Walleye Playing Dress-Up

Icethetics reader Ian writes in with some specialty jersey news relating to his home team. The ECHL's Toledo Walleye will be wearing tuxedos in action on Saturday!

Well, not exactly. Ian tells me it's Prom Night in Toledo so the team will be wearing special tux-themed jerseys for their game against the Elmira Jackals. The game-worn sweaters will then be auctioned off immediately following the game, benefiting the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

Toledo Walleye: Prom Night & Pink in the Rink Night jerseys

I'm assuming the Walleye logo will be on the shoulders of the tux jersey? But that's not all, as you can see. On March 5, they're breaking out the "light red" attire for Pink in the Rink Night.

The lucky fans in attendance at that game will get pink glow sticks. Also the ice will be painted pink and the pink-infused jerseys will be auctioned off with proceeds going to Komen for the Cure.  Pink, pink, pink.

If I remember, I'll try to track down some game action photos for both of these specialty sweaters.

Toledo Walleye: Pink jersey

Minor league teams are nothing if not charitable.

Update on Thursday · Jan 28 · 2010 | 10:05 AM PST by Chris

Adam Hobson #18Take a look at Walleye alternate captain Adam Hobson in his tux jersey on January 23. Perhaps fittingly, Toledo was beaten 8-2 by the Elmira Jackals while wearing these jerseys.

Via their web site, the Walleye confirm that the tuxedo jerseys were auctioned off following the game, benefiting the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of Northwest Ohio.

At least some good came out of these.

I've made a note to track down a photo or two of the Walleye's Pink in the Rink jersey when they wear it in March. It will be added as an update to this post.

Jersey Galleries Expanding

The new Jersey Gallery section of the site is one of the things I'm most proud of here on Icethetics. It really is a unique way of presenting an NHL uniform design database. And it just keeps expanding.

Today I added a third category under the Jerseys tab at the top of the page: Specialty Jerseys. They're not quite considered third jerseys since they aren't worn often enough and usually have a limited lifespan. A perfect example is the first entry, the Calgary Flames vintage sweater being worn five times this year against Canadian rivals.

Specialty Jersey section screenshot

Of course that's not the only new thing in Jerseys since the last time I mentioned here on the blog — at which point we had only four third jersey galleries. Today, we have 21 different galleries — and more are on the way!

Among the 16 alternate jersey galleries are the Wild, Pens, Blues, Bolts, Kings, Sabres, Sharks, Sens, Canes, Coyotes, Bruins and two for the Hawks! There are also four Winter Classic galleries from the last two outdoor games — though there's still a lot of work to do on the Hawks and Wings.

The cool thing about these galleries is that just like anything we do here on Icethetics, it's interactive. Readers are able to rate jerseys from 1 to 5 stars. And based on the number of votes received so far, I'd say this is a very popular addition to the site.

I'm still very hard at work on this project and I just wanted to keep you updated on the status of it. In the coming weeks and months I'll be adding dozens of new galleries. And once we get past all of the alternate/specialty jerseys, it's on to home and road. But there's still a lot to do.

If you feel like helping out, I'm always in search of a great game photo gallery!