Keeping It In The Famiglia

Color: Yellow/Red
Year Founded: 2002
2010 Regular Season Finish: 9-7 (2nd, Donohue Division; 9th overall)
2010 Playoff Result: Lost to Happy Little Elves in round of 16
Conference: Schumacher
Division: Donohue
2010 Leading Scorer: Denis Miciletto, 9 goals
Team Song: Yakety Sax
Key Additions: Ant “Father Time” Ventolieri
Key Losses: None

After witnessing the success of Mega Touch’s 2009 rebranding effort, captain Dave Ladanyi and the Tuques followed the same path and changed their team name and attitude early in the 2010 season.  Despite an already strong marketing campaign for Tuques hockey, Ladanyi modified the name to La Famiglia to better reflect his teammates’ ethnic roots (or at least, Denis Miciletto’s).  He notes, “I think the renaming was a success.  Everyone likes it (especially the Italian-Americans in the league).  Also, now I don’t have to explain what a tuque is to non-Canadians.”

Although the name change was an immediate success off the court, as was evidenced by skyrocketing merchandise sales (mostly of Shafiq “Off Black” Perry jerseys), it took the team several weeks to become acclimated in its gameplay.  La Famiglia started with a record of 2-7 before running off a seven-game win streak to close the regular season.  Ladanyi explains, “As far as our performance last year, we had a number of new players, and it took us about half the season to get our team chemistry right. We’re looking to carry the form we found at the end of 2010 into 2011.”

To ensure that the winning continues, La Famiglia has established the “Old Superstar Player Initiative” and added the self-proclaimed 2009 assists leader, Ant “Father Time” Ventolieri.  Ladanyi is well known in league circles for his romanticism of the “Golden Age” of BTSH, and Ventolieri is definitely the type of throwback player that he loves: someone who reminds us all of the “good old days,” when the league was bastion of virtue, sportsmanship, and small nets.  Ventolieri will also add to the Italian make-up of the team, be a solid contributor on the blue line, and has several great yarns from his youth when Richard Nixon was in the oval office and Bobby Orr was on the Bruins.

Entity They Resemble, According to Rich Glanzer: Puff Daddy. No matter how many times Sean Combs changes his name, he’ll always be Puff Daddy to me. Same with the Tuques. And a did you know…did you know Puff’s new song, “Coming Home” was first sung at the Tuques Arena? True story.
Fast Fact: The Peter Wilson was recently a contestant on The Price Is Right.  While he made it out of contestants row, he did not win a pricing game and was eliminated prior to the final showcase.

ROSTER
Kevin Au
Diana Cino
Brian Ferry
Jon Fidge
Andrea Grande-Capone
Dmitry Gurvits
Caroline Johnston
Diane Johnston
Dave Ladanyi (C)
Alfred Liu
Roger Ma
Denis Miciletto
Bill Monahan
Shafiq “Off Black” Perry
Scott Sampson
Ant “Father Time” Ventolieri
Angela Vicari
Mark Wang
Gabe Wilson
The Peter Wilson