Professional sports teams will go to extraordinary lengths to market themselves with everything from ridiculous hats to Snuggies bearing their logo. The NHL may have reached a new low, however, with their latest officially licensed product: gnomes.
The NHL’s line of team-themed collectibles may seem pretty harmless, especially when you consider that the league is now over a week into a work stoppage. However, once you take a look at them, your feelings begin to change (the $24.99 price tag doesn’t help much, either).
The Bruins have not one, but two of these gnomes to look at and Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy blog felt that both of them were among the Top 10 creepiest of the bunch.
Take a look.
From Puck Daddy (ranked No. 7): “Not really sure what they were going for here, but they’ve perfectly
captured the look of a gnome with a bear in its head getting surprised
by the crew of To Catch a Predator. ‘Why don’t you have a seat, Smokey?'”
From Puck Daddy (ranked No. 3): “The Boston Bruins make this list twice because … well, Leahy saw this
one and immediately made a clever joke about the Phoenix Coyotes
(something about the broken stick and the Goldwater Institute). I pointed
out the Bruins shirt to him, and the only conclusion we cold draw was
that the designers felt there was no market for a Coyotes gnome, flipped
some of the color scheme and created a terrible looking Bruins model.”
But which team’s lawn ornament took home creepiest? Well, that would of course be the Philadelphia Flyers!
From Puck Daddy: “Yes, the Flyers’ gnome is the only one with a black eye and a tooth
missing. All the better to eat those mutant hot dogs that we suppose are
intended to be cheesesteaks. Black eyes and cheesesteaks, Philly.
That’s how they see you. But hey, be thankful for small miracles: Nary a
battery or a Santa-seeking snowball in sight. Maybe that’s in the next
release, along with a phone dialed into WIP to complain about Andy Reid.”
