Scatter Shots: The Utah emails, RSNs, and how the Puckdoku gets made

I'm waiting on a flight to Florida, so why not get some thoughts out.

From time to time I’ll use this space as dumping ground for random thoughts and ideas running through my head.

And as I’m getting ready to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale for the Stanley Cup Final, this is one of those times.

I called it scatter shots, but that name probably won’t stick. Let’s get into it.

The Utah email grift

Ok, it’s not a grift, but it’s an incredibly smart and sneaky way to collect data.

The NHL team in Utah, which still doesn’t have a name, has been running a name the team contest.

After the first round of voting, it’s been narrowed down to this list of six:

• Utah Blizzard

• Utah Hockey Club (Utah HC)

• Utah Mammoth

• Utah Outlaws

• Utah Venom

• Utah Yeti

According to the website where you can vote, more than 520,000 people cast a ballot in Round 1, with those six names accounting for more than 60 percent of the results.

Now it’s time for Round 2, and honestly they’ll probably get even more entries.

In order to submit your entry you have to fill out these boxes.

It’s a way to stop spamming votes, sure, but it’s also a way to populate a massive email list. Based off the 520,000 that voted in Round 1, we know Utah has an email list that with more than half a million addressed on it.

I’ve done some research in this space, this newsletter/website lives in the email business, and having that large of an email list is worth millions on its own.

Seriously, one of the biggest challenges and pushes right now with digital marketing is breaking through into people’s inboxes — getting past some of the noise of other social media.

I don’t have a way of scientifically finding this out, but I did ask around to some people who are experts in this space and they surmised that Utah may already have the largest email database of any NHL team.

Think about it this way. When the team has jerseys available for sale, it can be immediately blasted out to a list of people that is more than double the actual population of Salt Lake City.

Whether it was on purpose or not, a lot of this “name the team” thing feels like more of an excuse for data capture than actually being the deciding factor in the end.

Just look at the fine print below those boxes where you had to enter your name and email.

Participants acknowledge and agree that there is no consideration or compensation for survey responses. Participation is entirely voluntary. The final name will be selected through a multi-factor process.

This is why Utah will be a business success. I’m not sure if they’ll have hockey success or not, but Ryan Smith comes from a tech and NBA background, and something that often feels simple for an NBA team — data capture — can often feel like re-inventing the wheel in the more traditional NHL mindset.

On that note, if you are new here, you can take part in my email grift as well.

Blackhawks sink announcer on way out

The Chicago Blackhawks are replacing Chris Vosters as their play-by-play voice.

Vosters took over for Pat Foley, a mammoth task, and never really connected with the Blackhawks fans.

Moving on from Vosters isn’t too surprising, but it was noteworthy to me on how much the Blackhawks tanked the broadcaster on his way out.

In an interview with Scott Powers, Blackhawks president of business Jaime Faulkner raked Vosters over the calls, saying some of the things typically kept quiet out loud.

“Chris is a tremendous broadcaster with a very bright future ahead of him,” Faulkner said. “He has a very big voice that lends itself extremely well to being a sports broadcaster. We want to offer our fans a broadcast with deep experience and hockey knowledge. We evaluate things like depth of hockey vocabulary, ability to anticipate the play to use your voice to draw the viewer in, ability to call plays happening with players who don’t have the puck, and knowing that sometimes you don’t say anything at all.”

Vosters will get another play-by-play gig, but any letter of recommendation from Chicago instantly lost credibility when Faulkner essentially said the younger broadcaster didn’t have the vocabulary or hockey knowledge to properly call a game.

Feels a bit harsh to me, but that might be my personal bias because I liked Vosters as a person in my dealings with him at morning skates.

The RSN future

Part of the Blackhawks change in on-air talent comes when the Blackhawks are about to join the Chicago Bulls and White Sox on a new team-owned network, Chicago Sports Network, as they leave NBC Sports Chicago.

It’s part of the growing trend of teams taking control of their own broadcasting future in the rocky regional sports network landscape.

I sat down with Dallas Stars president Brad Alberts last week to chat about a number of business things, including what’s coming next for his team during it’s potential messy divorce with the Diamond-owned RSN that is currently called Bally Sports, but will soon be branded FanDuel network.

Alberts told me the Stars are in the middle of figuring this out and he’s very close on a potential plan for a direct-to-consumer option for Stars fans within the TV market.

Alberts was cautious in speaking too far out of turn, but essentially said the bankruptcy proceedings for Diamond Sports are the only thing stopping the Stars from officially going alone into the TV space.

He did offer this:

“I think we are getting closer to being able to officially announce something.”

How the Puckdoku is made

I was the Special Guest Puzzlemaster yesterday for Puckdoku.

Here was my grid and theme, with Dominik Hasek as a possible answer for all nine boxes.

I picked Hasek theme for a couple reasons.

1. I thought his number 39 was fitting for a 3x3 grid game with nine boxes.

2. He’s the most entertaining person, in my view, to ever play the game.

The Puckdoku folks reached out to me about two weeks ago about building a puzzle.

When I originally shared my idea I had the Ottawa Senators on their, but we switched it with Hall of Fame, because Hasek never won the Vezina with the Senators and the theme wouldn’t have been complete.

It was fun, maybe I’ll be get to be back and host again. Either way, play Puckdoku, it’s fun and a good way to kill some time while remembering some guys.

A bit more about me

I’m not used to being the one interviewed, especially about myself.

One of the reasons I went into this job is because at my core I find myself uninteresting and don’t like talking about myself — I’d much rather hear and tell stories about others.

But my good buddies Jeff Zucker and Jeff Tyner had me on The Late Game Podcast this week to chat about hockey, the movie we made, and how I ended up where I am.

The interview starts at 23-minute mark in the video below.

On that same note, since I’m always trying to push things, you should go watch The Late Game. It’s currently available for streaming on Prime Video.

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On a non-movie note, I’m headed to Florida right now for the Stanley Cup Final. I’ll be covering the series for EP Rinkside, on scene for games in Florida (costs associated with travel Alberta made us punt on those games).

You should read my work there, if you can, subscribe there and support the awesome site they’ve been building. They recently dropped the draft guide and it’s one of the most impressive things you’ll find in hockey coverage anywhere.

I’ll also have some Stanley Cup Final observations in this space, after I fulfill my responsibilities over at Rinkside, since they are footing my travel bill.

In this space I’ve got some things planned beyond the final, including stories on Shai Buium and Lian Bichsel.

As always, any stories or ideas you have, feel free to let me know by commenting or emailing me.

Ok, I’ve got a flight to catch. Talk to you from Florida, I’ve heard it’s one hell of a drug.