Bolts Represent Formative Clubs

Photo from Tampa Bay Lightning (via Facebook)

Players sport junior and college jerseys on road trip

Hey look! A reason for me to write about the Tampa Bay Lightning! The team posted a Facebook photo on Monday morning that any Icethetics reader should love.

The Bolts assembled for this week's west coast road trip, each sporting the jersey of their junior or college level team. It made for an amazing photo and I'd love to see other teams do this. (Although maybe they have and I wasn't paying attention because they weren't the Lightning.)

If my homerism is showing a little today, I hope you can understand. The Lightning are visiting Vancouver (my nearest NHL city) this week for the first time since December 2010. And it'll be the first time I get to see my team in person since January 2012 (weirdly, that game was also against the Canucks). Thank goodness for realignment!

By the way, I've got a lot of great blog post plans in the pipeline, but expect a bit of a lull through the first couple weeks of January as I use up some of my much-needed vacation time. I anticipate JerseyWatch 2014 will debut by the end of the month!

When Hockey Sweaters Go Green

It's a time for green beer and greener hockey jerseys. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! The only way I can think to celebrate here on Icethetics is by sharing the many green warm-up jerseys being worn around the NHL this weekend. Enjoy!

First up — alphabetically — are the Boston Bruins. On Saturday night, ahead of their game against the Capitals, the Bs skated out for warm-ups sporting a color far from their existing palette.

Photos from Boston Bruins via social media

The team shared a number of photos of these green jerseys online today. A shot of the uniforms hanging in the locker room showed up on Instagram along with another of Shawn Thornton on ice. Then on Twitter, they shared a shot of Dougie Hamilton inspecting his own green threads.

Photos from Boston Bruins official website

UPDATE (3/17): Following last night's game, the Bs added a handful of action shots on their website.

The Columbus Blue Jackets couldn't keep their Irish-themed jerseys off of social media. The team suited up in green ahead of their scoreless affair with the Coyotes on Saturday.

Photos by Alison Pegg via Twitter

Team publicist Alison Pegg was perhaps the most prolific sharer of photos, including these shots of the sweaters from the locker room and auction table. She even offered up a moving picture through Vine. Of course green was not absent from the official Twitter account of the Blue Jackets.

And Icethetics reader Dan Caron even shared some of his own photos with us on Twitter. Needless to say, Columbus' St. Patrick's Day jersey was well-covered on social media.

The Dallas Stars were entertaining as ever with their St. Patty's jerseys on Saturday night. No surnames needed. Just add some Ireland-inspired nicknames to the backs of these bad boys.

Photos from Dallas Stars via Facebook

The Stars posted a picture of every player's jersey on their Facebook page. I pulled a couple of my personal favorites to post above — "McJagger" for Jaromir Jagr and "O'Romeo" for Aaron Rome. They're up for auction starting today if you find yourself in need of one.

The Edmonton Oilers are hosting the Predators tonight and may be among those teams donning green duds during warm-ups this weekend. On Instagram, the club posted a shot of a St. Patrick's Day prize pack which includes a green Oilers practice jersey. They also shared pictures of more St. Patty's-themed team merchandise on Twitter.

Conspicuous on this St. Patrick's Day was the noticeable absence of a recent tradition of the New Jersey Devils. Since 2010, the Devils have sported a throwback jersey which featured their original colors — red and green — every year for a home game on or near St. Patrick's Day. But not this year. And they were home hosting the Canadiens last night and everything. Would've been a perfect game for it.

Beating everyone to the St. Patrick's Day punch were the New York Islanders, who celebrated in green last weekend, when they hosted the Capitals on March 9.

Photo from New York Islanders official website

The Isles posted another great photo on their Facebook page after the game last night.

Photo from New York Islanders via Facebook

The jerseys were auctioned online leading up the big game.

Photo from Ottawa Senators via Instagram

UPDATE (3/17): The Ottawa Senators also joined the St. Patty's Day celebrations with the above photo posted on Instagram this morning. I presume they'll be wearing them during warm-ups today prior to their game later against the Jets.

Photos from Ottawa Senators official website

The Sens posted a couple of photos of the players skating in green on their website.

Later today, the Pittsburgh Penguins will host the Bruins. But before they do, the players will skate a little while wearing the green practice jerseys seen below.

Photos from Pittsburgh Penguins

According to the team: "The unique warm-up jerseys feature a green skating Penguin crest with Celtic lettering and numbering — and shamrocks on each shoulder." They will be put up for online auction beginning Friday.

Photos from Pittsburgh Penguins official website

UPDATE (3/17): This morning, the Penguins shared some more shots of the green on Instagram. There's one in the locker room and another of Craig Adams on the ice. Later, they posted a few more in the game's photo gallery.

UPDATE (3/17): The San Jose Sharks have been celebrating the Irish all week. The Sharks Foundation has been coordinating auctions of these green jerseys on March 9 and 14.

Photos from San Jose Sharks via Twitter and Facebook

Just today, the team tweeted a shot of the players wearing green at a recent morning skate. They've been a bit more prolific on Facebook with close-ups of the backs of these special sweaters, showing Patrick Marleau as well as Douglas Murray and others. (Thanks to @puckguy14 for the help!)

The Tampa Bay Lightning also joined the ranks of St. Patrick's Day teams on Saturday night by warming up in green before taking on the Hurricanes. The team did share some photos with us as well.

The Bolts posted some close-up photos on Instagram and a shot of the full locker room decked out in green gear on Twitter. There are several photos of players wearing the sweaters on the team's website.

Photos from Tampa Bay Lightning official website

Thanks to everyone who pitched in with links on Twitter yesterday! Let me know if you've spotted any teams I've missed and I'll be sure to add them. I'm also working on a separate post to highlight St. Patrick's Day jerseys around the minor leagues.

UPDATE (3/17): Also joining the St. Patty's Day fray were the Washington Capitals, who hit the ice in green tonight prior to defeating the Buffalo Sabres in the nation's capital.

Photos from Washington Capitals

Earlier tonight, the team tweeted a shot of a couple of jerseys hanging up in the locker room. Later, all of the green sweaters were on display at the arena so they could be auctioned off. And for more photos, check out the game's photo gallery.

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.

Update on Tuesday · Jan 29 · 2013 | 9:51 AM PST by 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.

What's New in the New Season

The NHL opened its shortened 48-game 2013 season tonight with a few changes and new logos hitting the ice. So let's run down what's new in the new season.

Kings, Bruins start ugly Stanley Cup banner trend

We begin with what I consider a pretty ugly trend over the last two seasons. This afternoon, the Los Angeles Kings raised their 2012 Stanley Cup championship banner. Then each player skated out wearing that same banner as a shoulder patch.

Now that's just tacky. I'm all for being proud of an accomplishment like this, but doesn't a sweater patch go a little bit too far? Is the 20-foot banner hanging in the rafters not enough?

But the Kings aren't the only guilty party. Last year, the Boston Bruins started this awful trend by wearing their banner on their sweater as well. Just uncalled for.

Come on. We all know you won. Nobody missed the banner raising. The patch is unnecessary. Fittingly, both of these teams lost the games where they flaunted their titles. The Bruins fell to the Flyers 2-1 last year. And earlier today, the Kings were stung by the Blackhawks 5-2. Serves them right.

We'll note that the Chicago Blackhawks, after raising their 2010 Stanley Cup championship banner, did not wear any kind of gaudy patch to commemorate their commemoration ceremony. Nor the Red Wings or Penguins in 2008 and 2009. So kudos to them.

Before I wrap this up, I do want to point out that at least the Kings and Bruins weren't as bad as the AHL's Hershey Bears — who you may remember actually wore the logos of the teams they beat for championships back in 2011.

Lightning and Stars mark 20th anniversaries

Next up are a couple of sweater patches we can't argue with. First, the Tampa Bay Lightning turned 20 in 2012 — but the lack of hockey between October and December means their celebration starts a little late. But better late than never. It's a cool logo!

The Lightning's 20th anniversary patch is a simplified version of the full logo unveiled over the summer. And for what it's worth, this isn't the first time we're seeing it — just the first time it's making an appearance on the ice. The logo debuted in June at the draft.

The Ottawa Senators, who joined the NHL with the Lightning in 1992, celebrated their 20th anniversary last season while assigned All-Star Game hosting duties.

The Dallas Stars moved from Minnesota in 1993 — a year after the league expanded to Ottawa and Tampa. But they're also marking 20 years during this lockout-shortened season.

This is the first we've seen this logo. It prominently features the American Airlines Arena Center — home of the Stars — as well as the skyline of the city of Dallas. It's a pretty sharp logo even if there is a lot going on.

Here you can see it being worn by newcomer Jaromir Jagr.

Capitals reverse colors on socks

This last bit of "news" would get a big shrug from a lot of hockey fans. But not Icethetics readers. Hold everything because the Washington Capitals have changed their socks!

I think that visual aid tells you all you need to know. But just in case, they've reversed the colors. On the road uniforms, the blue is now used on the bottom half going into the skate instead of the top half coming out of the pants. The configuration is now more like what we see in the rest of the NHL.

Presumably the socks on the home uniforms will see the same change — red on top, blue on the bottom now. But we'll find out for sure when the Caps open their home schedule on Tuesday against the Jets. Unless they wear their third jersey, that is. But the next home game would be Thursday.

Did I miss any 2013 uniform changes? If so, shoot me an email or comment and I'll update this post as needed.

2013 NHL Season Preview

After a disappointing and annoyingly long delay, the new NHL season finally commences on Saturday night. So now would be as good a time as any for the Icethetics Season Preview.

Over the summer, we talked about what a boring year 2012-13 would be for uniform changes — with almost nothing new on the docket. Turns out the higher-ups may have done this on purpose considering how close we came to not having a season at all. But here we are. Let's take a look at what little will be changing for this shortened campaign.

What's In This Season?

Our last JerseyWatch 2012 update came in late August. And what were we most excited about? The Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2013 NHL Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, of course! Those outdoor games always bring awesome new retro-inspired sweaters. But then the NHL went and canceled the whole thing.

How about the 2013 NHL All-Star Game in Columbus? Those All-Star sweaters are starting to go a bit stale after two years. Maybe we'd be treated to a brand new set? Nope. That was canceled too.

That just leaves the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are expected to bring their third jersey up to date with new shoulder patches. After introducing their new logos and uniforms last season, the club ran out of time to address the outdated features of the alternate. According to Raw Charge, the team says that will be addressed this year.

In theory, it'll look a little something like this (above). So basically, our biggest uniform change of the season will be a shoulder patch. And an existing one at that. Looks like all of us jersey geeks will actually be forced to focus on the games this season — which is good, since there will only be 48 of them.

What's Out This Season?

You want a longer list? The number of sweaters being retired effective this year is higher than it's been since the Reebok jersey massacre of 2007. Granted, it's just three, but still. Lately, NHL teams have been more interested in adding jerseys than deleting them.

• Buffalo Sabres third jersey — It was launched to mark the franchise's 40th birthday. But after just two years, it will live on only in the history books.
• Edmonton Oilers third jersey — This sweater has a sordid past and very few of us will be sad to see it go. Its significant lack of striping and bland color scheme made it instantly hated as a home jersey. When the Oilers came to their senses and brought back their classic colors, this became the alternate. Two years later, we say good riddance.
• Florida Panthers third jersey — JetBlue got their money's worth, but no one else did. The Panthers were never meant to be blue and they definitely weren't meant to be powder blue. The Cats brought back the red last season and wrapped things up with this alternate.

Goodbye to these three alternate uniforms.

May we never see you on the ice again. As some misguided future throwback or otherwise.

Third Jerseys in a Shortened Season

One question I've seen a few times in going through the last week of emails has to do with how often teams will wear their alternate jerseys this season — that is, if they still have them. Typically, team's wear them 12-15 times during an 82-game season. My guess is that, with just 48 games this year, we might expect to see them 7-9 times each. Better than nothing, right?

Looking Ahead

If this lack of jersey news has you feeling down, fret not. I have a hunch this summer will be much more fruitful. We already know we're getting new stuff from Dallas and Minnesota in 2013-14. And I happen to know there will be a few surprises in store that haven't yet been reported.

Stay tuned for the first edition of NHL JerseyWatch 2013 coming this week!