Palin to Drop Puck at Flyers Home Opener

Ice hockey and politics will cross over once again on Saturday night, when Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin drops the ceremonial first puck before the Philadelphia Flyers home opener against the New York Rangers. Here's the team press release with all the relevant details:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the nation's most popular hockey mom, will join the winner of the Philadelphia Flyers regional search for the "Ultimate Hockey Mom" contest and drop the puck at the ceremonial opening face-off as the home team Flyers host the New York Rangers at the Wachovia Center on Saturday, October 11 at 7 p.m.

"Because of the tremendous amount of publicity she has brought to our sport, we invited the most popular hockey mom in North America to our home opener to help us get our season started," said Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider who founded the Flyers in 1967. "We are very excited she has accepted our offer and we are very proud of the publicity she is generating for hockey moms and the sport of hockey."

If you drop by Puck Daddy, the claim that Palin is the nation's "most popular hockey mom" seems to be in dispute. After reading a couple of the comments, it's easy to see how "most controversial" hockey mom might be more appropriate. Here's hoping the innocent winner of the contest, whoever that might be, gets a nice hand in Philly regardless of the reception Palin gets.

As for me, I'm of two minds on the subject. First off, I'm thoroughly sick of election news, and have been since around Labor Day. Once you threw the global credit crisis into the mix, I began to realize that there's really little reason to have much confidence in America's political leadership these days regardless of party. Looking over the horizon, it's hard not to conclude that the winner of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election might very well be the recipient of the biggest booby prize in American political history since the election of 1928.

On the other hand, I distinctly recall that when I first learned that U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), the 2004 Democratic nominee for President, had played hockey in high school, I somehow managed to process the information without having an aneurysm. Go figure.