The NHL needs all the P.R. it can get and it took a blunder by a U.S. Senate candidate to get it for them this week.

After the 2010 Winter Olympics hockey ratings were sky-high thanks to an adrenaline filled 3-2 victory by Canada over the U.S. the league missed out on retaining a lot of that interest. With a potential rematch between U.S. Olympic goaltender and MVP of the tournament, Ryan Miller and Canada’s Sidney Crosby just days after the gold medal game, Miller was benched for rest and sat out the game.

The following week, Crosby, for reasons no one in marketing can figure, turned down an offer to do the Top Ten on the David Letterman Show.

Jump to this week when Marc Delphine who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Oregon accepted a ‘free’ logo from a volunteer and placed it on his website.

Turns out the logo is a trademarked piece belonging to the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets. The silver star wrapped in a star-spangled banner, his designer said, evoked the letter ‘D’ for branding purposes.

Delphine thought the design was original but several people contacted him and advised him of the rip-off.

“They were all like, ‘What are you doing with their logo?’ and I was like, ‘I didn’t make the logo!’ and we pulled it immediately,” said Delphine, a Libertarian candidate. “I’m not interested in any kind of infringement. We don’t even need a logo.”

The current Blue Jackets logo is in the photo above and looks almost identical to the hockey one. It is just been flipped from left to right and the red circle synonymous with the Ohio state flag was removed.

“I don’t know if you know anything about Libertarian candidates, but they typically don’t have a lot of money coming in. I was thinking this was so nice, but it was too good to be true,” said Delphine.

Since discovering the rip-off, Delphine removed it from his site and said, “If anything, I hope this raises awareness for the Columbus Blue Jackets.”

Hopefully it does, Mr. Delphine because when it comes to P.R. and marketing, Gary Bettman and the NHL need all the help they can get.

©2010 Sports Climax™

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The men’s U.S.A. Olympic hockey team hasn’t claimed a spot on the gold podium since the incredible 1980 Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid, N.Y. but after blowing out Finland 6-1 this afternoon, they find themselves just one win away from gold.

The U.S. will meet the Canada-Slovakia winner and hope to return the favor if Canada advances to the gold medal game to be played on Sunday in Vancouver.

The last time the U.S. was represented in the finals was at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games when Canada edged the guys in red, white and blue on their home ice, stealing the gold from the Americans. If Canada advances, the U.S. team hopes to return the favor.

The game was a mismatch from the start with the Americans jumping out to a 6-0 first period lead. Finland goalie Miikka Kiprusoff barely had broken a sweat when he pulled himself from the game at 10:08 of the first period after letting in 4 goals on just 7 shots.

The Americans have been riding the back of their goaltender Ryan Miller throughout much of these playoffs but got charged up offensively, allowing Miller to relax and leave the game early for a little extra rest. Coming in for Miller, back-up net minder Tim Thomas saw his first action in these Winter Games.

Thomas allowed a goal to Antti Miettinen with 5:14 left to spoil the U.S. bid for consecutive shutouts after a 2-0quarterfinal win over Switzerland on Wednesday.

Finland, the silver medalist at the 2006 Turin Winter Games, still has a shot at the bronze.

U.S. fans sensing a Canada/U.S. rematch started chanting “We Want Canada” and “U-S-A” as the final minutes melted off the clock.

Chicago Blackhawks player Patrick Kane lead the American charge with two goals. Kane from Buffalo, New York had scored only once in the tournament before today and his back-to-back goals were just 2:33 apart.

Sunday’s gold medal game can be seen at 3 pm EST on Sunday on NBC.

Copyright 2010 Sports Climax™