It’s official! For the few of you who had not yet realized the fact, Sarah Palin is NO hockey mom!

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was greeted by boos when she walked onto the ice at the Wachovia Center and the boos continued with a mixture of polite applause as she dropped the ceremonial first puck a few weeks ago at the opening game for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Why then would she and the NHL schedule another puck dropping in St. Louis this weekend.

The Alaskan guv has tried to sell herself as a hockey mom and that sell has hit a major mountain in the road. It was recently revealed that Palin has spent approximately $150,000 of donations on clothing, hair and make-up over the past few weeks for her campaign on a shopping spree at Saks Fifth and Neiman Marcus. How many “hockey Moms” do you know who shop at those two stores.

The politician was invited to drop the puck after she had a meeting at a Philadelphia bar with Flyers owner Ed Snider.

Although the NHL said it did not view the Flyers’ invitation to be politically motivated, most “hockey moms” and “Joe Six-packs” do and they showed their displeasure when she walked onto the ice by greeting her with boos.

Amid this political backlash, the Flyers are the only team in the entire NHL who have not won a game thus far and many fans are loving those results.

Adam Proteau of The Hockey News nailed it on the head in his weekly column, “Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider makes it very difficult to root for his team. And I’m the guy who picked them to win the Eastern Conference this season.

Listen, I don’t give a tinker’s damn if Snider supports Sarah Palin on his own time, but to foist his views on his fan base the way he did that night and openly bang the drum of politicians while they’re still running for office, to associate the NHL with one particular ideology, is beyond nauseating and will go down in history as a black mark on his ownership for the rest of time.

Even as a business decision, it makes no sense. Does Snider and the NHL wish to completely alienate the millions of people who think the current Republican ticket is an affront to the intelligence level of women and voters? And what about his and the league’s employees who aren’t for creationism in schools or endless war or the erosion of the constitution or forcing rape victims to pay for their rape kits?”

As harsh as Adam’s column may sound, his views echo the sentiments of many of the NHL’s blue-collar fan base and Snider should have known better.

Even in Toronto, Canada they are taking notice.

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