Tournament Analysis: Six Weeks

This has been a big day what with the unveiling of the new San Jose Sharks logo. As a reminder, that new logo will take effect in the tournament beginning with the Sharks' next match which is August 9. Now, with things winding down it's time for an update on where we are in the tourney.

The Late Leaders

With just one game to play in the final two weeks of the tournament, the Devils have a commanding lead over the league with 32 points. The Avalanche follow with 26, just ahead of the Hurricanes with 25. The Wild and Panthers each have 23 points followed by the Predators with 20. The top 8 rounds out with the Flames and Canadiens who currently sit with 18 poins. Most notably are the top 3 teams, each of who have swept 7 matches — that's exactly half of all their games in the tournament. These are impressive logos. Keep them in mind next time you're designing a logo for your fantasy hockey team. What's weird is how many of those teams use red as their primary color. Hmmm.

If The Playoffs Were Tomorrow...
We're winding down in the competition here so you can almost tell who will likely be in the Championship Tournament. If you need a refresher on how to determine who moves on to the next tournament, read this.

EAST

The Flyers and Devils are still at the top of the Atlantic Division while the Canadiens and Senators continue to ride the top of the Northeast. The Hurricanes and Panthers still sit atop the Southeast as well, so the East is still looking pretty much the same as it did two weeks ago. As for the wild card spot, the Thrashers have a 5-point hold on that with 17 points. So if the playoffs began tomorrow, the following teams would move on from the Eastern Conference: the Flyers, Devils, Canadiens, Senators, Hurricanes, Panthers, and Thrashers.

WEST

The Predators and Blue Jackets are leading the Central Division. High atop the Northwest are the Avalanche and Wild. And leading the Pacific Division are the Kings and Sharks, each with 17 points. The top 2 teams in each division of the West have changed since two weeks ago, in stark comparison with the East. Claiming the wild card spot with 18 points would be the Flames. The Blue Jackets and Kings have knocked the Blues and Stars out of contention since two weeks ago. If the playoffs started tomorrow, the following Western Conference teams would be eligible: the Predators, Blue Jackets, Avalanche, Wild, Kings, Sharks, and Flames.

But of course, it's not over until it's over. This is a marathon tournament and there is still a ways to go. But if you're team hasn't made a good showing by now, the chances of catching up are slim with only a handful of matches remaining.

The Good, The Bad...


Shockingly, at this stage of the tournament, there are still two teams who have yet to lose a match. The Hurricanes and Wild remain undefeated and could theoretically finish their schedule that way. That's how you know a good logo — when none of the others can beat it. Not surprisingly, none of the teams remain winless at this point. But there are a handful who have won only once. The Islanders, Maple Leafs, Oilers and Ducks each have just a single tally in the W column. Shame about that.

...And The Ugly

This tournament awards points to teams even when they lose a match. If you lose 2-1, you still get that one point. But if you lose 3-0, you obviously get no points. The Ducks still have the league's worst logo, despite having picked up three points in the last two weeks. The Penguins and Maple Leafs aren't doing much better sitting with just 6 points after 9 and 11 matches, respectively. The Oilers and Islanders are the only other teams who haven't broke double-digits in points. The Oilers have 8 and the Islanders have 9, each in 11 matches. Those logos are pretty basically bottom-of-the-barrel at this point with very bad odds of nabbing a playoff spot. Maybe a redesign will give them a better chance next time around.

Late Summary
The Southeast and Central Divisions appear to be the strongest, as they're the only two in which all five teams have hit double-digits in points. I'd almost be willing to bet on a Hurricanes vs. Wild final if the playoff tournament worked that way. I really am led to wonder whether whther it will come down to this two based on their performance so far.

What we'll have to wait on, though, is how these teams perform against the opposing conference. It's an exciting time right now. It almost reminds me of the feeling I get in March when the real season is winding down. I can't wait for the playoffs!

I'm thrilled to report that over the past several days, traffic here on this blog has skyrocketed in a way I never would've imagined. Just a few weeks ago I was averaging 60, maybe 70 hits a day. But late last week, some of you who've visited the site posted links on several hockey message boards around cyberspace. I hit a record of 758 hits in one day last week. Then just yesterday, an all-time high was reached at 2,716. Can you imagine?

Since Friday, the NHL Tournament of Logos has been averaging 2,000 hits a day thanks in large part to the news I've been keeping up with regarding new logos (Sharks) and uniforms as the league makes the switch to the Rbk EDGE jerseys this fall. Regardless of why you're visiting, I'd just like to thank everyone who's stopped by. And if there's anything you think I can do to improve the blog, please don't hesitate to let me know.

What's To Come?
I posted a poll in the sidebar asking if visitors to the blog would be interested in participating in the next cycle of the tournament. I recently surpassed my goal of getting 100 votes, more than 90 of which answered "yes." So when this tournament ends, stick around if you want to be involved in decided the best of the NHL's logos. Because after all, who really cares about my opinion anyway? It should be decided by you all!

Tournament Analysis: Four Weeks

We're now just about halfway through the competition so its time to take another look at where things stand. Remember, each team plays 14 matches, teams with 7 are of course midway through the tournament.

The Midpoint Leaders

First and foremost, are the Hurricanes. They've been wiping the floor with everyone, having swept 75% of their 8 matches to date. Obviously, they lead the league with 22 points. Coming in a somewhat distant second are the Predators with 17 points in 9 matches. Behind them are the Avalanche with 16 points in 6 matches, so they still have a long way to go and could be a dominant force in the West. The Flames and Canadiens 15 points in 7 and 8 matches, respectively. The Panthers and Sharks each have 13 points in 6 and 8 matches, respectively.

If The Playoffs Were Tomorrow...
Here at the halfway point of the tournament, it's still too early to tell who will make it to the Championship Tournament. But that doesn't mean we can't talk about it anyway. If you need a refresher on how to determine who moves on to the next tournament, read this.

EAST

At present, the Flyers and Devils are at the top of the Atlantic Division. The Rangers are a point behind the Devils but the Devils have four games at hand. The Canadiens and Senators lead the Northeast and the Hurricanes and Panthers top the Southeast. As for the wild card spot, there's a three-way tie. Rangers, Thrashers and Capitals each have 10 points. However, the Capitals have the tie breaker. And if the playoffs started tomorrow, the following teams would move on from the Eastern Conference: the Flyers, Devils, Canadiens, Senators, Hurricanes, Panthers, and Capitals.

WEST

The Predators and Blues still lead the Central Division two weeks after the last time we checked in. High atop the Northwest are the Flames and Avalanche. And leading the Pacific Division are the Sharks and Stars. At this point the Wild take wild card spot with 11 points. So if the playoffs began tomorrow, the following Western Conference teams would be eligible: the Predators, Blues, Avalanche, Flames, Sharks, Stars and Wild.

But once again, we're only halfway through this competition. This is a marathon tournament and there is still a long way to go. So if your team hasn't made a good showing yet, there's still plenty of time...

The Baddest Of The Bad

...unless they just have a really bad logo. This tournament awards points to teams even when they lose a match. If you lose 2-1, you still get that one point. But if you lose 3-0, you obviously get no points. The Ducks still have the league's worst logo, having earned no points in 6 matches to date. The Penguins aren't doing much better sitting with 1 point in only 4 matches. They still have a lot of matches ahead of them. The Maple Leafs have 5 points in 7 matches while the Bruins have 6 points in 4 matches. Those guys are pretty much bottom of the barrel at this point.

Averaging Well

Another element worth looking at here halfway through, is points percentage. Since the number of matches played for each team varies from 4 to 10, the straight-up number of points isn't always a good barometer for determining who's doing well. For that, we look at their points percentage, which is the number of points they've earned out of the points available to them. Each match is worth 3 points so a team that's played 5 matches has had the opportunity to earn 15 points. But nobody's perfect.

Despite an 11-point difference between them, the Hurricanes and Wild both have a .917 and, of course, no losses yet in the tourney. The Avalanche are .889 and the Devils are .733 a this point. Rounding out the top 5 is the Panthers with a .722 percentage.

Undefeated

Some teams are doing rather impressive right now. Logos with absolutely no losses here at the competition's halfway point are the Hurricanes, Wild, Avalanche and Flames. Is it weird they all have a shade of red as their primary color?

Winless

And some teams are doing the opposite of impressive right now. Logos with absolutely no wins at the halfway point are the Ducks and Penguins. Hopefully there's light at the end of the tunnel for these guys. I'd hate to see anyone go the entire length of the tournament without a single win to show for it.

Midway Summary
It's looking like the Northwest Division will probably be the top division in the tournament. Three of its five teams have yet to lose a match. I'm also impressed with the Hurricanes' performance. They've surprised me, actually, just like when they won the Stanley Cup in 2006. It'll be interesting to see when/if they ever lose match. They've been unstoppable so far. But I'd be surprised to see any team finish with no losses, or no wins for that matter. I don't think any of the logos stand out quite that much. But we'll just have to see.

So here we are. Just another month to go before the Championship Tournament. Can you feel the excitement? No? The average number of visitors to the blog has dropped to around 60 a day. I'm not surprised, though. No one's really that interested in this drivel of mine, but for those of you who are reading, I appreciate it and I hope you're getting some kind of enjoyment out of it.

What's Left?
Well technically, the tourney is half-over (a dead horse I've been beating for the better part of this post), but only six teams have actually played exactly half of their schedule (7 of 14 matches). Those teams are the Flames, Canucks, Blackhawks, Red Wings, Kings and Maple Leafs. So obviously some teams have more and some have less. The Flyers have already played 10 matches leaving only 4 to go while the Wild, Bruins and Penguins have each played only 4 therefore having 10 remaining. So it will be interesting to see how everything turns out. Keep reading and comment whenever you feel like it.

Tournament Analysis: Two Weeks

The tournament being two weeks ago today so now is as good a time as any to take a look at where things are.

Early League Leaders

The Predators and Blues lead the Central Division with 11 and 10 points respectively. Each has 6 matches under its belt. Only the Oilers have more with 7 and a record of 1-6. In a four-way points tie for third place league-wide are the Wild, Panthers, Capitals and Sharks, each with 8 points. The Wild are 3-0 while the other three teams are 3-1. But as per tournament rules, it doesn't really matter who leads the league in the end — only who finished at the top of their divisions. It will be those six teams plus a wild card that move on to the Championship Tournament.

If The Playoffs Were Tomorrow...
Just two weeks in, it's impossible to tell who will make it to the Championship Tournament. Anything can happen. But that doesn't mean its not fun to think about it anyway. If you need a refresher on how to determine who moves on to the next tournament, read this.

EAST At this point in the Atlantic, the Flyers and Rangers are shoo-ins. But let's not forget the Devils have played only one match. The Northeast is led by the Sabres and Senators with the Canadiens and Bruins each with just two matches played. Atop the Southeast are the Panthers and Capitals with the Hurricanes and Lightning having played only two matches each. Regardless of how unfair it would be consider since teams are rather uneven in the number of matches played, we'll do it anyway. If they playoffs started tomorrow, the following teams would move on from the Eastern Conference: the Flyers, Rangers, Sabres, Senators, Panthers, Capitals and Hurricanes.

WEST In the Central, the Predators and Blues are running away with the show. The Wild and Flames sit atop the Northwest while the Sharks and Kings lead in the Pacific. The Stars and Coyotes join the Devils among the clubs with the fewest matches played — having just one each. So if the playoffs began tomorrow, the following Western Conference teams would be eligible: the Predators, Blues, Wild, Flames, Sharks, Kings and Oilers.

But friends, we've only just begun. This will be a marathon tournament that won't end until almost the middle of August. So if your team hasn't made a good showing yet, there's still plenty of time...

The Baddest Of The Bad

...unless they just have a really bad logo. This tournament awards points to teams even when they lose a match. If you lose 2-1, you still get that one point. But if you lose 3-0, you obviously get no points. At this point in the competition, the Ducks have had 4 matches yet have exactly no points to show for it. Sadly, I just don't see them advancing very high in the Pacific Division. Other noteworthy bombs seem to be out of the East, in the form of the Maple Leafs, Penguins and Islanders. These are all teams without a single win. The Blackhawks, Red Wings and Oilers aren't doing much better, each having just one win along with a handful of losses. (This, despite the Oilers being eligible for the playoffs at this point. And that's only because more matches equal more possible points.)

Sitting On The Fence

Then there are the teams who haven't quite been awesome or abyssmal. The Bruins, Thrashers, Lightning, Blue Jackets and Canucks each have as many wins as losses to this point in the tournament. But anything can happen. Keep an eye out for their future progress. They could go up or down — or just stick to the middle of the road all the way through.

But Now Back To The Best

Were you wondering who's kicking ass and taking names? Well to this point that would be the Hurricanes and Stars. They've swept their only matches to this point and are the only teams with "perfect" records. The Hurricanes have two matches and the Stars have one. Other teams are undefeated and they are the Devils, Canadiens, Wild, Flames, Avalanche and Coyotes.

Early Summary
I would do a bit of predictions here but that would be a little unfair considering I'll be the one deciding the fates of each logo as I continue to write every match of the tournament. Instead I'll just say that it has been going very well so far. I've been happy with the readership since the tournament began. According to my stats, we've been averaging about 70 to 80 hits a day. It's not overwhelming and I'd sure love to see more visitors, but I'll take what I can get. I just hope that those of you who keep coming back are enjoying the nonsense I keep coming up with — that and the news on new logos and Rbk EDGE jerseys.

Changes

The Capitals unveiled a new logo on June 22. It took effect in the tournament on June 23 when they faced the Islanders. The Bruins unveiled their new logo on June 21. Their first match after that date was on June 25 against the Maple Leafs. The Blue Jackets also unveiled new uniforms and made the official announcement that the old third jersey logo would now be the team's primary mark. That logo has been used since the beginning of this tournament.