Coming Tomorrow: Tournament Announcement

This post is for anybody who has been following the tournament or voted in the sidebar poll. As you can see, the number of people interested in getting involved with the voting is outstanding! Over 92% of the people who voted want their voices heard as to which logo should win the tournament. And I'm listening because I trust your judgment better than mine when it comes to these things.

So stay tuned! Tomorrow I'm going to make an announcement regarding the future of the NHL Tournament of Logos and what your involvement can be if you're interested. Expect it some time on Saturday. As a reminder, the sidebar poll closes at 3 AM Sunday morning, so if you still want to vote yes, no or maybe, this is your last chance.

New Oilers Jersey Design Concept

Thanks to another reader who came across this image of a dark jersey for the Edmonton Oilers. At first, it seems to be the real deal, but as with all jerseys yet to be publicly unveiled, you have to look at the ones that have been unveiled to compare. Take a look.



As far as changes, this one is rather different from what the Oilers have been wearing. It dumps the bronze and red altogether for a return to straight-up orange and blue like in the old days. The one thing I did hear prior to this post is that they'd be doing away with the oil man shoulder patch logo and this design does take that into account.

However, now that you've had a minute to look at that design, compare it to the Bruins jersey here to the left — a jersey which has already been unveiled to the public. See any similarities? How about the fact that the entire layout is verbatim, the stripes and everything — the only alterations being the colors and logo. But the designer did one thing cleverly to try and throw us off the path. The strings hanging from the collar have been slightly modified. Compare the strings hanging on the right side.

Anyway, take this image for what it's worth, but it seems clear to me that this is the work of one of our friendly Photoshop artists.

For the record, the Oilers have yet to make an official announcement regarding uniforms. I'll let you know if I hear anything. In the meantime, what do we think of all this?

New Panthers Jersey Design Concepts

Big thanks to a reader who pointed me the way of the following images. Seems one Florida Panthers fan has designed a rendering of his team's new uniforms based on the teaser picture found on the Panthers' web site. Now I can't tell up from down in that picture, but kudos to this guy for the effort.




The stripes on the arms are large. Probably a bit too large. But we have heard that the Panthers will be going with something rather new and different for the new jerseys. One way or another, we'll know by tomorrow night. The Cats will unveil their new uniforms at the Year of the Rat Alumni Game. I'll have photos up as soon as they're available.

New Sharks Jersey Design Concept

First thing: I don't want to go ten rounds with anybody over the fact that this is merely a recolored all-star jersey, so if that's all you were going to say, you can refrain. It's been said.

Now then. Today I have a fan-designed rendering of a jersey with the San Jose Sharks new logo. The purpose of this image to is to illustrate what the color scheme might look like now that they've dropped the gray in place of orange.



I really like this color scheme. Thoughts?

Possible New Flames Uniform?

While perusing a Calgary Flames fan message board, I caught a glimpse of what could be the Flames' new Rbk EDGE jersey. I apologize in advance for the crummy quality of the image below.



The story is that a friend of the person who posted it supposedly works in the arena and got a chance to see one of the mock-ups for the Flames. He snapped it quickly with his cell phone and here we are. If it does turn out to be real, I'd have to say the design elements on the sleeves are an interesting choice.

But as of now, we don't really know anything official from Calgary. So take this for what it's worth. What do you think of it?

UPDATE (1:31 PM): A helpful reader just pointed me to this image to the left. It's certainly not as scary as the black one, but I'm not wild about the vertical black stripes up the side. Other than that, it seems to be in keeping with the current Calgary uniforms.

But wait, there's more!

UPDATE (5:18 PM): As a follow-up to one reader's comment regarding the Quad City Flames jerseys. I knew I'd seen them earlier and I just found them again so I figured I'd post them so we're all on the same page with regard to that.

Forgive the crappy image quality but they appear to be photos taken covertly probably with a cell phone or the like. If the Calgary Flames jerseys end up looking like this, I don't think anyone will be able to complain. They look pretty sharp.

For what it's worth, I really don't think the black looks very good with a white flaming "C." The red jerseys look a lot better with the black "C."

UPDATE (6:51 PM): This just in: It was a Flames fake-out! In one of the best Photoshop examples I've seen to date, it turns out the red Flames jersey I posted in the 1:31 update is not a photo of an actual jersey at all! A message board post — to which you can find a link below in the comments — all but proves that this jersey was made using a photo of the blue Rangers jersey unveiled yesterday as a template — only flipped over. It's a good example of what the artistically inclined among us can do with our spare time. Color me impressed.

As a reader also pointed out, though, this jersey appears to be based on the Quad City Flames jersey I posted photos of earlier this evening, so it may not be out of the realm of possibility that something like this graces the Saddledome ice come the fall. It's all a game of wait and see. I'll let you know when anything becomes official. In the meantime, thanks for reading.

And hopefully that will be the last update to this post. It has gotten very long.

New Flyers Jersey Design Concept

One artistically-inclined fan recently undertook the task of coming up with a concept design for the new uniform of the Philadelphia Flyers. But before you get excited, it looks nothing like the jersey hanging behind Gagne in Wednesday's post. It's just one fan having a little fun with Photoshop.



For further proof that this isn't an actual jersey design but rather a Photoshop rendering, see the example below. Yeah, that Flyers uniform is just a Sabres uniform with the logo and colors changed.



If I come across the real deal, trust me when I tell you I plan to post it. Unless it leaks, though, we'll have to wait until September 16.

Pondering The Lightning Logo Leak

John over at Boltsmag has taken the time to write down his thoughts on what may or may not be the new Lightning logo. Along with him, I posted that supposedly leak image a couple weeks ago.

I haven't thought about it as in depth but I do not like the wordmarks. There is no question about that. And if I had to choose one of those logos to go with next year, it'd be the secondary one with the state of Florida in the background and without the wordmark. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share?

Blues vs Coyotes

	vs
BLUES		COYOTES
4-7		4-3

The Aesthetics
Let's just get this out of the way. I'm going with the Blues logo here. The Coyotes logo isn't terrible, but nor is it great. They have yet to find a great logo in my opinion.
Blues

The Nickname
Coyotes howl and so does a Blues singer for that matter. Fortunately for the Blues man, if he ever had to face a Coyote, perhaps he'd have a saxophone with which to whack it on the head. (Try not to find the logic of a Blues singer carrying a sax into the desert. You'll never get there.)
Blues

The Analysis
Even though it probably won't live on as a classic NHL logo a hundred years from now, the Coyotes logo is at least a coyote. Sometimes I think a trumpet or some other musical instrument would be a better fit for the Blues logo. Despit that, I still like the musical note, I just don't quite get the wing attached to it. Anyone?
Coyotes

WINNER

2-1

 

Islanders vs Penguins

	vs
ISLANDERS		PENGUINS
1-10		2-7

The Aesthetics
Look both of these logos have annoying hockey sticks in them! No, but it's cool. I'm giving the Penguins this point for not writing out the entire team name within the logo. It also wouldn't hurt if the Islanders logo lost that puck. People mocked the fisherman guy, but that was actually a clever logo from back in the '90s.
Penguins

The Nickname
Islanders are people and people are the dominant predator on the planet. They don't Penguins but that doesn't make the little guys safe.
Islanders

The Analysis
I'm a fan of the outline of Long Island in the background of the Islanders logo, but I've recently been informed of the deep ties that elements of the Penguiins logo have to the city of Pittsburgh. Despite the fact that it's not easily recognizable to anyone not from Pittsburgh, I think it's more important that the logo means something to the home town crowd. And apparently it does.
Penguins

WINNER

2-1

 

Wild vs Avalanche

	vs
WILD		AVALANCHE
11-0		9-1

The Aesthetics
I've been dreading this match. How do you decide between two of the league's best logos? And while not everyone will agree with me, for now I'm the one having to decide. I'm going to go with the Avalanche logo but I can't really explain why. Just accept it.
Avalanche

The Nickname
If we assume the Wild is a forest and all the life that's part of it, then an Avalanche has the upper hand. The falling snow would completely take out everything.
Avalanche

The Analysis
This is where the Wild can truly earn a point. It's impossible to look at that logo and not see something different every time. You've got so many different things going on that it makes for a logo that's always interesting to look at — not to say that the Avalanche logo doesn't, but you can't expect to sweep a logo that looks that cool.
Wild

WINNER

2-1