In yet another news item that seems a little bit too strange to be true, the AHL's Rochester Americans - the Buffalo Sabres' farm team - will be playing on some differently-coloured ice this weekend at the HSBC Arena. Blue ice, to be exact. "Electric Powder Blue" ice, to be even more exact; the word's still out on whether Crayola has copyrighted that phrase yet. The lines formerly known as blue - and perhaps headed for reference as unpronounceable symbols, or "The Lines" (Come on...Prince? Anybody?) - will now be fluorescent orange, and the red line will be dark blue.

It's just a publicity stunt, to be sure; I can't imagine that any pro league would seriously consider adopting this format on a permanent basis. You might have all kinds of people saying "Gee, it sure looks neat," but I'm sure they said that for the first few seconds of looking at Nashville's third jersey - immediately preceding the line, "Good Lord, that's ugly." Rochester goalie Ryan Miller had trouble seeing the puck, but selflessly said that he would support the switch if it helped sell hockey back to its increasingly disenchanted fans. Call me crazy, but I don't think that watching a goaltender searching for the puck is the kind of entertainment fans are looking for when they buy tickets to a hockey game. And honestly, what would be easier to see than a black puck against white ice? A lot of fans south of the border have trouble picking up the biscuit in the first place (remember that "FoxTrax" glowing puck experiment?), so by reducing the severity of that contrast, no one is being done any favours.

Plus, you get those kids who want to draw pictures of hockey players in art class...they're going to be wearing those Electric Powder Blue crayons right down to nubs. I'm going to go invest in any and all crayon manufacturers.


Check the story out at TSN.ca, or at the Toronto Star's site.