Calgary Puck

They did it.

The Calgary Flames managed to secure a NHL playoff spot by American Thanksgiving. What does that get you? Absolutely nothing of course, as they still have more than 70% of their schedule still left to play. It does however, create a great discussion given the history of this magical date.

The history of the turkey line comes from a notion by Red Wing’s GM Kenny Holland;

The Hockey News December 2013
Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland has long contended that when it comes to making the playoffs, things are pretty much decided by the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, which gives a new meaning to Black Friday if you’re on the outside looking in.

And if history is any indication, Holland is about three-quarters correct. Over the past 10 seasons there have been 160 playoff spots up for grabs. Of the 160 teams that have held down a playoff spot after the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, 41 of them have finished the season out of the playoff picture. (We obviously didn’t include last season because the battle between the billionaires and the millionaires prevented us from having any NHL hockey until January.)

As a web site owner I’ve been projecting this article on this date for the better part of a month. My hope was the Flames would squeak into the 8th spot at Thanksgiving creating the debate about teams and the likelihood of holding down a spot in each Conference. Media in other markets would have been sure to point at the Flames as the team most likely to fall out (the 25%), and fans in Calgary thinking things too good to be true, would likely have thought the same.
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The NHL, and I’m guessing pro sports in general, has always been a fad chasing circuit.

When the Devils won with a trap everyone trapped. Now that the Kings are big and have won two cups, everyone is looking at size, and getting bigger and more difficult to play against. A terrible Chicago franchise drafted Toews and Kane, and with that everyone felt sucking badly was the best building plan, only to to have the Panthers and Oilers have everyone rethink that suggestion.

One element that hasn’t changed over the years, is the goalie rotation for NHL member clubs and leaning heavily on one man to carry the load.
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With almost 600 votes cast on 11 logo concepts in the last week its time to widdle the list down to a more managable number.

Once again thanks to the artists for the contributions, and the membership for their passion in helping the web site select a new look.

Below are the four most popular logos from the original list of 11. In the first go round we let people select multiple logos from the list to ensure we got a good representation of the popularity of each concept. This time around its a single vote for a favourite out of four.

With snow on the ground, and Flame’s prospects packing luggage its almost hockey season, but first lets finish some logo business! – Full Article –

What better time to change the look of a site then when the hockey club is going through a rebuild of their own. Even better when said rework happens in August and acts as excellent filler to get rabid hockey fans out of the dog days of Summer and back into the hockey season.

First off we want to thank everyone for their creativity and vigour in designing numerous logos that were frankly much more professional than I ever could have expected.

Thirty some days, and well over 100 iterations of logo ideas and below we have 13 finalists that are set to go to vote to help me in picking a winner for the site.

To those that didn’t make the cut, I apologize, it would have been easy to have 20 in this group. I weighed what I liked, and comments I read from others on each logo to come up with what I think is a pretty solid group to choose from.

Thanks again everyone for your tremendous support!
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So what kind of lunatic would run 39 rounds of prospect ranking polls in 44 days?

This kind of lunatic that’s who; I’m well aware of who I’m dealing with.

The hockey season is long, well that is for most people. However for the type of clientele that frequent Calgarypuck.com the season just can’t come soon enough.
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