Jon Casey, Tony Twist, and Darren Pang.  Oh well.

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!!!!!

The Distinguished Sports Observer's Guide to Avoiding the Words "Classless" and "Dirty"

Via ESPN

I hate to start anything with a “Webster’s Dictionary states...” style definition, but it has a point, so bear with me:

class*less
adjective
1. (of a society) not divided into social classes.

 Wait a minute, that’s not right.  Okay, maybe this is closer.

2. characterized by the absence of economic and social distinctions

 Not really, but kind of...wait, okay here we go:

class  

adjective 

informal: showing stylish excellence

Classless.  Without class.  Having no class.  Sans class.  The inability to show stylish excellence.  These are all ideas of classlessness.  In the sports world, classless relates to a direct and wiling attack against the rules with the intent of harming another player or the laws of the game.  Playing the game with a reckless disregard for all things good and just in the sport.  Playing outside of the box, in effect, is not allowed in the sports world.  Walter Sobchak would have made a great commissioner with the motto, “Am I the only one around here who gives a sh*t about the rules?”  But, if a player does this enough, or in a gloriously reckless way, they are labeled by the fans of that sports as a “cheat”, “dirty”, or “classless”.  In hockey it can range from anything from playing the puck from the bench, to making direct intentional contact with another player for the sake of injuring that player or to seek retribution, to sucker punching an opponent in the back of the head.  The NHL’s most recent talking point revolves around intent to injure, most notably, headshots and removing dangerous collisions. 

The Coaching Carousel, Brought to You By Teams that Fire Their Head Coach With Eighteen Games Left

But, really, Brian Burke?  I could give two pucks less if you have one Canadian on your team or three hundred, but damn, by this point in the season you might just want to ride the pony/coach that got you there and hope for the best.  Regardless, it's time once again for everyone's favorite fired/rehired coaches segment, the Coaching Carousel!

Oh, and it's in the air people, the smell of playoff hockey.  Can you smell it?  Don't take one big whiff, you may become lightheaded.  It permeates everything around you.  It's already upon you, there is no sense in hyperventilating yourself into unconsciousness trying to smell it.

But, maybe you can't smell it, or don't want to smell it.  Well, I know one thing that smells.  Some of the teams who have fired coaches this season.  As of now, EIGHT!!! coaches have been fired through three-quarters of the 2011-12 NHL regular season.  Compare that to two through this point last season.  Yep, two.  That is quite a few less than eight if you take time to really think about it.

Again, what follows is superficial data from each team who has fired old coaches and hired new coaches, comparing and contrasting a few stat categories of the teams playing under each coach.  It won't solve anything or help you in the dating world, but it may make you sound smart to people who don't follow hockey.  And really, isn't that all that matters?

Yes, I Understand the Season Has Already Started: Hey KC, Follow This Team...or Not

"GOOOO HOCKEY!!!"

I am not a fan of this next team, but I do know that many Kansas Citians follow them closely.  It's not so much I hate them, it's just too much over-saturation based on past living arrangements.  And because I'm a Kings fan.  Alas, this team ranks in my top 5 of the most KC-esque teams.  I will try to remain unbiased as I list the reasons for you to like them for the years to come, and the reasons to maybe choose another of the five.

By the way, this team played at Kemper Arena more than any other NHL franchise at nine times (three of these were recent exhibition games; I don't know the exhibition schedule of the Scouts so it may be more).  Who is it?  Jump to find out, or just look at the tags.  Whatever.