Cannonfest

Hi! It’s Ashley Ware here! Did you make it to Cannonfest? Did you get a hold of the limited edition CannonfestV prints? No? Well never fear! The whole set can be yours!

In collaboration with the wonderful folks at The Union Blue we’re holding an art competition. Send in your best drawing of your favorite player and the winner will receive a FULL SET of Cannonfest prints.

Entries can be traditional (paint, watercolor, crayon, pencil, ink), or digital. Be as creative as you can! The competition’s deadline is September 19th, and the winners will be announced on September 21st. All entries should be sent to AshleyStWare@gmail.com.

Well CBJ faithful, we’ve got another CannonFest behind us and I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the best one to date! See the slideshow below, you might see a familiar face or two! The photos will be here on tUB for all to enjoy but if you’d like to order prints or digital downloads of any for yourself, please check jump over to http://www.falktography.com/cannonfestv and keep in mind that 20% of proceeds from any orders will go to the Blue Jackets Foundation!

Cannonfest V is just a little more than a week away. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you at Strongwater Food & Spirits on Sunday, August 31st! 1-4 pm for those of you still needing to add this to your calendars, by the way!

There’s a lot of fun stuff planned, but at it’s core, Cannonfest has always been about the CBJ community – those who love and support the team. So we wanted to be sure to find a way to get YOU involved even more than just coming out and enjoying the fun!

So with that, we are proud to announce the 2014 Cannonfest V Video Contest! (The We Like Pitza Edition)

When you think about it, hockey really is a funny game. In what other sport (other than boxing and MMA), is fighting a largely accepted element — penalized, but done so with a wink and a nod? It is a sport where failing to tie down your sweater is penalized more harshly than pummeling your opponent and where elementary safeguards, such as helmets, goalie masks and visors have inched their way into the game over the grudging “Hrrumphs” of grizzled veterans. Where else do players and coaches talk about playing the game “the right way”? For that matter, in what other sporting endeavor do the participants wear “sweaters”?

No, hockey is steeped in tradition, and surrenders to progress with great reluctance. It’s players are — for the most part — polite, soft-spoken and subservient to The Game. In many ways, hockey is more akin to golf than any of the teams sports, with the ceremony attendant to winning The Cup not far removed from hoisting The Claret Jug at St. Andrews. Of the team sports, baseball comes closest to that sense of tradition, but still falls somewhat short.

Tradition is a great thing, but sometimes it crosses the line into bias. A large segment of the hockey population relies on tradition to cast aspersions on those “pretenders” who would dare to join the fraternity of hockey cities. After all, hockey is the birthright of Canada and The Original Six, and the rest are largely pretenders. Sure, Minnesota and Buffalo are readily accepted, as they are almost in Canada anyway. The Flyers get admitted to “the club” by virtue of sheer nastiness — or “Old Time Hockey” — as the Hansen Brothers would call it. The Blues get a pass as well, due to the illustrious names passing through that franchise since 1967. New Jersey and the Islanders are accepted, both because they fall in the geographical “sweet spot” of the NHL, and their ability to hoist The Cup. Other than that, however, there is a significant segment of the hockey community that views hockey in “non-traditional” markets as a fool’s errand, and would much rather see a 16 team NHL than cater to the likes of Phoenix, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Nashville, Florida . . . and Columbus. Peruse the message boards, listen to talks shows from Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver and you will here how these cities do not “deserve” franchises. Even cities with demonstrated success — such as Anaheim and Los Angeles — receive only modest recognition. This segment points to revenue numbers, attendance figures and the twice-failed experiment in Atlanta as evidence that expansion outside The North is futile. The lack of a “Hockey Tradition” is deemed fatal in these cities.

Another CannonFest is behind us and I can’t remember ever being more excited for the puck to drop! Many thanks to Greg, Skraut and Matt Wagner for allowing me to contribute a slide show to this year’s festivities! Here are some shots from today’s event, hope everyone enjoys. On a personal note, I was overwhelmed by the contributions from CBJ fans today not only to the CBJ Foundation but to the Sedona Grace Foundation. As someone who’s been rescued by two dogs, I couldn’t imagine ever being put in a situation where I was unable to provide for them. Thanks to Dave, Jill and all others involved with this awesome group!

Get there early because you don’t want to miss a moment of what’s planned this year. We’re proud to honor the tradition of Cannonfest set by Founders Tom, Matt and Greg with great hockey talk and fan-focused fun — this year’s event has no shortage of things to enjoy:

CBJ videos, including the exceptional work of Tom Larrow – who is bringing TWO videos this year

A Blue Jackets memorabilia display that features jerseys and other collectibles from throughout the Jackets’ history

Normally, the hiring of an Assistant General Manager is the type of August NHL move that comes and goes virtually without notice, eliciting more yawns than commentary. However, the Columbus Blue Jackets attracted a lot of attention yesterday when they announced the hiring of Bill Zito as Assistant General Manager. Why? Well, Zito made his name as the co-founder of Acme World Sports — a player agent operation based jointly in Chicago and Helsinki. While the crossover of player agents into the realm NHL front offices is not unprecedented, the hockey community took immediate notice. After all, this is not a guy who represented a few peripheral players. He is, by all accounts, an incredibly astute businessman, with a terrific nose for both talent and the economics of the professional contractual arrangements in the NHL. With an undergraduate degree from Yale, and a law degree from Wisconsin, he brings added intellectual depth and experience to a front office that may soon earn The Brain Trust moniker.

The NHL finally released its 2013-2014 schedule today after a series of missteps and delays, due ostensibly to the need to confirm what everyone already knew — that the NHL will participate in the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Along with the schedule release came the announcement of the names for the four divisions in which teams will compete next season.

Three of the four division names are carry-overs. In the West, the Central and Pacific divisions survive, while the Northwest disappears. In the East, the Southeast and Northeast names go by the wayside, with the Atlantic surviving and the lone new name applied to the Blue Jackets’ division — now known as the Metropolitan Division. Not bad, and better than the bland geographic labels the rest of the league gets, but still lacking the panache of the Adams, Norris, Patrick and Smythe. It does evoke images of Perry White, Clark Kent & Lois Lane though . . .

While the name is intriguing, the real focus is on the schedule itself — one of the major benefits that Columbus fans have been drooling over since the dream of moving east became a reality. Continue reading…

While there have been many great recaps and write ups of the good time that was had at Cannonfest, we at TheUnionBlue.com felt like we might share something everyone wants to see: yourselves!! Enjoy this selection of images and if you see me at a CBJ (or any other) event with my camera, ask me to grab your photo! You just might find yourself right here on TheUnionBlue.com! Make the jump to the gallery by clicking Continue reading Cannonfest 2012 Photos below!