Matt Greene, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards represented the L.A. Kings on the front page of Funny or Die Friday morning, appearing with Neil Campbell and Mike Hanford in a "Fame Makers" how-to-be-a-celebrity instructional video.
For those who have ever imagined Greene holding up a handmade "I [heart] Justin Bieber" T-shirt, this is like your Christmas. Richards' "I like skating on the ice / Coach Sutter is very nice / Slap shots are very nice / Breakdown! Wrist shot, slap shot, backhand goal" is the exact type of hockey hokey-ness that plays well with online hockey consumers and will always be eagerly disseminated on Twitter and Facebook.
The entire project isn't necessarily the funniest hockey video we've seen [this week], but that's not the point. One perceived asset the NHL has over other sports it competes with for attention is in the unpretentious personality of its players, if not the exiting product on the ice. The goofiness and friendly chirping often overheard at practices will always be eaten up by avid hockey consumers, whether it's the mic'd-up players trading friendly jabs at the Fantasy All-Star Draft or when Doughty imitates Dustin Brown's water bottle mishap in the Funny or Die video.
A recent Harris Poll revealed that the number of people who claim that professional basketball is their favorite sport has dropped in half since 2003 to the point that it is near where professional hockey has slowly climbed to.
With the cost of bringing a family to a professional sporting event becoming nearly prohibitive, perhaps hockey can make minor financial inroads based on the personalities of its employees, which often are more in line with the people that are paying for the ticket.
