If you find this please turn it in to the Condors office
I found it! i think the last blog i wrote was in October. had to put it down for a while. busy, busy. then i lost it, but now it’s back, and i have the time. now we all have time. it’s the off-season.
Right now, much of our staff is in Las Vegas at the ECHL Marketing Meetings, and they’re bringing back another award – the Marketing Excellence award. that’s a good one, we all kind of have a hand in that, makes us proud. i have to admit, i’m very disappointed we didn’t win the Website of the Year, we spend a lot of time on that site, and i think it has a ridiculous amount of information on it. plus our own video website? with game highlights of just about every home game going up after each game? i’m miffed, but oh well.
Anyway, time for some random thoughts:
I was bouncing around the website EliteHockeyProspects.com the other day (which, by the way, has become my favorite hockey site for looking up current players). it has just about everything you need to know, but it is European-based, so all the ads are in Swedish, or German, or Lithuanian or something else i can read. anyway, i came across a name most Condors fans are familiar with: Trevor Koenig. apparently he’s still playing, and winning, by the way. he was an all-star and took home the French league championship last season… the guy just wins games. i wonder if the fans in France are as enamored of him as the ones in Condorstown.
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I was on the site searching teams because Marty Raymond has a couple Europeans that may be coming to training camp this season. he always has an eye on Europe for diamonds in the rough – although sometimes they are diamonds (Christoffer Norgren, Jonas Lennartsson) and sometimes they are rough (not naming any names). there are many reasons for players to go to Europe, financially speaking. but this season things are a little different in the global market – the Euro is down and dropping, which may actually mean that it’s a good year for Europeans to come to the States to play hockey. watch and see if that becomes a trend for 2010-11.
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As for players going to Europe next season, count Sasha Pokulok as one of the first to jump across the pond. the d-man signed in the German Elite League (DEL) with the DEG Metro Stars. that’s a great league that has a reputation of paying well, and several former NHLers call the DEL home now. congrats to Sasha on the signing, it’s a good move for him. he’s a helluva player.
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The absorbtion of the IHL (part of it, anyway) by the CHL was a bold maneuver, by both leagues. i like it. it makes for a very strong league right up the gut of the United States. The ECHL has powerful positioning on the East and West Coasts, which means that there are two solid AA hockey leagues in this country. synergy is good in this business, and there is strength in numbers. could ONE AA league be very far down the road? the Condors are actually flying over 17 teams or so to go play a couple clubs out east. one flight to Texas and they could hit up five or six games against a handful of teams all in driving distance. the dust hasn’t even settled on the CHL-IHL combo move yet, so i’m being purely hypothetical. but down the road it might make sense.
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Are the NBA Finals over yet??? for the love of God, hasn’t it been 4 weeks since the finals started? this is more ridiculous than the World Cup schedule, where the U.S. has 6 full days off between games. Jeez!
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Speaking of the World Cup, i’m all in. i love it. if you haven’t seen the Lego highlights of USA v. England yet, click here. hilarious. huge upset this morning with Spain falling to Switzerland (Suisse?). i’ve gotten into this before but i’m hugely annoyed by the inconsistency in the names by which countries call themselves and what we call them in the English language.
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And in a related story, what’s up with the Dutch? if they’re from the Netherlands (Nederland??) why do they call themselves Dutch? OK let me get this straight: They’re from the Netherlands, sometimes referred to as Holland (which makes little sense), and they’re called Dutch. wouldn’t the Dutch come from Dutchland? no, that would be the Germans, from Deutschland, right next to the Dutch, who live in Holland, otherwise known as the Netherlands. and if there is such a thing as Hollandaise sauce, why can’t people from Holland be known as Hollandaise? i’m so confused. anyway, the Dutch beat the Danes, from Denmark (Danmark?), while the Deutsche beat the snot out of the Aussies (from Australia, not Austria). it’s a good thing Suomi (Finland) isn’t playing in the World Cup, i’d throw a fit.
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The Condors have sent out their Qualifying Offers already. six of them. and i’m not telling who we sent them to. you’ll have to stay tuned to find out. we’ll announce the players on July 1.
Kevin Bartl is the “Voice of the Condors” and the Vice President of Communications, entering his eighth season with the team.
