NHLToL Fantasy Team Photo

I wrote up a short post earlier about NHLToL's fantasy hockey team and I just wanted to thank all of you who have been laying the advice on me. Definitely will be making use of it.

Anyway, before I call it a night, thought I'd post this. Got bored and started goofing around. Here's what my teams looks like in visual form.

Rarely do I post my own work here, but I thought this was pretty cool.

You might notice that Paul Mara and Steve Sullivan are not pictured. That's because they will soon no longer be part of my team. I need to upgrade my defense and Sullivan may be out for a very long time. Anyway, that's all. I'm going to bed now. Got a TV show to make in the morning!

Center Ice Tournament?

One of the ideas I mentioned in the Pipeline is a logo tournament dealing in how center ice is painted in each arena. I think that would be a really cool one, but building graphics will require a lot of research and all the help I can get.

What I'd like is some help finding photos of center ice in every NHL rink. If any of you guys would be willing to help me find pictures, I'd be more than grateful and I'd find some way of making sure you get the credit you deserve.

Yesterday, I put together four graphics based on photos I found. See what you guys think and if it's a competition you'd be interested in, let me know.

The above images show what the ice looks like from directly above. But we could also use graphics that show what the ice looks like from the seats. Just an idea.

If you like this idea and want to help find photos, just keep in mind that the bigger and more detailed they are, the better. That detail will come in handy when figuring out the right fonts and logos to use. Plus, I don't know if you know this, but every rink in the league has a different pattern on the red line and I really want to get it as accurate as possible.

All right, so leave a comment and let me know what you guys are thinking. If nobody is interested, then I'll toss the idea aside and stop building graphics. If you want to move forward, I'll keep at it.

NHLToL's Fantasy Team

So here's something you guys probably won't be that interested in. I'm going to talk about it anyway, though.

I was invited to join an online fantasy league this season — something I've never really tried before but always wanted to. The idea was they wanted to get a bunch of hockey bloggers together for this one. Among those in the league are writers from PuckUpdate, Sean McCormick at Sportsnet and Abel To Yzerman, just to name a few.

Anyway, it's been pretty fun and just a few days into the season, NHLToL's team is #1 in a league of 11. I mean, that probably won't be the case for very long, but for right now I seem to be doing all right.

So here's a look at my team if you're interested. I have to say that I don't have four Lightning players by accident. It's perhaps a mistake on my part, but the Bolts are my team and I can't help it.

Though to be quite honest, they're the best-performing players I have right now between Vinny Lecavalier and Vinny Prospal. Right now I'm kicking myself for scratching Prospal last night in favor of Eric Staal. You never do that to your own! Staal was a -1 and did nothing last night while Prospal scored twice the Bolts' 5-2 win over Atlanta. See what I'm saying?

Anyway, lesson learned. No more benching Prospal in favor of Staal. I wish I could have a third center because I'd love to snatch Brad Richards away from somebody, but it wouldn't do me any good.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that if you guys are interested, I'll update you on the status of the NHLToL team. I'll probably do it even if you aren't interested though. And if it comes to it, I might even request your opinions if I have a difficult decision to make. After all, I'm not thinking of at as my team so much as the NHLToL team. My feeble way of trying to make it mean something to you guys as readers.

Anyway, as far as my players go, I'm considering dumping Steve Sullivan this week. Chances are he won't be back on the ice until at least December and even then it's a question mark. However, I saw Dan Boyle on the Lightning broadcast last night and I'd be interested in nabbing him in case he comes back sooner than expected. Regardless, I still have two IR spots to fill, so what's the harm?

My goalies have been all right. Chris Mason shut out the Avs in his first game of the season. I benched Marty Turco last night and good thing too since Mike Smith played for Dallas. Unfortunately, Cristobal Huet lost a 4-3 overtime decision to the Leafs but I'll live.

So let me know what you guys think. If you don't leave any comments, I'll take that as a hint. Just thought I'd at least mention it, though.

Seals Will Replace Blues

I got a few more emails today questioning the Vintage Tournament bracket. So I'm seeing the light. Since the Blues logo was a finalist in the last tournament and the vintage logo isn't all that different, I'm dropping them out of this pool. In their place...

...the Oakland Seals. The Seals will face the Atlanta Flames and that poll opens tomorrow morning.

Hope you guys approve. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out!

CBS Beats NHLToL To The Punch

I'm not sure how prudent it is to go promoting your competition as such, but I've never been one for prudence so here goes. I got an email today from Jeff who pointed out an interesting new feature at CBS Sports' web site.

Well crap, they even thought of a better name than I did. Sweater Showdown. And here's their bracket.

My guess is they just started within the last few days judging by when each voting period ends. So since I won't be doing a head-to-head jersey competition for some time — if ever, at this point — I don't mind sending you guys over there to cast your jersey votes with CBS.

However, if you'd like to rate the individual jerseys for the ranking I'll be publishing next month, go ahead and continue voting here at NHLToL. And if you guys want me to, I don't mind doing a head-to-head sweater tournament here as well.

Just drop me a line and let me know how you feel about it. And let me know what you think of the setup over there at CBS Sports. Do you like voting on one round all at once they way they have it, or do you like how I post a new poll every day? I'm all ears.

Vintage First Round Match-ups

It's here and it's official! Below are the 2007 Vintage Tournament first round match-ups. Plan your ballots accordingly!

North Stars vs Sabres Poll opens Oct 6 Blackhawks vs Nordiques Poll opens Oct 8 Jets vs Kings Poll opens Oct 10 Rockies vs Penguins Poll opens Oct 12

Flames vs Blues Poll opens Oct 7 Canucks vs Whalers Poll opens Oct 9 Capitals vs Bruins Poll opens Oct 11 Maple Leafs vs Scouts Poll opens Oct 13

In my opinion, the toughest competition will be between the Sabres and North Stars and the Canucks and Whalers. But somebody has to move on right? And soon enough, we'll find out just who that will be.

By the way, these match-ups were chosen completely at random (thanks, Random.org) so don't come whining to me if you don't like them. Blame fate itself.

Also, remember that each of these polls will now be open for five days. Expect to see the bracket posted in the sidebar at some point tomorrow. Enjoy your day!

Tons And Tons Of Votes!

Before I call it a night I just thought I'd disperse some numbers now that the 2007 Championship Tournament has come to an end. In terms of the actual tournament itself, 456,600 votes were cast on our way to determining a champion! Here are some more numbers.

456,600
Votes cast in all Championship Tournament polls combined ending with the Montreal Canadiens' ultimate victory.

142,000 +
Votes cast in all Logo History polls combined to date.

11,700 +
Votes cast in all Rbk EDGE Review polls combined to date.

And the biggest number of all...

610,300 and counting...
That is how many votes have been cast here at NHLToL since I opened the first poll on August 12.

Thanks to everyone who has been voting and I hope you'll continue to vote on each and every poll I post in the future. Remember, as long as you guys keep coming back to vote, I'll keep adding to new polls for you to vote on. Thanks!

Vintage Tournament To Open Saturday!

With the Montreal Canadiens having been crowned the logo champion, we've also got a final tally on the next NHL Tournament of Logos.

Ladies and gentlemen, the 2007 Vintage Tournament will begin with its first poll on Saturday, October 6. Vintage was chosen by an extremely small margin as you can see in the final results on the right. That means Third Jersey logos will probably be up next.

Once again, just as a reminder, here is the Vintage Tournament logo pool. Starting on Saturday, these are the logos you all will be voting on.

Now, the necessary housekeeping. We're going to experience a few differences between the new tournament and one we just completed. For one thing, polls will now be open for five days, instead of eight. The fact is, we just don't need that much time to cast votes. Most of you guys are here every day or every other day and you vote right off the bat. So I'm hoping that will keep up.

Also, the new bracket will be completely random (thanks, Random.org). I already have the matchups as of right now and I'll be posting those tomorrow afternoon, so stay tuned for that. Bet you can't guess who's facing whom in the first round!

If you have any questions about the Vintage Tournament, feel free to leave a comment or email me. Get ready to choose the best vintage logo in the NHL!

In The Pipeline

I get emails on a daily basis with excellent ideas on ways to further this blog. Plus every so often, some of my own ideas spring up on me. And there are a handful of them that I'd like to move forward with in the future. So I'm using this post to publicly keep track of what's under development for NHLToL as well as the new ToHL.

NHL Tournament of Logos

Upcoming Logo Tournaments
The next three logo touranments I have planned are Vintage Logos, Secondary Logos and Third Jersey Logos. Right now, you guys are voting on what the next one will be. And at the time of this writing, Vintage has a slight edge over Third Jersey. So that's the more immediate future. Each of these tournaments will last roughly four to five weeks.

On days off from regular polls, while we wait for the next challenger to move ahead, we'll do bonus polls just like in the Championship Tournament. We've been doing Logo History polls which take feature only the primary logos in a team's past against its current mark. During the next tournament, my plan is to have logos from relocated teams square off. For example, Coyotes versus Jets, Avalanche versus Nordiques and Hurricanes versus Whalers. The plan is to get through as many as possible.

In the future, we can also hold votes on primary versus secondary as well. My other thought is that if we ever run out of ideas of things to vote on (not likely) we could just pick a year and take all the logos that were used in that season and hold a year-specific logo tournament.

Rbk EDGE Uniforms
As you know, the new Rbk EDGE uniforms have been a big point of interest for me on this blog. I'm in the middle of writing a series of reviews for all of the new sweaters. When that is complete, we'll tally up the final votes and see how the jerseys rank with each other. I'm also putting together a bunch of easy-access information on the new jerseys which I'll tell you more about soon.

Another interesting idea would be a Uniform Tournament. You all would be able to vote on the best of the new Rbk EDGE uniforms. And by the same token, we could also do a throwback tournament where you vote on the best of the old uniforms as well.

Center Ice Logos added 10/3
Just remembered another idea I'd been thinking about. And I'd like to do this one soon depending on what you guys think. We can hold a Tournament of Center Ice Logos. In every arena across the league, the center ice logo is portrayed just a little bit different. We can find out who has the best one.

Goalie Mask Voting
I know it's called this NHL Tournament of Logos, but I think this site is about more than logos. One thing that a lot of people have suggested is voting on various goalie masks from around the league. Some of the designs are very creative and are worth taking a good look at, if you ask me. I'm collecting pictures at the moment, but some time before this hockey season is over, I would very much like to do a Goalie Mask Tournament.

Another great suggestion I've gotten is doing a Goalie Mask Concept Gallery where you all could design masks and submit them. Let me know if that's something you're interested in and perhaps I'll move forward with it. (10/11)

NHLToL Web Domain
One small thing that I'm considering is getting the blog it's own domain such as nhltol.com or something of the like. You'd still be able to access it at nhllogos.blogspot.com, but what would you guys think of that? And what address should I try to get? As a side note, if I did that, I'd ask for donations as I've yet to put a single penny into making this site. No sense in starting anytime soon, right? Of course, it would be up to the readers.

Tournament of Hockey Logos

AHL or ECHL? Or AHL vs ECHL?
The two biggest and most popular minor leagues are arguably the AHL and ECHL. Therefore, they'll be up first. At the moment, I'm holding a poll over there for folks to decided which one will be first. The AHL is running away with it after over 1,000 votes. You still have two weeks to vote, however.

Plus, once both tournaments have ended, we'll have a poll between the best AHL and best ECHL logo. We could even set up an entire bracket of individual match-ups of AHL versus ECHL logos. But first, I'd want to get to some of the other minor leagues.

Other Leagues Under Consideration
There are many minor and junior leagues out there, some with great team logos. I'd like to cover as many as possible. Among those I'm considering:
CHL - Central Hockey League
OHL - Ontario Hockey League
QMJHL - Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
WHL - Western Hockey League
BCHL - British Columbia Hockey League
EIHL - Elite Ice Hockey League
USHL - United States Hockey League
NAHL - North American Hockey League
IHL - International Hockey League (current IHL and defunct IHL)

And there's no reason why we can't do any other defunct leagues or teams as well. If there is anything else not on this list that you think should be considered, please let me know.

Concept Logo Tournament
One of the things we do a lot here is concept art. Everyday, I get new emails with concept art designed by readers. And every day I try to post a few items. Well one thought for a competition is to do a Concept Logo Tournament. We'll take the best concept logos from every team and see which one comes out on top.

Rec League Tournaments
We could even collect logo submissions from recreational leagues and high school teams. That would make for an interesting tournament because the majority of the voters would have no emotional connection to the teams and could vote free of fan bias.

College Uniform Voting
A great idea that was suggested is a College Hockey Uniform Tournament. We could have votes on logos, but a lot of them are very institutional and might not stand up to certain kinds of competition. Still, the uniforms might be fair game.

I know all that up there is a lot to consider, but it just means that these two sites have potentially big futures ahead of them. And as long as you guys keep coming back to vote, I'll keep thinking up polls to let you vote on.

The biggest thing I need to mention in this post is that I want your input! I'm making this site for you guys so if there's something you want to see that I haven't posted here, please drop me a line. I'm open to doing all sorts of things but I can't think of everything myself. So review each category above and if you see something you think you can improve upon or if there's something I haven't covered, feel free to contribute.

I look forward to hearing from you guys!

ToHL Inaugural Logo Pools Posted

Just in case you guys haven't been keeping an eye on the new Tournament of Hockey Logos blog, I thought I'd make a quick mention of it here.

I've posted the logo pools for the AHL and ECHL today, which you can see here to the left.

Once again I just wanted to point out that I'm not as well-versed in the minor leagues as the NHL, so if I've got any incorrect logos or anything, please don't hesitate to let me know. My aim is accuracy here.

Voting will start on that site on Monday, October 15. The two weeks will allow time for folks to cast their ballots and choose AHL or ECHL as the inaugural tournament for the new blog. So check out the logos and cast your vote as to which one is going first.

Then keep checking back for updates leading up to the first poll being posted two weeks from today.

Hope everyone enjoys voting on the minor league logos. Some of them are pretty awesome — and some of them, not so much.

As always, please drop me a line if you have any suggestions on ways to keep improve these two sites. Thanks!