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WARD | HARDING |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Mon Mar 31 | Poll closing date Fri Apr 4 |
I think I promised you guys a concept post before the weekend was out, so here it is. I've assembled some of my favorite designs from my stash. There's a lot of quality work, so let's dive in.
First, an interesting new look for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
I'd like to see the jerseys that go with it. If nothing else, the production value is through the roof on this one.
But if you want to talk excellent concept logos, look no further than this one for the Washington Capitals.
I admit I had to stare at it a while, but there it is, a "W" and a "C." And I don't know why it took us so long to realize that if you put those two letters together the right way, it forms a star! However, I'm not sold on the wordmark. I get the whole Declaration of Independence thing (been watching John Adams today), but for a sports team it's not a good idea.
I like that Thrashers jersey as well. With much thanks to Jacob at We're Revolting! for that one.
You guys always give me trouble for my aversion to yellow jerseys, but I've come across a bunch that I actually like — despite their resemblance to what I can only assume is Hillary Clinton's favorite suit.
Well, it's the Boston Bruins of course. Can any other team really do a yellow sweater?
This second set wouldn't work because yellow is still a light color. It wouldn't work as a dark home jersey. However, I am intrigued by the use of the secondary logo with a black background and yellow text.
Up next are the Chicago Blackhawks.
All those stripes do weird things to my brain. And there's not enough contrast in the other one. But I don't know, either could work as a temporary third jersey.
Finally, it's the Buffalo Sabres.
It's a nice logo on a traditional uniform design. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find nay-sayers.
That's good for now. Stay tuned for new polls going up tomorrow both here and at ToHL. Here, we'll have Cam Ward and Josh Harding going head to head and for the WHL Tournament of Logos, it'll be the Calgary Hitmen and the winner of the Americans/Thunderbirds poll which closes tonight.
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ROLOSON | ERSBERG |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Sun Mar 30 | Poll closing date Thu Apr 3 |
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BACKSTROM | RAYCROFT |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Sat Mar 29 | Poll closing date Wed Apr 2 |
Can you believe this is already the 32nd installment of the Freak Out series? Who knew it would go this long? What's interesting about this week's post is what comes at the end and the fact that it's real and not concocted in the freakish mind of one of the many readers of NHLToL. No, it's quite real and that's what freaks me out the most.
But first, let's talk third jerseys. We know they're making their big comeback next season after having taken a year off. We'll begin in Vancouver.
But wait, there's more!
And I'm sure this was just a case of colors lost in translation.
Doesn't make me feel any better. I'm all right with the purple on the Kings' uniforms because it's partnered with black and silver.
Here's a Lightning jersey even I wouldn't consider buying.
And a Sens sweater absolutely no one would.
But hold on, why one team at a time? Let's go for all 30 all at once.
A good try to be sure, but I'm afraid a few too many of these missed the mark in terms of what one might consider, you know, aesthetically pleasing. (What the hell kind of sentence was that?)
It's worse when you make it look real by painting it onto a player.
And now for the little thing I was teasing at the beginning of this post. I know it's not NHL, but I'm making an exception. The AHL's Lake Erie Monsters, this season, actually wore jerseys that... I'm sorry, there's no other way of putting this. They were tie-dyed. Behold the horror.
Because one photo wasn't enough...
Peace. Love. And hockey.
And now I'm just going to go put forks in my eyes. Until tomorrow, friends.
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MILLER | HALAK |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
UPDATE (4:23 PM): I understand Halak recently debuted a new mask. Unfortunately there are no good photos available yet for me to make a graphic. Plus, I can't change a graphic once it's been posted in a poll. For the purposes of this tournament, you'll have to vote based on this mask.
| Poll opening date Fri Mar 28 | Poll closing date Tue Apr 1 |
I haven't written a concept art post since the weekend so I think we're due. But it's going to be a short one. One reader came up with 13 different jersey designs he'd like to see implemented for various teams at some point in the future.
I told you it'd be short, but we've got 13 different teams covered. Hope you enjoy it.
We've got a Freak Out Friday post coming tomorrow and hopefully some more concepts for the weekend. I've been keeping pretty busy with the Goalie Mask Tournament. Voter turnout is great so far. Keep 'em coming!
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HOWARD | RASK |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Thu Mar 27 | Poll closing date Mon Mar 31 |
Thought I'd let you guys know our friend Matt is hard at work on his next rebrand. His series has impressed a lot of people and shown us in a dramatic way what many teams are missing in terms of good logo and uniform design.
Back to the point, though. His next team is... (drum roll)... the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yes, my team! Expect to see the design posted here some time in the next few weeks. In the meantime, feel free to check out his previous work.
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DENIS | CLEMMENSEN |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Wed Mar 26 | Poll closing date Sat Mar 30 |
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RAMO (a) | RAMO (b) |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Tue Mar 25 | Poll closing date Sat Mar 29 |
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TURCO (black) | TURCO (white) |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment about how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Mon Mar 24 | Poll closing date Fri Mar 28 |
Yes, I'll refer to it as Mask Madness every once and a while just for you guys. But here we go with the preliminary- and first-round match-ups for the 2008 NHL Tournament of Goalie Masks. I'm having a little bit of difficulty building the actual bracket. So until I figure something out, you'll have to deal with it in text format.
First, there will be the Preliminary Round, made up of 4 polls. They will start Monday and be as follows:
1 | TURCO (black) vs TURCO (white)
Here you'll choose between Marty Turco's home and road masks.
2 | RAMO (a) vs RAMO (b)
Here you'll decide on which of Karri Ramo's two masks goes into the full tournament.
3 | DENIS vs CLEMMENSEN
4 | HOWARD vs RASK
Then comes Round One. There are 32 polls comprising that group, divided into two sides. The first list is the group on the left side of the bracket.
1 | MILLER vs HALAK
2 | ROLOSON vs ERSBERG
3 | BRYZGALOV vs TELLQVIST
4 | KOLZIG vs GRAHAME
5 | BRODEUR vs THIBAULT
6 | HUET vs NORRENA
7 | CONKLIN vs HEDBERG
8 | EMERY vs RAMO
9 | TOSKALA vs ELLIS
10 | KIPRUSOFF vs HASEK
11 | LUONGO vs CLOUTIER
12 | JOSEPH vs VALIQUETTE
13 | FLEURY vs ANDERSON
14 | NIITTYMAKI vs HOLMQVIST
15 | LECLAIRE vs MASON
16 | THEODORE vs DENIS/CLEMMENSEN
And on the right side of the bracket is this group:
1 | BACKSTROM vs RAYCROFT
2 | WARD vs HARDING
3 | TURCO vs OSGOOD
4 | KHABIBULIN vs DUBIELEWICZ
5 | VOKOUN vs SANFORD
6 | GARON vs GERBER
7 | LALIME vs TOIVONEN
8 | GIGUERE vs AULD
9 | LEGACE vs WEEKES
10 | DiPIETRO vs HILLER
11 | LUNDQVIST vs BUDAJ
12 | BIRON vs SMITH
13 | THOMAS vs LaBARBERA
14 | PRICE vs SABOURIN
15 | NABOKOV vs BOUCHER
16 | LEHTONEN vs HOWARD/RASK
Remember, totally random!
When I get the bracket completed, I'll post it. In the meantime, get ready to start casting your votes! And do me a favor, start spreading the word around. Let's get as many people involved in this tournament as possible!
All right, I've been listening to you guys and I have some quick changes to make before announcing the match-ups for the NHL Tournament of Goalie Masks.
I'm updating the graphics for Grahame and Budaj who both have new masks which I didn't know about until today. So much for doing my research. Same goes for Cloutier who's returned to the Osgood-esque helmet. All of those updates will be made at some point this morning.
I'm keeping Holmqvist's mask the way it is because, first, he has yet to play a full game for the Stars and so has no mask painted for that team. Second, he carried the Lightning goaltending most of the season and that shouldn't go unnoticed. He played all year, so to drop him out now just because he got traded at the 11th hour isn't right, if you ask me.
I'm adding Ersberg today as well. He'll be replacing Fernandez, who hasn't played a game since October. I like Manny Fernadez and I hate to drop him, but somebody had to go. I'm not getting rid of Osgood and Cloutier just because their helmets are plain. That'll be for the voters to decide.
Otherwise I think that's everybody. So if you've noticed anything else that needs adjustment, speak now or hold your peace.
As promised, the unveiling of the rest of the masks that will be included in the tournament that begins in just two days! There are 34 more and here they are.
A couple of things I should explain. Karri Ramo switches off between two masks. Both will be in the preliminary round where you guys will determine which makes it to the main 64.
Johan Holmqvist, at this moment, does not have a mask painted for the Dallas Stars, the team for which he now plays. The one or two games he has played in, however, he's worn a black mask with a Stars logo on the chin. I've opted for his Lightning helmet since it's actually painted. (This doesn't apply to Martin Gerber because he intentionally wears a blank helmet.)
Brian Boucher has been backing up Evgeni Nabokov lately for the San Jose Sharks, yet he's been wearing his Philadelphia Phantoms AHL mask. That's the one I'm going with though at this point I understand he has a new one on the way. If either Holmqvist or Boucher — or any other goalie for that matter — changes his mask prior to his poll being posted, I will likely change the graphic to reflect that. If a change is made after the poll is posted, too bad.
My process here in choosing these 34 was essentially to get in as many if not all of the goalies currently seeing time in the NHL. There are a few exceptions but that's the way it goes. If you think there's been an injustice, feel free to say so. It's not necessarily set in stone until I post the bracket tomorrow. But make sure you present a good argument. No flakes allowed.
Now, as you'll see with the bracket, we'll be narrowing these 34 down to 32 in the preliminary round. I've already decided on how. The two polls will be Marc Denis vs Scott Clemmensen and Jimmy Howard vs Tuukka Rask. Really what it came down to was, in one case, two relatively veteran goalies who now see very little playing time in the league and, in the other, two very young goalies who don't play much but may have big futures (also, nice masks!).
I want to point out that I recognize that I'm leaving out guys like Jean-Sebastien Aubin, Dmitri Patzold, Erik Ersberg, Corey Crawford, Michael Leighton, Curtis McElhinney, Thomas Greiss and even Brent Johnson. But how much NHL action are they really seeing anyway? I know I'm leaving out other names, but I had to draw a line somewhere. They'll have their moment.
And for what it's worth, I'll let you in on some of my future plans. First, I'm already gathering pictures to do another goalie mask competition following this one. For that, we'll go back in time 10 years and judge masks from the 1998-99 season. In fact, I'm even considering a spinoff blog like ToHL that focuses solely on goalie masks. Trying to gauge interest. I'm also considering abandoning ToHL after the CHL logo tournaments. There doesn't seem to be a big interest there like there is here.
That's all I've got for now. Get ready to see the match-ups tomorrow. Remember, they'll be completely random!
UPDATE (3/23 11:08 AM): I changed out Fernandez for Ersberg up there. Enjoy!
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