Analyst of VHLM Team Names Part 4: Ottawa and Philadelphia

[Will3 467]

It is a great for some team name analysis. The weekly series analyzing the names of VHLM teams continues with two OP cities that love ice hockey. But do the name given to the teams of these cities work well or should better options be considered? My analysis machine is all warmed up so let's find out.

 

I will confess to having a major bias towards the Ottawa Lynx. Not only did I play there in my VHLM career, the nickname for my dad's college alma mater is the American cousin of the lynx, the bobcat. In spite of my bias, I must ask does the name work for Ottawa. The answer is yes. Lynx are found all over the Great White North and even into Alaska. Both the bobcat and the lynx are small predators with large amount of fight that have been know to take down much larger pray. There are underdogs, ur cats. That is a positive message for any team which ultimately makes it an effective team name. I love this team name unconditional and feel it should be never changed.

 

Something team names can be variations of a similar theme. It seems that the Philadelphia Reapers produced their name by this method. Their name is likely a variation of the Philadelphia Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Flyers who played in the Flyers old arena until it was torn down. This could be another team built on wish fulfillment as the Phantoms played in Philadelphia from 1996 to 2009 then moved around similar to what happened to the Ice Dogs I talked about last week. The shared general theme of spooky, supernatural things is a nice touch and is different from overly referencing an NHL team. It is good that there is clear devotion showed to smaller hockey clubs in the VHL. It makes me think that this is a perfect place for a Nailers fan like myself. The team name is a bit generic but given what we have learned it ties to, it works.

 

Time to shut down the analysis machine before it overheats. We have picked up some good nuggets of information today. Things are rolling along nicely and we have almost finished analyzing every team name in the VHLM.  There are two more team names to break down next week and then the finale of my analysis of the team names of the M the week after that. That ending will be a spring board to launch this series into the E so don't miss it. As for this week, I'm out. Have a great day.

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Will3