Prepare For Voting Mania!

No, I'm not talking about the 2008 presidential election. Har. As you know, tomorrow is the first day of voting for the Championship Tournament wherein you, the readers, will decide which NHL team has the best logo. It's tough work but somebody's got to do it.

Sidebar Changes
In preparation for that, I'm making a few changes to the sidebar. Regular readers will understand. New readers won't have a clue what I'm talking about.

For one thing, there's is now a bracket graphic toward the top. Click on that to see the bracket setup. It's based on how the logos finished in the Qualifying Tournament (a.k.a. my bullshit tournament wherein I wrote a lot of nonsense). In the future, the bracket will be completely random, as this might well have been.

There will also been a block letting you know what polls are open for voting so you can make your voice heard if you hadn't yet. In addition, there's no more need for standings so they're gone — replaced by a list of all 30 teams alongside the year their current logo went into use.

Future Tournaments
By the way, yes I said future. Once we finish with the Championship Tournament, there's still so much we can do. We can decide on the best secondary logo, best uniform, best vintage logos... There's just so much. Anyway, more on that at a later date. For now, we've got the first round of the Championship Tournament ahead of us.

The Championship Tournament
As you can see, all 30 NHL logos are eligible for the Championship Tournament. But since there's an odd number of teams in each conference, the top team from each will get a bye in the first round. That means the Hurricanes and Avalanche get a free pass whether you think they deserve it or not.

For each match, the poll will be open for seven days. That means you have an entire week to vote on any given match so that should make it fair for everyone. It also means this competition will take some time to resolve itself. The anticipated date when we'll know the champion is currently October 3 — just prior to the start of the season.

The Schedule
The schedule is now in place for the first round of the Championship Tournament. Remember, each poll will be available for one week from the date it opens. Below is the schedule for Round 1, showing the matchup followed by the day the poll will open.

• Devils vs Maple Leafs, Aug 12


• Wild vs Ducks, Aug 13


• Panthers vs Penguins, Aug 14


• Flames vs Blackhawks, Aug 15


• Canadiens vs Islanders, Aug 16


• Blue Jackets vs Oilers, Aug 17


• Senators vs Rangers, Aug 18


• Predators vs Blues, Aug 19


• Bruins vs Capitals, Aug 20


• Stars vs Coyotes, Aug 21


• Thrashers vs Sabres, Aug 22


• Kings vs Red Wings, Aug 23


• Lightning vs Flyers, Aug 24


• Sharks vs Canucks, Aug 25

The winners from each of those polls will move on to the second round of the tournament. Be sure to vote in the polls where you want your voice heard!

How Often Can I Vote?
Good question. Supposedly, each poll will only let visitors vote once. And I'd appreciate it if we kept it that way. No reason for any one person's opinion to count more than others. Still, if you want to inflate your team's vote count, I recommend wrangling all your friends and pointing them the way of this site so they can vote too.

Hopefully I'll get another FAQ page posted soon for the Championship Tournament. If I don't, you can email me or leave questions here on this post.