Weekend Odds & Ends
Brighten your Monday with these uniform musings from the second weekend of the NHL season.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have updated their third jersey and officially retired their old logo. The Bolts hit the ice on Friday night in the alternate sweaters which now feature their new primary logo on the shoulders. And because they're celebrating their 20th anniversary this season, that patch has been added as well.
Speaking of new jersey patches, the San Jose Sharks debuted the memorial logo that honors the team's original owner, George Gund III. The only problem is that the Sharks' uniforms are already pretty cluttered, so there's not a whole lot of room for an extra patch. It's worse for the captains and alternate captains, as you can see with Joe Thornton's jersey.
Nominations for the best-looking hockey games of EVER. I know which one Don Cherry is voting for.
No, the St. Louis Blues weren't that excited about the arrival of new teammate Wade Redden on Sunday night. The players all wore No. 6 jerseys during warm-ups to honor St. Louis sports legend Stan Musial. Unfortunately, numbers had to be added to the front of the jerseys to identify the players. Something we never want to see again.
While we're on the subject of unique warm-up jerseys, Icethetics reader Alec Dominguez wrote in to let us know that the Florida Panthers have been wearing "7th man" nameplates recently.
This photo of Alex Kovalev was taken prior to Thursday night's game against the Senators.
Each player wears his own number. It's just the nameplate that's there to honor the patient fans who endured three months of idiocy in the form of the NHL's fourth lockout in two decades.
Hey, bright side. At least they acknowledge they're trying our patience. I figured they would just ignore it.
By the way, if you've noticed any uniform changes or unique warm-up sweaters I've managed to overlook, please drop me a line. I'll either update this blog post or start a new one.
And finally...
This is one of the weirdest things I've seen so far this season. On their website splash page, the New York Islanders are promoting their game on Super Bowl Sunday with a football helmet featuring their logo. It's just wrong. Flat out wrong.
Chris
This isn't from the weekend, but it's in the same vein as the Panthers' story above. On opening night, Jan. 21, the Columbus Blue Jackets came out for warm-ups all wearing the same jersey. It was No. 1 with "THANK YOU FANS" across the back. See? They still like our money us.
But I kid. These jerseys were actually pretty cool, a nice gesture from the team. And during the game, the jerseys were raffled off to fans.
Thanks to Dan Caron for the tweet tip. Find more photos on the team's website.
Reader Comments (10)
The Jackets wore these jerseys during warmups for their home-opener, then they raffled them off during the game.
http://media.cleveland.com/sports_impact/photo/jackets-fans-thanks-2013-mctjpg-5886103d55eae7d4.jpg
Man, that Isles colour combo looks pretty damn good on a football helmet. I'd like to see what the whole uni would look like...
@ Chris,
You are 110% spot on regarding the nominations for the best looking hockey games ever. Colourful uniforms, but simple in design. Teams like St. Louis and Colorado can learn from this.
Haven't seen it anywhere other than the picture shown here, so I have to ask: for the Lightning patch, is it just an optical illusion as a result of different fabrics, or is the shade of blue inside the patch different from the jersey? I mean, I know their new colour scheme is a lighter shade of blue than the old thirds, but it's hard to tell whether it's a mismatched patch, or just the light hitting the patch weird and making it appear different. Hard to believe they would slap the new colour patch on the old colour jersey, but it sure looks like it in that pic.
I've got a game to add to that list of great looking games, and that's the Toronto Maple Leafs/Buffalo Sabres game from earlier tonight! Looked amazing!
Everyone loves the Blackhawks' uniforms, but though they don't get as much flak as other Native American-named sports teams like the Redskins and Indians, it still makes me uncomfortable. Sure, you can say it's a respectful representation of a Native American, but what if we had a team called the Chicago Zulus with a "respectful" cartoon tribal leader face as its logo? Many people wouldn't be okay with that.
aoyst: It's just the lighting on that patch on Conacher's jersey. If you look at Lindback's, it matches. And for what it's worth, the shade of blue on the new home jersey is actually the same as the third. Maybe the black and silver stripes make it seem darker on the third?
Chris, I was wondering, would the updated shoulder patches on the Lightning's third jerseys be enough for those jerseys to have their own separate Jersey Gallery from last year when their thirds had the old shoulder patch on them?
R: It'll definitely warrant a separate gallery. Just have to wait until there have been enough games to find enough photos.
I think the Lightning primary logo works much better as a shoulder patch.