IceHL vs. NHL
Monday · Sep 7 · 2009 | 10:35 AM PDTI'm very excited about bringing the IceHL back this week! I'm saving the first of the final four polls for tomorrow just so no one misses anything during the long holiday weekend.
However, I am going to unveil the Calgary Cavalry's logo a day early. Look for that this afternoon. Keep an eye on Twitter for updates. Here is the new schedule for the end of this phase of the IceHL Project:
- Mon. 9/7 - Cavalry logo unveiled
- Tue. 9/8 - Hitmen poll, Blue Crabs logo unveiled
- Wed. 9/9 - Kodiaks poll, Hellcats logo unveiled
- Thu. 9/10 - Archers poll, Arsenal logo unveiled
- Fri. 9/11 - Pioneers poll, Aviators logo unveiled
- Tue. 9/15 - Hitmen logo unveiled
- Wed. 9/16 - Kodiaks logo unveiled
- Thu. 9/17 - Archers logo unveiled
- Fri. 9/18 - Pioneers logo unveiled
On Monday, September 21, I'll outline the process for jersey design submissions and release a schedule for entries. I will also be taking submissions for the IceHL logo. The league needs one too, after all.
IceHL vs. NHL
Now the real reason for this post. I was comparing the IceHL with the NHL and thought I'd share it with everyone. (Keep in mind that I am a nerd.)
From the beginning I built a lot of safeguards into the project so we would have minimal overlap with the NHL. I wanted designers to be able to branch out and come up with something entirely new. Still, we ended up with IceHL teams in 17 of 30 NHL markets. But I guess you can't keep hockey teams out of the big cities, right?
The shared markets: Atlanta, Boston, Calgary, (North) Carolina, Chicago, Colorado/Boulder, Dallas, Detroit, Edmonton, Los Angeles/California, Minnesota, Montreal, New York City, St. Louis, Tampa, Vancouver, and Washington D.C.
But consider some of the places that didn't get IceHL teams — Ottawa (the capital!), Toronto (Hockey Hall of Fame!), Philadelphia, Miami, Cleveland, Hartford, and San Francisco/San Jose. I was surprised to see towns like Regina and Saskatoon get nods while Ottawa and Toronto were overlooked.
How do the nicknames compare? I generally tend to think of sports team names in five categories: animals, people, nature, abstract and "other." IceHL has 8 animals: Blue Crabs, Mammoths, Nighthawks, Barracudas, Huskies, Kodiaks, Gators and Scorpions. NHL has 7: Ducks, Thrashers, Bruins, Panthers, Coyotes, Penguins, and Sharks.
As for "people" nicknames, the IceHL offers up 11: Colonials, Hitmen, Guardians, Archers, Sentinels, Outlaws, Pioneers, Renegades, Sharpshooters, Aviators, Lumberjacks. The NHL has 8: Blue Jackets, Oilers, Kings, Canadiens, Islanders, Rangers, Senators, and Canucks.
A smaller amount can be categorized as "nature." In the IceHL, only the Wave qualify. The NHL has 5: Flames, Hurricanes, Avalanche, Lightning and Maple Leafs. (The Wild isn't specific enough to make this category.)
Many team names in any sport tend to be abstract or ambiguous. There are 6 in the IceHL: Motorheads, Steelcats, Olympiques, Beasts, Hellcats, and Winterhawks. The NHL has 8: Blackhawks, Stars, Red Wings, Wild, Predators, Flyers, Blues, and Capitals.
As for the rest, they fit a number of minor categories, such as war and weaponry: (IceHL) Arsenal, Armada and Cavalry; (NHL) Sabres only. One is a drink: (IceHL) Lagers; and the other is supernatural: (NHL) Devils.
With 30 teams in each league, it isn't uncommon to see nicknames doubling up with similar concepts. For example, the NHL has the Capitals and Senators in the two capital cities, as well as Canadiens and Canucks (what you might call citizens).
It's much more prevalent in the IceHL, however. You have the Armada and Cavalry, Steelcats and Hellcats, Renegades and Outlaws, Sentinels and Guardians, and even Nighthawks and Winterhawks. It seems that as much as voters wanted the freedom to be creative, they couldn't help but fall into old patterns.
Here's another question: Why are the IceHL's team names so long? In writing them so often, I feel like so many IceHL teams have such long names. North Carolina Nighthawks — 23 letters! Saskatoon Sharpshooters — 22! Even the Salt Lake City Scorpions have 21. The title for longest NHL team name goes to the Columbus Blue Jackets with just 19. The IceHL's Lumberjacks, Sentinels and Winterhawks each have that many letters or more.
For the record, the shortest IceHL team name is the Quebec Armada with just 12 letters. The NHL, however, wins out with the Dallas Stars who have a mere 11 letters.
So how do the two leagues stack up on the whole? The average length in the NHL is 15.2 letters while the IceHL averages an entire letter more with 16.2.
Another question: Is it the locations or nicknames that are causing the long names? The longest IceHL nickname is the Sharpshooters (13) and the shortest is the Wave (4). In the NHL, Blue Jackets (11) is the longest while Wild (4) is the shortest. IceHL takes the longest. Shortest is a draw.
The longest location name in the IceHL goes to North Carolina (13, again) and the shortest is a 5-way tie between Boston, Quebec, Dallas, Regina, and Alaska (6 each). In the NHL, Philadelphia (12) takes the longest while Boston and Dallas (6 each) share the shortest. The IceHL is still the longest.
I'm sure you didn't read through all of that, but if you ever get really bored, it's there. And if you find any other patterns or interesting numbers while comparing the IceHL and NHL, feel free to add a comment or email me so I can expand this already long post.
Reader Comments (13)
What strikes me is how many teams will be donning a combiantion of orange and some shade of blue. assuming the best Hellcats logo wins, we'll have 4 of them (wave, olympics, barracudas and the aforementionned cats). Designers will have to be clever and creative to set these teams unis apart from one another.
Blue and orange are the colors of Icethetics, so I can't blame them. However, there are some things I'd like to fix around the league before we move on to jerseys. I'll leave it to a vote, but one question I'm going to pose is whether we should consider swapping the orange for red in Montreal. There will be others. Nothing major. Just some minor tweaks to improve diversity and overall aesthetic.
In regard to which teams got markets, the only reason why Regina and Saskatoon got teams is due to the divisional alignment that was voted in last year. Although I am generally for more Canadian market teams, I knew right away that the chosen alignment would result in some interesting distribution of teams. There's no doubt that if the North, West, and Southeast divisions were consolidated into two larger regions, then the east could have enjoyed an extra division (Great Lakes) allowing for deserving markets like Toronto, Ottawa, Philly, Buffalo, etc...
In any case, the whole project has been great to watch develop, and so kudos to you, Chris, and also all the other artists who have participated. Can't wait to see the uniform submissions!
I agree that the Montreal logo would look better with a different trim color. I would have liked to see some of the logos choose different colors. Red would be nice for the Montreal logo but then it would have the NHL colors. Same with the Lumberjacks logo, blue and green. It's not really that big of a deal but i just hope jersey designers don't try to make them look like the NHL jerseys for those cities.
I do like the diversity in where the teams are located. However, If the IceHL was a real working hockey league, whether some cities would viably support teams would be up for debate. I agree that there are very similar color combinations and I took that into consideration with my voting, maybe I was voting on diversity rather than which design was the best. I wasnt happy when Buffalo didn't get a franchise, or Toronto for that matter, but Hamilton was a good choice as it is in between the two cities. I must say this project has been awesome and the artists have been superb as well. Keep it up, Icethetics has come far since the old-school NHL tournament of logos!
The Quebec Armada, For us (french-canadian) it's quebec alone for the city, but you should add Quebec City armada, as in english just quebec could mean the whole province, still just 16 letters...lol
I've gotta say that I'm so impressed with all of the logos on display. I'm looking forward to the uniform submissions, i'd have a crack at some but i'm artistically challenged, and also lacking the software to make a decent go of it!
Just a shame there arent any european teams!
Well, I must say that I wanted Toronto to have a team, but oh well the IceHL is still shaping up pretty nicely.
A pattern that i have noticed between the ICEHL and the NHL is the use of repetition in team names. The NHL only has 3 teams that do that; Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, and San Jose Sharks. However the ICEHL has 12 teams that use repetition in their names; Atlanta Arsenal, Baltimore Blue Crab, Boulder Beasts, Calgary Cavalry, Houston Hellcats, Minnesota Mammoths, North Carolina Nighthawks, Portland Pioneers, Regina Renegade, Salt Lake City Scorpions, Saskatoon Sharpshooters, and Winnipeg Winterhawks. I think this may be due to the fact that these kind of repetition names are easier to say and sound better to the human ear.
@ Cédric:
While I understand where you're coming from, if you look to real-life examples, you'll find that "non-specific" identifiers can work. The New York Rangers have an identifier that overlaps with the Buffalo Sabres.Also, the Islanders use New York as their identifier when, for all intents and purposes, their target market is Long Island.
@ Gary Punzak:
I too noticed the repetition in the IceHL but you forgot one NHL biggie; the Philadelphia Flyers. Their name was chosen chiefly because it had a nice ring to it.
As for as color palette diversity, the NHL suffers from a lack in that department also. Think of all the red and black teams in the league (Devils, 'Canes, Blackhawks, Sens) Then you've got the red and whites like Detroit, Calgary and Phoenix and the red, white, and blues of Washington, Rangers, and Habs. Blue and white? I give you St. Louis and Toronto with a side helping of Tampa and Vancouver. And let's not forget about the current trend of adding black to spice up jerseys/logos. Part of the jersey blandness is a result of the jersey templates that RBK foisted on the teams, but the color palette of the league isnt' exactly ground breaking.
Will you post any more details on the IceHL logo, such as guidelines and deadlines, etc?
I want to point out the number of Alphabetical Logos there are in the IceHL. (Logos that prominently feature a letter of the alphabet)
The IceHL features 15 teams that have logos based on/ including letters. (A- St. Louis Archers; B- Baltimore Blue Crabs, Boston Colonials; C- Chicaco Hitmen, California Wave; E- Edmonton Kodiaks; H- Hamilton SteelCats; L- Milwaukee Lagers; P- Portland Pioneers; Q- Quebec Armada; R- Regina Renegades; S- Saskatoon Sharpshooters, Seattle Aviators; V- Vancouver LumberJacks; W- Washington Sentinals)
The NHL features 9 teams that have logos based on/ including letters. (A- Colorado Avalanche; B- Boston Bruins; C- Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver Canucks; D- Anaheim Ducks; J- New Jersey Devils; P- Philadelphia Flyers)