DENVER, CO - MARCH 24: Erik Johnson #6 of the Colorado Avalanche talks to a teammate against the Vegas Golden Knights at the Pepsi Center on March 24, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
CENTENNIAL, CO – APRIL 9: Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog speaks with members of the media after practice at the Family Sports Ice Arena on April 9, 2018 in Centennial, Colorado. A year after finishing with a club-record-low 48 points, the Avalanche completed the improbable amid a wild Game 7-type atmosphere in the most unique NHL regular-season setting of its kind since 2010: the Colorado Avalanche defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-2 in Game 82 for both teams. By doing so, Colorado finished with 95 points just a point shy of doubling its total from a year ago and leapfrogged the Blues for the last Western Conference wild-card spot. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /
The Colorado Avalanche public relations team made some excellent videos during the 2017-18 season. Here are some of the highlights.
When you’re watching Colorado Avalanche highlights, you’re usually watching just that — highlights. You see what amazingness Nathan MacKinnon and Co. did that night and moving on.
However, the team, like all others, has gotten in the habit of making fun videos. These videos are ways to showcase the players’ personalities.
You could argue that those kinds of things aren’t important, and you’d be right to a point. Whether a player is funny or silly has no bearing on how well he plays the game. Plenty of non-likable players win games — why, the Minnesota Wild has a whole team’s worth of just such players.
However, the NHL isn’t played in a vacuum. The difference between NHL games and rec league games transcends skill and talent. NHL games pull an audience. What’s more, teams like the Colorado Avalanche expect to sell gear.
And the money-making doesn’t work if the team just sells a single jersey to each fan. They need fans to buy multiple jerseys and T-shirts and keychains and baby rompers and toasters… and that takes some love of the team to keep shelling out money unnecessarily.
One way teams accomplish that is by selling their best commodity — the players. And not just the on-ice product. Because hockey players are unique among pro sports in that they’re especially humble — and therefore willing to make fun of themselves sometimes.
You don’t have to take my word for it — teams have entire staff whose only purpose is to make media for fans to consume.
The Colorado Avalanche social media team did a bang-up job last year of promoting the team. So, I’m going to share a few of the videos I think they produced especially well.
Ask the Avs: Ikea
Ask the Avs videos are a staple of in-game entertainment. I believe the social media crew asks the players a series of questions at the beginning of the season. They then cobble those answers together into a video that’s played during intermission throughout the year.
One of my favorite versions of this convention dates back four years. The PR team asked the Avs players whether they prefer to cuddle or take long walks on the beach. Our cuddly teddy bear of the defense, Tyson Barrie, naturally declared, “Both.”
Our prickly smartass of the defense, Erik Johnson, declared “Neither.”
In preparation for their trip to Sweden, Colorado Avalanche players talked about whether they’re into or over Ikea:
Some highlights of this segment are MacKinnon trying to dethrone Johnson for prickly smartass (he doesn’t manage… yet) and both Gabriel Landeskog and Mark Barberio going off on a commercial mode for Ikea.
Oh, and Landeskog laughing at himself. Self-deprecating humor is always my favorite — next to sarcasm, anyway.
Avs Players Making Dad Jokes
Speaking of humor, and especially self-deprecating humor, Altitude TV host and reporter Kyle Keefe is especially good at both.
Three years ago, he did some Worst Interview Ever posts with the players. He “tried” to get the players to work with him on some Christmas posts, but they were struggling to get through his bad questioning. (Watch here — my favorite part is Matt Duchene trying to outsmart him.)
Well, this year Kyle Keefe introduced the players to a fresh hell. He printed out a selection of really bad jokes — dad jokes. He openly admitted they were bad jokes. Nonetheless, the players had to tell them with straight faces:
You can't take the kid out of the hockey player... Ever.
Landeskog can’t even get through the instructions without laughing. MacKinnon is utterly confounded with math, and Erik Johnson puts on his best game face.
Apparently the Mouthguard Challenge is a thing. It’s a funny thing. Even a wholesome thing.
It’s even a game you can buy. It’s all situated around this idea of putting a mouthguard in your mouth which prevents you from using your lips and even teeth properly. You’re then asked to either say words, which your partner tries to identify, or complete challenges.
The first time I saw the challenge, though, I thought of this video, which made it hard for me to understand why the team was making such videos.
Once I got over that initial disbelief, though, I could see how hilarity ensues. In this particular challenge, the players have to be the first to blow a paper ball across a line:
Some of the highlights of the video include Nail Yakupov‘s amazed — but good-natured — disbelief when Mark Barberio bats it with his hand and Colin Wilson giving the captain the side-eye when he uses his tongue.
And… now we’re back to my initial discomfort. Moving on to the next video.
Avs 360 Christmas
The Colorado Avalanche, like many other teams, put out Christmas videos. They don’t go all cheesy like the San Jose Sharks, putting out holiday sweater videos. (Ok, those are cool — props to Matt Nieto’s rap!) The Washington Capitals also put out a Christmas hits album.
Nonetheless, the Avs’ Christmas videos have some merit. Again, in the spirit of showcasing the players’ personalities, the team did an Avs 360 segment asking some of the players what the meaning of Christmas is:
There’s Erik Johnson again, being the affable sourpuss. And this time we have J.T. Compher following in his footsteps.
The funniest of the videos came a little earlier, when the self-deprecating Kyle Keefe bought Avs players some “Christmas gifts”:
To be honest, that card he gave to Gabriel Landeskog seemed pretty heart-felt. (Fun fact: Not only was Keefe at Landeskog’s wedding, he apparently did speak during the ceremony.)
Ask the Avs: What Would you Change?
Does it get any better than professional athletes? Maybe you look at fashion models, but when it comes to the epitome of form and fitness, it really doesn’t get any better than professional athletes.
Pro hockey players are in exceptionally good shape, especially with the Colorado Avalanche where fitness is emphasized. If you don’t pass conditioning tests, you might sit for a bit.
Nonetheless, the Avs’ PR team asked Colorado players what they would change about themselves for an Ask the Avs segment. Naturally, the players — barring Semyon Varlamov — were characteristically humble:
I mean, you’ve got to respect Varlamov’s confidence. My personal favorite was Tyson Jost and his hair — plus Alexander’s Kerfoot’s precision in how tall he’d like to be. (Not that he hasn’t been thinking about this very topic.)
Next. Best Tweets about Nikita Zadorov. dark
We all, myself included, love to watch Colorado Avalanche highlights of our players beating other players’ butts. However, these public relations videos do provide some welcome entertainment.
