The WHL's Vancouver Giants opened the 2012-13 season by honoring the original Vancouver Canucks hockey club. The Giants wore special uniforms, modeled after what the 1945 Canucks — who recently joined the BC Sports Hall of Fame.
The jerseys were unveiled on Mon., Sept. 17 and then on Fri., Sept. 21, the Giants faced the Victoria Royals wearing blue instead of their iconic red. But let's be honest, they looked better than a lot of NHL teams do. This is a hockey uniform.
Despite the nice sweaters, the Giants lost 6-4 to the Royals that night. There are more pictures from the game on the Giants' website.
The original Vancouver Canucks debuted in 1945 in the Pacific Coast Hockey Leauge, which became known as the Western Hockey League in 1952. The Canucks won their fifth championship title in 1970 before giving up their identity to an NHL expansion team.
I'll get back to the jersey and logo news in short order, but here's a little something different today. The video above is a time lapse of my screen as I put together the display graphics for the Concepts page. This time lapse was taken on Sept. 18. It features concepts posted between Sept. 21 and today.
I usually try to work ahead about a week or more in order to make sure the posts keep flowing on a daily basis. Hope you guys enjoy it.
I'm also hoping this video inspires a few of our more prolific concept artists to record their screens when they sit down to design a logo or jersey. I think we'd all enjoy watching the making of an actual concept. Who's game?
At the end of last week, the AHL's Toronto Marlies revamped their uniform set across the board, adding new home and road jerseys as well as the sharp new third jersey seen above.
On Saturday, the Marlies hosted an event for season ticket holders and unveiled this retro alternate uniform, which is a tribute to the Toronto Marlboros — an organization that's been around for nearly 110 years. (They currently exist as the OHL's Guelph Storm, actually.) The Marlies produced this video to explain that history.
For those without video, here's the transcript:
The Toronto Marlboros are deeply enriched in Canada's hockey history, with a focus on developing talent since franchise inception in 1903. The Toronto Marlboros have been home to hockey's elite, including George Armstrong, Ron Ellis, Mike Palmateer, Charlie Conacher, Steve Thomas and many more. Now, the symbol worn proudly on their chests, become a beacon of hope for today's Toronto Marlies. With a nod to our past, it's time to turn our eyes to the future with the official unveiling of the Toronto Marlies' third jersey.
It's insightful if you can look past the bad writing. For example, the first line says "enriched in Canada's hockey history" when they obviously meant "entrenched" (and even then, there are more appropriate terms such as "rooted"). But none of that is the point of this post. I'm just being a grammar snob.
I say it's insightful because I truthfully didn't know anything about this team or where its name came from. I never took the time to look into it either, but I guess that's the point. I always enjoy learning about the history of hockey franchises in Canada. There's just so much there.
Prior to the third jersey unveiling, on Thursday the Marlies gave us our first official look at their new home and road uniforms — which aren't exactly a huge departure from what they've been wearing.
This change was simply to put their look more in line with that of their parent club, the Toronto Maple Leafs — who made some upgrades in 2010. All that really means is the collar has changed and a pair of waist stripes have been added.
So while technically the Marlies will be sporting three new jerseys this season, they won't really be sporting anything "new" this season. It's all about recognizing where they come from (Marlboros) and where they're going (Maple Leafs, hopefully, right?).
Hard for this team to go wrong with sweaters like these. What do you guys think?
Update on Monday · Oct 1 · 2012 | 7:03 PM PDT by
Chris
The Marlies posted another video on their Facebook page today from Saturday's unveiling.
Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks on winning the NHL Tournament of Logos! After three months and almost 40,000 votes, Icethetics readers have selected this logo as their favorite. The Hawks beat out the Buffalo Sabres in the final round with 56% of the vote. Here's how the rest of the 2012 NHLToL bracket played out:
The Blackhawks logo was the runner-up in the last NHLToL in 2010. It lost to the St. Louis Blues logo. Before that, the first ever NHLToL took place in 2007 with the Montreal Canadiens logo victorious — over the St. Louis Blues, as a matter of fact.
In other words, the runner-up in each tournament has gone on to win it all in the following logo tournament. Some little NHLToL trivia there for you. But does it mean the Sabres logo will win in 2014? (Or whenever the next NHLToL takes place.)
For more information about this tournament, click here.
Saturday · Oct 6 · 2012 | 2:31 PM PDT
