Building the Canes' New Look

Photos from Carolina Hurricanes (via Instagram)

Hurricanes add more teasers to Instagram

On the last day of May, the Carolina Hurricanes are continuing the daily sneak peeks at their new sweaters, being referred to as the "New Storm."

In the last two images, we got a few more insights into the new design. Thursday's photo showed what looks to be the left sleeve of the home jersey. But many have questioned whether the number is white or gray/silver. The dramatic lighting is not our friend here. What's your call?

In today's release, we get the left shoulder of the road sweater. I'm basing that on what looks to be a swatch of white in the lower left corner of the photo. That would make the visible red area part of the shoulder yoke. From this angle, it looks like the secondary logo may be gone — or we may just be looking up too high on the shoulder to see it.

The black collar then seems to be confirmed for both sweaters. Now all that's left to figure out is the striping. Two more photos are scheduled to be posted this weekend — so by then we'll have all the team wants to give us ahead of the actual unveiling on June 4. That happens at noon ET.

Update on Saturday · Jun 1 · 2013 | 10:50 AM PDT by Chris

Today's teaser gives us a more complete look at the collar.

Photo from Carolina Hurricanes (via Instagram)

AJHL Celebrates 50 Seasons

Hey, let's keep this streak of new daily blog posts going. The AJHL, or Alberta Junior Hockey League, unveiled its 50th anniversary logo on Monday. The league has all sorts of plans for celebrating the occasion, which you can read about here.

Piecing Together the 'NewStorm'

The Carolina Hurricanes have been giving us a sneak peek at their new home and road uniforms by way of a series of teaser photos on Instagram. Every few days I'm taking the time to get us caught up on what's been revealed so far — in case you don't follow them on Instagram or me on Twitter.

Photos from Carolina Hurricanes (via Instagram)

Between Thursday and Sunday, we got the four images above. They show us a new striping pattern (perhaps on the sleeve), a new collar and a new name and number font, which I believe to be the following.

It just so happens to match the font used for the hashtag (#NewStorm) seen in each of their Instagram posts. It's much simpler and cleaner. And isn't that the trend these days?

Photos from Carolina Hurricanes (via Instagram)

Since Monday we've gotten these previews. The shot of the glove and pants show us a lot of red. A lot. Almost a Red Wings amount of red. The white jersey photo appears to give us a possible glimpse of the sleeve striping. And today's seems to show the waist striping of the new home sweater. A new double stripe?

From what we've seen so far, it's definitely looking like a more traditional hockey sweater — at least compared to what the Canes have been wearing since they moved from Hartford in 1997.

Panthers Mark 20th Anniversary

The Florida Panthers unveiled their 20th anniversary logo today. You can read about how the team plans to celebrate the end of their second decade on their website. Presumably, the logo will be worn as a special patch on the jerseys next season.

By the way, 2013 also marks 20 years of the Anaheim Ducks. So it probably won't be long before we see an anniversary logo from them as well.

Blues Considering New Uniforms

St. Louis rumored to be making uniform changes

It got a little lost in the shuffle last week, but on Thursday we got the first report of potential changes to the St. Louis Blues uniforms from St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Jeremy Rutherford.

During a live chat with readers, he was asked if the Blues were among the teams considering a uniform update for next season. To which he replied:

I'm hearing whispers that there may be changes in store for the Blues' uniforms. Don't have any details whatsoever. But don't be surprised if we hear something.

It's news to me. The Blues were not on Reebok's list of teams making uniform changes for the 2013-14 season. Perhaps it's something in the works for the following year. Or maybe the Reebok list was incomplete. Who knows. Definitely keeping ear to the ground, though.

Personally I like the Blues' uniforms. If anything, I could see losing the piping for some more traditional striping and trim. You might think the obvious choice would be promoting the third jersey, but Rutherford had something surprising to say on that as well.

BigBruiser69: Heard Stillman is discussing probably scrapping 3rd logo. Any truth?

Rutherford: Haven't heard that specifically but could be true. Third logo has Dave Checketts imprints all over it. I know folks who would consider that a crime scene.

Tom Stillman bought the Blues a year ago from Checketts. What's odd about that exchange is I think many people would say that the best-looking sweater St. Louis has is their alternate. So the idea that the new owner would kill it just because it was conceived under his predecessor is silly.

I hope they keep it or some version of it. Even if they dump the Arch logo and go with the standard Blue Note. And I really hope they're not thinking of changing the Blue Note. Talk about a crime.

You have my thoughts. Let me have yours. Should the Blues change their uniforms? And if so, how?

Update on Thursday · May 30 · 2013 | 11:40 AM PDT by Chris

Report: New uniforms won't happen in 2013

We now have another Blues beat writer saying that any uniform change will not happen in time for the 2013-14 season. From Andy Strickland via his blog True Hockey:

Despite the rumors the Blues have no plans of changing their uniforms next season. There are deadlines in place to make this happen which have already passed. This process takes time when you consider the production, marketing, color scheme, design, trademarks etc…

It makes sense. If the Blues were going to make changes for next season, they would've been on Reebok's list in January. Since they're not, any "whispers" are probably looking further into the future — say 2014-15 and beyond. Still something to keep an eye on anyway.