Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. Ryan Lambert will be back next Monday; today’s WWL is written by Greg Wyshynski.
“The Book of Mormon” is a tremendous musical, simultaneously goofing on yet embracing the trappings of that ridiculous genre, while skewering organized religion with the pointed dagger the “South Park” boys previously used on L. Ron Hubbard.
But the Broadway hit also provides us with a salient point about recruiting non-believers: It’s less about the message than the means. If the natives aren't digging the Mormon narrative, drop a bunch of "Star Wars" references into it. This is true in organized faith as much as it’s true in centuries of salesmanship: It’s about tailoring your pitch, providing a comforting environment and understanding what they’re looking to get out of the experience.
(It’s also a musical about maggots in male genitalia and Mormons being assailed by satanic coffee cups, but that’s less relevant to this column. At least the second example isn’t.)
As hockey fans, especially in the U.S., we’ve gone on our missions to convert the uninitiated. To grow the flock. To bring the light of puck into the dark hearts of baseball and basketball fans who have stumbled down the wrong path.
Thing is, we all need to do more of it, especially after Gary and Don drowned the NHL’s momentum with casual sports fans in a tar pit of ego. Yeah, we all came back. Sure, the numbers are strong. But we can’t be the only ones that sense the lockout took hockey off the radar for those casual sports fans that rubberneck the Winter Classic and the Stanley Cup Playoffs; or the ones that are curious about hockey but never took the plunge.
Fear not. Today’s Lambert-less edition of WWL will provide you with a six-step program for getting a heathen into our temple, drinking our holy water and then sending them out to ring more doorbells.
It all starts with getting them to the game. A reading from the Book of Gordie …
(Coming Up: John Tortorella is a meanie; Jake Allen's clutch save; the 101-year-old fan attends first game; Ryan Miller haz a sad; Mike Babcock needs a bucket; more sickness from Ales Hemsky; bombs tossed between Blues and Canucks; Viktor Fasth is humble; and where did Patrick Marleau go?)
Read More »from What We Learned: Religiously converting your non-hockey friend into a raging puckhead