2011 NHL Entry Draft logoThe NHL announced on Saturday that the Minnesota Wild will host the 2011 Entry Draft on June 24-25 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
A logo for the event was also revealed via the Wild's official website. Not sure if it's the final version or just a preliminary generic version for the press conference. It is similar to the 2010 draft logo but lacks any distinguishing characteristics such as the palm trees in this year's Los Angeles edition.
Wild owner Craig Leipold made an interesting comment quoted in the NHL.com article regarding the team's intention to host a future Winter Classic.
"One of the missions by our owner, Craig Leipold, is he wants our organization to be viewed more globally across North America and internationally," Robertson said. "This event helps us with that goal. We are heading to Finland this fall to play Carolina to open the NHL regular season. In 2011 we are going to host the NHL Entry Draft. It's our hope in 2012 or 2013 to host the Winter Classic."
Possible venues for an outdoor game in the Twin Cities include Target Field, the new home of the Minnesota Twins, which opens next week, and TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team.
As you can see, he also mentions that both the Wild and Hurricanes, who were just awarded the 2011 All-Star Game earlier this week, will face off in the annual NHL Premiere in Europe.
In February, the NHL announced that it would return to three European cities to open the 2010-11 season, all of which previously hosted NHL Premiere games. The Wild and Canes will meet in Helsinki on Oct. 7-8. The Blue Jackets and Sharks will play in Stockholm on Oct. 8-9. And the Bruins and Coyotes will hit Prague on Oct. 9-10.
The NHL Entry Draft was previously held in Minnesota in 1989 when the North Stars played in Bloomington.
The ECHL's Johnstown Chiefs will be moving to Greenville, South Carolina beginning in the 2010-11 season. This must've slipped past our collective radar when it was announced and approved by the league last month. But I just read an interesting article yesterday on ESPN.
Basically, the Chiefs, named by fans after the iconic team from the film Slap Shot — which was shot locally — have been on their last legs. Nobody is going to games and the team is piling up losses in more than just the standings.
Now the club will head to a former ECHL city which lost its original team, the Greenville Grrrowl (yes, that's three Rs in Grrrowl), when it folded in 2006. Not sure why hockey's expected to be a better draw four years later, but that's not a question for me to ask.
The reason this is relevant to Icethetics is it means we'll be following the rebranding of a franchise. Former Chiefs minority owner Ned Nakles is retaining the name and logo which means the ECHL will add a new team name and logo next season. (Hoping it's not Grrrowl.)
Chiefs' Marine jerseyAnd finally, the Chiefs wore what will probably be their last specialty sweater over this past weekend.
The jerseys are a tribute to the U.S. Marine Corps and the design is based on their dress uniforms. The Chiefs first wore them on Friday, grabbing their first W in two weeks with a 7-4 victory of the Toledo Walleye.
Unfortunately I can't seem to track down any photos of the jersey in action. Seems the Chiefs' web guys have pretty much given up this season too. They're just recycling photos in their game recaps.
Anyway, I noticed the numbers come straight from their NHL affiliate's white jerseys — the Minnesota Wild. Anyone know if the Wild will retain their affiliation agreement with the new Greenville team?
Rivermen Revert to the Past
Rivermen dress as PrancersThe AHL's Peoria Rivermen pranced out in Peoria Prancers jerseys over the weekend, paying tribute to the 1980s.
The Prancers were founded in the International Hockey League in 1982 and became the Peoria Rivermen two years later. Then in 1996, the franchise moved to San Antonio, Texas and were renamed the Dragons.
That same year an ECHL franchise was created with the Peoria Rivermen name. No one would've noticed except that all the players and management would've changed. Same logo and colors otherwise.
Then in 2005, that team went away and the AHL's Worcester IceCats moved to Peoria — becoming the third franchise to use that Rivermen moniker. I only offer the history lesson to point out that this isn't a tribute to franchise's past so much as the town's hockey past.
Looking at this jersey, I can't imagine why they ever changed their name in 1984. If you can't get enough of it either, Central Illinois Sports Photography has posted a huge gallery from the game — which Peoria won 4-1 (video included).
Thanks to Joe for the tip on this story.
Heated Tirade
Usually my hobby (hockey blogger) and my job (TV promotions producer) never intersect. I work at a news station in Florida and hockey isn't a popular topic here for obvious reasons. But last night was the exception.
Every night, I write/produce/edit a :30 promo for our 11 PM newscast to run during primetime. And in last night's newscast, our producer included video of Jim Playfair's freak-out behind the Abbotsford Heat bench over the weekend. Naturally I had to include it in the promo. And I thought I'd share it with you guys too.
Caps vs. Pens for 2011 Winter Classic?
Canada's National Post is reporting that the Pittsburgh Penguins will host the Washington Capitals for the next Winter Classic in 2011. Word is they would use Heinz Field — home of the NFL's Steelers. But the Post doesn't cite a source for the report.
The NHL has yet to make an official statement on which teams will be involved in the next outdoor game. The Pens participated in the inaugural event in 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium against the Buffalo Sabres.
Panthers unveil Den of HonorThis past weekend, the Florida Panthers unveiled their Den of Honor, a tribute to the brief but colorful history of hockey in South Florida.
Among the many exhibits at the BankAtlantic Center is a display that showcases some of the team's early logo concepts — of obvious interest to Icethetics readers.
Some early Panthers conceptsIt features two framed canvases with over a dozen different sketches of potential logos, designed back in the early '90s.
These images come from a video about the unveiling of the Den of Honor, posted on the Panthers' website Saturday. Click here to watch it.
One of the most unfortunate sketches appears to be that of a panther stretching in a downward position, head on the ground and hind quarters way up in in the air. The witless puns almost write themselves.
More Cats concepts on displayThankfully, based on the majority of the concepts, it seems clear that management was in favor of a leaping panther. The only question dealt with the positioning of the paws.
Take a look at the sketch in the center of this image (right), the differently-positioned paws may be more anatomically realistic, but leave the logo feeling a bit unbalanced. And anatomical realism has no place in sports logos anyway.
See the small logo just above that one? It's nice to see they avoided the temptation to go with the three-quarter view — unlike some teams (Ottawa).
Personally, I think the Panthers have one of the coolest hockey logos despite its intricacies. And after 17 years it's neat to see the team finally showing us what could have been.
Just call it a third already
Bruins don classicsThe Boston Bruins broke out the Winter Classic threads for the fourth time this season on Sunday.
The Bruins donned their specially-designed duds before the home crowd, beating the New York Rangers 2-1 in their first indoor win while wearing gold.
At this point, they just need to call it the third jersey — officially. After all, the current black thirds could use replacing. The Bs arguably have the best home and road sweaters in the NHL along with the worst alternate.
Whether it returns this fall for the 2010-11 campaign remains to be seen, but it might be a safe bet that we'll see it again before this season is out. All the previous occurrences of the jersey were weekend matinee games.
Of course, the Fenway Park game was an afternoon match. The Bs wore the golds next on Saturday, Jan. 23 for a 1:00 PM start against Ottawa and again on Saturday, Feb. 6 for another 1:00 PM start against the Canucks. Yesterday's game against the Rangers started at 12:30 PM.
The Bruins now have two more afternoon home games left on the schedule. The first is Mar. 27 against the Flames and the other is Apr. 10 against the Hurricanes. Could it show up again at one or both of these games?
Caps vs Rangers, please!Think of Ovi in a beanie toque. (I'm a Floridian. We don't really wear them here.)
The New England Hockey Journal is spreading rumors that Washington, D.C. could be up next to host the Winter Classic.
An article posted February 20 cites the ever-eager anonymous source, who also claims the Pittsburgh Penguins could be back in outdoor action just four years after their first foray. Let me be the first to say I would be horribly disappointed by that.
I would love to see the Caps host a Winter Classic. Despite their placement in the Southeast Division, it gets plenty cold there. Americans bore witness to the fury of the D.C. winter when the government actually shut down for snow days. Plus, they deserve it, according to the Journal's Kirk Luedeke.
I can tell you that there were a lot of disappointed folks in the nation's capital last summer when it became known that the Bruins' opponent would be the Philadelphia Flyers, so this should soothe the hurt feelings a bit if/when it becomes official.
But I'm not wild about Sidney Crosby getting another parade. It's funny, my wife can't stand him. She's just barely a hockey fan and even she knows he's overhyped. (An incredibly talented player, obviously, I'm just not sure why he gets all the praise.) On the other hand, she can't get enough of watching Alex Ovechkin. And neither can I.
So assuming the rumors are true, who should Ovi and the Caps face on January 1, 2011? It simply must be the New York Rangers. How is it that the NHL's most famous franchise has been left out of the league's biggest event? And while Canada rings in 2011 with their own outdoor game in Calgary, let Americans bask in the flood of red, white and blue in our nation's capital. What could be more fitting?
And if it's names the NHL wants, forget Crosby. Consider Ovechkin and Semin going nose to nose with Gaborik and Lundqvist. An epic winter battle in another American ballpark, to be sure.
That's really all I have to say on the subject. I'm sure you guys all have opinions of your own and I'd love to hear them. Feel free to share them below.
Scott Walker #24But first, just before the Caps edged out my Bolts tonight, the boys from D.C. skated out in camouflage for warm-ups. You can see what new Cap Scott Walker thinks of it. It's written all over his face.
Actually, the best comment on these jerseys probably came from Tampa Tribune beat writer Erik Erlendsson, who tweeted this tonight:
Not what those jerseys are the #Caps are wearing tonight for warmups, but I'm getting dizzy tryiing to figure out what they are????
He followed up with a clarification from his Washington Post counterpart.
According to @TarikElBashir those are military jerseys and will be auctioned off to military charities; look more like hunting fatigues tho
The Blackhawks and Ducks did the same thing earlier this season, wearing exactly the same jerseys. Only the logos and numbers have been changed. Reebok's taking care of everybody.
By the way, I've got minor league jersey and logo news to come. So keep an eye out for that. Also... I might finally explain the cryptic messages that keep appearing on the blog and Twitter. Hmm...
Bruins don Winter Classic threadsThe Boston Bruins are certainly getting their money's worth from those Winter Classic jerseys.
Fans at this afternoon's matinee against the Vancouver Canucks were treated to the gold jersey for the third time since the New Year's Day game at Fenway Park. More game photos.
This is the most we've seen a team wear the special jersey in the same season as their Winter Classic appearance. However, it has become common to see some teams appropriate the sweater as an alternate uniform the following season.
Seems pretty clear to me the Bruins want to keep on using this jersey and I, for one, would be all for that. There is some bad news, though...
The Bs blew a 2-0 first period lead, losing to the Canucks in a shootout today. The Bruins are now 0-2 in the yellow unis since winning the Winter Classic on Marco Sturm's overtime goal.
Sunday · Apr 11 · 2010 | 8:54 AM PDT
2011 NHL Entry Draft logoThe NHL announced on Saturday that the Minnesota Wild will host the 2011 Entry Draft on June 24-25 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
