IceHL Voting Schedule

Before I get the first poll posted today, I wanted to lay out the schedule for the next six weeks. I'll be posting five new polls a week, which means I'll get some time in there to catch my breath. Each team's poll will be open for seven days.

The following schedule indicates the tentative dates for each team's poll. No date should change by more than a day or two. After this week, polls will primarily be posted Monday through Friday.

• 7/25 - Boston Colonials 
• 7/26 - Vancouver Lumberjacks
• 7/27 - Washington Sentinels
• 7/28 - Dallas Outlaws
• 7/30 - New York Guardians
• 8/3 - Winnipeg Winterhawks
• 8/4 - North Carolina Nighthawks
• 8/5 - Saskatoon Sharpshooters
• 8/6 - Detroit Motorheads
• 8/7 - Boulder Beasts
• 8/10 - Tampa Bay Barracudas
• 8/11 - Alaska Huskies
• 8/12 - Montreal Olympiques
• 8/13 - New Orleans Gators
• 8/14 - Minnesota Mammoths
• 8/17 - Salt Lake City Scorpions
• 8/18 - Quebec Armada
• 8/19 - Regina Renegades
• 8/20 - Milwaukee Lagers
• 8/21 - California Wave
• 8/24 - Hamilton Steelcats
• 8/25 - Calgary Cavalry
• 8/26 - Baltimore Blue Crabs
• 8/27 - Houston Hellcats
• 8/28 - Atlanta Arsenal
• 8/31 - Seattle Aviators
• 9/1 - Chicago Hitmen
• 9/2 - Edmonton Kodiaks
• 9/3 - St. Louis Archers
• 9/4 - Portland Pioneers

This schedule, created at random, is subject to change but the goal is to stick to it as close as possible.

As you'll notice later today when I post the Boston Colonials poll, I'll be doing something different with the voting. After your vote has been cast, you will not be able to view poll statistics. In other words, you won't be able to see which logo has the most votes.

I'm hoping this will cut down on any potential bias in the balloting. Some people tend to look at the voting results before voting so that they can either pick the most popular or least popular one. Doing it this way puts every logo on an even playing field. In addition, no comments will be permitted on the polls. We can discuss them after the final vote has been tallied.

Once a poll has ended, the winning logo will be revealed via the team's very own Icethetics page within a day or two. I'll explain more how that works as time goes on.

Western Finalists Revealed

Here they are! I'm now unveiling the Top 3 finalist logos for each of the 15 IceHL teams in the Western Conference. I'm not revealing the final ratings for any of the logos so as not to taint the voting results. Logos are displayed in random order.

Alaska Huskies
Dan Stover	Tone Loc Productions	Sigma Kappa
Boulder Beasts
Eric Poole	Shawn Steadman	Sean Cox Tattoo
Calgary Cavalry
Chris Smith	Dave Delisle	Six Zero
California Wave
Roccot	JFred	Chris Smith
Dallas Outlaws
tdog	Six Zero	Chris Smith
Edmonton Kodiaks
Roccot	tdog	Sean Cox Tattoo
Houston Hellcats
Six Zero	Chris Smith	tdog
New Orleans Gators
Craig C. Wheeler	Six Zero	Chris Smith
Portland Pioneers
Chris Smith	Troz32	Roccot
Regina Renegades
Craig C. Wheeler	Six Zero	Roccot
Salt Lake City Scorpions
Six Zero	tdog	John Wriston
Saskatoon Sharpshooters
Eddie Ray Design	Six Zero	Dave Delisle
Seattle Aviators
Craig C. Wheeler	Tone Loc Productions	Paploo
Vancouver Lumberjacks
Emilis Acus	Eddie Ray Design	Chris Smith
Winnipeg Winterhawks
Six Zero	Pho3nix & Roccot	Craig C. Wheeler

As I mentioned, voting will kick off tomorrow right here on this page as we narrow these 90 logos down to 30. New polls will be posted five days a week (so I can get a breather every now and then). I will also be releasing the full logo voting schedule so you'll know when to check back for your favorite team. I'll also explain in detail how the voting process will work.

Note: Once again, the designer named Chris Smith is NOT me. We just have very common names.

Eastern Finalists Revealed

Welcome to the IceHL blog. From now on, this is where you'll find everything related to our fantasy hockey league project, so keep checking back here for what's new.

As promised, it's time for the unveiling of the Top 3 finalist logos for each of the IceHL teams in the Eastern Conference. I'm not revealing the final ratings for any of the logos so as not to taint the voting results. Logos are displayed randomly.

Atlanta Arsenal
Joey Light	John Wriston	ogre39666
Baltimore Blue Crabs
John Wriston	Joey Light	Chris Smith
Boston Colonials
Eric Poole	Chris Smith	Shawn Steadman
Chicago Hitmen
Six Zero	Roccot	Craig C. Wheeler
Detroit Motorheads
tdog	Craig C. Wheeler	Chris Smith
Hamilton Steelcats
Chris Smith	Roccot	Sean Cox Tattoo
Milwaukee Lagers
Eddie Ray Design	JFred	Craig C. Wheeler
Minnesota Mammoths
LLP	Tone Loc Productions	Chris Smith
Montreal Olympiques
Craig C. Wheeler	Eddie Ray Design	Southpaw Design
North Carolina Nighthawks
Six Zero	Emilis Acus	Nick Matarese
New York Guardians
tdog	Craig C. Wheeler	Roccot
Quebec Armada
Chris Smith	Jason New Era Usher	Craig C. Wheeler
St. Louis Archers
Roccot	Craig C. Wheeler	Sigma Kappa
Tampa Bay Barracudas
Craig C. Wheeler	Six Zero	Chris Smith
Washington Sentinels
Six Zero (1)	tdog	Six Zero (2)

The Western Conference finalists will be revealed tomorrow and voting will then begin this weekend. By the end of August, we will have logos for all 30 IceHL teams. That's when the fun starts — jersey designs! Before I start taking submissions on those, we'll have a poll deciding whether third jerseys should be introduced alongside the home and road sweaters or if they will be created later and only for select teams.

After that, there are a lot of options. We can make the uniforms available to be used in video games such as NHL 09. We can expand the league and add new teams, as has been suggested. Some of you have even put forth the idea of creating the IceHL's development league.

All great ideas, but all for the distant future. As for what's next, voting kicks off Saturday. Team polls will be posted here in random order. When you vote, you will have the artist's complete branding package available to make your decision.

Notes: While voting is taking place during the next few weeks, I'll be setting up an image gallery where you can view all logos submissions created for this project that weren't selected as finalists. Also, please be aware that the Chris Smith who designed many logos for the IceHL project is NOT me. It's just a ubiquitous name we share.