Unveiling Dates Confirmed

I got some third jersey release dates confirmed. The Lightning, Coyotes and Flyers have been added to the Countdowns — so that means we've got everybody covered. All three are jerseys we've already seen via leaks, but it'll be nice to see what these teams do for official unveilings. By the way, these dates don't come from the teams, but rather Reebok.

The Tampa Bay Lightning will unveil their third jersey on Sunday, November 23. The Bolts play the Devils at home on that night so that could also be the on-ice debut of the sweaters. However, if they just use that date for the unveiling, the next game would be the day before Thanksgiving against the Rangers.

We'll wait and see as the dates get closer.

The Phoenix Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers will be the last to unveil their third jerseys — doing so on Friday, November 28. I can't say if either jersey will make its on-ice debut that night, but both teams do have games.

The Coyotes play the Avalanche then the Sharks the following night. The Flyers face the Hurricanes on Friday and the Maple Leafs on Saturday.

And just to recap, out of 11 teams that yet to officially unveil their third jerseys, we've seen six of them either through official or unofficial leaks. The five sweaters we have not yet gotten a glimpse of belong to the Penguins, Stars, Sharks, Kings and Senators. So the rumors continue to swirl.

My the way, I'll have more image leaks later as well as news relating to the new banner at the top of the page.

New Third Jersey Image Leaks

Apparently, there's a guy or some illegitimate company selling bogus Rbk EDGE third jerseys on ebay. How do we know they're fake? Well for one thing, Reebok hasn't started shipping them yet. But that doesn't mean there weren't legitimate pictures of them.

The listings included six teams in all: the Atlanta Thrashers, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Tampa Bay Lightning. That's three teams that have officially unveiled them and three that haven't. Let's start with those.

There's nothing that we haven't already seen, but there are pics from different angles than what we've already seen. This is most helpful with the Coyotes in seeing what those sleeve stripes look like. But what makes me think these pictures show us what the actual jerseys will look like? Because of three others we've seen officially that were right.

Among the plethora of pictures were some close ups of the crests. First, the new ones...

...and then Atlanta's just because I thought it was a cool shot.

Thanks to Charlie for the tip on these pictures.

Hope that satisfies your itch for third jersey news tonight. I'll have more tomorrow, plus an announcement regarding the new banner some you have already noticed at the top of the page.

Bolts Goalies Get Sawed

Is anyone else disturbed by Oren Koules' not-so-subtle attempts at cross-promoting his horrible movie with my team?

Last night's Lightning-Thrashers game was littered with an assortment of Saw V promotions, not the least of which included some special — and I do hope temporary — goalie masks for Olaf Kolzig and Mike Smith.

Smith played and wore this mask.

But apparently one has been designed for Kolzig as well — my thanks to Puck Daddy for finding a picture.

I'm just a bit disappointed. I'm not a fan of the movies so I guess I'm biased. But I do have to admit he's not an idiot. Koules and his marketing team sure know how to take advantage of what they've got.

But seriously, what's next? Charlie Sheen wearing a Lightning jersey?

One more thing and totally unrelated. I can say this because my team is sucking just as bad. What's up with the Flyers? You put six tallies on the board and you still can't win a game. You're the only team left. Get it together.

Bolts, Flyers Thirds Leak!

My Reebok mole — who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent — has more offerings. I first broke these during the Live Chat earlier tonight, so if you participated or watched the replay, then you already know.

I have high quality promotional images for the third jerseys of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers to share with you today. My team first.

All the rumors were right for the Lightning's new third jersey. It's blue and it spells BOLTS right across the front, slanting downward. Even looking at it now, the colloquialism surprises me. It's an unusual sight for a professional sports uniform — but then so was a giant humanoid duck bursting from beneath a sheet of ice until 1995.

The first thing you'll probably notice is the obviously misspelling of Lecavalier on the back of the jersey. That particular image was probably never meant to be made public. Oops. But allow me to draw your attention away from that and to the bottom of the sweater.

Notice the TAMPA BAY stitched along the black stripe? Are we taking a page out of the Kings' book now? At least it's on the back. So speaking as a Lightning fan, there are some things I'm not thrilled with, but overall I'm happy with it and I will be wearing it on Christmas morning — likely before then too.

Next we move onto the Lightning's first ever playoff foe, the Philadelphia Flyers. This is another one the rumors got right. But then we've known what it will look like since March when cell phone photos first surfaced.

The Flyers are joining the handful of teams going retro with their new third jerseys — as you can see.

No egregious spelling errors on this jersey, but the nameplate is a cool feature. They're leaving out no detail on this throwback sweater, opting for black text on a white nameplate on an orange jersey. Bold. Well done.

You may have noticed the orange numbers on the sleeves seem to be overlapping onto the orange of the jersey. I'm not sure if this is accurate as the numbers were clearly added digitally and weren't on the photographed jersey. For that, we'll have to wait for the official announcement and unveiling by the team.

Keep in mind that these images are not from the teams and I do not consider them to be official unveilings. They're leaks and I almost feel bad about posting them, ruining the surprises for the teams. However, they're out now and I'd like to get your feedback.

By the way, if you decide to post these images elsewhere on the interwebs, I'd love it if you could link back to Icethetics!

Finding Lost Logos

Tuesday's post about blogger James Gordon finding unreleased logos in public trademark filings and an email from JP at Japers' Rink got me thinking about what other hidden gems might be out there on the United States Patent & Trademark Office's web site. Now I think "gems" is misleading because, by and large, logos that were trademarked but never used probably weren't that good in the first place.

Even one that was trademarked and will be used wasn't that good. I'm of course referring to the Kings.

That got me thinking about the one other team who is supposed to be getting a new logo for their third jersey — the Blues. And we haven't seen anything from them yet. So I did a search. Unfortunately, it seems they haven't filed yet. However, I did find one interesting wordmark.

A Blues fan would have to let me know if this was used or not at any point. But I don't remember ever seeing it. I believe it dates back to the days of the trumpet logo you see on the right. That was a secondary logo worn as a shoulder patch during the Gretzky days when the team introduced red into the uniform.

I did like that trumpet logo a lot though, for what it's worth.

Moving on now to the Capitals. Here's a logo we have seen before here.

And here's one we haven't.

This is what JP pointed out to me in the first place. Last year he wrote up a post about these two logos. He didn't like either and while I know my opinion doesn't count for anything, I have to say I really like the one on the right.

Yeah, it has text in it and all that, but if you can look beyond it's major flaw, I think it's a very balanced and well-designed logo. Shame it never saw the light of day.

And finally, I have to bring it all back to my Tampa Bay Lightning.

This logo was trademarked by the Bolts but never used — thankfully. I first saw it at Boltsmag a few years back.

If you guys find anything else of interest, let me know and I'll post it.

UPDATE (8/22 1:02 AM): All right, this is incredible. Not only were both of those Blues logos used, a reader emailed in a picture of a banner that features both on a hockey mask — together!

How cool is that?

Wallpaper Wednesday VII

We're beginning with one of the most popular teams on this blog for today's post. Canucks fans, enjoy this Roberto Luongo wallpaper.

For Lightning fans like myself, there's Vinny Lecavalier...

...or a more generic team wallpaper.

And at last, Canadiens fans have been begging for it... a Habs wallpaper!

Plus we've got one more for Saku Koivu.

Hope you guys enjoy this week's crop. And to anyone who has sent in a wallpaper but hasn't seen it posted, not to worry. It doesn't mean I'll never post it. I'm saving a bunch by posting about five a week so as to ensure I won't run out too quickly and have to switch to a biweekly schedule like the Freak Out Friday series.

More to come next week!

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.

Bolts Go Photoshopping

First, yes Vinny signed an 11-year contract with my Tampa Bay Lightning and I couldn't be happier. But it's actually Steven Stamkos that has me writing this evening. It appears even official team web sites aren't above Photoshopping jerseys onto players who haven't actually worn them yet.

This ad is currently appearing on the Bolts' home page.

At first you may think nothing of it. But look at the guy on the right. Is that Stamkos? In a Lightning jersey? When would he have had occasion to don a Bolts jersey in game action? Any graphic artist worth his salt should be able to tell in a second that it's not a real photo based on the lighting and shadows alone.

If you're not sold, consider this: Even when training camp rolls around, they don't wear full-on game sweaters. They have practice jerseys for that. So I'm led to the conclusion that his head has been pasted on someone else's body. And, of course, the numbers have been added because no player to my knowledge wore #91 for the Lightning last year.

Wow! Maybe I'm the only one intrigued by this, but I figure if I'm not alone, you guys would be the only other ones who care. So speaking of which, if anybody happens to run across a free agent signee already in his new team's uniform on an official web site, shoot me an email.

I'll leave you with this question: Who was that originally a picture of and how do you think he feels about having his head chopped off and his number changed?