Recall, if you will (and how could you forget), last night’s total disaster during VP candidate Sarah Palin’s appearance at the St. Louis Blues game. While Manny Legace sits out and lets his hip heal, the NHL might not taking any chances with the saucy, sharp-tongued hockey mom. Sure, she can pal around with hockey types, but it’ll have to be on a much smaller stage. Also worth noting: We’re totally inventing the notion that the NHL has in any way demoted Palin.

(Believe it or not, we did not make this image.)

Anyway, Palin is being presented with an honorary jersey today, but it’s in Des Moines, Iowa, with the unfortunately named Iowa Chops. Yeah, the ones with the really angry pig on their jersey. There’s probably a lipstick joke there somewhere, but we’re far, far too lazy to make it.

This comes a month after Palin’s first encounter with the minor league hockey franchise when she told an Iowa crowd the following:

“And I understand that you have a new hockey team around here, too, the Iowa Chops. And I love that name, the Chops. That’s cool.”

Of course, the next time a politician running for office criticizes a local sports franchise will be the first time, but the trick never fails, and the (sigh) Chops have been using Palin’s attention as a marketing tool ever since, asking: “So it begs the question, if Sarah Palin has heard of the Iowa Chops and plans to attend a game, why don’t you?” Yeah.

Now, there’s no telling whether Palin’s actually going to see one of their games–the Chops aren’t at home tonight, and there’s only 11 days until the election–but that didn’t stop the team from giving her the jersey anyway, which is a nice move, even if some of the shine is, ahem, fading from her campaign. Oh, we kid, we kid! They’ll win. And so will the Obama campaign. Everyone’s a winner at SbB!