Hockey Love Hurts

While everyone is enjoying the NFL's biggest game of the season today as fans flock to Dallas for the Super Bowl, HBIC is offering up a fun contest being offered by Visa and the NHL. The Hockey Love Hurts campaign is running right now, and Visa is offering up some incredible deals along with the chance to win some cool NHL prizes. After playing around on the Hockey Love Hurts site, I discovered that you don't even need to be a Canadian citizen or have a Visa card in your possession to register for these awesome prizes. If they verify information when you win, though, I claim no knowledge or responsibility for what may happen during that course of events. Good? Good.

So what is Visa offering up?

Well, for starters, there's a trip for two to a Stanley Cup Final game! That's right, sports fans, you and a lucky companion could be headed to a Stanley Cup Final game this year to watch the Eastern and Western Conference champions battle it out for NHL supremacy! Imagine sitting front and center with these two dudes as the Blackhawks take a run at a second consecutive Stanley Cup!

While one lucky winner and a friend/significant other/person of some reference will be taking in a free hockey game this spring, it leaves the rest of us in some state of wanting. Cue Visa again as they are awarding 40 lucky fans the chance to win a $500 Prepaid Visa card! That's 500 smackeroos to allow you to do anything you like: buy NHL gear, buy NHL tickets, but your significant other something non-hockey for Valentine's Day... literally whatever you like!

A word of warning: don't read this legal mumbo-jumbo unless you really need help falling asleep. It's a lot of legal words and phrases that will make your head spin (unless you're a lawyer). I've taken the liberty of having some pre-law college students decipher this document, so here are the highlights:

• Approximate retail value of the Stanley Cup trip is $8,000 CAD based on a Vancouver to Pittsburgh example, although the actual retail value may vary depending on the point of departure and destination.
• Visa Prepaid cards must be accepted as awarded and are not transferable or convertible to cash. All Visa Prepaid cards offered as prizes in this contest are subject to the standard terms and conditions applicable to all Visa Prepaid cards.
• Rivalry games will occur randomly throughout the season (check half-way down that page). Not all teams are included in rivalry games. The teams selected for the rivalry games, with the number of games chosen in parentheses, include: Boston Bruins (2), Calgary Flames (5), Chicago Blackhawks (2), Detroit Red Wings (1), Edmonton Oilers (5), Los Angeles Kings (1), Montreal Canadiens (6), New York Rangers (3), Ottawa Senators (4), Philadelphia Flyers (1), Pittsburgh Penguins (2), Toronto Maple Leafs (6), Vancouver Canucks (5), and Washington Capitals (1).
• Random games will also allow hockey fans to win. There will be four Visa Prepaid cards awarded on Hockey Day in Canada (February 12, 2011); three Flames and/or Canadiens fans can win during the Heritage Classic (February 20, 2011); four fans can win on Trade Deadline Day (March 3, 2011); and eight more fans can win at the end of the regular season (April 12, 2011).
• Throughout the rest of the season, there will be random offers from your team sent to your email for various deals. There's no guarantee you'll receive an offer, but there should be something for you in your inbox eventually. There are some standing offers on the Visa Hockey Love Hurts website, so check those out as well!
• And just to show you that HBIC and Visa aren't always about an "anglais" Canada, vous pouvez accéder au site français de Visa ici.
  

Basically, it's probably in your best interest to sign up for this offer. I see nothing that would commit you to Visa aside from an occasional email, and make sure you follow a Canadian team to earn the most chances at winning a prize!

Here are Martin St. Louis, Alexandre Burrows, Ryan Kelser, and Scott Hartnell talking about some of their "Hockey Love Hurts" stories.

We'll add a few more stories as St. Louis, Kris Versteeg, Hartnell, Kesler, and Luke Schenn talk a little family.

Get entered in the contest ASAP for a better chance to win! Because, after all, losing is no fun. Hockey love really does hurt sometimes.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!