Chill Factor: A lesson in how to market a minor-league hockey team

THE BOOK REVIEW:

As of 2013, Columbus, Ohio, was the 15th largest city in the United States.
But that didn’t stop it from being a graveyard for professional sports franchises . . . until the arrival of the Columbus Chill on July 25, 1991.
The Chill was a minor league hockey team that spent eight seasons in the ECHL, eventually departing after the NHL awarded an expansion franchise to the city.
Chill Factor (subtitled How a Minor-League Hockey Team Changed a City Forever) is the story of how all of that transpired — how the Chill came to be wonderfully successful in a city dominated by Ohio State University and how it all led to the construction of a new downtown arena and the arrival of the Blue Jackets.
The Chill was owned by Horn Chen, a name recognizable to Canadian sports fans as a one-time owner of the Ottawa Rough Riders. Ultimately, he sold the Chill for seven figures (the franchise now is the ECHL’s Reading Royals) and ended up owning two per cent of the Blue Jackets.
Chill Factor was written by David Paitson, who was the Chill’s president and general manager, and Craig Merz, who was a sports writer with the Columbus Dispatch during the Chill’s run.
The Chill left no stone unturned when it came to marketing. There were people with marketing expertise in the front office who had ideas and understood the importance of forging relationships with the media. They were given ample room to carry their ideas to fruition.
The advertising campaign that the Chill put together with a local firm was out of this world. One ad began: “For $5, we can help you with all that unresolved anger you have for your mother.” Another opened with: “Assault someone, you get five years. In hockey, five minutes. Is this a great game or what?”
If the Chill didn’t go over the line, they certainly walked it.
Still, owners of minor league hockey franchises and people working in their front offices should read this book. In fact, the anecdotes involving the marketing of the Chill should be mandatory reading for those folks.
But there is more to this book than that.
As one might expect, there are plenty of stories involving minor league hockey, although nothing that would compete with Slap Shot. Still, the team’s first captain drew a lengthy suspension before the first season even began. A few seasons in, some players walked out in a labour dispute.
Paitson and Metz tell all of those stories and more.
Paitson also details the efforts that went into getting a new arena built in Columbus, as well as the birth of the Blue Jackets, including the politics and in-fighting, some of which involved Ohio State, which apparently didn’t like the idea of losing its sporting monopoly in Columbus.
Even if you aren’t from the Columbus area and weren’t familiar with all that happened, you will find this an entertaining and enlightening read.

(Chill Factor: How a Minor-League Hockey Team Changed a City Forever; Sports Publishing, 304 pages, US$24.99)

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Madaisky hoping to get back this season

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Austin Madaisky, a former Kamloops Blazers defenceman who underwent wrist surgery on Nov. 21, hopes to return to game action later this month.
Madaisky, who turned 21 on Jan. 30, is under contract to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who selected him in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL draft. Prior to this season, with the NHL locked out, he went to training camp with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons but didn’t get into any games before being assigned to the ECHL’s Evansville IceMen. He had five points, including a goal, in eight games when he had to shut it down due to a sore wrist that he had been trying to play through.
Subsequently, Madaisky was diagnosed with a torn scapholunate – a ligament in the wrist was fully torn – and it was repaired by a surgeon in Columbus.
After surgery, Madaisky returned home to Surrey and has been skating there. He was back in Columbus on Thursday where he was cleared by the Blue Jackets’ medical staff to return to practice. He then flew to Springfield, Mass., where he will begin skating with the Falcons.
Madaisky said via text that he hasn’t been cleared for contact, nor has he been shooting at full strength.
“Still have to break down a lot of the scar tissue,” he said. “It’s come a long way, though.”
Madaisky played the previous two and a half seasons with the Blazers after having been acquired from the Calgary Hitmen. He was a Western Conference second-team all-star in 2011-12 and was eligible to return to the Blazers this season had the Blue Jackets chosen to return him.
Instead, he wants to get back into game action with the Falcons or Icemen later this month.
“I hope to be back within two weeks,” he added. “Still 20-something games left.”
On another note, Madaisky reports that his family is having its home in Surrey rebuilt and hopes to have it completed by June. The home was almost completely destroy by fire in the early hours of Aug. 11.

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Really, Madaisky doesn't know

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Columbus? Springfield, Mass.? Kamloops?
Austin Madaisky doesn’t know.
Today, the veteran defenceman will continue to practise with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.
Other than that, well, he really doesn’t know.
Will Madaisky, 20, be in the Blazers’ lineup on Sept. 21 when they open the regular season against the visiting Prince George Cougars?
Madaisky doesn’t know. Really, he doesn’t know.
What he knows is this: If the NHL labour situation sorts itself out over the next few days, he will leave to join the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sept. 19. If that doesn’t happen, he heads for Springfield, the home of the Falcons, the Blue Jackets’ AHL affiliate, on Sept. 26.
After that, well, he doesn’t know.
Madaisky has signed a three-year contract with the Blue Jackets, who selected him in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL draft. So it is the Blue Jackets who, to a large extent, are calling the shots.
That’s why he has played in just one of the Blazers’ four exhibition games to this point, and why he isn’t likely to play Friday when Kamloops (4-0) closes out its preseason against the Prince George Cougars (3-1) at Interior Savings Centre.
However, Madaisky said, if he is here on Sept. 21, he will want to play.
“Oh, yeah,” Madaisky said after Monday’s practice. “I would expect to play once the regular season starts.”
Naturally, head coach Guy Charron wants the all-star defenceman in the lineup, too, but he sounded a bit more cautious.
“As long as he’s here,” Charron said, “he’s available to us.”
However, Charron admitted that “Columbus would prefer that he not play in games here,” adding that the Blue Jackets hadn’t clarified if that was exhibition or regular-season games.
Still, Charron said, exhibition games are one thing and that things change when the Blazers start to play for real on Sept. 21.
“Our season is important and it’s important for us to start off on the right foot,” Charron stated.


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Game to remember for Madaisky

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Austin Madaisky won’t ever forget Tuesday night in Winnipeg.
Madaisky, a 19-year-old defenceman, was in the Columbus Blue Jackets’ lineup for the return of the Jets to Winnipeg.
There were 15,004 fans in the sold-out MTS Centre for the exhibition game and, yes, it was noisy. Madaisky may as well have been standing in the middle of a busy runway at Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport as the Jets arrived.
“You couldn’t even hear the intro music or the announcer giving the starting lineups over the public address system,” said Madaisky, who will begin the trek back to Kamloops today and will play in the Blazers’ WHL regular-season opener here against the Prince George Cougars on Saturday. “You couldn’t hear anything.
“It was crazy . . . it was nuts. It felt like Stanley Cup playoffs out there.”
This was the Jets’ first NHL appearance in Winnipeg since a playoff game on April 28, 1996, after which the franchise moved to Phoenix.
Madaisky said the Jets, who won 6-1, were kind of pumped for this one.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Off the first shift, there were two fights to start the game. Right from the start . . . it was crazy.
“Being influenced by that crowd and the buildup, not only from game day, but what transpired over the last month there, I’m sure they were pretty anxious to show the fans a little something. There were four fights . . . it was pretty wild.”
This also was Madaisky’s NHL debut and, he said, it was something he never will forget.
“Even just flying out there in the team plane and things like that . . . it was just a hell of an experience,” he said.
Madaisky, who watched the Blue Jackets beat the visiting Washington Capitals ?? on Wednesday night, was a fifth-round pick by Columbus in the NHL’s 2010 draft. This was his second NHL training camp, although he has yet to sign an NHL contract. Still, he doesn’t feel that he did anything to hurt his chances.
“I thought I held my own,” he said of the game, in which he played 11 minutes 16 seconds and finished minus-1. “It’s probably the fastest hockey I’ve ever played. Everything happens a lot quicker out there.
“It’s one of those things where every game you play, it starts to slow down a little more. As the game went on I started to feel more and more comfortable . . . confidence started to rise after a couple of simple plays.
“It felt good out there.”
Like most junior players who get to play in the NHL, Madaisky quickly learned that play is far more structured there than in the WHL.
“Absolutely, in terms of positioning and things like that,” he said. “It’s hard to get used to at first, but once you get used to it, it’s easier than the junior game because it is more structured. It just takes a while to get that timing down . . . especially as a young defenceman, not to get caught up in running around and over-committing and things lke that.”
Madaisky learned in a hurry that a lot of it is about “simplifying the game and letting the game come to you.”
He also found out that, after being a veteran defenceman in the Blazers’ camp, he was the younger guy, partnered with veteran journeyman Aaron Johnson, 28.
“Yeah,” Madaisky said. “All of a sudden, I’m the younger guy. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but once you get the nerves out and settle down it’s really just another game.
“It’s just that everything’s a lot faster.”
Madaisky came out of the game believing more than ever that he is capable of being a regular in the NHL.
“Obviously, I think it’s going to take a couple more years of development,” he stated, “but I think it’s possible.
“Strength, battling in the corners . . . I was holding my own and I know that I can only get better.”
JUST NOTES: D Josh Caron, 20, was returned to the Blazers by the Minnesota Wild yesterday. Madaisky’s return will leave only F J.T. Barnett, 19, in an NHL camp. He is with the New Jersey Devils, but didn’t play in last game’s exhibition game against the New York Rangers. The two teams have a rematch Friday. . . . Blazers D Brady Gaudet, who wore No. 28 last season as a freshman, has switched to No. 7. The last regular to wear No. 7 was Slovakian D Michal Siska (2008-09). Last season, F Jesse Sinatynski wore it for three games. In 2009-10, D Max Mowat wore it in one game.
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Madaisky heads back from Columbus

 By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Defenceman Austin Madaisky will be back with the WHL's Kamloops Blazers in time for Friday's regular-season home-opener.
Madaisky, who has been in camp with the NHL's Columbus Blue jackets, is scheduled to fly out of the Ohio city this morning.
The Blazers swing into the regular season with home dates against the Prince George Cougars on Friday and the Chilliwack Bruins on Saturday.
Madaisky, a fifth-round pick by the Blue Jackets in the NHL's 2010 draft, was one of eight defencemen shown on the lineup the Blue Jackets issued prior to Wednesday night's exhibition game against the visiting Washington Capitals, who posted a 6-2 victory.
However, Madaisky didn't play. His instructions were to prepare as though this was a game day and he was going to play, which meant taking the pregame warmup and then taking off his gear.
“I kind of came into this not really expecting to play any exhibition games,” said Madaisky, 18, who has yet to sign an NHL contract. “It's rare for any 18-year-olds to get in, especially with how many defenceman Columbus has at this camp. But even to get listed as a spare . . . I'll take it as a compliment.
“I dressed for warm-ups . . . it was pretty cool.”
It's been a that kind of month for Madaisky.
He played for the Blue Jackets at a prospects tournament in Traverse City, Mich., and then headed for Columbus and main camp.
“It's been great,” he said, “and I think I've done really well here so far.”
The Blue Jackets don't have any 1991-born defencemen on their roster, while there were only two 1992s - Madaisky and his roommate, Ian Archibald, a 2010 draft pick from the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. (Archibald was listed on last night's game sheet but, like Madaisky, didn't play.)
All told, they had 21 defencemen in camp and Madaisky feels he at least held his own.
“I think I've done fairly well,” he said. “The pace is obviously (quicker) . . . but the more practices and game-like scenarios that go by the easier it gets.
“In Traverse City, Game 1 was a little fast. Game 2 was better. By the time Game 3 came along, I thought I was holding my own out there. . . .
“It wasn't too much of a jump in terms of Traverse to main camp. Everybody's going hard in Traverse. Here, it's a pretty similar speed but the execution is much better. You don't see guys miss many passes; every shot is a good shot. It's a good learning experience.”
Madaisky, like so many other young players before him, also made an important discovery.
“Everybody around you is better, which makes you a better player,” he said. “As long as you come in and you've done the work in the summer . . . once you start practising with the big guys it almost gets easier. Every pass is good. Everything is quick . . . bam, bam, bam. It's great.
“As long as you're in shape, you're going to do fine.”
A year ago, Madaisky was preparing for his sophomore season with the Calgary Hitmen knowing that he would have a tough time cracking their top four. Then, in January, he was traded to the Blazers, with whom he got lots of ice time.
The rest, as they say, is history.
“Absolutely, the trade was great for me,” he said. “It really gave me an opportunity.”
JUST NOTES: The games on Friday and Saturday both start at 7 p.m. . . . The Blazers did get F Brendan Ranford back from the camp of the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday. He was a seventh-round pick by the Flyers in the 2010 NHL draft. . . . D Josh Caron (Minnesota Wild) is to rejoin the Blazers sometime today. . . . That leaves D Corey Fienhage (Buffalo Sabres) as the lone player still with an NHL team. . . . D Brandon Underwood (concussion) isn't expected to play this weekend. He was injured Saturday when he took a hit from Prince George F Charles Inglis. Underwood had his first symptom-free day yesterday, so will be cleared in a week. . . . G Jeff Bosch, acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday, practised yesterday. He has been bothered by a sprained ankle for a couple of weeks.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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