Rocket de Laval

10

I've mentioned several times over the years that I used to run a fantasy hockey league; usually I'm mentioning it because a real-life team has a name or logo that was really similar to one of the teams in that league. This is another one of those times, as my fantasy league's Montréal team was the Montreal Rockets. (For those who don't know, Laval is a suburb of Montréal, with roughly a quarter the population.) And anyone who knows their hockey history knows that it's no coincidence that both a fantasy league team based in Montréal and a real-life team based in the Montréal metro area are named Rocket(s). For those who don't know their hockey history, Maurice "Rocket" Richard was a star player for the Montreal Canadiens during the 1940s and 1950s, and was in many ways the Wayne Gretzky of his day. Basically, for a long time Montréal hockey was synonymous with "Rocket". And this is Montréal we're talking about, so to say Montréal hockey was synonymous with a single player ought to tell you something. Of course people are going to come up with the idea to name a team in town Rocket. In fact, Le Rocket de Laval isn't the first real-world team in the area to use that name, as la Ligue de Hockey Junior Majeure du Québec used to have a team called the Montreal Rocket at the turn of this century.

So the name is hard to argue with. The logo, on the other hand...

I understand how a team with an abstract name might resort to just using a word or letter as its logo. But with a name like "Rocket"? There's no excuse for that. Rockets are very real, very non-abstract things, and it's very easy to draw one. True, if you're not careful it can wind up looking very phallic. But it's also possible to draw a rocket that doesn't look particularly phallic. If that's what you want. You're probably leaving some potential merchandise sales on the table if you don't make it look phallic. But if you want to take the high road, I won't criticize you for it. I'm just pointing out the opportunity if you want to take the low road.

So take the high road or the low road. I don't care. Just don't take the boring road. Sadly, that's precisely what le Rocket de Laval did.

Final Score: 10 points.
Penalties: Singular, 6 pts; Name-Logo (quadruply-egregious), 7 pts.
Bonuses: Local, -3 pts.