2009 All-Star Logo Surfaces

Quick note tonight. An NHLToL reader ran across the 2009 NHL All-Star Game logo while browsing NHL.com today. Figured I'd share it with you guys. The game will take place in Montreal to celebrate the Canadiens' 100th anniversary.



I'm a fan. It seems a little odd to have the actual Habs logo in the design, though. Usually, the host team's logo is in the all-star logo but altered in some manner. Guess nobody wanted to alter the CH. Makes sense to me.

What are your thoughts on it?

Poll: Brodeur vs Thibault

	vs
Martin BRODEUR		Jocelyn THIBAULT

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 Apr 5

Poll closing date Wed Apr 9

Poll: Khabibulin vs Dubielewicz

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Nikolai KHABIBULIN		Wade DUBIELEWICZ

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 Fri Apr 4

Poll closing date Tue Apr 8

Poll: Kolzig vs Grahame

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Olaf KOLZIG		John GRAHAME

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 Apr 3

Poll closing date Mon Apr 7

Poll: Turco vs Osgood

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Marty TURCO		Chris OSGOOD

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 Apr 2

Poll closing date Sun Apr 6

Happy April Fools' Day!

It's safe now. So just to clarify, you guys got it right. Yesterday's post about the Rbk EDGE uniforms going away was obviously too good to be true. My version of an April Fools' joke. Hope I didn't get anybody's hopes up. Come on, Project Runway? Really?

But I've always been a fan of the jokes and, well, I couldn't resist this one. I'm weak. Hope you guys won't think less of me. But I did try to make it obvious that I was kidding while at the same time trying to still keep it just this side of believable.

I did mean what I said at the end. I appreciate you guys for continuing to come back to visit the site. You're the reason I write here at all. Thanks!

Poll: Bryzgalov vs Tellqvist

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Ilya BRYZGALOV		Mikael TELLQVIST

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 Apr 1

Poll closing date Sat Apr 5

Rbk EDGE Being Dumped!

As you know, I hate to post rumor and gossip. I prefer actual facts to back up my information so naturally I was unsure about posting this at all. But since I started this blog, I've made contacts with a lot of great people inside the NHL and Reebok. (Honestly, how do you think I was able to get much of the information I did over the summer?)

I was asked not to write about this, but I can't do that to you guys. As NHL fans, you have the right to know. I've been told the league will be dropping the Rbk EDGE uniforms entirely next season and is cutting all ties with Reebok. Naturally, this news comes as quite a shock considering all the time and money that was put into the project in the first place. My Reebok rep called it a "failed experiment" and said the split with the NHL was "best for both parties."

What might be most surprising is the league is discussing redesigning all 30 uniforms once again! (Like once wasn't enough.) A new deal is still being worked out, but right now it appears league commissioner Gary Bettman would consider having the folks at Bravo TV series Project Runway design the new sweaters in one of next season's new episodes. Manufacturing would then be handled by Nike, believe it or not.

My source (who I unfortunately can't name due to legal issues) inside the league says Bettman is "delighted" at the prospect of getting the league this sort of national television recognition. I'm tempted to take him at his word as that sounds just like Bettman to me. Not surprisingly, this is going to make the NHL look like a complete joke on the national stage.

Personally, I really think they should have just stuck it out for at least one more season. Sure, the Rbk EDGE system had its issues, but so do most new things. On the other hand, the prospect of new uniform designs is kind of exciting. But we just went through it last year. This is just overkill and rather annoying.

Finally, I just wanted to take the time to thank you guys for continuing to visit the blog. Without you, I certainly wouldn't be where I am. News regarding these uniform changes will supposedly start trickling out as the playoffs wind down. Looks like we'll be doing the uniform re-design watch for yet another summer.

I'll post more information on this as I get it.

UPDATE (4/2 2:12 AM): Happy April Fools' Day! I love you guys!

Poll: Ward vs Harding

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Cam WARD		Josh 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

Fan Art To Finish Your Weekend

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.