Finally in Los Angeles after my five-year hiatus, I was excited by an offer from Dax, our hockey blogger, to join him for a Los Angeles Kings game last night. They played the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Kings were terrible. But even more memorable than missed shots and badly choreographed fights was what happened each TV timeout: Four scantily clad women skated onto the ice and scooped up ice shavings to clean the ice. I’ve been watching hockey at every level for 20 years, and I’d never seen anything like it. Cleaning the ice after every five minutes of play? Clearly a ploy to get some buxom women in front of all those straight guys in the audience; Even the dozen gay guys I was with noticed.
I’d love to know what this does to the bottom line of the Kings. Does it sell them more tickets? With all the porn on the internet, I doubt it. Does it win the Kings more games? I don’t profess to know if any of the girls are sleeping with any of the guys. Does it sell more merchandise? I can’t imagine 14-year-old girls are running out to buy Kings Girls outfits; Besides, few of them have the Double-D’s it obviously takes to make the team.
Is this an L.A. thing? Have other NHL teams latched onto this silly display? And why do the guys on the squad get to wear pants and jackets? Yes, I know the answer: Because it makes straight guys squirm. But I want to see some abs!
on Jan 13th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I think hockey has been looking for a way to implement cheerleaders for a long time and this is probably what they came up with.
And I’m one of those ’squirming’ straight guys, so I’m definitely not complaining.
on Jan 14th, 2009 at 6:39 am
The “ice girls” trend has picked up steam in the past few seasons and many teams have them now…can’t think offhand as to who does and doesn’t, I want to think maybe a third of the NHL teams have them now. A random guess.
Not in Buffalo as of yet.
on Jan 14th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
We don’t have “ice girls” at San Jose Sharks games, but then the Sharks are in the top tier of tix sold/sellout crowds, so they don’t need help in that area. Sure sounds like an LA thing to me: lots of unemployed bimbos in SoCal.
on Jan 14th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
The Edmonton Oilers have some… but there are guys out there with the girls too. And thinking back to the last game I was at (back in December) I dont think the girls were showing much clevage.
on Jan 14th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
SI.com has a whole photo gallery on the Blackhawks babes:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0901/nhl.blackhawks.ice.crew.girls/content.1.html
on Jan 16th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
The Florida Panthers’ Ice Dancers are hotter.
http://panthers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=17626
on Jan 16th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Yes! They are hotter Kevin.
Maritza, mmmh!
on Jan 16th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
The Dallas Stars have had the Planet Tan Ice Girls for a long time…