IceCaps Unveil Familiar Uniforms

IceCaps jerseys unveiled / Dave SalterThe AHL's St. John's IceCaps officially unveiled their uniforms today. It should surprise no one that they are identical to those of their NHL parent club, the Winnipeg Jets.

IceCaps owner Danny Williams and player Jason King were on hand this morning to model the new sweaters for cameras. And for an AHL team, they look incredibly good.

Now a moment ago I said "identical," but obviously that would be silly. The IceCaps have their own primary logo on the front and the Jets' logo on the shoulders. Add in an advertisement or two and that's it as far as differences.

Here's how the new look was described in a press release on the AHL's website:

The jerseys, which are modeled after the parent Winnipeg Jets uniforms, consist largely of two shades of blue. The primary navy blue base of the home dark jerseys is referred to as Polar Night Blue. The lighter, secondary blue is called Aviator Blue. Each jersey includes sleeve piping, accenting the colors. 

The IceCaps will wear the white jerseys at home and the blue jerseys for road games. 

“I could not be more pleased with the final product we are unveiling today which will be the signature look of the St. John’s IceCaps,” said Mr. Williams. “These are incredibly sharp looking jerseys that are sure to catch the eye throughout the league.”

If you haven't been following along this summer, the IceCaps were known as the Manitoba Moose until that club was displaced by the purchase and relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg. The team, still owned by True North along with the Jets, moved to St. John's, Newfoundland and unveiled their logo on July 29.

As I said yesterday, I like the Jets' new uniforms, so naturally I like the IceCaps' as well. I almost like them better because I like their primary logo better. But despite my understanding that advertising is necessary to the business aspect of an AHL franchise, I've never liked it on the uniforms. Otherwise, solid look.

IceCaps uniforms nearly identical to Jets / AHL

But wait, there's more minor league news...

San Francisco Bulls joining ECHL in 2012

San Francisco Bulls joining ECHLYesterday, the ECHL Board of Governors approved the membership of a new franchise to begin play in the 2012-13 season. They're called the San Francisco Bulls and appropriately, they'll play at the Cow Palace.

But before you get too excited, the logo being used to represent the new California club on the ECHL's website is absolutely atrocious. It's not design. It's just a sad mess.

The bull head looks like some sort of futuristic, metallic thing while the font couldn't look more dated. And the crossed hockey sticks look like a tacked-on afterthought. Painful is what it is.

I'm hoping that by the time next summer rolls around, they'll have a real logo to show us. And maybe a revised color scheme? Who thought gold, red and black used in this way was a good idea? The 49ers do it right. This doesn't.

In any case, next year the ECHL celebrates its 25th anniversary and it's cool to see them adding new teams in west coast markets after so many have come and gone in the recent past. Heck, if the Florida Everblades were to visit, I might even fly down to see a game. 

Jets Jerseys Coming 9/6

Just past noon in Winnipeg today came the tweet we've all been waiting for.

It's true. After much waiting, the Winnipeg Jets will finally unveil their new home and road uniforms to the world in just four days — on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The team's tweet gave no other details about the event, but other media outlets were able to fill in the blanks.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports the unveiling will take place at the 17 Wing Winnipeg base in St. James. The connection to the Canadian Air Force is lost on no one, of course. The article didn't specify the time, but I've read 11 AM Central, for those interested.

RCMP bust jersey counterfeitersBut believe it or not, as far as I'm concerned, that wasn't the most exciting Jets jersey news of the week. Apparently, the RCMP busted up a ring of counterfeiters! Good for them!

It probably goes without saying, but if you were one of the misguided souls who gave your money to criminals, you probably shouldn't count on getting what you paid for.

One weird thing about the bust. RCMP said there were 40 jerseys and said they were worth $12,000. That's $300 a piece if your math skills are failing you. My guess is they're basing that figure not on what the counterfeiters were charging but on what the real authentics will likely cost. Rounded up.

Anyway, as I've pointed out many times before, True North has already said the uniforms look nothing like this and I take them at their word. After all, when the logo leaked, rather than denying it, they quickly threw together a press conference to officially unveil it.

I get the feeling the actual jerseys aren't going to be what anyone was expecting. But we'll find out for sure on Tuesday morning, won't we?

One more jersey to vote on

For the last few months, I've been conducting a series of polls to determine a ranking of NHL uniforms used during the 2010-11 season. In that time, you've voted on all the jerseys for all 30 teams. Except for one, as I discovered when trying to put together the final ranking.

I left out the Calgary Flames' Heritage Classic jersey because I actually set up the Canadian teams' polls just prior to the outdoor game in February. I feel I can't assemble a comprehensive list without a vote on this, so take a look and rate it 1, 5 or 10.

For what it's worth, there's no point to holding a poll for the Montreal Canadiens' Heritage Classic jersey as it was practically identical to their road jersey.

And sorry for the delay on this. The good news is it should be put to bed just in time for the Icethetics Season Preview in a few weeks! Can you believe it's already September?!

Royals unveil new home, road jerseys

Reading Royals unveil new uniforms / FacebookThe ECHL's Reading Royals will sport a new look for the 2011-12 season.

The new sweaters were revealed on the team's website and Facebook page back on Aug. 22. (What? I've been busy.) 

The Royals are affiliated with the Bruins and Maple Leafs but their new uniforms look rather borrowed from a team with which they share a state (the Flyers) and a team which they share a color scheme and similar identity (the Kings). Weird, right?

Still, these are solid hockey uniforms. Let's be honest, you could pick worse teams to emulate. Like almost any fellow ECHL team, for example. So my kudos to the Royals!

Knights bring back the green

OHL Knights new third jerseyThe OHL's London Knights unveiled a new green third jersey on Tuesday. And it looks absolutely stunning. Dallas Stars, are you paying attention?

The new jersey was revealed at a press conference introducing the newly acquired Max Domi — yes, that would be Tie Domi's kid. And what more is there to say about it really? It's just awesome. And a shame no one in the NHL aside from the Wild will be wearing anything like it.

You can read more details about the acquisition of Domi and see video of him trying on the new threads right here.

In other news, I have some links that some readers have shared to further share with the rest of you:

• Brock B. writes in to tell us about the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes officially changing their logo. They've been using it on an alternate jersey, but it's getting promoted this season. And it's a blatant rip-off of the Washington Capitals' look. For shame, Lethbridge. Hurricane Watch
• John W. wants us to know that just because there's no Heritage Classic this season doesn't mean hockey fans north of the border won't be treated to some high quality outdoor hockey. The Hamilton Bulldogs will host the Toronto Marlies in the elements this winter. TSN
• And finally, I don't have a link for this, but The Hockey News published its annual NHL logo ranking this week. Naturally, Chicago tops the list. Surprisingly, the Canadiens were No. 3 and the Jets were way too high at No. 8. (It got 4% of the overall vote but that's clearly a soft number.) The Lightning's new logo was dead last. Who do I see about that?

Aeros Unveil New Uniforms

Aeros unveil new jersey / AerosThe AHL's Houston Aeros unveiled new uniforms today which include a further integration of their brand with their NHL affiliate's.

The updated sweaters were unveiled at a press conference today and pictures were posted on the team's Facebook page. They're already getting great feedback from fans. Lots of compliments and excitement.

Here are some direct links to the original photos they posted:

• Home jersey
• Road jersey
• Alternate jersey

Because of the way the jerseys are laid out in these photos, it's difficult to make out some of the details. The white and green jerseys look like hybrid Reebok Edge templates while the the third jersey is a reversed version of the Wild's.

The Aeros have even modeled their alternate logo off of the Minnesota Wild's. Now we know what their green jersey would look like in white. Not a bad look but I prefer their current white sweater. It's the only one that retains any of their original look from 2000.

But back to Houston. Their previous home and road jerseys, matched those sweaters the Wild used when they joined the league 11 years ago. They were nice, but I can see the Aeros wanted to advance their own brand a little. Still, there's no question the alternate was inspired by Minnesota's.

I think it's a nice mix of originality and paying tribute to their parent club. What do you guys think of them?

Now a couple of quick NHL-related stories...

Blackhawks dropping 3rd jersey in 2011-12

The Chicago Blackhawks will not be sporting a third jersey at all this season, according to ESPN Chicago.

This information was previously reported on the blog but it's worth noting that others are now reporting it as well. Here's an excerpt from Monday's "mailbag" post on the Chicago Blackhawks Report by Jesse Rogers:

Q: I cannot wait for the season to start. Do you know if the Blackhawks will ever bring back the black alternate jerseys or are they sticking with the Winter Classic alternate look again this year? -- Andrew (Chicago)

A: The answer is neither. The Hawks are going with just two jerseys this season -- the home red and road white.

Apparently, the Hawks front office weren't huge fans of the 2009 Winter Classic jersey which had been adopted as a third in 2009-10. Personally, it was my favorite Blackhawks jersey. I'll be sorry to see it go. Still, we got two good years out of it and that's better than none.

Kings to wear four jerseys during 2011-12

We also have more confirmation from the Los Angeles Kings on the four uniforms they'll be wearing throughout the 2011-12 season. That's right, four.

Yesterday on the LA Kings Insider blog, Rich Hammond laid out the Kings' new wardrobe for fans. He confirmed the old black-and-purple home jersey will now be the new alternate and the vintage purple-and-gold sweater will get a reprieve after we spent most of the summer thinking it was a goner.

Kings COO Chris McGowan told Hammond that the throwbacks will be worn on three occasions during the upcoming season. He didn't specify which games. I recommend a read of that post, but if you're too lazy to click, here are a couple of interesting excerpts:

McGowan: “We’re introducing a new look, but in a way we’re not. The look has already been introduced, with the alternate jersey, the black version of it with the L.A. crest on the front. So we simply just produced a reversed version of that, in white, because of positive feedback from multiple people that are involved with the jerseys, including our fans, our ownership group, the players, the NHL, Reebok. … Then we will still keep the purple elements in our organization. Not primary, but we still want to keep them because there are people who like the purple part of the Kings brand.”

Also, McGowan talked about the players' input on the new look.

Question: I’d heard that the players actually voted to wear the black jerseys in the playoffs the past two seasons. Is that true? Did that factor into things?

MCGOWAN: “They did vote. If you notice, the last two years we wore the black jerseys in the playoffs. You want the players being comfortable with what they’re wearing, and you want them to like what they’re wearing. They didn’t dislike our old jerseys. They just simply liked the alternates better. Then we started showing them mock-ups of what a reverse, a white version, of that would look like. We did the camera tests and the designing of it. You could just see it in their eyes, that that’s the one they want to wear primarily. They definitely played a part in the decision. ..."

Nice to hear the guys who wear the uniforms actually get to have a say in them. Though I worry what the league would look like if the players got to make every uniform decision. Perish the thought.

That's all for now. I know the Winnipeg Jets jerseys are still at the top of everyone's mind. Shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks now.

Update on Friday · Aug 26 · 2011 | 12:33 PM PDT by Chris

Here's a closer look at those new Houston Aeros jerseys.

A little too much piping for my tastes, but overall a very sharp new set.

Loose Threads: Ending a Busy Week

Seven blog posts in seven days, and I even took yesterday off. But believe it or not, there's still more news to talk about. I have four items today I'll try to get through as quickly as possible.

Sens Release Partial Third Jersey Schedule

One of the big stories of this week has been the Ottawa Senators' new third jersey. They're calling it the Heritage Jersey and we got our first look at it on Tuesday. Then a few days later, the team officially announed its 20th anniversary plans.

In the press relase, the Sens confirmed the existence of the Heritage Jersey but, despite the leak, opted not to officially unveil it. That will happen closer to the start of the season. However, the team did post ticket package options online which tell us, in part, when the new sweater is scheduled to be used.

Ottawa Heritage Jersey (colorized)The Heritage Jersey will be worn for 11 home dates, but the ticket packages only reveal eight. Here's that list along with a couple more: 

• Thurs., Oct. 13 — vs Colorado Avalanche
• Sun., Oct. 30 — vs Toronto Maple Leafs
• Sat., Nov. 12 — at Toronto Maple Leafs †
• Wed., Dec. 14 — vs Boston Bruins
• Tues., Dec. 27 — vs Montreal Canadiens
• Sat., Jan. 14 — at Montreal Canadiens †
• Tues., Feb. 7 — vs St. Louis Blues
• Fri., Mar. 2 — vs Chicago Blackhawks
• Fri., Mar. 16 — vs Montreal Canadiens
• Sat., Mar. 17 — vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

† Along with the 11 home games will be a pair of nationally televised road contests in Toronto and Montreal, according to information that was part of the jersey leak. I take that to mean Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts — which are on Saturday nights. The Senators visit the Maple Leafs for Saturday matches on Oct. 8 and Nov. 12, but the team has already stated the jersey will see its debut on Oct. 13. And the only Saturday game hosted by the Canadiens takes place Jan. 14. By process of elimination I think we can safely include Nov. 12 and Jan. 14 on the schedule. But that's subject to change, of course.

UPDATE (9/25/11): As it turns out, Nov. 12 wasn't a safe date to include. The Toronto Maple Leafs just released their full third jersey schedule which includes that date. And for TV purposes, we won't see blue versus black. So strike that date from the list. Must be a different nationally-televised game.

I've also taken the liberty of colorizing the leaked jersey design from earlier in the week to give us an idea of what it might look like. I've used vintage white since many things are hinting at that right now.

Kings Throwbacks Coming Back

Kings throwback jerseyIn March, LA Kings Insider Rich Hammond wrote that the Los Angeles Kings would be overhauling their uniforms next season. He added, "the vintage purple-and-gold jerseys will go into mothballs for a while now."

I've been citing that little nugget for months in the various NHL JerseyWatch updates. What I didn't know until I started scouring his archives is that just over a month later, Hammond changed his tune.

Buried in a mailbag-type post on April 30, where he answered reader questions, was the news that the Kings were in fact bringing back the throwbacks for at least three home games next season.

Minnesota Kings Fan asked: To add to the uniform questions what about something with purple & gold?

Answer: The current plan is for the Kings to wear the purple-and-gold vintage uniforms for three home games next season.

I feel bad I overlooked that little piece of information during the last few months, but thrilled that the Kings are bringing this uniform back in 2011-12. It looks great and fans love it!

It's also the perfect counterweight for a club with black and white primary jerseys. I won't call them boring because I actually like them, I just don't want to see them lose the purple altogether.

And for the record, neither does Luc Robitaille.

IceMen unveil modified logo, new jerseys

The Central Hockey League has been getting a lot of blog time lately, and they're about to get a little more. In just their second season, the Evansville IceMen will already be donning a new logo and jerseys.

It's not really a new logo so much as a modified version of their previous logo which was used during their inaugural season in the CHL last year. They're keeping the same "ice man" as before, but with a different posture and some new gear. As for the uniforms, they're completely new — even if they aren't entirely original.

IceMen unveil new jerseys for 2011 / IceMenManiacs.comThe IceMen held a press conference on July 14 to show off the (not so) new look. (Try to ignore the blatant headline misspelling.) They had a few players on hand to model the new jerseys (right).

Mark Cody (18) wore the alternate, Todd Robinson (19) had the blue and Brian Bicek (10) donned the white sweater. In the CHL, teams wear white at home for the first half of the season and then switch.

If you can look past the fact that all of these uniform designs come from the Pittsburgh Penguins' closet, what else do you notice?

We've seen it before, but never this bad. Not one color in the logo is found on the jerseys. Each one uses two shades of blue, neither of which match the single shade used in the logo. There's also no grey in the uniforms even though it dominates the primary mark.

I'm not oblivious to the fact that minor league teams have to spare expense by using existing jersey designs. But knowing that, why not make it look like you put some thought into the design and alter the logo colors to match? It doesn't look that bad, considering the logo they have to work with. But I'd lose the black.

That's all I really have to say about that because the truth is I love these jerseys — just not the crest. I think the colors and striping look great. By the way, I should give a shout-out to IceMenManiacs.com for the photo above and coverage of the unveiling.

Blazers celebrate 30 years with Oilers logo

On Friday, the WHL's Kamloops Blazers unveiled their 30th anniversary logo and it may look awfully familiar to you. That's because it's based on the Edmonton Oilers' 30th anniversary logo from 2008. The green craze is really hitting hockey design hard this year. Everybody's recycling!

The use of the Oilers' logo for the Blazers isn't as odd as it might seem at first. When the team was founded in 1981, they were known as the Kamloops Junior Oilers. So in reality, this logo works well as an homage to the team's own history. They became the Blazers in 1984.

The Blazers have announced some of the 30th anniversary celebration plans. Here are the ones of interest to Icethetics readers:

To celebrate 30 years, the Blazers have introduced a new logo that will be placed at centre ice for the entire 2011-12 season. The Blazers will also be wearing vintage jerseys to commemorate the anniversary this season.

I'll keep an eye out for that vintage jersey. Maybe that Kamloops Junior Oilers logo could be resurrected too. And I have to say that despite the obvious reuse of that Edmonton 30th logo, I do like how the team has worked in both the Junior Oilers and Blazers imagery into the design. Just wish they could've been more original.

---

I think that finally does it for today. You're now caught up on everything — that I know of. Next up, I'm working on a page that will be under the VOTE tab above. Basically, you'll be able to vote on all of the new logos and jerseys — even the unofficial ones — that we've seen this summer. Should give us an idea of where everyone stands on the new looks around the hockey world. Plus, it'll be a good recap with lots of links in case you missed anything admist all the crazy blog updates lately.

Update on Monday · Aug 15 · 2011 | 10:46 AM PDT by Chris

Gibbie from IceMenManiacs.com, who was at the IceMen's jersey unveiling press conference, commented with some additional details on the new look.

Sorry to ring in late, I just came across this blog. Thanks muchly for the link back! We just started the IceMen Maniacs site a couple of months ago and I'm thrilled to see it out in the wild. :)

They did tell us at the presser that the jerseys were mock ups, it's possible that the color scheme will be modified a bit. They could tone down the blue and I think it will be fine. Not all the blues on the three sweaters match either which bothers me but no one else probably notices. :) The official team colors are now supposed to be navy blue, sky blue and white as opposed to navy, white and black.

The whole issue of change is sensitive since the team has gone through major changes each of its four years of existence and is about to go through another very large one. While I appreciate why they wanted to change up the logo and jersey design, I'm glad it wasn't more radical. Besides I'm very fond of our club wielding, parka wearing man. :)

Sens Announce 20th Season Plans

Official 20th anniversary logo vs. March sneak peekThe Ottawa Senators announced plans on Thursday to celebrate their second decade of NHL hockey during the 2011-12 season.

The club also unveiled its official 20th anniversary logo which, as you can see in this side-by-side comparison (right), differs from the 20th logo we saw in March when the team gave us a sneak peek at the Heritage Jersey.

Two things bug me right off the bat. The official anniversary logo, which is no better than the prototype seen in March, is awfully generic. Generic fonts, generic banner. Nothing about it furthers the Senators brand.

The other thing is the beige, or vintage white as we've come to know it. It's trendy, we get it. The 86-year-old Bruins used it in their Winter Classic throwback jersey. The Rangers used it last year when they turned 85. A little less understandably, the Sabres did it at age 40. But guess what. Two years ago, the Montreal Canadiens celebrated 100 years without that dingy shade of white.

So why is a team that's barely 20 breaking out the antique colors? This is not the same Ottawa Senators club that was a founding member of the NHL in 1917. There was a massive 58-year gap between that team and this one.

I'm not against them celebrating their city's hockey heritage, I just think that trendy beige is silly. And it's just being overused now. I mean, look at that logo. It says 1992—2012 on what's meant to look like a white material that's been aging in the attic for a century or more. Silly.

The Senators did not unveil their new Heritage Jersey at yesterday's press conference, though the design was leaked on the blog this week. The official release will come closer to the season, and the team confirmed some details about when it will be used.

Twenty home games this season will be devoted to the first two decades of the modern franchise. Another 11 are being set aside to recognize the 11 Stanley Cups won by the original Senators, a founding member of the NHL and the league's first true dynasty. The current team will break out a new 'heritage' jersey on those occasions.

In Tuesday's leak we also learned that the Heritage Jersey will see action twice on the road, in Montreal and Toronto. The Canadeisn and Maple Leafs already have white throwback jerseys so I can't help but wonder if they'll wear them for those games against Ottawa.

Though it's not in the press release on the Sens' website, the Ottawa Citizen reported yesterday that the Heritage Jersey will make its game debut on Oct. 13 when the Senators host the Colorado Avalanche.

CTV falsely reports jersey unveilingThat brings me to some shoddy reporting that needs to be cleared up. CTV Ottawa said yesterday that the Senators had unveiled their 20th anniversary jersey. Which they hadn't. Le Journal de Quebec also used the same image in their story, though in their defense, a translation of their article from French reads "the jersey will be unveiled," not that it had been already.

And get this: The design these "news agencies" published was nothing more than a concept pulled straight from this very website more than a year ago.

On March 10, 2010, I posted artwork designed by Tyler Allen that, in terms of design, is identical to what was posted by these two news outlets. Only the shoulders, name and number have been altered (right). The overall design remains completely intact. Lay one on top of the other and you'll find no differences.

Granted, this design isn't far off from what was leaked earlier this week, but it is enough for us to notice. Check out the sleeves and the striping around the waistline. Plus, the numbers on the back are supposed to be white, not black. And where's the new shoulder shield?

I understand CTV Ottawa wanting to give their web vistors and viewers an idea of what the jersey will look like, but reporting "Senators unveil new jersey" is flat out false. They haven't yet. We'll certainly know it when they do.

I hope that clears up any confusion. I know a number of you had emailed me links and been left scratching your heads.

One other thing before I move on from the Senators. I thought this was pretty cool. The Ottawa Citizen referenced Icethetics on Wednesday regarding the leaked Heritage Jersey. They were able to get a response from the team on its validity:

“There have been a number of jerseys that have been produced online and speculated upon as the new heritage jersey,” Brian Morris, the Senators director of communications, said Tuesday. “We anticipate the heritage jersey will be well received by the fan base, but we won’t confirm its design until it is officially revealed prior to the season.”

Nice to see the site getting a little recognition from the big guys. Now one more item, unrelated to the Sens...

Olympiques go colorless in 2011

The QMJHL is getting another black-and-white team this season. The Gatineau Olympiques are going retro, switching back to the colors (or lack of color, as it were) that they wore when they were known as the Hull Olympiques from 1976 to 2003 — black and silver.

An article from LeDroit (translated) explains the transition and even includes a photo of the newly-painted center ice logo which is now black and white with shades of grey. The author says the team hasn't confirmed this change yet, but the writing is on the ice, as it were.

Plus, the new splash page on the club's official website features the desaturated logo. You can see it at the bottom of this post.

The Olympiques are the third hockey team this year to drop their distinguishing colors in favor of a black and white look. First the Los Angeles dropped the purple, then the Q's Montreal Juniors became the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and got rid of the red.

That Olympic torch logo may have had an unusual color palette — purple, yellow and orange with orange jerseys — but it stood out and gave the club its own identity. I know my argument falls down when you consider they're just going back to the colors they previously wore for decades, but it's just so bland.

QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques alter logo colors / Olympiques