Next Live Chat & More

Always with the little notes lately. What's with me?

The next Live Chat will take place starting at 10 AM on Saturday morning and will revolve mainly around the unveiling of the Buffalo Sabres' new third jersey — which, according to their schedule, is set to follow a team scrimmage at 10. I'm assuming at least a half hour for that which will give us all time to chat before the big reveal.

But that's not all that will be going on here at Icethetics this weekend. No, sir. We'll be following a number of other fan events being held by teams around the league for the possibility that an elusive third jersey could surface. At the top of my list — the St. Louis Blues. I'll also be keeping an eye on the Senators, Blackhawks and Coyotes as they kowtow to fans as well.

We've also got fantasy league stuff to deal with. Once I finalize all of the team names for the Pacific Division, you can start submitting logo art. You'll have three weeks to do so — so don't rush it. Take your time and come up with something good. I'm giving you lots of time and I don't want to see garbage.

We'll also start rating names for the Central Division. I've already selected the 20 finalists for each city. The name nominations for the North and Northeast Divisions will end on Saturday. Then I'll begin accepting name submissions for the cities that get selected from the South and Southeast Divisions. At that point we'll also have a final list of the 30 cities that will be included in the league. Now we're getting somewhere.

I think that about covers it.

Icethetics Season Preview

Today, I'm announcing the Icethetics Season Preview. The Preview is basically a week of festivities leading up to the start of the 2008-09 season.

It's everything to get you ready for the year — you know, in terms of jerseys and logos. And "festivities" might be an oversell. Still, it's a week's worth of coverage to make sure you know what's new for the new season. And it all starts in just two weeks.

• New Anniversary & Commemorative Logos
  Monday, September 29: I'll outline all the new NHL logos that will be used this season to symbolize birthday celebrations, tributes and memorials.


• New Center Ice Designs
  Tuesday, September 30: I'll tell you about all the NHL arenas with new paint jobs on the ice.


• New Minor League Logos
  Wednesday, October 1: I'll step back from the NHL mid-week and show off all the new logos that will be used this season around the AHL, ECHL and any other relevant HL.


• New NHL Logos
  Thursday, October 2: All of the new logos being introduced throughout the NHL will be on display. Plenty of teams are adding new alternate logos for their third jersey, which brings us to...


• New Third Jerseys
  Friday, October 3: This year, third jerseys are making their comeback! I'll outline all the official new alternate sweaters going into service for 2008-09. Not just for the NHL either. I'm covering the AHL and ECHL too on this one.

So there you have it — the Icethetics Season Preview. Remember, it kicks off in two weeks and you won't want to miss it.

From The Ground Up: North Names

The five markets with the most votes to be included in the North Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Over 7,000 individual votes were cast in the poll (which is strange since its sister poll had more than 3,000 more.)

Here, I'm outlining those markets (alphabetically) along with the acceptable locators (listed below) for your team name nominations — which I'll begin accepting today by comment only. This is interesting because we're staying squarely in Canada for this entire division.

• CALGARY, Alberta
  Alberta | Calgary | Lethbridge


• EDMONTON, Alberta
  Alberta | Edmonton | Red Deer


• REGINA, Saskatchewan
  Saskatchewan | Regina


• SASKATOON, Saskatchewan
  Saskatchewan | Saskatoon


• WINNIPEG, Manitoba
  Manitoba | Winnipeg

DO NOT SUBMIT NAME NOMINATIONS VIA EMAIL. THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Submit your team name nominations by leaving a comment below. Email submissions will be discarded. I will accept nominations for one week at which point new comments on this post will be closed. Up to 20 name submissions that fit within the following parameters will be included in the name selection process which will begin next weekend.

If you want your submission included, DO NOT:
• use the name of any current or past NHL or WHA team.
• use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.
• use the name or close variation of any current or past professional sports team within the same market or geographical area.
• use the name of any team from Project: IHA.
• use any name that would be considered vulgar, obscene or in any way inappropriate. (Sorry, this is my call.)

If you decide to use a locator not already on the list above, be prepared to have it discarded. I'm not setting that in stone as a restriction, but I'm also not guaranteeing I'll include anything not on the list. Sorry for all the restrictions but sometimes you have to "guide" originality.

It was suggested that when submitting names you also submit a short reasoning for that name. I won't require that but I will recommend it since it might help your submission get votes later on if folks know where you got your idea.

Don't forget to make your submissions for the Northeast Division. You have until September 20.

Start submitting!

I've been reading some of the submissions and it's a little pathetic. I think a lot of you are trying too hard to find a name that "means something" to the point where you're losing sight of the fact that we're trying to name sports teams. Forget about trivial nonsense and suggest some names you'd want to chant in an arena of 20,000 people. Just something to think about when making your nominations.

From The Ground Up: Northeast Names

The five markets with the most votes to be included in the Northeast Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Over 10,000 individual votes were cast in the poll.

Here, I'm outlining those markets (alphabetically) along with the acceptable locators (listed below) for your team name nominations — which I'll begin accepting today by comment only.

• BOSTON, Massachusetts
  Massachusetts | New England | Boston | Worcester


• MONTRÉAL, Quebec
  Montreal


• NEW YORK, New York
  New York | New York City | New Jersey | Long Island


• QUEBEC CITY, Quebec
  Quebec | Quebec City


• TORONTO, Ontario
  Ontario | Toronto | Hamilton | London

DO NOT SUBMIT NAME NOMINATIONS VIA EMAIL. THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Submit your team name nominations by leaving a comment below. Email submissions will be discarded. I will accept nominations for one week at which point new comments on this post will be closed. Up to 20 name submissions that fit within the following parameters will be included in the name selection process which will begin next weekend.

If you want your submission included, DO NOT:
• use the name of any current or past NHL or WHA team.
• use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.
• use the name or close variation of any current or past professional sports team within the same market or geographical area.
• use the name of any team from Project: IHA.
• use any name that would be considered vulgar, obscene or in any way inappropriate. (Sorry, this is my call.)

If you decide to use a locator not already on the list above, be prepared to have it discarded. I'm not setting that in stone as a restriction, but I'm also not guaranteeing I'll include anything not on the list. Sorry for all the restrictions but sometimes you have to "guide" originality.

It was suggested that when submitting names you also submit a short reasoning for that name. I won't require that but I will recommend it since it might help your submission get votes later on if folks know where you got your idea.

Don't forget to make your submissions for the North Division. You have until September 20.

Start submitting!

I've been reading some of the submissions and it's a little pathetic. I think a lot of you are trying too hard to find a name that "means something" to the point where you're losing sight of the fact that we're trying to name sports teams. Forget about trivial nonsense and suggest some names you'd want to chant in an arena of 20,000 people. Just something to think about when making your nominations.

New Email & Live Chat

Just wanted to point out that I've added a new email address. You can now reach me at icethetics@gmail.com. But for those of you who have trouble spelling Icethetics, you can still use my old address, nhllogos@gmail.com.

Also, I have another Live Chat scheduled for this afternoon at 5 PM. We can talk about whatever. Anything from the recent third jersey news to the next step in the process of creating our fantasy league to... your favorite color. I'll probably have it up for about an hour or two.

That's all for this morning. I'll have name nomination posts up shortly for the North and Northeast Divisions.

From The Ground Up, Part 8

A lot happening this weekend with the Icethetics fantasy hockey league — not sure if that's the name, just what I'm calling it right now. Let's outline what's what.

First, the North and Northeast Division city selection process is over. We have the five cities that will be included in each division. That will be revealed tomorrow in the post where you guys will begin submitting name nominations for those teams.

That brings is to the Pacific and Central Divisions. We are now finished with the nominations for those divisions and I've narrowed down 20 names from each city. I know this may irk some of you, but let's face it, some of those names weren't exactly spectacular to begin with. Plus, simplicity is king in my book.

The next step is you guys choosing each team's name. This will be a simple process. For each city you'll be directed to a page with all 20 name finalists. You will rate each name individually from 1 to 5 stars. The name with the highest star rating will be the team's official name. In the event of a tie, a runoff poll will be held the next week.

This process assures that you aren't forced to choose one name over another. You simply rate each name on its own merits. You like it or you don't. This should allow us to get a fair consensus of what everyone considers to be a good team name.

Here's the thing, at this point is when we start doing one division per week. It'd be an insane amount of work for me to keep up with both divisions. So this week you'll rate the names for the Pacific Division. Next week the Central. The week after that Northeast... and so on. The process of determining the names for all 30 teams will take six weeks starting today.

There are links in the Fantasy League section in the pollbar directing you to the list of names for each city in the Pacific Division. Rate as many or as few names as you want and you're done. All the results will be finalized next weekend and we'll start with the Central Division.

An important note. A few cities have the same team names available. Rush, for example, was nominated and is a finalist for both Anchorage and Los Angeles. Obviously, two teams cannot have the same name. If, by some miracle, the same name is selected for two cities, the city for which it got the higher rating gets to keep it. The other city has to give it up and go with the second place name. If there's a tie, we'll do a runoff poll.

If you guys have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'll address them as a reply to your comment or email, or make an addition to this post.

Minor Updates

I know some of you have noticed but I've been making some minor upgrades to the visual aspect of the blog. Figured I could address them here and get any feedback.

Most notably, I'm redoing all the logo graphics. You'll notice in the Third Jerseys section of the sidebar — where the majority of the logos are — they now have dark grey backgrounds instead of colors. No real reason behind the change. I just get bored looking at the same thing every day.

Thing is, I can't decide whether I like the darker background or the lighter one so I figured I'd do a quick reader poll. It's on the right. Which do you prefer? Darker or lighter backgrounds? The poll closes tonight.

For an example of a lighter background, check out the logos that have been added to the Rebranding the NHL section. I think it's a better representation for Matt's work than plain text links. Clicking on a logo will take you to the post where that rebrand was featured here or at NHLToL. I'll also be adding links to the jerseys available for NHL 08 made by DRutka. I've been meaning to do that for a while but I've had other things on my plate.

Also made some small improvements to the championship banners. Should make them look nicer.

As you know I'm always looking for ways to make things better. If you have any ideas or suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know. And don't forget about tomorrow's Live Chat at 11:30 AM EDT for the first third jersey unveiling.

Live Chat On Monday

I'm always up for trying out new things here at Icethetics. One thing I've been wanting to try for a while is some sort of live interactive event. Basically, a way for you guys to talk directly with me. You read and look at what I post every day and sometimes you send in emails but we never really just chat.

That being said, I have to tip my hat to the guys at Hockeybums for turning me on to an awesome site that provides free live blogging. I figured this would be the perfect way for me to have some interaction with you guys — an Icethetics Live Chat.

I don't really have any plans for it at the moment. I'll probably just take your questions and comments for about an hour. As for the immediate future of this whole Live Chat thing, I'd like to cover the Hurricanes' third jersey unveiling on Wednesday. I, of course, won't be there, but if anyone here will and has a laptop, they might be able to participate and let us know what's going on. At the very least, I can provide pictures and information as I get it.

Beyond that, I really don't know. We'll see how things go to start with. But I can tell you they offer live polls. And since polls are such a major staple of Icethetics, I figure we'd all appreciate that.

I've set up our first Live Chat to take place tomorrow morning at 11 AM eastern time. I know it's short notice and it's a Monday morning, but I'm doing it this way to avoid having too many people there. I'm not really sure how any of this works and if it's a colossal failure, well, let's not do it in front of everyone, right?

If you can participate, please do! You can fill in your email address in the box on the right to be reminded. I plan to set up the window for the Live Chat here at Icethetics about 10 minutes before we start.

Championship Banners Are Back

I just added a tiny new feature to the blog that some of you guys have been asking for. A lot of you really liked the logo champion banners I created for the winners of each logo tournament on the old blogs. Well I said I was working on getting them set up here at Icethetics and now I have.

On the left side of the page you'll find the championship banners displaying randomly one at a time. It'll change when you refresh the page. There are 12 banners in rotation — see if you can guess them all — from every tournament we've ever done, be it here, at NHLToL or ToHL. I'll add new banners as we complete more tournaments.

Hope you enjoy it.

From The Ground Up: Central Names

The five markets with the most votes, to be included in the Central Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Almost 10,000 individual votes were cast in the poll.

In this post, I'm outlining those markets (alphabetically) along with the acceptable locators (listed below) for your team name nominations — which I'll begin accepting today by comment only.

• CHICAGO, Illinois
  Illinois | Chicago | Joliet | Rockford


• DETROIT, Michigan
  Michigan | Detroit | Troy | Dearborn


• MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin
  Wisconsin | Milwaukee


• MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota
  Minnesota | Minneapolis | St. Paul | Bloomington


• ST. LOUIS, Missouri
  Missouri | St. Louis

DO NOT SUBMIT NAME NOMINATIONS VIA EMAIL. THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Submit your team name nominations by leaving a comment below. Email submissions will be discarded. I will accept nominations for one week at which point new comments on this post will be closed. All name submissions that fit within the following parameters will be included in the name selection process which will begin next weekend.

If you want your submission included, DO NOT:
• use the name of any current or past NHL or WHA team.
• use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.
• use the name or close variation of any current or past professional sports team within the same market or geographical area.
• use the name of any team from Project: IHA.
• use any name that would be considered vulgar, obscene or in any way inappropriate. (Sorry, this is my call.)

If you decide to use a locator not already on the list above, be prepared to have it discarded. I'm not setting that in stone as a restriction, but I'm also not guaranteeing I'll include anything not on the list. Sorry for all the restrictions but sometimes you have to "guide" originality.

Late addition: I'll also probably be weaning out some of the more ridiculous and absurd names. I don't mind fun ones, but I think you guys know what I mean.

It was suggested that when submitting names you also submit a short reasoning for that name. I won't require that but I will recommend it since it might help your submission get votes later on if folks know where you got your idea.

Don't forget to make your submissions for the Pacific Division. You have until September 13.

Start submitting!