Parlez-vous Francais?

The All-Star festivities in Montreal are fast approaching as everything is set to get underway this Saturday at the Bell Centre.

This year's ASG will mark the 13th time the game has been played in Montreal. All of the games have been previous played in the Montreal Forum, this is the first time it will be held at the Bell Centre. Ah your first time. You never forget your first time! Well that is unless you get blackout drunk and wake up in a drunken haze with your wallet missing and your arms tied to the bed. Not sure how you got there or why you're in the predicament that you are. Not that I'd know about that from experience... What. Why are you looking at me like that?

To get you excited for you All-Star weekend, the NHL has released an ad with some french sayings in it. Because the game is in Montreal, and they speak french there you see. You can't get anything past thse geniuses in the NHL marketing department.

Most of the french phrases are pretty straight forward and if you even remotely paid attention in elementary school french class or have watched a Gerard Depardieu movie, then you should know them all.

Take Me Out To The... Outdoor Hockey Game

The NHL has just released this commercial to promote the upcoming Winter Classic. In fact, you might have already seen it as it started airing during Sunday night football on NBC. Hey, isn't that the same network that will carry the Winter Classic? Those sneaky devils!

The spot is pretty entertaining as it features some of the stars of the Blackhawks and Red Wings getting set to go out on the ice just before the Winter Classic begins. Which leads me to believe that the NHL marketing department has developed some sort of time machine and travelled to the future to record this.

While the players are getting ready, we hear the golden pipes of Chicago Cubs broadcasting legend Harry Caray serenade us with Take Me Out To the Ball Game, which is of course a Cubs tradition. I say that if they really wanted some Harry Caray for this ad, then they should have called up Will Ferrell's people...

All About The Drama

Only one more day until NHL 09 is released! It's been so hyped up and so much has been promised to us with this game that I expect the skies to open up and shipments of it to descend from heaven.

While I anxiously await my chance to lock myself in a room and play it non stop, I thought I should bring to your attention the ad that EA has released in conjunction with it coming out that's been all over TV this past weekend.

It features Lauren, who apparently is an NHL blogger, talking about why she loves hockey and playing NHL 09.

Is it because of the graphics? The realistic gameplay? Or even the two brand new exciting game modes? Nope. According to our sweet little Lauren, it's all because of the drama. Riiiiight.

I don't want to rant here but I have a few problems with this ad. Number one, what the hell is she talking about? Number two, if you're going to get a blogger could you at least not have gotten a relatively attractive one for TV? (I wasn't busy. Come on EA!) Sure, she's cute and the fact that she's a girl who likes hockey gets her extra points, but I wouldn't rush out to buy the game because of her. And how is her not talking about the game actually selling it to people who are on the fence about buying it? Or who maybe aren't video game nerds who have already read every single last detail about this game.

Maybe they're trying to appeal to the female viewer and that's why I don't get it. Though on occassion I have been able to relate to that group by enjoying a good Gilmore Girls marathon! Am I right ladies?

Anyhow, here's the ad in it's entirety. Check it out for yourself...

NHL Network: The Home Of Hockey... And Math?

At the bottom of this post is the new ad for the NHL network that was released last week.

It features a coach trying to motivate his team with some math. I know that nothing fires me up in the locker room like doing a little addition, a little subtraction, or even some long division.

Now it might not be obvious by the fact that I write a hockey blog and am not a mathemologist, but I was never good at math. I don't even know what the coach was trying to say. What I do know is that I was 100% confused, 100% of the time.