Friday, May 8, 2009

the abbotsford heat ???

this will be a tremendously short entry but it was announced todaythat the new-look, new-locale baby flames will be either the abbotsford heat, the abbotsford ice hawks, the abbotsford storm, or the abbotsford flames. i didn't get off my butt fast enough to throw my team names into the mix; the abbotsford axemen (my buddy mike's idea), or my choice ---the abbotsford sockeyes.... ;)

let's evaluate:

1. THE FLAMES
there are so many reasons this makes sense. obviously, they are the flames' farm team (which is why they were dubbed the quad city flames, the saint john flames, and the moncton golden flames back in the day), and the logo would be an easy fix if they could get the rights to the old atlanta jerseys... unfortunately, marketing an AHL affiliate of the local NHL team's biggest rival might be a hard sell....


2. THE HEAT
about a decade ago, one of my favorite trivia questions was "name five north american professional sports teams that don't end in 'S.'" the trick was specifying "north american" and "professional" in order to deem guesses like "AC milan" and "crimson tide" incorrect... the right answers were the tampa bay lightning, the colorado avalanche, the white and red sox, the utah jazz, the orlando magic, and the miami heat..... i wasn't a fan of these names then and i'm not a fan now, but i suppose if you want to get away from naming a team "the flames" then "the heat" is probably second best....

3. THE STORM
see #2 for reasons why "the abbotsford storm" doesn't work for me, and add in the fact that it sounds like a character on american gladiators.... or a WNBA squad.

4. THE ICE HAWKS
ugh. is this my last option, for real ???? i don't know what the hell an ice hawk is, or if it's a real thing.... if they wanted to name the team after a bird, then why not the RAVENS or something suitably west-coasty ?? hawks are so.... overdone in pro sports....

here's to hoping the flames' brass can convince that the best name going is the one they've already got.... [though as i continue reading, it seems they've come straight out and said the team will NOT be called "the flames." unless they're taking media lessons from darryl sutter, i can only presume this to be true...]

*yawn*

13 comments:

robert cleave said...

If you've ever spent any time in that part of the Fraser Valley, you'll know the most appropriate local-esque name would be the Abbotsford Air Pollution.

And, yeah, the A-Flames would be great with the old logo.

R O said...

Ugh, those non-Flames options are terrible. What the hell is an "Ice Hawk"?

The article says they changed the location name from "Fraser Valley" to "Abbostford" based on fan feedback. I wonder if they did the same for the other part of the name?

walkinvisible said...

maybe they should've called them the abbotsford canucks, and then changed the colour to red and left the rest.

i'm seriously hoping they go flames, out of those options... but i presume it will be heat, damnit.

really really really hoping it's not storm or icehawks. with my luck it probably will be one of those two (and bertuzzi WILL be back in calgary next year).

Unknown said...

Hmmm...Abbotsford Matches? Briquettes? Flare? Tinder? Pyre?
Inferno? Starter Fluid?
Maybe not

walkinvisible said...

nice use of a thesaurus, there....
;)

it's gonna be heat. i can just feel it...

walkinvisible said...

(though abbotsford inferno is better than storm or icehawks)

Yvon Vautour's moustache said...

the st.johns flamesActually, that should be Saint John Flames. New Brunswick, not Newfoundland. We Saint Johners are kinda testy about that.

walkinvisible said...

huge apologies.... edited to read correctly now...

thanks for the correction.

Mike H. said...

You know what my new choice would be: Please welcome to the ice... the "Backlund Granthams". :)

Being in the Canucks market, I think it would be pretty rude to name them the Flames or some derivative. If that's the case, I think you should go with something that applies to Abbotsford and/or region. I thought our convo the other day about the Ravens was pretty compelling, with the Salish connections and whatnot, even if they are also an NFL team.

It seems DVDG is actually from Abbotsford. Considering the troubled economic history of these teams, maybe he can save us a couple bucks and do double duty as the mascot.

walkinvisible said...

the abbotsford dvdgs ? brilliant....

walkinvisible said...

ps: i'm excited for the backlund granthams tonight in kelowna....

R O said...

Did you see our boy Conroy on the TSN panel today? He sounds quite sharp.

walkinvisible said...

i DID and i was actually gonna write a bit about it (but i'm not gonna have time)... i thought he looked CRAZY nervous at first, but settled in quite nicely....

i guess all the times he was referred to as "future TSN analyst, craig conroy," they weren't kidding.... ;)