Sweater Switch '09: Part 5

The long-dormant Sweater Switch series wraps up tonight more than a month after the previous installment. I was holding out, waiting for one more picture to pop up, but no. We will have to settle for just two.

I mentioned these guys in Part 3, but now the Montreal Canadiens have put their new quintet in front of cameras together. Travis Moen, Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and Paul Mara all donning their bleu, blanc et rouge.

New Habs pose for a group photo

You can find the stories behind their chosen numbers in Part 3. I won't bother to re-hash it here.

The other picture I have shows new Capital Brendan Morrison with his new No. 9 Washington jersey.

Brendan Morrison

Morrison is returning to the No. 9 sweater he wore when he made his NHL debut with the New Jersey Devils in the 1997-98 season. In 2000, he became a Canuck and switched to No. 7 as Brad May had No. 9. Morrison kept that jersey throughout his tenure in Vancouver and even last season when he joined the Ducks. After being claimed by the Stars late in the season, he switched to No. 11.

If I've missed any good Sweater Switch photo ops, let me know and I'll add them to this post.

USA Unveils Olympic Jerseys

...four days ago. Better late than never, right? I had the hardest time this week both finding decent pictures of Team USA's 2010 Winter Games sweaters as well as time to post what I could track down. It's now Friday — four days after the actual unveiling of the sweaters to the media — and at last I have a post for you.

USA Hockey unveiled three jerseys — a blue and two whites.Let's start with the announcement of the new jersey on USA Hockey's official web site, which includes this photo from the press conference.

Team USA Olympic jersey unveiling

Unlike Hockey Canada, the US doesn't seem that interested in providing us with any really great pictures of the jersey. But I guess that's probably because most Americans don't care. Anyway, it looks better on the ice than the way that guy's holding it up.

Patrick Kane rocks the new blues

A little dull, but what do you want? It's the Olympics. Short of revisiting the 1980 sweater design — and there really isn't reason enough to right now — there's not much in the arsenal that will still be recognizable. Here's the white one.

Trying on the new jerseys at the bench

Hoping a better picture will turn up. The third jersey is another white sweater, this one modeled after the one worn at the 1960 Olympics where the U.S. won their first gold medal in men's hockey.

The Ryans before hitting the ice in the thirds

And what sort of Lightning fan would I be if I didn't use a picture of Ryan Malone? The other guy is Ryan Callahan.

If you'd like more of an in-depth analysis of these jerseys, might I suggest Puck Daddy? Should I find any new/better pictures, I'll add them to this post. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts below.

Finally, thanks to everyone who sent in links and pictures all week. You are all awesome!

Third Thursday

Quick note picked up from PuckDrawn via Twitter this morning.

The Atlanta Thrashers' web guy, Ben Wright, said yesterday that the team will be wearing the red third jersey exclusively for home games on Thursdays this season. Third Jersey Thursday, as he points out.

BenThrashers Thrashers red third jerseys will be worn exclusively on Thursdays this season. Third- Thursday. Nice and easy to remember, right?

He followed that up this morning with a reminder.

BenThrashers In case you missed it yesterday, the Thrashers will wear their red third jerseys exclusively for Thursday home games.

So mark your calendars — or not. I think the irony here is that this is on the of third jerseys people care about the least. In fact, it was recently the butt of a joke here on Icethetics.

Update on Saturday · Aug 22 · 2009 | 10:36 PM PDT by Chris

All the comments about how funny it would be if Thursday home games were rare this season got me thinking. I took a look at the Thrashers' season and I now have a full third jersey schedule for you. Ben said the third will be "exclusive" to Thursday home games. I'm assuming that also means "every" Thursday home game.

If so, here are the 12 games in which Atlanta will don those maroon duds this coming season. Fans, mark your calendars.

• October 22 - vs Capitals
• October 29 - vs Capitals
• November 5 - vs Blue Jackets
• November 19 - vs Bruins
• December 3 - vs Islanders
• December 17 - vs Stars
• January 7 - vs Rangers
• January 14 - vs Sabres
• January 21 - vs Hurricanes
• March 4 - vs Islanders
• March 18 - vs Senators
• March 25 - vs Maple Leafs

The Capitals will be subject to it twice in back-to-back Thursdays in the early part of the season. The Thrashers will save it for Ontario only as the season winds down.  Like the Caps, the Isles will also be treated to the red third jersey twice before the season's out.

If any other teams announce third jersey schedules, I'll be sure to post them for you.

Flames Leak 30th Logo?

Got some Calgary Flames news for you this afternoon on a couple of topics — their 30th anniversary and their brand new third jersey.

Icethetics reader Cody has sent in information on this first subject. According to Sportsnet.ca, the Flames aren't supposed to unveil their new 30th anniversary logo until September. However, it seems to have appeared briefly on the team's web site on Tuesday. An intentional effort to net a free but unsuspecting focus group or a simple mistake?

It is rumoured that the Calgary Flames will wear a new logo on occasion this year to commemorate its 30th NHL season.

The logo was expected to be officially unveiled in September, but it appeared on the team's web site on Tuesday. It is unknown for what games the new logo will appear.

Flames' 30th anniversary logo?The logo in question is apparently what you see here to the right.

There's no way to know at this point if this will be the 30th anniversary logo or if it's even a final version. If it is, I think it's safe to say the Oilers beat them on 30th logos — by a mile.

That's really all I have on that. This logo has been making its way around Flames fan sites and message boards since Tuesday but no one seems to have any definitive information.

Personally, I'm curious about that last line in the Sportsnet story. "It is unknown for what games the new logo will appear." If it's an anniversary logo, it should simply be a patch on the uniform for the whole season. I certainly hope there's no plan to put this on a third jersey.

Which brings me to the third jersey news. Last September, I posted this story — which appeared in the Calgary Sun. Basically, it was Flames president Ken King talking about the team's third jersey plans. King all but confirmed the new sweater to be black with a new crest — not the Flaming C — and that it would debut for the 2009-10 season. At the time he said it was 95% complete.

I'm now hearing from a couple of sources that this design is being replaced in favor of a retro look from the team's early days (no word if the Atlanta Flames logo will make a reappearance). It's possible the team is working on a white sweater devoid of any black. Those were the days.

I'll continue to follow these stories but keep in mind that we're less than a month away from getting some official news — which I always prefer anyway. Meantime, Calgary fans, were you wary of another black jersey? Excited about a vintage look? What about this 30th anniversary logo?

Update on Thursday · Aug 20 · 2009 | 2:20 PM PDT by Chris

Got a quick follow-up on the 30th anniversary logo thanks to the guys at the Calgarypuck Forums, specifically a user called alltherage. He's allegedly got a screenshot from the web site before the logo was removed. However, I can't vouch for the legitimacy of this image, so I post it with some hesitation.

As you can see, it's right there above Kiprusoff's head, but it's placed in such a way that would've made it easy to add later. That being said, the image was posted on Wednesday afternoon so it may well be real.

Did anyone else happen to see it before it was removed? Anyone else have a screenshot to share?

Update on Thursday · Aug 20 · 2009 | 6:23 PM PDT by Chris

One last update to this post before I put this topic to bed. Apparently, we have all seen this logo before right here on Icethetics and only Jared noticed. He pointed out that it was in a preview image I posted of the Flames' new web site almost a month ago. It just slid under the radar.

Early version of Flames' web site redesign

Turns out it was Photoshopped right into the rafters and I never even noticed. I think I was distracted by the burning hockey players. So there you have it. End of subject.

Another Cartoon by Dave

Dave Delisle