When Good Promotions Get Awkward - Updated 7/15/13

Now that the excitement of free agent frenzy is over, hockey fans are settling in for a few months of slow activity.  Even the most dedicated professional hockey reporters retire to their cabins to relax. So it's understanding that certain hockey-related destinations might need to run promotions in order to draw in fans who might be distracted by fireworks, hot dogs and trips to the beach.

The Hockey Hall of Fame is one of those destinations.  So the ad wizards partnered up with our friends at Upper Deck to offer a pretty cool promotion.  On 30 select days throughout July and August each NHL team will have their own selected day. If you are a fan of a particular team and show up at the Hall of Fame wearing a jersey, hat or other article of clothing for that team you get in for half price.  What a deal!

There is a second part of the promotion.  The first 1,000 paying entrants will receive an Upper Deck card featuring a relic card of a player from the team being celebrated that day. Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Jonathan Toews are all listed.  Pretty sweet, huh?  A free jersey card just for showing up.

The Lightning have their own day.  Fans mark your calender for August 19th, 2013.  Enjoy a nice weekend in Toronto and then roll into the Hall of Fame in your favorite Enrico Ciccone jersey to get your half price ticket and your card of........

Oh wow....that's a little....umm....awkward. 

See they're celebrating the captains of the NHL teams and I'm sure when this ran through marketing the thought was, "No WAY they buy out that contract.  We're good to go with the Lightning."

I'm not upset, it's totally understandable.  These things take time to plan out and execute.  As a matter of fact I think it's kind of funny, one of those "of course it happened to the Lightning" kind of things that we haven't seen for a few years.  Think of smudged faxes, trying to trade draft picks the team didn't have and players' cars getting repossessed during games.

As of right now the Hall of Fame hasn't responded to a question I asked about if there is going to be an alternative card handed out on that day.  Granted I just sent it about 3 minutes ago, but hey we're in an instant information age!  I'll update this post if they respond.


***UPDATE***

No response from the Hall of Fame, but Upper Deck Hockey did reply to a tweet I sent them today.

@torchramrod They have already been produced so it will be Lecavalier: https://t.co/7CC6D5MMXI
— Upper Deck Hockey (@UpperDeckHockey) July 15, 2013