The traditional white playoff towel is an inexpensive promo option for teams.

The white playoff towel headlines a group of unoriginal and blah playoff promo giveaways that will be dished out at a local NHL or NBA arena near you. This playoff campaign is composed of basically three options: the aforementioned towels, pom-poms, and plastic blowup sticks otherwise known as Thunderstiks. Thunderstiks and pom-poms are fairly generic products offering the ability for slight variation with team name and colours; otherwise they're stock. The reason that these three promo items are leading the charge in arenas is that the price is right. These items start at a cost of 40 cents and range upwards to a $1.50 per unit. The prices of these items are highly dependent on volume so the more products a team orders, the lower the unit price.

Typically being "in the red" is a bad thing. It means that your organization is operating at a loss but to the Calgary Flames the sight of red is a welcoming sign and not only for the increase in merchandise revenue. Each game at the Saddledome thousands of fans are decked out in red Flames jerseys that have led to the Calgary faithful being labeled "The C of Red". One variation that has started to garner popular support is the coloured towel and it makes a lot of sense because 1) Home teams no longer wear white. 2) It at least allows for some individuality amongst teams. Home Depot recently sponsored a towel giveaway for a Flames giveaway. The hitch: The towels were orange, Home Depot's corporate colour. Choosing corporate sponsors over fan unity is like getting served the continental breakfast; it's a big disappointment. The reason they call a breakfast that consists of day-old muffins, dried out croissants, and shot glass servings of orange juice the continental is because it is universally hated; although those Home Depot towels would have been put to good use in Philadelphia. Before Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Final series against the Tampa Bay Lighting each fan was given an orange T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "Orange Crush". The effect was an awesome site of 19,872 cheering in unity.

	The octopus is a strange staple of Red Wings tradition.

The benefit of all bland playoff rituals is it truly makes you notice and appreciate the cities that do things a little differently. "It needs more cowbell!" The Sacramento Kings fans have taken Christopher Walken's statement to heart and show up to Arco Arena with cowbells in hand. Cowbells are quite a departure from what fans of the Kings' fiercest rival show up to the game with. By comparison cellphones are the closest thing that Lakers fans have that can be considered a promo item. The simple mention of an octopus immediately conjures up thoughts of the Red Wings and one of Detroit's faithful hurling one on the ice after a goal. The tradition started in 1952 when two brothers who worked at a local Detroit fish market decided to throw an octopus on the ice during a Wings playoff game because the eight octopus tentacles represented the eight needed at that time to win the Stanley Cup. The tradition garnered support over the years and has become an unofficial symbol for the team. The subsequent throwing of octopus has become a rare site these days because of the NHL's crackdown policy on fans throwing objects on the ice. The policy was enforced after the Florida Panthers' 1996 playoff drive, a playoff year that gave rise to an infestation of plastic rats in South Florida. Funny, if there was ever a playoff ritual or promotion that centered on rats you would think it would be by the Philadelphia Phillies or Eagles, former inhabitants of Veteran's Stadium; a place which epitomized the term "Rat Hole". Anyhow, the Florida Panthers fans adopted the practice of throwing plastic rats on the ice after every goal because they were inspired by the story of former Panthers captain Scott Mellanby killing a rat with his stick in the dressing room and then following it up with a two-goal performance or a "Rat Trick" as it became to be known. The playoff ritual lasted only one year but to this day I cannot forget the sight of seeing 10,000+ plastic rats hitting the ice after each goal and watching the goalies cower in their nets waiting for the rodent tossing to end.

To improve the atmosphere at games teams need to start thinking a little more creatively. Here are a few ideas that need to happen:

• I know that the Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes franchise were the true drivers of the whiteout where fans waved white towels and decked themselves out in white clothing but there has never been a more natural choice to revive the tradition then the Colorado Avalanche. You can't tell me that the Avalanche putting on a whiteout for each game isn't a natural fit.
• The practice of throwing octopi on the ice needs to be updated by Detroit fans because it no longer takes eight wins to win the Stanley Cup. Although I'm not sure I want to be there when fans start throwing centipedes or some mutated animal on the ice to represent the sixteen wins now needed to win the cup.
• If the New Jersey Nets ever get bought out by Jay-Z and moved to Brooklyn then dolling out replica bling-bling is a must for fans. Picture it: an opposition player is at the free throw line and struggling to focus because of the glare coming off the promo items from the arena lighting. This idea would cause opposing teams more than 99 problems.
• Teams need to embrace what the fans are purchasing. Perfect example: Sens car flags in Ottawa have unreal popularity in the city. Starting in April, cars complete with flags center around the Corel Centre making it look like there's a convention for delegates. Yet during the playoffs the Senators handed out white towels. The odd thing was, as you left the arena they started handing out more car flags. Now if fans are embracing the flags on the street and you're already giving them away, doesn't it make sense to ditch the white dish rags and use the more unique idea of flags as your playoff theme?