'Canes To Debut Third Against Wings

An email that went out to Carolina Hurricanes season ticket holders today confirms the team's new third jersey will make its game debut on October 13 against the Detroit Red Wings.

Monday, October 13 vs. Detroit - The 'Canes will take on the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings in the Wings first return to the RBC Center since January 2005. While it already promises to be a thrilling match-up, the 'Canes will also be debuting their new alternate/3rd jersey on the ice!

That's as far as the email goes. It doesn't describe what the jersey will look like or make mention of the fact that the team has already said the sweater will first be unveiled at Caniac Carnival on September 21.

Thanks to Scott for the tip.

By the way, I fixed an error in the sidebar regarding Carolina's third jersey. The consensus of the rumors we've been hearing is that the secondary logo with the storm flag will be on the front of the sweater — not the primary logo like I had up there. The only difference I'm anticipating is that the triangle behind the flag will be white instead of black.

Hurricanes/Whalers Jersey Contest

This upcoming season will mark the 30th anniversary of the Hurricanes franchise — this includes their time in Hartford as the Whalers. The guys over at Hockeybums have a contest going to mark the occasion. It's something a lot of you might be up for.

They want artists to submit designs incorporating both the Whalers and Hurricanes jerseys. I'm guessing they also want some sort of hybrid logo as well to keep it from being too easy. They're also promising a "special prize" to the designer of the best jersey.

The contest runs until the start of the season.

Third Jersey Fan Renderings

It's been mostly quiet on the third jersey news front so far today. But several fans have been hard at work designing sweater concepts based on the rumors that have been swirling lately. There's a lot to get to so I'll dive in.

The Hurricanes may adopt a third jersey this season that looks a little something like this.

Meanwhile the Maple Leafs will likely take a more traditional path.

It's more likely they'll end up with a white sweater, but blue is certainly a possibility as well.

The Bruins have sort of already leaked their third jersey design and it looks like this.

The Oilers will probably go with a retro look...

...same as the Sabres.

Still other teams may ditch the historical look for something more contemporary. If the Stars go with a green third, it could look like this.

And the Lightning and Senators might go with informal nicknames on the front — the Bolts and Sens.

Not sure about the gold Ottawa sweater. I like black better for them. I also wouldn't expect to see the 2D logo on the front of a jersey anytime soon, but that's just me. I've been wrong before.

I'll have more later today including the next division in the IHA branding project.

Bruins Confirm Alternates

It seems like over this past week the news leaking about next season's third jerseys just will not stop. And I don't see anyone here complaining about that. As far as news tonight, we've got newspaper journalists confirming alternates for the Bruins and Hurricanes.

Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe wrote in the Bruins Blog last week that the Bruins will in fact have a third jersey for the new season — something we've all kind of known for quite some time now. Shinzawa also wrote, "The final design has not been released, but it will most likely feature the retro bear, on the shoulders of the current uniforms, on the chest."

Below you can see a sample of the new sweater in action. During a game last season, NESN broadcast video of a player skating around in it — it's not actually Patrice Bergeron.

The full video was originally posted on YouTube but has since been removed — whether by the person who uploaded it or by YouTube, I don't know.

And this is just a followup to yesterday's post. News & Observer writer Luke DeCock said in his blog there was "a good chance" the Hurricanes would have a new alternate sweater this season. A similar story was published in today's paper. You can read an excerpt from the article below.

The Hurricanes will unveil a third, alternate jersey this season and hope to have it ready to reveal at the Caniac Carnival on Sept. 21, Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said.

Rutherford declined to comment on the design, but team officials have talked for years about a black jersey with the team's secondary, waving-flag logo on the chest.

The team planned to unveil the new design last season, but the debut was pushed back a year because of the introduction of the NHL's new "uniform system" from Reebok.

The Hurricanes are one of three NHL teams not to use a third jersey at some point, with the Red Wings and New Jersey Devils the others.

If you want to send in tips regarding this season's new crop of third jerseys, email me at nhllogos@gmail.com.

Third Jerseys For 'Canes, Sabres, Oilers

Long day. I've been awake for too many hours now but I've just gotten so many emails I'd feel bad about going to bed before updating you guys on the news of the day.

The biggest news — what I got the most emails about today — the Hurricanes have confirmed a third jersey for this season according to a report from The News & Observer's Luke DeCock. He wrote the following in his blog today:

When the Hurricanes take on the Red Wings in the second home game of the season, there's a good chance only one team will be in red.

The Canes hope to unveil their new, NHL-approved alternate jerseys — expected to be black with the team's secondary, waving-flag logo on the chest — at the Caniac Carnival in September and could wear them on the ice as early as Oct. 13 against Detroit.

“We wouldn’t wear it Opening Night,” Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said. “Our jerseys as they are now are really nice jerseys in red and they’re really popular. … It could be (Detroit). It won’t be Opening Night, but after that sooner rather than later, probably. We haven’t made that decision.”

A little research on the Hurricanes' official web site turns up a date for the Caniac Carnival — September 21. That's going in the countdowns.

By the way, DeCock even cites a graphic found on NHLToL. You can read the full post at Lord Stanley's Blog. For what it's worth, he says 18 teams could have new third jerseys this year.

The other third jersey news for today comes by way of WGR 550 Sports Radio out of Buffalo.

The Sabres will indeed have a third jersey for the new season — to be unveiled to fans on September 20. The following was posted on their web site:

Sabres managing partner Larry Quinn ... announced that the Sabres will unveil their 3rd alternate jersey at an open practice to the fans on Saturday, September 20th. Fans will have to wait until then to see the new-look uniforms.

Another radio station has third jersey news. Dan Tencer of Alberta's 630 CHED reports on his blog that "the team will unveil a new 3rd jersey for the 2008-09 season, likely with an announcement in August."

It's not very informative as far as the design of the jersey, but it's one more source confirming that an alternate sweater will exist for the Oil.

The reason I'm more apt to trust this information is that they're coming from reputable media sources and not random personal blogs (like this one). So as with anything, take it for what it is.

By the way, the next time I'll be able to update the site will likely be tomorrow night. If any news surfaces, I'll get it posted then.

Alternates From A Fan

In combing through my inbox I came across a set of third jersey designs one reader sent in recently. There's 18 in all but I'm going to start with six — my favorites of the bunch.

An obvious win for a Hurricanes alternate sweater would be this one.

Though it steals a page out of L.A.'s book with the locator on the front of the sweater, it's not a bad look. Speaking of the Kings...

...how about a purple jersey with the Gretzky-era logo? One of my favorite logos has to be the new alternate unveiled by the Canucks last summer. I'm dying to see it on a uniform.

As far as that jersey goes though, sort of reminds me of the Whalers. But I do like the green. A lot!

Of the few things we have confirmation of regarding next year's third jerseys, is that the Blues will use a new logo that incorporates the Gateway Arch. Here's another concept with that in mind.

It may not be a new logo but it does include the arch.

I know many of you are opposed to black third jerseys, but I think they work for teams that actually have color in their regular home sweaters — the Sharks and Coyotes, for example.

I love that shield logo too. And here's a unique take on Phoenix's logo.

I'll have more from this artist in the future. In the meantime, stick around. I'll be posting information about the brand new International Hockey Association logo project a little later this evening.

Wallpaper Wednesday V

Today's edition brings us seven new wallpapers to choose from. But before I get to those, I wanted to address something about artwork submission. I don't want to call anyone out, but you guys can't be sending me stuff to post that doesn't belong to you. It's not fair to the artist. I know sometimes you might find great artwork on another web site that you want to share with everyone here. That's fine and I'm willing to make an exception so long as you attribute the source so I can link back.

Now onto today's wallpapers. We'll begin with one for Bruin Marc Savard.

I like this one a lot — which is why I'm posting it first. Not to be outdone, a couple of Flyers fans put together some cool designs.

Above is Daniel Briere. Below, Joffrey Lupul.

And we can't leave out the league's rising stars including Minnesota's Marian Gaborik...

...as well as Washington's Alex Ovechkin.

I think we'll finish out the post with a couple of logo-based backgrounds.

If you're not a fan of the Islanders, what about the Hurricanes?

One last thing. A couple weeks ago I posted some beautiful Ducks-themed wallpapers that originated at a site called AllDucksGraphics.com. If you're a Ducks fan — and even if you're not — you will definitely want to check it out. Well worth the time.

Reworking NHL Uniforms II

I'm sure many of your remember a new series we started last week from an artist under the moniker capn89. He's been redesigning the uniforms of each team league-wide, doing so without drastic changes to the colors or logos. It's been amazing work and while he began the series in alphabetical order, we're going to step out of that pattern for today's post.

We're starting with the Hurricanes.

Again, he's only making slight adjustments, mainly to the striping and design patterns on the sweaters, but in some cases that can make all the difference. Next up, my personal favorite as you well know, the Blackhawks.

It's amazing how the addition of a shoulder yoke suddenly changes my mind completely about these uniforms. For some reason it even makes the logo look better! I might be going crazy though. Finally, we have the Panthers.

And just for good measure, he wanted to see what the Cats would look like without the red.

I'll keep these posts coming as long as he continues to submit his artwork. I expect to have a post tomorrow but with it being the 4th of July, I may be out so don't hold me to that.