Reimer practicing with Canucks, “shared sacrifice” and more

by Ryan Fancey on October 16, 2012 in Morning Mashup - 774 Comments

Photo: Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star

With CBA negotiations set to get going again today, a sort of bizarre chunk of news regarding the NHL’s public relations plans came about yesterday evening. The league has hired a GOP strategist to test its PR moves, including what’s being called the “shared sacrifice” pitch.

From G&M:

This space has previously detailed some NHL owners’ fondness for right-wing causes, now it transpires that the league office has hired a well-known Republican pollster who has advised conservatives from Pat Buchanan to George W. Bush to Stephen Harper to road-test its lockout message.

According to the fine folks at Deadspin, the NHL has retained the services of Frank Luntz, who brought such terms as “Contract with America”, “climate change” and “death tax” into the U.S. political vernacular.

…

Interesting that the league would go to such lengths to try and craft their spin.

It’s an interesting story, especially considering fans are again hopeful that this week will finally produce some meaningful discussions between the NHL and PA. While this type of news from Deadspin doesn’t really help in that regard, it does let us know that we were right about one thing: the NHL (and PA) are full of shit. It’s well worth the read.

On to some links after the jump.

Reimer practicing with a bunch of Canucks (G&M)

Biggs’ numbers are small (Yakov Mironov)

Marlies hot & cold (Kyle the Reporter)

KHL highlights! (Steve Dangle at TLN)

More on Reimer in Vancouver (Cam at TLN)

On Morgan Rielly… (Michael at VLM)

Conacher named AHL player of the week (The AHL)

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