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

First Look: Senators Heritage Jersey

This one is an Icethetics exclusive! We've known for some time that the Ottawa Senators will launch a Heritage Jersey for their upcoming 20th anniversary season. Folks, here's your first look at it.

Take your first look at the Senators' new Heritage Jersey / Icethetics

An Icethetics reader was kind enough to pass along the above image along with several others I'll get to in a moment. I'm playing the anonymous card here so as to keep from getting anyone in trouble. So I guess you'd have to call it a leak.

Now what are we looking at exactly? I'm told the above image originates from a Senators alumnus. It's black and white because it's a photocopy, but I think it's safe to say you can mentally replace the grey with red. It's part of a packet that outlines the club's grand plans to celebrate its heritage this season. And the plans sound just as great as this uniform looks!

I'll get to all of it shortly but first, the jersey design itself. It's very close to the concept Jacob Barrette designed some years ago. The key difference is the striping around the waist. Plus, the above image fully lines up with the sneak peek the team showed us back in March, right down to the new shield logo on the shoulder — though we're not getting a good look at it in this image, obviously.

My take? Absolutely brilliant. This is precisely what the Senators needed to do with a Heritage Jersey. They recognized that and executed it deftly. I can only imagine how good it will look in action this fall. I'm a huge fan. And to be honest, I can't imagine we'll hear from any true dissenters. Who could really dislike this? It will be the perfect replacement for one of the ugliest third jerseys in the NHL.

What I've cropped off the top of the photo for aesthetic purposes is the following text: "New Heritage Jersey" in bold at the top; followed by "Worn at all 11 home heritage games and 2 national broadcast away games."

Now onto the rest of the packet. As I said, it basically talks about what the team is planning for this season in terms of marketing. Below you'll find transcripts of the photos I received. (Rather do it this way than posting a bunch of blurry photos. Spelling and grammatical errors attributed to original text.)

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The Game Everything starts with the game and we'll celebrate the game over the entire season as well as having specific focus on some key areas for 10 games.

• All-Star — games leading up to All-Star game recognize Ottawa All-Stars, All-Star moments
• Legends Nights — Orr, Howe, Potvin, Lemieux, Yzerman
• Team Canada 72 — Henderson, T. Esposito, Cournoyer
• Women's Hockey — Cassie Campbell
• World Juniors — 2009 Gold Medal win
• Minor Hockey — tell the stories of the passion that kids have for the game, recognize the volunteers that give so much to our game. Bell Capital Cup.

Heritage Other heritage elements will include:

• Jerseys worn for away game in Montreal and Toronto on National TV. Have team travel by train in heritage look (fedoras) and sell packages for fans.
• Hockey Hall of Fame displays at Scotiabank Place at NHL All-Star Fanfest and at Governor General's Residence (leading up to and during All-Star)
• Citizen special pages tied to each heritage game
• Tickets for heritage games designed with heritage look/images
• New heritage merchandise location at section 328

In Arena

• Opening Week — luncheon with 92-93 team at Aberdeen Pavilion
• Opening Night — celebrate 92-93 team
• Game Nights — 20th Anniversary, Heritage, The Game
• Fan and player stories — game, team
• Interior / Exterior Exhibits and Installations

20th Anniversary 4 Key games to highlight significant moments in the modern era. Programming to include pin or handout, alumni/VIP appearances, luncheon, special merchandise.

• 1992-93 Team — Boschman, Marsh, Turgeon, Brady, Shaw, Archibald, Lamb, Loewen, Smail, Sidorkiewicz, Rumble, Peluso, Murphy, McBain
• First playoffs — Duchesne, Tugnutt
• Wayne Gretzky's last game in Canada
• 2007 Stanley Cup Finals

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That's what has been sent to me — unofficially, of course. Sounds like there's a lot for Sens fans to get excited about this season — their new sweater especially. I can't get over how great it is that an NHL team is actually doing something that all of us jersey geeks have been hoping for.

The two road games in which the Senators will sport the Heritage Jersey are against the Maple Leafs and Canadiens. A quick glance at the schedule tells us the Sens are in Toronto on Oct. 8, Nov. 12 and Jan. 17 and in Montreal on Jan. 14, Mar. 14 and Mar. 23. 

Their home opener is on Oct. 11 against the Minnesota Wild, which is when the Heritage Jersey is likely to make its game debut. That should be the first of 13 total games in which it will be used during the 2011-12 campaign. I'm guessing the full schedule will be released at a later date.

If you've got questions, feel free to ask, but I've pretty much exhausted my knowledge on the subject with this post. If it's not here, I probably don't have an answer to give. I suspect my inbox will start filling up with concepts based on the above image, so it won't be long before you'll be able to see it in full color.

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Related: Check out these Senators concepts from early March. I think you'll find Tex Fischer's is the closest to the striping pattern seen in the actual design. But they're all very similar to the real thing.

Update on Tuesday · Aug 2 · 2011 | 9:54 AM PDT by Chris

I've got some replies to questions that have come in via email, Twitter and the comments below.

Heritage defined This Heritage Jersey has nothing to do with the Heritage Classic outdoor game. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has already said there will not be one this season. "Heritage," in this sense, refers to the Senators' 20th anniversary celebration during the coming season. In fairness, it's not only about their own two decades of existence but the old Ottawa Senators from the 1920s as well.

Vintage white Back in March the Senators gave us a sneak peek at the new sweater. From the photo, it appeared to be true white, not this beige color that's been called "vintage" white. But then we were looking at a projector screen image so I can't say the colors were spot on. Then more recently, I was told that it would be vintage white on this uniform. Once again, nothing has been made official yet, so I can't speak with any certainty. And the above image is black and white, so that doesn't tell us anything.

If you have any other questions I can answer, I'll do so here.

The Big Bad Draft Recap of 2011

I can't remember the last time an NHL draft yielded so many new jerseys. Eight different teams used the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul to showcase something new. So settle in, there's a lot to cover.

Oilers Go Full-On Retro

1 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 19 Oscar Klefborn, 62 Samu Perhonen, 92 Dillon Simpson

After 16 years, the Edmonton Oilers once again look like they did when they entered the NHL in 1979. The Oilers used the first overall pick in the draft to select Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as well as to unveil their new retro road sweater — which now matches their home uniform, with the colors reversed.

This is exactly what Edmonton fans wanted and I'm happy to see them get it. The jersey looks fantastic! On the team's website, Oilers president Patrick LaForge said, "We listened to our fans and know they will be happy to see the set complete with the new road vintage jersey." Truer words were never spoken.

The Oilers also announced that the previous road jersey is officially retired. And while they didn't say so specifically, it's likely the navy and copper third jersey will remain in use next season.

Seeing Red in South Florida

3 Jonathan Huberdeau, 64 Vincent Trocheck, 76 Logan Shaw, 87 Jonathan Racine

Earlier this month, the Florida Panthers launched their "We See Red" marketing campaign — an effort to return to the franchise's color roots. This weekend, it culminated with the reveal of their new red home sweater, which was given to each of their 2011 draft picks.

The Panthers didn't do an all-out redesign with this jersey, but more of a color swap. The sleeves are now blue, but there is no piping on — a refreshing change of pace from the old jersey. So that's a big plus. All in all, I think this is easily the best jersey in the Cats' arsenal at this point.

But that's not to say it's perfect. The elbow striping is an element of the Reebok Edge template that I just don't like. Maybe if it went all the way around the arm. I also think gold piping would've looked sharp and added contrast between the red and blue on the sleeves. But these are not dealbreakers.

I don't yet know about the fate of their other jerseys. I would assume the white road uniform will remain unchanged. They could use the old home jersey (the blue one) as a third jersey, but I think the blue alternate they already have is superior. So I'd bet the old home sweater is retired.

On Behalf of the Winnipeg Jets...

78 Brennan Serville, 7 Mark Scheifele, 119 Zachary Yuen, 157 Jason Kasdorf

The new Winnipeg franchise used the occasion to announce their new name — or should I say old name? The Winnipeg Jets are once again an NHL team. How about that. Unfortunately, while the team had a name ready to go, they couldn't say the same about a logo and jerseys.

Each of their draftees were given generic black jerseys with the NHL shield on the front. Rest assured, this will not be the uniform of the Jets come the fall. True North chairman Mark Chipman has said it may be a while before we see the new uniforms and logo.

Illegal Curve tweeted some details from Chipman yesterday. He said they wanted to have a prototype jersey ready for the draft, but were worried about knockoffs showing up before they were able to put official merchandise on sale. So production time is likely the reason we'll have to wait to see the new branding.

The team has also said that the colors "won't be completely different" from the old Jets. I take that to mean possibly a darker shade of blue and the addition of a third color such as silver. So another red and blue team, then. Fun. I may sound bitter, but at least the Thrashers and their too many colors were unique.

Earlier today, TSN's Darren Dreger tweeted, "I haven't seen the Winnipeg Jets new logo or sweater design, but I'm told it's very impressive." I'm sure it is. And I'm sure a lot of money is being spent to make sure of that. To be honest, I hope it doesn't leak so as to avoid the knockoff issues.

New Bolts Get New Blues 

148 Nikita Nesterov, 27 Vladislav Namestnikov, 178 Adam Wilcox

The Tampa Bay Lightning unveiled completely redesigned blue and white uniforms back in January. This weekend, they handed them out to their new draft picks in St. Paul.

There is one element of the jerseys that has changed since we last saw them at the January press conference. The numbers now feature an inner black outline after enough Bolts fans complained about the lack of black in the new threads. (I wasn't one of them.)

As much as I've praised these new sweaters, I was disappointed by one thing I noticed this weekend. Based on the previous pictures I've seen, I thought the blue was a lot lighter than it is. Turns out it's basically identical to the Maple Leafs' blue. Really not happy about that. Don't get me wrong, I'm still buying one, but I was hoping Stevie Y would do something to make us stand out.

Predators Decide to Simplify

38 Magnus Hellberg, 52 Miikka Salomaki

The Nashville Predators didn't have a pick in the first round this year due to the Mike Fisher trade, so we had to wait a day to see their new road jersey. As the NHL draft picked up with Round 2 this morning, the Preds gave the new sweater to their draftees, who became the first players to wear them.

While both new jerseys were sort of leaked on Thursday, we learned they weren't the final versions. Today we can play spot the differences. The biggest one (and only one that I could spot) would be the left shoulder which featured the word NASHVILLE in small text. On this version, it's only seen on the back of the collar. Everything else is basically how we first saw it.

Prior to the jersey leak, the new logos were officially unveiled, so I won't spend anymore time discussing them. I did want to note, however, that the new guitar pick logo is only used on the right shoulder of the road uniform. I suspect it will be the same on the gold home jersey.

Kings' Worst Kept Secret is Official

49 Christopher Gibson, 110 Michael Mersch

The Los Angeles Kings will have a new road uniform next season and their 2011 draft picks became the first to sport it for cameras today. (Like Nashville, they lacked a first round pick.) And for what it's worth, it was the worst kept secret of the year. We first saw this jersey way back in October!

Well a version of it, anyway. An Icethetics reader snapped a photo of what appeared to be prototype jerseys in Luc Robitaille's office at the Kings' practice facility before last season even started. To be fair, though, there's an L.A. pee wee team that's been wearing something similar for a while now.

They're nice. That's really all I can say. By dropping the purple from their palette, I think the Kings have done themselves a disservice. But the new jerseys aren't bad. But for the waist stripes, this new road sweater nearly matches the black and silver alternate the Kings have been wearing for a couple of years. It will become the new home jersey.

The old black and purple home sweater will become a third jersey and the old road sweater will be retired.

Isles, Sens Add Patches to Mark Special Occasions

5 Ryan Strome, 127 Brenden Kichton, 21 Stefan Noesen

The New York Islanders have created a new 40th anniversary shoulder patch while the Ottawa Senators will wear an All-Star Game patch for the 2011-12 season. The new add-ons were first spotted on the teams' first round draft picks on Friday night.

This is our first time seeing the Islanders' new 40th anniversary mark and I'm still waiting to get a better look. So far the above pictures are the best I've seen. The Isles entered the league in 1972 with the Atlanta Flames, but Calgary tends to only recognize the Calgary years with their anniversary logos.

Ottawa hosts the 2012 All-Star Game next season but the logo was first unveiled way back in September. The Senators are also celebrating their 20th anniversary, but it seems that logo will be trumped on the jersey this season. Perhaps they could change it after the All-Star break?

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If you've made it this far into this post, you're clearly the kind of person who will be interested in the following minutia. I'm talking about the breakdown of what jerseys were handed out by teams to their draftees.

• 21 teams gave colorful home jerseys to their draftees, 1 of which was seen for the first time (Florida).
• 7 teams gave white road jerseys to their draftees (Buffalo, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Nashville San Jose and Vancouver), 3 of which were unveiled at the same time (Edmonton, Los Angeles and Nashville).
• 6 teams gave jerseys that have never been used in a game before, one of which will never be used in a game (Winnipeg).
• And 1 team gave an alternate jersey to its draftee. And that would be Minnesota. Perhaps a privilege of being host of this year's festivities.

I hope that answers all of the jersey- and logo-related questions you had about this year's draft. If it doesn't ask in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.

Debunking "Leaked" Senators Logo

I awoke this morning to an inbox littered with emails linking me to the same thing. Apparently someone was claiming to have received the Ottawa Senators' new heritage logo from a Reebok source. One look at it made me laugh.

I had every intention of disregarding it entirely, but the emails and tweets keep coming so I figured I'd be doing a disservice to you, my readers, if I don't explain to you why the logo is a phony. And believe me when I tell you it is.

To see it in its original setting, here's a screenshot from the Tumblr page where it was first posted two days ago. (I'm not linking to the guy's actual page because that's exactly what he wants and people like this don't get my respect. If you really want to find it, you'll find it.)

Fake Senators logo comparisonNow the image itself (right). So many problems... where to begin? I'll make this quick because it's my wife's birthday and I'd rather spend it with her than you guys. 

• Just from the small sliver of it we can see in the teaser photo released by the Sens, you can clearly tell it's a fake.
• Top of the shield should be straight and there should be a black outline, even around the red portion of the shield.
• Arial font? Really? Hello, red flag. Show me a designer who would use Arial in a major sports team identity and I'll show you a hack. Plus, it's clear from the photo that the text is not set in Arial.
• The black stroke on the upper left side is misaligned (hard to tell in this scaled-down version, but it is).
• The curved lines of the shield are not smooth at all. Speaking of which, all three of the points of the shield are rounded. That's weak sports logo design.
• The trademark symbol is a little out of proportion and the logo itself is awkwardly positioned within the image. These may not be deal breakers, but come on.

While we've seen some crappy logos from NHL teams in the past, keep in mind that a team like the Senators is surely spending a huge amount of cash on a major design firm. To suggest they would come out with something you could cobble together in Microsoft Word makes me giggle. A lot.

Hope that settles it. Don't believe everything you see on the Internet. If there are any design professionals reading who want to add their input, please comment away!

Sens Offer Glimpse of Heritage Jersey

Sneak peek at new Sens sweater / SenatorsThe Ottawa Senators have offered fans a glimpse at their new Heritage Jersey, set to replace the current alternate sweater in 2011.

These screenshots (right) were taken from a video posted on the Sens' website. The club was hosting a Hot Stove event this past Saturday, in which season ticket holders get access to team bigwigs to ask questions and share comments.

In a modest PowerPoint slideshow at the event, the team displayed this sneak peek of the new sweater. Sales VP Mark Bonneau was keen to point out the cleverness of the marketing team, showing the jersey without giving away the farm.

It's folded up in such a way that we really can't get an idea of what the overall jersey actually looks like. But there are a few things we can tell from the image the team provided:

• The Heritage Jersey will primarily be black.
• There will be no "vintage white." (Long live actual white!)
• It will not feature the full barber-pole striping as some suspected.
• There will be a new logo of some kind.

Also appearing in this modest PowerPoint presentation seems to be the Senators' 20th anniversary logo.

While we may not be able to see it very clearly, we can tell that they're using the same font as the Vancouver Canucks have used on their uniforms since 2007. Weird.

By the way, it may be nothing, but of the three logos in use on the Heritage Jersey slide, none of them is the current primary mark.

They've got the 2012 All-Star Game logo (they're hosting), their 20th anniversary mark, and the secondary "O" logo. Perhaps a hint as to what logo we might find on the front of this new uniform? Time will tell.

Speaking of logos, note the bottom still in the image to the right. Notice it has all of the logos that the franchise has used since being awarded in 1990 — including the "Ottawa" wordmark. Just a nod to their history or something more?

What do you guys think of what we see here? What are you envisioning for this new alternate uniform?