NHL Seeing Green

With the National Hockey League firmly entrenched as America’s least favorite sport a few years ago (behind even curling and women’s golf) the NHL could only get more popular and with an infusion of talent, including Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin and fan friendly events like the Winter Classic, they’ve crawled from the sports cellar.

But the NHL’s decision Monday to censor hockey’s newest sensation, the Vancouver Green Men, may have just destroyed any goodwill they had built.

The Green Men have become an instant hit with their trademark green body suits (an obvious rip off of Charlie from ‘It’s Always Sunny’ but still funny) and their antics alongside the penalty box, including handstands and cardboard cutouts of celebrity fans that you can both see in the photo below.



The Green Men used that cardboard cutout of Chicago Blackhawk fan Vince Vaughn to taunt Blackhawk Duncan Keith and more recently used of Carrie Underwood to taunt her husband and Nashville Predator Mike Fisher.

As much fun as hockey fans have had watching these guys the NHL is willing to shut it all down because of complaints by the Predators and, according to the NHL, to ensure safety. That’s right; a sport that allows players to ram each other into walls and hit each other with sticks is concerned most about player safety.

So I’m calling for all the hockey fans who read the Back Yard Blog to email the NHL and tell them how stupid this is. Oh yeah, y’all probably don’t watch hockey. Well watch this clip of Charlie as Green Man instead.