Other letters that NHL teams have recently sent to their fans

It would be fair to say that last week was a rough one for the Ottawa Senators. In addition to Erik Karlsson’s injury, the Senators became the butt of jokes around the league when it was revealed that they’d sent a letter to their fans asking them not to offer their tickets to Maple Leaf supporters.

But while the Senators were rightfully criticized for appearing thin-skinned, it’s worth pointing out that a team sending a letter out to its fan base isn’t unusual. In fact, it happens all the time. It’s just that the rest of us don’t usually get to see a copy.

Luckily, I long ago made sure I was on the mailing list for every NHL team. Here’s a random sampling of some of the mail that hockey fans have been receiving just over the past few weeks.

For example, this one showed up as part of a package last week.

Read the rest of this post...

Video: Tomas Kaberle and Luke Schenn hand deliver Leafs season tickets

The NHL saw a welcome new trend last month, when several teams sent actual players out to hand deliver season tickets to fans. The Bruins sent Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic out to surprise some loyal fans, and the Penguins had half their roster knocking on doors in the Pittsburgh area.

Not as well publicized was the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs have a similar program. They sent Luke Schenn and Tomas Kaberle door-to-door to deliver tickets to Maple Leafs season ticket holders who bought seats in the ACC's lower section.

But for some reason they never got around to releasing the video. Until now...

For more NHL videos, visit www.blogesalming.com.

ESPN names Maple Leafs worst organization in the NHL

Taking a quick break from the free agency talk...

ESPN The Magazine released it's 2009 Ultimate Standings today. The idea is to rank all 122 major North American franchises based on criteria such as ticket prices, roster quality, titles won and the relationship between ownership and fans.

Based on that, I'll bet you'll never guess how the Leafs did.

Yes, the Maple Leafs finished dead last in the NHL, and 120th out of 122 teams overall (suck it, Knicks and Clippers!)

Now keep in mind, this ranking isn't meant as a measure of the quality of the team itself, and it's certainly not meant to measure the fans. Quite the opposite, actually -- the magazine says it wants to measure "how much MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL franchises give back to the fans in exchange for all the time, money and emotion the fans invest in them."

Given that criteria, it's hard to argue with the Leafs ranking. The only objection I'd have is that it's a year too late -- MLSE is finally doing the right thing by handing full control to Brian Burke. Maybe this sort of public kick in the pants will remind them to keep it out of the way.

I was interviewed by ESPN months ago for this year's rankings, and my comments appear in the Leafs profile. I had a sense from the beginning that the Leafs were going to wind up last, so this isn't a surprise.

As with all lists of this type, the end goal is mainly to inspire discussion, debate and angry ranting from fans. Let's just say there are more than a few head-scratchers. The Carolina Hurricanes as the NHL's top team? The Senators as the top team in Canada? Many will dismiss the whole thing for that reason.

Just remember: this is a black mark on Peddie, Tannenbaum and the rest of the MLSE suits. If anyone tries to tell you it's a knock on Leaf fans, tell them to go back and read it again. Or, if it's a Senators fan, to have it read to them.