Mike Richards stands in the dressing room, anticipating the playoffs, preparing to defend the Los Angeles Kings’ Stanley Cup championship. He is a player. He sounds like a fan.
“Every time I see a commercial on TV about it,” he says, “it gives you chills.”
It is hard not to notice the word “commercial.” After the latest NHL lockout, it is hard to forget that this is a business and the Mad Men are giving people chills to sell them stuff. Toronto and Montreal are back in the field, and as much as it’s about history and tradition, it’s about HRR and escrow. Have you seen the ticket prices?
But this is why they can charge what they charge. This is why the customers pay what they pay for tickets and TV packages and jerseys and goodness knows what else, like NHL Santa Claus dolls and toasters that burn NHL logos into bread.
Chills are chills. And for the first time since Richards and his teammates held the Cup over their heads at an arena named for an office supply store, the customers can
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