The Postseason Push in Logo Form
With just nine days until the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin, no one is interested in hockey uniforms or logos anymore. I can tell because since the news has dried up, most of you have checked out. But that's all right. I'm just as guilty. Would much rather watch my Bolts shut out the defending champs than write a blog post.
Still, it's coming up on two weeks since I freshened up this page and heck, I've actually manufactured some content today. Fans of playoff-bound teams may have noticed new temporary logos popping up around the arena as well as team websites. Postseason marketing is in high gear!
Almost a dozen teams have special playoff-promoting logos and I'm going to give into homerism by starting with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
As with all of the Bolts' current marketing, it's nothing but blue and white featuring the new logo and the "All In" slogan. It's very simple, just like the team's new look — which doesn't actually take effect on the ice until the fall. Of course the club's newfound fetish for blue makes one wonder whether they plan to use the blue BOLTS jersey for home games this postseason rather than the blacks.
The NHL permits teams to use only two sweaters during the playoffs, but does allows dark alternates to stand in for dark home uniforms. The Kings have taken advantage of that in recent years. It would be a good opportunity for the Lightning, who have only worn the sweater for Saturday home games during the season.
The Boston Bruins have a simple 2011 playoffs logo which takes advantage of the bear in the secondary mark. It's a great looking drawing that should get used more. Glad to see it here.
Of course the nice thing about this logo is that it's evergreen in that it doesn't include a year. So it's possible it's been used before this season. I'll be honest in saying that I've never really paid attention before. (I just needed blog filler today.)
If you check out the Bruins' splash page, you'll notice David Krejci next to this logo sporting his third jersey. A subtle hint that the B's may be among those clubs donning alternates in these playoffs?
The Anaheim Ducks appear to have put the most effort into their 2011 postseason logo.
The "webbed D" is used in place of the 0 in 2011. Clever customization. They've also put the NHL's Stanley Cup logo into use here.
Nothing crazy but then the Ducks haven't exactly nailed down that playoff berth yet, have they? They sit at 7th in the West with three different teams nipping at their heels.
Speaking of which, the Dallas Stars are one of those heel-nipping teams. Despite sitting in 10th place, their playoff logo encourages fans to believe that the postseason is possible.
And really, it's not out of the question as they're only three points out of that final spot. I'm enjoying watching the Western Conference playoff race, but that's only because my team is in the East — and has already clinched. Less stress that way.
Still, I pity the West team that ends up in 8th because I get the feeling it'll be a short ride for them. Then again, the Canucks did just get whomped by the last-place Oilers over the weekend.
There were no graphic artists straining themselves on this one. The New York Rangers are employing the simplest of 2011 playoff logos with a simple "just add text" directive.
Simplicity aside, the mark is nicely assembled. Getting that spacing just right can be a great irritation on any design project. And the Rangers are one of two teams with a corporate sponsorship for the their playoff run.
I'm not certain this counts as a logo exactly, but it's a well-designed playoff slogan anyway. (I think I just like the font.)
It's the Countdown to the Playoffs for the Montreal Canadiens, who also have yet to clinch, technically.
The other team with a sponsored playoff run would be the San Jose Sharks. Of course they don't exactly have a special logo for the playoffs. Really, it's just an opportunity to use another one of their half-dozen 20th anniversary logos.
What slipped under my radar until I was researching for this article was the fact that the Sharks have only missed the playoffs five times in their 20 NHL seasons. That's impressive. Other expansion teams haven't been quite so lucky.
But speaking of 20 years, it should come as a surprise to no one that the Detroit Red Wings are touting their 20th consecutive playoff appearance. They've been ridiculously good for a lot of years now and have a decent amount of hardware to show for it.
I was trying to remember the last time the Wings weren't in the playoffs and the problem was they've never missed them since I've been a hockey fan. They last time they missed was 1990. And they've only missed twice since 1984. Though again, I'm sure no one is surprised by those numbers.
One question though: What happened in 2003? Should it count as a playoff appearance if you get swept in the first round by the 7th seed?
And not to leave out all the teams that didn't qualify, the Florida Panthers, for example, have not qualified for postseason play since 2000 when they were swept by the Devils in the quarterfinals. The Cats haven't won a playoff game since 1997 and even then they only got the one. And that was only a year after their Stanley Cup Final appearance — in which they were swept.
Playoff disappointment banner / On Frozen PondSo Miami Herald writer George Richards, via his blog On Frozen Pond, asked Panthers' fan(s) to channel their decade of disappointment into a work of art.
You know, every year teams raise banners to the rafters commemorating divisional, conference and of course Stanley Cup championships. Richards held a contest amongst his readers for a banner commemorating 10 seasons of futility.
The winning entry, Richards said, wouldn't fly as a uniform patch. The runner-up (right) was really quite brilliant, however.
Anyway, did I miss any legitimate logos? My research wasn't exhaustive but it gives us something look at for the next week or so while we wait for the playoffs to begin.
Chris
A couple of readers pointed out that I overlooked a pseudo-logo for the Vancouver Canucks' 2011 playoff run.
Of course like a handful of the teams previously mentioned above, it's not really a logo, but specialized marketing. And like the Sharks and Rangers, the Canucks have a sponsor.
Thanks to those of you who mentioned this item.
Also, if only because it's related to the Canucks, I have to point out something that Bob McKenzie tweeted this morning about the Canucks' Stanley Cup odds. I'm fascinated by stats like this:
- In 1976, Montreal hosted the Olympics. In 1977, the Canadiens won the Presidents' Trophy and subsequently the Stanley Cup.
- In 1988, Calgary hosted the Olympics. In 1989, the Flames won the Presidents' Trophy and subsequently the Stanley Cup.
- In 2010, Vancouver hosted the Olympics. In 2011, the Canucks won the Presidents' Trophy and... well we'll wait and see what comes next.
And for the record, it's not like any stats are being left out here. These are the only three times Canada has hosted the Olympic Games. McKenzie attributes the research to Nate Jones at ESPN.
Chris
Needed to wrap up this post with one more update. A few Icethetics readers noticed some playoff logos/marketing that I didn't include earlier. They are as follows.
The Philadelphia Flyers are using a rather basic logo which contains the slogan "With All of Our Will... We Will." Oddly similar to Tampa's 2009-10 season slogan of "Together We Will."
Damn sentence fragments.
And like the Rangers and Sharks above, the Flyers are getting sponsor money just for making the postseason, thanks to Xfinity WiFi.
The Los Angeles Kings are going with the "Back in Black" motto again this year, which is what makes me think they'll be sporting their third jerseys at home once again, just like last year.
The design contains one of the league's standard Stanley Cup Playoffs logos but the Kings are using the version without the actual Cup in it. Don't know if that's superstition or an aesthetic choice.
The Phoenix Coyotes will be doing the whole White Out thing again where they get all the fans to wear white... because I guess that distracts the opponent? My question is: How is your own team immune from the so-called distraction?
And enjoy it while you can. If this is the final season of the team in Glendale, that will be sad. Of course it will probably make a lot of Canadians happy.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are whiting out for home playoff games but they don't really have a special logo for it the way the Coyotes do.
And the Buffalo Sabres used this March to the Playoffs logo during the final weeks of the regular season. Now that the march is over and they're actually in the playoffs, they went with something a little more on the nose.
I'm guessing this is the standard logo that the league probably offers to every team. Very easy to swap out any team logo on the left there.
Surprisingly, I haven't seen any other teams using it. Or maybe that's not a surprise as everyone else is taking the opportunity to get creative. No offense to the Sabres. They are the only ones doing it after all.
So there it is. I just did one more quick scan of the playoff teams' websites to make sure I didn't miss anything else. We're covered. This post is officially wrapped up.
Reader Comments (30)
The Bruins did indeed use that playoff logo last season. Interesting find that Krejci is wearing the alternate sweater on the website splash page.... for what it's worth, all playoff promo materials last season featured the normal home sweater, which was what they wore.
I like the idea of the Lightning using their blues for the playoffs. While I really don't like the sweater, it would serve as a good segue into their future branding.
I know for a fact the Bruin's Logo was used last year. It was hanging up by quincy market during round 1
Lol... the Stars one should say "Wish Upon The..." instead of believe.
In which way, shape or form is the Rangers mark "nicely assembled?"
That Florida Panthers futility logo is pretty sweet. The only thing that would have made it funnier would be if the kitty was playing with a ball of yarn.
"The NHL permits teams to use only two sweaters during the playoffs, but does allows dark alternates to stand in for dark home uniforms. The Kings have taken advantage of that in recent years."
Recent years? The Kings have made the playoffs once in the last 7 seasons.
Haha! Either some of you guys woke up on the wrong side of the bed or your teams didn't make the playoffs. Something has to account for the crankiness, right?
TwoEightNine: It's in the eye of the beholder, as they say. You're free to disagree.
Breakaway: Is 2010 not a recent year? I didn't specify how many times the Kings had been to the playoffs. But thanks for nitpicking anyway.
Haha yes! I can't believe my kitten logo found its way onto this site!
Joe: I'm assuming you haven't looked at the schedule much. The Stars' remaining 4 games are against 4 non-playoff teams (Columbus, Colorado x2, Minnesota). In contrast, all 3 Ducks' games are against playoff teams (San Jose, Los Angeles x 2), 3 out Chicago's last 4 are against playoff teams (Montreal, St. Louis, Detroit x2), and Calgary, which only has two left, has to play Vancouver once (Edmonton being the other game).
The Stars have as good a chance as anyone else in the 7-10 range to make the playoffs.
That is a neat stat about the Canadian teams winning the cup. As a Canadian, we would love to have a team win it, but as a Calgarian....why does it have to be Vancouver. We will never hear the end of it. But I am on board with them. I have a great feeling Vancouver and Boston will be playing in the finals with Vancouver winning in 5.
Chris: I think you meant to say haven''t so lucky in this sentence [second paragraph about the Sharks]: "Other expansion teams have been quite so lucky."
Also, this is technically San Jose's 19th season, meaning they've made the playoffs 14 times, counting this year, while missing them 5 times (73.7%). The Sharks have been around for 20 years, yes, but one of those was the lockout.
Other interesting expansion/relocation tidbits (which should speak volumes about franchise success rates):
-Colorado has made the playoffs 12 times in 15 seasons (80.0%). The Avs made the playoffs an impressive 10 straight times in their first 10 seasons.
-Dallas made the playoffs 12 out of their first 14 seasons, and have made it 12 out of 16 seasons overall (75.0%). If they make it this year, they'll be at 13/17, for 76.4%, but if they miss they'll be 12/17 for 70.6%.
-The Senators have made the playoffs 12 times in 18 seasons (66.7%). At one point, Ottawa had an impressive 11-season streak going, which occurred right after missing the playoffs for the first 4 seasons of their existence.
-Nashville has made the playoffs 6 times in 12 seasons, including this year - or so I'm assuming (50%). After missing the playoffs for their first 5 seasons, the Predators have made it 5 out of the last 6, and 6 out of the last 7 including this season.
-Phoenix has made the playoffs 7 times in 14 seasons, including this year (50%). The Coyotes made it five out of their first six years, but didn't make it from 2002-2009.
-Anaheim has made it 7 times in 16 seasons, not including this year (43.8%). If they make it this year, they'll be at 8/17, for 47.0%, but if they miss they'll be 7/17 for 41.2%. Most of the Ducks' futility was in Anaheim's early years, as they missed out 7 times in their first 9 seasons.
-Carolina has made the playoffs 5 times in 12 seasons, not including this year (41.7%). If the Hurricanes make it this year, they'll be 6/13, for 46.2%, but if they miss, they'll be 5/13 for 38.5%.
-Tampa Bay has made the playoffs 6 times in 18 seasons, including this year (33.3%). The Lightning only made the playoffs once in their first 10 seasons, but have since made the playoffs 5 times in 8 seasons.
-Minnesota has only made the playoffs 3 times in 10 seasons (33.3%). This year marks the first time the Wild have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, however.
-Florida has only made the playoffs 3 times in 17 seasons (17.6%). As you noted, the Panthers have missed the playoffs for 10 straight seasons now.
Columbus has only made the playoffs once in 10 seasons (10.0%). The Blue Jackets' sole playoff appearance came in '08'09. Columbus has never won a playoff series. The Jackets have never won a playoff game, let alone a playoff series.Atlanta has only made the playoffs once in 11 seasons (09.1%). The Thrasher's sole playoff appearance came in '06'07. Atlanta has never won a playoff game, let alone a playoff series.If I am correct, in the 2006 playoffs, the then Mighty Ducks used their alternate as their dark uniform for the playoffs that year. Interesting fact is that jersey featured a script crest and then that was incorporated into the redesign when they went to just being the "Ducks".
anyone else notice that the Ducks are using the Flames' font in their logo? interesting....
The Coyotes have a playoff logo too. It's basically the same as last year's but with "2011" replacing "2010". Go to their home page and click on "playoff tickets" near the center of the page.
'Haha! Either some of you guys woke up on the wrong side of the bed or your teams didn't make the playoffs. Something has to account for the crankiness, right?'
I'm going to pretend that the Wild would be wearing their alternates, and that the Sens would not be...
For the Preds, all they have really done is reconstitute their "Smashville" mark in gold lettering. I do have to say, the tickets are quite nice though, and it makes me wonder if they are going to get everything they can out of the gold color while it's still here, or if gold is in fact the direction the Preds want to go in. I like it, nice trim color, but I think the white jerseys seen earlier are much better than anything that the Preds could do with gold, but that's just my opinion.
I do have my playoff tix in hand, and have a couple of pics if you'd like me to share.
The Kitten logo might end up on an alternate someday
The whole "NHL permits teams to use only two sweaters during the playoffs", must not be true. 4 years ago, when Vancouver got dumped in the second round by the cup winning Ducks, they wore their old dark blue orca jerseys in game1. In the remaining few home games however, they wore the vintage blue stick n rink logo.
To go back a little further on the expansion/playoffs thing:
Counting their entire franchise histories, the team from the WHA merger with the most Stanley Cup Playoff appearances in its first 20 seasons was Edmonton, with 16 appearances (and 5 Cups). In second place is Winnipeg/Phoenix, which went 14/20 (11/17 as the Jets). Quebec/Colorado went 13/20 (9/16 as the Nordiques), while Hartford/Carolina went just 9/20 (8/18 as the Whalers).
From the Class of '74, the Capitals rebounded from their horrible first season to make the playoffs 12 times in their first 20 seasons. The Kansas City/Colorado/New Jersey franchise, on the other hand, only made 7 playoffs in that time. On the other hand, from the Devils' first season in New Jersey, they made the playoffs 13 times, winning 2 Cups, during the 1982-2002 period.
While the Islanders' four Cups came during their 15 playoff appearances during their first 20 years, the Flames actually made the playoffs 17 times, claiming the Cup once in Calgary (1989); they only missed in Atlanta twice. For their first 20 in Calgary, though, they made the playoffs 15 out of 20 (1980-2000).
The Vancouver Canucks had some stinkers in the 70s, as they only made the playoffs 10 times out of 20 (1970-1990). Buffalo went 15/20 in the same period.
And, finally, the 1967 teams. Obviously, the worst team was the California Seals/Oakland Seals/California Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons franchise, who only made the playoffs twice in 11 seasons before folding. The best team, as far as making the playoffs, was Philadelphia, reaching the postseason 18 times, with 2 Cups. St. Louis went 17/20, Los Angeles and Minnesota both went 13/20, and Pittsburgh only made the playoffs 9 times during the 1967-1987 period.
The Stars used the "Believe" logo back in 2008 when they went to the Western Conference Finals.
I can't wait to see the Ducks in the 2D11 Playoffs, as their logo suggests!
Toronto Maple Leafs: There's Always Next Year (or the year after that).
There was no Presidents' Trophy in 1977.
The Los Angeles Kings slogan for this years playoffs is somewhat the same from this years regular season.
Pride=Passion=Pride
2011 postseason
Pride=Passion=Pride=Playoffs
On the Oilers website you can see their draft lottery logo. Its no playoff logo but it is still worth noting. The best part is its in blue and orange! I hope the Oilers present their draft pick in June with the white retro jersey, that would be stellar!
Sabres used this logo in March for the playoff hunt. They would also show our playoff highlights of the past during this promotion. http://cdn.nhl.com/sabres/images/upload/2011/03/20110319-BannerAd-MTTP.jpg
The Preds have their playoff logo featured in the header of their website. The banner is mainly yellow, too...
Also, it looks like Dallas fans didn't believe hard enough.
Interesting fact about the NHL only allowing a team to wear only 2 sweaters, the Sharks announced via their Facebook page they are going with their black 3rd this year, first time they are going teal-less.
http://www.facebook.com/SanJoseSharks
2D11 it is- and home ice nonetheless.
@ Chris - Wings in 2003 = Curtis Joseph at end of career + JS Giguere beastmode = bad news