Center Ice Championship

The final poll for the Center Ice Tournament has been posted in the pollbar. It's the Oilers and Penguins in the final round but don't discount the Bruins and Sharks. Both polls in the last round were extremely close. It'll be interesting to see who pulls out the win in the end.

Enlarge: Penguins | Sharks

Enlarge: Bruins | Oilers

The poll will be open until Wednesday. Happy voting!

Habs To Retire Roy's No. 33

According to CNN, the Montreal Canadiens will retire Patrick Roy's jersey No. 33 this November.

I have found no further information on the subject. However, TSN has.

Good for him!

IHA Poll: Toronto Knights

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 Fri Aug 29
Ends Mon Sep 1

Sanford Picks Mask Finalists

A few weeks ago the Vancouver Canucks held a competition on behalf of Curtis Sanford to design his new mask. They received over 300 designs from fans and artists and now the finalists have been posted on their official web site.

You can see galleries of Sanford's Top 10 favorites and the staff's Top 40. Some of them are amazingly well done. Others not so much. Go see for yourself.

IHA Poll: Hamilton Generals

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 Thu Aug 28
Ends Sun Aug 31

'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.

Poll Problems

Quick note. I've been looking into a problem with the polls. Apparently folks using Internet Explorer are not seeing the formatting of the polls on the blog properly. This includes colors, sizing, layout and most notably, the all-important vote button. I'm looking into a solution for this.

As a temporary fix, you can still vote by making a selection like normal and then clicking the grey box next to the View Results link. Not all of the polls in the pollbar are being affected. It's a weird problem. I'm working on it.

UPDATE (12:27 PM): Polls are back to normal now. The problem was the section with the results from previous pollls. I thought it'd be nice feature to have but I guess it was adversely affecting IE. So it's gone now. Anyway, problem solved. (But now the star ratings for each post seem to be gone. Working on it.)

Blue Jackets Honor Founder With Logo

The Columbus Blue Jackets have unveiled a new logo to be used this season to honor the memory of their founder John H. McConnell. It was announced on the team's official web site yesterday.

The link to the story about the new logo wasn't working for me, but this is it if you want to give it a shot.

IHA Poll: Detroit Legions

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 Wed Aug 27
Ends Sat Aug 30

Wild Owner: Green Jersey Coming

Minnesota Wild fans longing for the return of the green jersey may have to wait only until next season. At a barbecue event for season ticket holders last week, I believe, owner Craig Leipold said the team was working on a green third jersey to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

You can listen to his comments in full via the latest PONDcast on the Wild's official web site. (If you're reading this in the future, it's #883.)

That reminds me. A couple of months ago, the Wild held a fan appreciation event where staffers were walking around with concept jerseys trying to get a feel for what folks would like from an alternate. Perhaps that had something to do with this. You can read more about it in the original post.

Thanks to Eric for the heads-up on this!