Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I Heart The AHL

By Dan Moser



That was the intro video for the Oklahoma City Barons, the Edmonton Oilers American Hockey League Affiliate. Now, I'll be the first to admit, this is the one and only intro video for an AHL team I have seen. It strikes me as being very AHL and very American non-hockey marketish.

First of all, and probably most noticeable to the layman, there are no actually players or even players names present in the video. Who are the stars of the team? Who is the fighter? Based on this video I can't tell you. I know it's a new team, but there are clips out there and they are not hard to find. They are good clips to. The kind that show you some of these players might be worth watching.

The "hockey" scenes are pretty lame. The "players" are not travelling at full speed, they barely even have their legs bent. In the first shooting scene, the puck doesn't even leave the ice, looks like the player may have whiffed on the shot and the production crew had to do with it because it was still somehow the most usable shot. These scenes would be so perfect if this was a promotional video for the third line in the men's league I used to play in in Edmonton.

By far though the best hockey scene is the final shot. The un-named, un-numbered, I assume forward, playing in what appears to be a dimly lit inter-squad game winds up and takes a slapshot. Though the shot is barely off the ice it has the power to destroy everything in it's path before showing the viewer the Fox-Trax Puck Version 2.0. Not only does the puck begin to glow, (you now so that we know it is fast) it actually turns into a glowing fiery lion racing towards the goal. The puck goes into the empty net and destroys it. 

Lastly, look, I'm probably not the hippest person out there but making an intro video the the Eminem song lose yourself (you know, knees weak, etc) is a little dated and kinda lame. It almost made me puke up Mom's Spaghetti. I guess it's kinda fitting though, for most of the players on the Barons this season this is their one chance to make it and if they don't play well this season it will likely be the end of the road as far as the National League is concerned. As of writing this, the Oklahoma City Barons scoring ability this season is making last year's Springfield Falcons teams look like Calder Cup champions.

No comments:

Post a Comment