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.

IHA Poll: Manitoba Thunder

Cast your vote and leave a comment about your decision. Then tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Starts Tue Sep 9
Ends Fri Sep 12

By the way, I'm trying out a new poll layout this week. We'll see how it works out.

Happy voting!

Info On Habs' Retro Jerseys

An article at Cyberpresse.ca which happens to be in French has some interesting information regarding the the vintage jerseys the Montreal Canadiens are rumored to be wearing this season to celebrate their centennial.

I used Google to translate it to English.

Retro Jerseys

In addition, the Canadian will take advantage of the centennial celebrations for dusting four of his old sweaters. This season, the Montreal players will don jerseys retro twice, once on November 15 against the Philadelphia Flyers and a second time on 1 February against the Boston Bruins.

In the first case, it is the jersey of the 1915-16 season to be worn by the Canadian players. The second time, Montrealers will skate wearing the jersey of the 1912-13 season.

Apart from the terrible grammar of the translator, there's some interesting stuff here.

While it appears to suggest the Habs will wear four "old sweaters," it suggests only two dates when they will be worn. Unless the Canadiens are planning on a wardrobe change for each of those games, I think we might need some clarification.

But it sounds like they're at least wearing the 1915-16 sweaters against the Flyers on November 15 and the 1912-13 sweaters against the Bruins on February 1. If someone would like to track down pictures of those jerseys, I'd be happy to post them. A quick Google search turned up nothing useful for me.

UPDATE (3:04 PM): Thanks to Alan for finding an image showing the Montreal Canadiens' uniform history. In the upper left corner are the jerseys we might be seeing on the ice this season.

The 1915-16 sweater is clearly labeled but we have to assume the sweater labeled 1911-12 is what they mean by 1912-13 in the article. Both very interesting jerseys.

Now do you they'll actually wear "sweaters" in those games or adapt these styles to a Rbk EDGE jersey? (Just a joke.)

IHA Poll: Chicago Tigers

Cast your vote and leave a comment about your decision. Then tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Starts Mon Sep 8
Ends Thu Sep 11

By the way, I'm trying out a new poll layout this week. We'll see how it works out.

Happy voting!

Canadiens' New Center Logo

The Montreal Canadiens said a couple weeks ago that they would be using their new 100th anniversary logo at center ice instead of their primary logo.

We now have a photo of what that looks like.

Complete with new Bell Centre text around the circle and everything. Very classy.

Sabres New Third Leaked?

Apparently, the Buffalo Sabres' new third jersey has been leaked! Or so it would seem. I first revealed the image in today's Live Chat which went exceptionally well.

But I thought you guys might like it in blog form for anyone who was unable to participate live.

The image was sent to me anonymously. I don't know if it's appeared anywhere else.

Interesting striping along the sides and arms. I like the addition of silver. It looks classy but not dated. What do you guys think? Comment away!

Icethetics Live Chat I

Post-Chat 12:11 PM
Just wanted to wrap things up with the Live Chat. In total, we had almost 200 readers throughout with 240 messages sent in. Thanks to everyone who participated. It was awesome! We'll probably do it again on Wednesday morning for the Hurricanes' third jersey unveiling. I'll set up a reminder for that later tonight or tomorrow.

After that, I'm thinking maybe once a week or once every other week. You guys are a blast to talk to. Hope you all enjoyed it.

By the way, if you couldn't participate, you can read the replay above.

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.

Hurricanes Put Flag On Ice

Seems like the Carolina Hurricanes have been dominating the news coverage here lately. Anyway, it looks like RBC Center crews are in the process of painting the ice with a new logo.

Check this out.

An image grabbed from the arena's webcam shows that the secondary logo will now be front and center. The logo — which depicts a tropical storm flag tied to a hockey stick and waving in the wind — has long been rumored to be on the front of the team's new third jersey which will be unveiled on Wednesday at this very arena.

For the record, last year the Hurricanes' 10th anniversary logo donned center ice. Before that it was the standard primary logo.

Thanks to Scott for the tip and link.

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.