Questions Will Become Answers

The NHL has gained a legitimate head of steam since the 2004-05 lockout season, but has really been charging over the past two years. High scoring games, great matchups, and other integral improvements have quickly transformed the NHL into a mainstream league. It's amazing to think that a league that lost $200 million nearly two decades ago just turned a $180 million profit this past season.

How can you not love the NHL? The games are exciting to watch, the fans are as raucous as the Raider Nation, there's excessive fighting, and awesome goal celebrations. Basically it offers all the things that the NFL does at a fraction of the price.

This past season, the NHL really gained notice with the influx of stars who played for their home countries in the Olympics. With 27.6 million viewers, the gold medal game between the US and Canada was the most watched hockey game in the US since the 1980 gold medal game at the Lake Placid Olympics, just two days after the United States defeated the Soviet Union in the "Miracle On Ice" game.

Another recent addition in the NHL is the Winter Classic. On New Year's Day, two teams play a regulation game outdoors. Of course, that limits the game to the Midwest, Northeast, and Canada, but the game not only draws some of the NHL's highest ratings each year, but they also sell out stadiums and baseball fields that seat more than 40000 people. I wanted to go to the 2009 game between the Red Wings and Blackhawks, but tickets cost upwards of $200...and that was all the way up top in the not-so nosebleeds.

The Friendly Confines hosted the 2009 Winter Classic, one of the highest rated games of the 2008-09 NHL season.

What all this sums up to is a league that is on the rise- a league that could be a serious challenger to the MLB and NBA, two leagues that are on a downward path (actually, the NBA may make up ground in the Miami Heat, but we'll see.)

Anyways, the NHL has a great new marketing campaign called Questions Will Become Answers. Each one features a player working out while radio commentators ask the questions that each team's fans have been asking in the offseason, with every ad concluding with the most biting question of the bunch and the words "Questions Will Become Answers".

The NHL is rolling out a team-specific ad for every club, but for now, there are 5 player-specific ads featuring Jonathan Toews (Blackhawks), Sidney Crosby (Penguins), Alexander Ovechkin (Capitals), Ryan Miller (Sabres), and  Mike Cammalleri (Canadiens). NHL's ad department did an AWESOME job with these ads, and I appreciate the fact that the players are all working out padless- it's a nice change from having them skating on a dark rink one on one against a goalie. Check out the ads below- if they don't make you want to go out and buy season tickets, nothing will.