Thursday, April 17, 2008

Whatever Happened to Nicknames in Hockey?

Is it just me or do you long for the years when hockey players had nicknames that envoked a certain level of respect and fear. Gone are the days of "The Great One", "Super Mario", and "The Russian Rocket". Today I can't think of but two or three nicknames. What was so great about the nicknames in the past was that it helped the NHL market these individuals. What would Detroit have been without "Mr. Hockey"? If you were a small market team, you were automatically going to generate a lot of revenue by emphasizing these players! Admit it, names like Wayne and Gordie (not withstanding the fact that these names do already envoke somethign special) taken on their own are not as memorable as "The Great One" or "Mr. Hockey".

Today, a few of the nicknames that we are still left with are remnants of the last death rattle from the 1990s golden-age of the NHL. Yes, you may realize that I am refering to "The Dominator" or "CuJO"...ahh "CuJO"...I love that nickname so creative a Canadian could have thought of it.

I myself will openly admit that I am a dye-heard Rangers fan, but am left with sincere dissapointment as the biggest market in the United States hasn't had a nickname since the retirement of "The Captain"...but I could never really tell if that was actually a nickname or just a gross understatement of the man, the legend Mark Messier. Today, anyone that has ever gone to a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden: "The House that James Dolan Destroyed" has been dissapointed with the nicknames heard around the team. Scott Gomez: "Gomer"; Brendan Shanahan "Shanny"; Brandon Dubinsky "Duber"...I'm going to give the Rangers two points for "King Henrik". But come on, what do you think about this instead: Scott "Flash" Gomez; Brendan "Two Pints" Shanahan; Brandon "Dinky" Dubinsky...

I will admit that this is a problem around the league. If the NHL is ever to figure out how to market itself AND it's players, it needs to come up with better nicknames then "The Next One".

A few possibilities:

Sidney "Bing" Crosby
Alexander "Give me a Big O" Ovechkin
Todd "Jailbird" Bertuzzi
Joe "Thorn" Thorton

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