You remember when I talked about poor marketing ideas and lack of originality?

“This is not a one-year mantra. This is an identifier for the long-term,” Lehner said.

Tampa Bay Lightning hockey marketing, by way of Detroit and other hockey cities around the US. :rolleyes

The WHA has many skeptics, myself chief among them. Joseph at Tasca’s Take feels I am being a little hasty in proclaiming the WHA to be dead on arrival. While he is also skeptical about the WHA’s potential for success, Joseph believes the potential reward is worth the risk. I would tend to agree, but the risk is threatening to magnify beyond it’s worth.

I suppose I would find the WHA a little more worthwhile if those running it didnt appear like chickens with their heads cut off. There is a lot of activity, but no thinking.

I used the XFL as an example simply because Americans would understand the reference. The WHA seems more like the Canadian Baseball League to me. The CBL was a league that ended up being started up last year in a big rush, put teams in markets that made no sense, grabbed some relatively big names but overall very little talent, did no marketing, and was run by people so arrogant they figured Canadians would support the league simply because it was Canadian. The CBL lasted barely half a season before falling to dust.

I see all of these factors in the WHA. The rush is on to try and get teams into buildings, players signed, tickets sold. The lack of preparation will cause a world of problems.

Halifax has no lease, and will be lucky to end up in a substandard arena as the Mooseheads wont be likely to share the Metro Centre. Their owners say they need 7000 fans on average to succeed, and are ignoring that Halifax has already failed numerous times as a pro hockey market. Not to mention that the prices will be $50-80 per ticket, when there already exists a QMJHL team that has a great product and costs less than $20 to attend.

Toronto and Hamilton still dont have leases, and really, there arent any decent arenas available.

Florida doesnt have a home yet, and is in a market that isnt known for financially sucessful hockey teams. Meanwhile, the “Founders Franchise” doesnt have a home because nobody actually wants to own the team. I did notice that the FF mainly drafted players that nobody will care about or miss if it should find no home. Planning for the inevitible.

The WHA buisness plan consists of exactly two things: The NHL remaining dormant, and people remembering the “glory days” of the original WHA, while forgetting that the original league was a financial disaster featuring an unending merry-go-round of franchise relocations, contraction and broken dreams. That WHA actually had real talent. This WHA will be very lucky to match the AHL.

The biggest obstacle will be a lack of financial stability. As Joseph noted, there is no real TV deal. No season tickets are being sold yet, which means that the WHA will have to rely almost exclusively on walk up ticket sales. When the WHA proves to be a minor league, it will draw minor league crowds. And minor league crowds are not enough to survive.

Like the CBL and the XFL, the WHA will end up being just another interesting idea poorly executed. The true winners in all of this will be the established organizations: the AHL, ECHL and Canadian Major Junior, all of which will benifit greatly from a dormant NHL.

Do you remember the beginning of the 2003-04 Campaign where Defense was a big question mark for the team? Some people in LightningNation insisted we needed a top 4 Defensiveman while others contended Lukowich wasn’t a top-4 to begin with?

Remember how Sydor’s acquisition silenced those critics?

Well, folks, tune up the chorus because we are down a top-4 defensiveman once again. Jassen Cullimore has taken the cash and ran to the Chicago Blackhawks in a Multi-year deal. Terms are not known at current but it is a multi-year deal.

This creates roster space for either young talent to step up and crack the roster (such as Andreas Holmqvist, Gerard Dicaire or even Mike Egener) while a vet moves into the top-4 rotation (Boyle? Sarich? Pratt?) or presses Jay Feaster to find a cheap replacement for Cullimore on the Free Agent market that fits into Tampa Bay’s system.

Cost wise, this is probably all for the best… But from a title-defense standpoint, losing a key veteran always hurts.

Well, team Russia may be facing a lot of hardships going into the World Cup tournament this summer, but they are also going in with a young forward from Tampa Bay.

Dmitry Afanasenkov became the 5th member of the Tampa Bay Lightning to be named to a World Cup team. He joins Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier (Team Canada), Pavel Kubina (team Czech Republic) and Fredrik Modin (Sweden) to be named.

Now if he could just finish when driving to the net…

Anyone a fan of baseball? For those baseball fans out there and message board fans alike, I’d like to introduce to you Baseballboards.net which is my newest offering on the web. It’s brand spanking new and looking for dedicated posters of all baseball teams.

OK, back on topic — drop the friggin’ puck already! (that or announce Bob Goodenow has resigned and the NHL season will happen as scheduled).

Quebec calls WHA franchise the Nordiks

QUEBEC CITY (CP) — Quebec City is getting its Nordiques back, give or take a few letters.

The city’s team in the fledgling World Hockey Association will be called the Nordiks, franchise president Jean-Paul Boily announced Thursday.

I guess a Nordik is defined as “Creatively incompetant…”

Seriously, this has got to be one of the worst attempts to get around the fact someone else owns the copyrights to the Quebec Nordiques name. If this trend continues, we can see the Calgary Phlames facing off against the Edmonton Oyelers in the near future… Or the Tampa Bay Lytening facing the Florida Panthyrs… Or perhaps the New York R@ngyrs facing their in-state rivals, the New York Eye-landyrs

The WHA — Where immittaion is the fondest form of Flattery

Did you know?

Did you care?

If you do, Brad Richards was taken by the mysterious “Florida” franchise in the first round, 8th overall. They also took Ben Clymer in the 5th round.

Today the WHA is holding its amateur draft, trying to poach exceptionally talented juniors like Sydney Crosby and Dion Phaneuf away from the CHA and NHL

Yes, Florida, you have a team. It doesn’t have a name. It doesnt have a home – we know it wont be Orlando or Jacksonville, it doesnt have a lease, and it doesnt have a season ticket base. But it has Brad Richards. And Martin St. Louis. Assuming, of course, they choose to play in this league.

And while it seems the Florida franchise is in a state of disarray, it is still better off than the “Founders Franchise”, which also drafted players this weekend, but doesnt even know what country it will play in. The WHA says the team will play in either Cincinatti or Vancouver – assuming anyone is willing to own the team. My bet is Cincinatti, as GM place is leased to the Canucks, and the old PNE is leased to the WHL’s Giants. Not to mention that Victoria has an ECHL franchise, and half of the BCJHL Jr ‘A’ league is based in greater Vancouver. We Canucks love our hockey, but there are limits to how many teams we will support.

The other six teams are a little better off. Four have names, but only three have actually signed leases. To the best of my knowledge, only two season tickets have been handed out – in Detroit via raffle. No TV deals yet, and perhaps a handful of carreer minor leaguer’s signed, if that.

And only three months until puck drop to get all of this organized.

I’d like to think of the WHA as being little better than the XFL, but in doing so, I’d be insulting Vince McMahon, who managed to get one full season out of his league. One season more than I expect of the WHA.

Well, it may happen on time or it may not but the Lightning are scheduled to start the season at home — raising their Stanley Cup Banner, thankyouverymuch, against the Philadelphia Flyers on October 13th.

The complete Schedule for the Bolts can be found here.

November 11ths sees the Calgary Flames back in Tampa…. There is no scheduled away-game at Calgary this season\.

October sees a very odd road-swing that starts the team in Buffalo and then out west to Phoenix and Colorado.

The season closes with a home-and-home series against the Atlanta Thrashers, who will most certainly be a thorn in the Lightning’s side next season.

IF there is a season.

Well, it’s the summer doldrums so lets have some fun with this —

Which Lightning member would you most like to spend a day with the cup? It’s no matter that all of these guys will be spending a day with the cup but…

Go vote, young man (and woman)

Here’s an open request for links to various photo galleries on the web that host pictures from the playoffs / from the championship and the aftermath. I know a lot of people are still looking for photos and I’d love to point out where to go to find different snap shots of different events.

First off, with what I have already — Tampabaylightning.com posted 10 “aftermath” shots from game 7. The first picture is the sweetest — Dave sipping form the Cup.

The second game 7 gallery is from the St. Petersburg Times (which offers a whole playoff-long photo gallery list)3 Nothing besides game photos on this one.

Webshot’s hockey community has images from the victory parade.. Hard to recognize anyone and the photos are of the players more than the Parade itself.

Of course we can’t forget our friends (sic) at the Tampa Tribune who put out a flash gallery of photos from the victory parade.

Neil Hughes of Rev.log sent me his directory of Game 7 Photos that he’s collected off the net. They are a ton of great high definition pictures of mostly post-game stuff. Some in-game photos are included.

You got a source for more photos? Anyone have a source of some from Game 7? Drop me a line or post on the comments and I will update this post accordingly.

Well, Vinny will be joining Bradmaster and Martin St. Louis, playing for team Canada in this summer’s World Cup series.

Steve Yzerman had to opt out of the World Cup and Keith Primeau – who was due to replace Steve, is still suffering post-concussion syndrome from the playoffs. Once again Primeau can’t quite outdo Tampa Bay…

I don’t know about you, but I am getting rather sick of the silence from local media with regards to the team.

The St. Pete Times just gives a complimentary article that talks about where the Stanley Cup was this week and with whom. Though sometimes there are interesting stories with that (Phil Esposito spending a day with the Cup) it’s not really dealing with the issues of the franchise or the issues of the CBA or anything else.

Oh, and there was an interesting article on Brad Richards parents…. Beat writer Damian Cristordero spent a morning with Brad’s parents off the cost of Prince Edward Island… But besides that from the Times, and some daily coverage of the AP wire — there’s nothing much going on with regards to covering the team.

But of course, it could be worse… much worse… Like the Tampa Tribune worse. The last article on the Lightning that was published was on July 2nd with regards to Jassen Cullimore’s preference to stay with the Lightning. I don’t expect much better coverage from the home of Good-Ole-Boy sports reporting…

For this hockey fan, the silence is deafening. I’m not buying into the Devil Rays, I’m not salivating over the Tampa Bay Correctional Facility Football Team… er, the Buccaneers… I’m eager to see hockey again and hear hockey… This is the Hot Stove time in pro-sports that is supposed to cover every facet of the game and instead…? Silence.

For the sake of saying so, not that it is totally important — you can see it for yourself) — It’s the off-season and that means there won’t be many updates to the site (at least I am not planning many or the time being). Like everyone else, I am watching the wires (which is about all that you can find in the newspaper in Tampa right now) and when something interesting happens, or at least something worth posting thought on happens… Boltsmag shall indeed be update.

Happy 4th of July and have a great summer… but don’t forget about next season — we have a title to defend

Well, the NHL Hotstove truly kicks off today as the Unrestricted Free Agency signing period commences.

TSN.ca has a complete Free Agent tracker list to follow the action with… but I don’t expect much movement until the new CBA is in place… SO you may not have to visit that link until sometime in 2005 :sad

It took him 3 decades… He hoisted it 2 times as a player and yet never had his day’s fill of the Cup (a tradition started only in 1995) until yesterday.

Phil Esposito was the founding father of the Tampa Bay Lightning franchise and it was only appropriate he was the first person associated with the Lightning to get a day with Lord Stanley’s Cup.