Habs To Wear Shoulder Patches?

The guys over at Hockey Bums wrote up a bit about possible uniform alterations for the Canadiens to celebrate their 100th year. They included this image from NHL 09.

It shows two different 100th anniversary shoulder patches. No word on whether this was created for the game or is an official design for the Habs. It was noted that these screen shots were taken while the game was in a special mode that allows the user to choose the players' equipment.

It's also been reported that the Habs will have a number of the special vintage sweaters throughout the season to mark the centennial event. I'll keep you updated as I learn more.

UPDATE (8/14 12:40 AM): Here's a funny irony that just hit me. This post about the 100th anniversary of the Canadiens... is my 100th post at Icethetics! Things like that just crack me up.

IHA Northeast Finalists Unveiled!

Last week you saw the logo finalists for the IHA Atlantic. This week, I've narrowed down three finalists for each team in the West Division for the logos I received. You'll begin voting on them tomorrow but for right now, have a look. I think we've got a good batch for this division.

BOSTON ROYALS

HARTFORD BEARS

MONTRÉAL ROUGE

OTTAWA CAPITALS

QUEBEC GLACIER

I'm leaving off credits here as usual. However, if your logo is featured here and you would like a credit, drop me a line via email and I'll be happy to add it. Otherwise, I plan to wait and credit the logos that win for each team.

Polls will be posted throughout the week to decide which logo should be used for each team. Along with each poll, I'll show some of the logos that were submitted but didn't make the final cut for one reason or another. So if you sent in a logo that wasn't selected as a finalist, it should be there. If it's not, the image you sent was probably unusable in some way.

By the way, I've tried to weed out any logos with elements stolen from actual professional sports team logos, but if I've missed anything be sure to let me know. I've got backups to put in for most teams as far as the polls go. Speaking of backups, there's one more logo I have to post because of it's homage to the Whalers.

I'm not sure it would be a good idea for this competition for obvious reasons, but how cool would it be for this alternate universe league to share a logo trait with the NHL's best like that? It would be like a destiny thing for the city of Hartford.

Seriously though, the Whalers had one of the best logos ever (even you guys agree as evidenced by your voting in the Vintage Logo Tournament). Anyway, I just wanted you guys to see it, but it probably won't be up for a vote in the poll this week.

Post your comments and critiques below!

New Logos For 'Yotes, Bruins, Sabres

I saw a reader posted links to images of new logos for the Coyotes, Bruins and Sabres and figured I'd post them for everyone to see. (Also, it will serve as a backup in case the original images disappear at some point.)

I'm not worried so much about crediting the original person who got these graphics considering they probably shouldn't have had them in the first place. But this is the internet. What can you do?

We can start with Phoenix. First, we've got a better shot of the alleged third jersey logo I first posted last week.

It's an amazing looking logo. Let's hope the sweater design can live up to it. There's also what may be a secondary logo for the alternate jersey along with a brand new wordmark.

Nothing bad to say about either of those.

The Bruins have a new wordmark as well.

Very cool. And we've got a bit of a better look at the vintage logo the Sabres will wear on their thirds.

Thanks to Resist The Machine for finding all of those. If you guys come across anything else, email me and we'll let the world know.

Rebranding The Stars, Revisited

I've got new artwork from Matt today and an update on his next rebrand.

Two weeks ago he added the Dallas Stars to his Rebranding the NHL series. One major factor in his design was dropping one of the primary colors — green. He even explained why but that doesn't mean green wouldn't have looked good on the uniforms.

Here's a different take on the uniforms of his latest rebrand.

The St. Louis Blues are next on Matt's list. He's planning to have it done soon and has offered up a few tidbits about what to expect from it. He calls the new primary logo a "tasteful, vintage style" modernization of the Blue Note the club has worn for more than 40 years. He is, however, working on two additional original logos so you will get something new.

I know I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

Inspiring Concepts

It's been a while since I've done a concept post. But as you know I've been busy redesigning the blog this weekend (again). Before I get into today's artwork — and there's a lot of it — I wanted to share my inspiration for this latest round of design upgrades.

A reader and graphic artist named Guillaume Bellemare emailed me a couple of weeks ago about the design of Icethetics. He said he had some ideas for improving it and I asked him to send me whatever he came up with. I just wanted to show you guys what he sent.

First of all, Guillaume obviously does really great work. You can check out his web site for more like it. You can click on the images above to enlarge them. On the left is the logo he created. I don't plan on using it (not a big fan of the font) but I do like the concept a lot. And on the right you can see the site design he came up with. So I have to credit Guillaume with putting the idea of a pollbar in my head. It wasn't until I saw his design that it really clicked with me.

One of the main focuses of this site is the polls. Why am I letting them get buried in pages of posts? It didn't make any sense. Now you have a quick at-a-glance way of seeing what you can vote on — and how long you have left to do so. That was the main element I took away from his demo here.

As for the rest of it, like I told him, the majority of the people who visit Icethetics are designers or otherwise artsy people who tend to use higher resolution monitors. Tiny text is difficult to read so I prefer large text and lots of spacing. I also widened the page for the same reason. Anyway, there's no need to beat this to death, so I'm not going to go into anymore details unless specifically asked.

If you have any questions, email me or comment. Now for today's concept art...

We're beginning with the Ducks because I have two great logo designs for them.

This one I like a lot but it's funny to me that, like the Canucks, the uniform would feature a prominent color not in the actual logo itself. The designer created orange uniforms for this concept. Still a great logo. The next one, I don't know.

It is quite duck-like, but I'm not sure that's winning it points. A little detailed perhaps, it makes great use of Anaheim's new colors. Moving on now to the Coyotes.

I think this logo would be improved by filling in the moon with a color. And while I like Phoenix's actual logo better, in this one, the coyote actually appears to be howling.

Another interesting Sabres design to add to the pile.

Simple, straightforward, traditional. Nothing wrong with that.

The next piece is based off an Islanders concept logo I posted here about a month ago.

Those are some nice jerseys and I can't see how the club from Long Island could go wrong with a logo like that.

We'll finish things off with a little something for the Quebecois population out there still missing the Nordiques. Here's what the old club might've looked like in today's Rbk EDGE sweaters.

Not bad at all.

IHA West Finalists Unveiled!

Last week you saw the logo finalists for the IHA Atlantic. This week, I've narrowed down three finalists for each team in the West Division for the logos I received. You'll begin voting on them tomorrow but for right now, have a look. I think we've got a good batch for this division.

CALGARY MAVERICKS

DALLAS PATRIOTS

DENVER MOUNTAINEERS

EDMONTON SEAHAWKS

HOUSTON COMETS

Like last time, I've left off credits here for a couple of reasons which I won't get into. However, if your logo is featured here and you would like a credit, drop me a line via email and let me know and I'll be happy to add it. Otherwise, I plan to wait and credit the logos that win for each team.

Also like the last division, polls will be posted throughout the week to decide which logo should be used for each team. Along with each poll, I'll show some of the logos that were submitted but didn't make the final cut for one reason or another. So if you sent in a logo that wasn't selected as a finalist, it should be there. If it's not, the image you sent was probably somehow unusable.

By the way, I've tried to weed out any logos with elements stolen from actual professional sports team logos, but if I've missed anything be sure to let me know. I've got backups to put in for most teams as far as the polls go.

Post your comments and critiques below!

THN Releases Logo Rankings

The Hockey News, as they've done every year since I can remember, has released their logo rankings. The Blackhawks are No. 1 on their list — far from that on mine.

Below are their Top 10.

Pretty much what you'd expect. Here are the Bottom 5.

I'm a little surprised to see the Hurricanes down there. Not at all surprised to see the Ducks last. Shame about my Lightning, but what THN says is true. They just can't find a font that works.

I highly recommend checking out their full ranking complete with rationale and everything. (You'll understand my joke once you've read that.)

Now that's not all THN has going. Yesterday they launched a new web feature that I can't decide whether I should be miffed or flattered by. They announced their Logo Rankings & Tournament. This is a lot like any one of our logo tournaments where we pit logo against logo and you vote for the best.

Theirs is on a larger scale. They're holding a tournament of the 40 best logos from 16 different leagues. A great idea, but not an original one. Still, I think you guys should all go vote in their logo competition and see how it all turns out. I'll still continue doing the same thing here.

I'm curious to know what you guys think of this. Read up on what The Hockey News has going and then drop me a line by email or comment.

NEW Third Jersey Logos!

We're one step closer to getting to see what this season's crop of new third jersey's actually has to offer. I've gotten a hold of a handful of logos/crests to be featured on the new sweaters. I'm not naming my source for that person's privacy so don't bother asking. Let's dive in.

Thrashers We know Atlanta's jersey will be maroon with the team name arched above the player's jersey number on the front. What you see above is supposedly how the text will look.

Bruins Boston will wear the shoulder logo from their home sweaters on the crest of their new black third jerseys. Nothing really new there but I'm displaying all the graphics I got anyway.

Sabres Buffalo will be wearing a vintage style sweater with the logo they donned for their first quarter century. This version of the logo appears to incorporate a lot of silver around the edges.

Coyotes One of the clubs that will be wearing an entirely new logo on their third jersey is Phoenix. Above is the leaping coyote we've been hearing rumors about.

Penguins This is another example of a logo we've seen before. Pittsburgh will be promoting last year's Winter Classic sweater design to third jersey this season. And that logo will stay on the front.

Sharks One of my wishes came true. I like the sound of a black jersey for San Jose but I was really hoping they'd go with the full-body shark logo and it turns out they will. This is one of the sweaters I'm looking forward to most.

Lightning Now for my team. I always call them the Bolts but I'm not sure how I feel about Tampa Bay wearing that nickname across the front of their sweaters. However, I am psyched about the blue sweaters! Above is what the text will supposedly look like on the uniforms.

Maple Leafs Toronto is nothing new. They're going with the 35-point vintage leaf logo. It'll be on a white jersey just like the ones they wore prior to the Rbk EDGE era.

As with anything, keep in mind that while I trust this source, I'm always wary about passing rumor off as fact. I believe these to be legitimate images but anything is possible. Take it for what it is and enjoy it!

The Kings, Senators and Blues are the teams with new logos/crests that we have yet to see. I'm told there was a note with these other logos that read "TBD" for them.

That leaves seven of the 18 new third jerseys unaccounted for in this post. Three will be wearing their regular primary logos (Hurricanes, Blackhawks and Flyers). Three will wear vintage logos (Oilers, Islanders and Canucks). And Dallas will have an inverted version of their black home sweaters — white with the word DALLAS in green text above the player's sweater number.

And that's that. Hope you guys are as excited about this news as I am!

(By the way, I apologize for the watermarking but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with these graphics and I want to try to track who, if anyone, picks them up for posting elsewhere. By the way, I have no problem with anyone doing that. Just link back and keep the graphic intact.)

IHA Atlantic Finalists Unveiled!

Over the past couple of weeks I've been inundated with logo submissions for the IHA project. Some of them are top-notch, professional grade logos, others... not so much. But after going through all of the logos sent in, I've narrowed down three finalists for each team in the Atlantic Division. You'll begin voting on them this week but for right now, have a look at the competition.

ATLANTA FIRE

NEW YORK AMERICANS

PHILADELPHIA TITANS

PITTSBURGH MINERS

WASHINGTON STARS

I've left off credits here for a couple of reasons which I won't get into. However, if your logo is featured here and you would like a credit, drop me a line via email and let me know and I'll be happy to add it. Otherwise, I plan to wait and credit the logos that win for each team.

Polls will start going up on Monday to decide which logo should be used for each team. I was going to let this be a surprise but I'll go ahead and tell you anyway. Along with each poll, I'll show some of the logos that were submitted but didn't make the final cut for one reason or another. So if you sent in a logo but it's not among those above, it may still be posted on Icethetics this week.

By the way, I've tried to weed out any logos with elements stolen from actual professional sports team logos, but if I've missed anything be sure to let me know. I've got backups to put in for most teams as far as the polls go.

Now I'd like to hear what you guys think of these logos. Post your comments and critiques below!

UPDATE (5:21 PM): It seems as if the IHA project is nothing if not controversial. A number of readers are concerned that the second Atlanta Fire logo above is too similar to the old Atlanta Flames logo. My opinion is that it's different enough to be considered original but yours is the only opinion that really counts as far as I'm concerned so I'm doing a quick reader poll here to gauge the general feeling on this. It'll be open until tomorrow at noon.

Blues, Blackhawks & Blue Jackets

Hope you guys are psyched for the Center Ice Tournament. I've been busy getting that prepared but in the meantime I did promise you concept art. Today's theme is the Central Division.

First up, the Blues — in an assortment of different colors.

These logos have a very different feel to them as well because of the hand-drawn look. The NHL has never really done anything like this. Also, there's a jersey to go with them.

But back to a more simplistic approach, what about a striping pattern on the jersey that alludes to the Gateway Arch?

Here's an interesting wordmark.

Next is my favorite subject, as you know, the Blackhawks. The designer tells me he came up with this logo around the time the Senators first introduced their 3Dish logo. You give the Indian head a quarter turn and he might look something like this.

I like it a lot — maybe not as a logo, but just in general. Plus, remember this logo? Somebody put it on a jersey.

Not bad at all.

We'll finish things up here with the Blue Jackets. Here we're replacing the hat with a cannon on the secondary logo.

And here's a variety of color patterns for Columbus' jerseys.

Nothing really jumps out at me (in fact, it took me a minute to notice they were all different).

Don't forget, tomorrow you'll get your first look at some of the logos designed for Project: IHA. I can't wait to post them and get your feedback. Plus the Center Ice Tournament bracket will make it's debut. So there's a lot you won't want to miss.