Some Unconfirmed Third Jersey News

I got an email earlier in the week that I was unable to post until now. It was from a reader who wrote in that a Reebok representative has apparently confirmed which teams will be wearing third jerseys next season. I'll say right off that neither I nor this reader can completely vouch for the veracity of this information, but having said that, I see no reason not to put it out there anyway as mere speculation.

The list includes the Sabres, Oilers, Flyers and Blues, which we've already heard rumors about. However, it doesn't include the Penguins who are apparently looking to don the retro jerseys they wore at the Winter Classic.

The rest of the list shapes up like this, in alphabetical order:

• Atlanta Thrashers


• Boston Bruins


• Carolina Hurricanes


• Chicago Blackhawks


• Dallas Stars


• Los Angeles Kings


• Minnesota Wild


• New York Islanders


• Ottawa Senators


• Phoenix Coyotes


• San Jose Sharks


• Tampa Bay Lightning


• Toronto Maple Leafs


• Vancouver Canucks

From that list, all but four had third jerseys last season. One would assume most of them would stay the same.

Boston, Toronto and Vancouver wore retro threads. An obvious choice to keep. Vancouver switched back to their original colors this season. However, the introduction of a new Johnny Canuck logo leads me to wonder whether they might head in that direction for an eventual discontinuation of the whale altogether. But that may just be wishful thinking.

Chicago, San Jose and Ottawa simply wore black versions of their standard jerseys. Seems to me they'd probably do something similar with new thirds. Also, Carolina has never had a third but black seems like a smart option. And since introducing their new colors and logo, the Coyotes have yet to try out a third. But if they do, you might see it in black as well.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Kings and Islanders stick with last year's thirds. They utilized different colors, and a different logo in Los Angeles' case. Minnesota made their red third into their regular home sweater this year but the green may well make a comeback if they go with an alternate.

Dallas' most recent attempt at a third left a lot to be desired so we might see something completely different for them. Or we might just see a green jersey with "STARS" written across it in white. Also, Atlanta recently converted its original third to the current home jersey, so I'm not sure what to expect from them. Perhaps something in dark blue reminiscent of their early days?

And finally, there's my Lightning. Very few people liked Tampa Bay's blue third with rain drops, waves and lightning bolts on the arms from the late '90s. I was one of them. But I wouldn't expect to see anything like that if we do end up with an alternate next year. I would expect to see a nice blue sweater though.

Enjoy the speculation. As hard facts become available, you can count on me to have them posted right here at NHLToL.

So if you guys want to start coming up with concepts of what you think next year's crop of third jerseys might look like, go for it! Email them to me and they may well find their way onto the blog.

Just To Freak You Out XXVI

After a week off, Freak Out Friday is back in action tonight! And there's some pretty crazy stuff here. We're beginning in Alberta with a rivalry between the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames.

Now, we've seen "If They Mated" concepts created simply by recoloring one team's logo with the other's colors. This goes a step beyond that. Actual time and effort was put into this. And that in itself is frightening.

Yeah, I'll understand if you need a minute after seeing that. But hold on, now. Wait until you seem these logos on jerseys.

I really don't know what to say about that. But while we're on the topic of odd jerseys, I have these.

The Boston Bruins should never use this logo ever again. I understand it as something coming out of the 1970s. But we're all a little older now and just look at it. It's ridiculous. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Scouts on a Wild jersey? Just weird.

Now I've got some offbeat logos. The first is a Kings/Ducks mixture.

The Los Angeles Mighty King Ducks of Anaheim is pretty spectacular. But how about the Pennsylvania Flying Penguins? (No, I didn't make that up.)

Also we've got a morphed Minnesota Wild logo, making obvious use of the letters MW much to my disapproval.

It's not like I don't appreciate the work put into this, but the Wild have a pretty awesome logo as it is. To do this to it has got to be considered heresy in some manner. Which reminds me...

Yeah, it takes "Flaming C" to a whole new level. (No pun — or offense — intended.)

All right, yes the pun was very much intended.

Random Selections

More new concept art! I'm on a roll this week! So Monday we did California and Tuesday was Vancouver. Today I decided to be completely random. And the teams that came out of the hat were the Boston Bruins, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues. So we'll have fan-designed logos and uniforms for those three teams for now.

I really like the new retro-looking secondary Bruins logo. But you shouldn't do this to it.

If you think it doesn't get worse, you're wrong.

Moving away from scary things now, we have some fans' suggestions for the retooling of the Wild jerseys.

I have to say as much as I like what they have now, that one on the left is really sharp too. The green shoulders are great. I'm not sure how I feel about the circle logo on the white jersey. Feels to me like it's getting lost. And then for a complete change of pace, consider a green sweater with the circle logo.

For one thing, that's a terrible green. But I think last year's green jersey is far superior. There's not enough green in this league.

These next two sketches were designed for the St. Louis Blues on the idea of what the NHL really meant for the jerseys to look like on the players. Of course this is only feasible in cartoon land.

In any other land, it's disproportionate and anatomically impossible. Sharp work, though.

I think we'll do some more randomly chosen teams tomorrow. I've still got over a hundred items in my inbox that need to be posted. By the way, you guys are awesome for continuing to send stuff in. You don't know how much I appreciate it.

Just To Freak You Out XXV

Time for this week's Freak Out Friday post — which happens to be the 25th ever. You know you love it. By the way, you're going to start to notice a very specific theme. Just go with it. I'll begin with a little something to startle you.

Now something to downright disgust you.

Who would do that to the Blues logo? And why?

Beware of purple sweaters.

And scary Tim Burton penguins.

Also white sweaters, apparently.

And sweaters with trees on them.

Yellow ones as well.

There's so much to be wary about these days that you might hope to find solace in the Vancouver Canucks.

All hope is lost.

And any notion of a sensible design.

Finally, the fisherman you all love so much may not have worked for the Islanders, but if the Whalers every make a return, I think we've found their man.

Hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Stay tuned for a brand new one next week. Same bat time. Same bat channel. (Batman on the brain. Just watched Batman Begins again today.)

Just To Freak You Out XXI

The Freak Out series hits 21 this week — old enough to get hammered. And boy, I think some of the designers this week had to have been hammered. I mean, just look at this.

It might take a moment or two to notice that this is an "If They Mated" example. It's the new Sharks secondary logo merged with the Mighty Ducks third jersey of the mid-90s. But I love it!

This Flames jersey is on fire! Someone on eBay is really selling it. For real.

Sidney Crosby recently dropped the gloves in a rare on-ice event. This picture isn't real but it cracks me up nonetheless. There's just so much about it that's so wrong. I'm curious to see if the guys over at Pensblog have anything to say about this.

And finally, we have a plethora of "matings" here to share.

To sum things up, what you see above is the Flyers and Bruins, Rangers and Islanders, Devils and Sabres, Blue Jackets and Blackhawks, Avalanche and Wild, Blues and Red Wings, Canucks and Hurricanes (weird!), Bruins and Flyers (opposite of the first one) and Stars and Coyotes.

But wait, there's more.

This one is interesting because it's all opposites of the previous image. They are the Coyotes and Stars, Blackhawks and Blue Jackets, Hurricanes and Canucks, Islanders and Rangers, Sabres and Devils, Red Wings and Blues (what the—?), and Wild and Avalanche.

Hope you enjoyed being freaked out. Have a fantastic weekend!

Poll: Thrashers vs Wild

	vs
Atlanta THRASHERS		Minnesota WILD

Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment as to how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Poll opening date Thu Dec 13

Poll closing date Mon Dec 17

07SCTRN | #1F | ATLvMIN

Just To Freak You Out XV

We were a little thin in terms of new Freak Out art this week, so forgive me if today's post is a little light. Still, nothing pleases me more than trying to freak you guys out with some crazy concept art.

As many of you know, the NHL unveiled the 2008 All-Star Game sweaters this week. Reader reaction here was not great. In fact, I got some very Freak Out-worthy concepts based off of those jerseys.

John sent those in along with a few others. You'll be able to find them in the Concepts Gallery this weekend.

We'll keep things moving with the Pittsburgh Penguins next. Each concept here imagines a drastic change. For instance, the first example suggests renaming the team the Pirates — a club that once existed in Pittsburgh during the early years of the NHL.

And the second suggests that the team keep the name but move to Russia.

That silly penguin even looks Russian.

And then, this goes out to all the folks from Quebec. It just doesn't look right. At all.

We'll keep things in the Western Conference now. With all the vanity in the world these days, you had to see this coming.

It seems even the Chicago Blackhawks' Indian head wanted a facelift. Either that or he got the Botox. And don't think I'm ignoring the Bears reference in there.

Next we'll head to Detroit where I'm quite concerned.

I think the grey jersey is an interesting choice, but I don't think an octopus will ever be anything but scary on a Red Wings concept. That tradition should stay off the sweater. Having said that, as a logo itself, it's not bad. But I'm still very, very concerned.

And finally, with Christmas just 39 days away, I thought I'd start my decorating now.

Ho ho ho!

If you've made or run across any concepts you think might be worth posting for Freak Out Friday, don't be shy. Send them along! You can email me at nhllogos@gmail.com.

Poll: Wild vs Rangers

	vs
Minnesota WILD		New York RANGERS

Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment as to how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Poll opening date Fri Nov 16

Poll closing date Tue Nov 20

07TJTRN | #2C | MINvNYR

Poll: Wild vs Avalanche

	vs
Minnesota WILD		Colorado AVALANCHE

Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment as to how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Poll opening date Fri Nov 9

Poll closing date Tue Nov 13

07TJTRN | #1E | MINvCOL

What A Wild Work Of Art!

You know, surprisingly, it has been a lot of work getting the new site up and running in the last few days. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the Tournament of Hockey Logos blog, the spinoff to NHLToL. If you're a minor league hockey fan, head over there and vote for which league will get the first tournament — AHL or ECHL.

Now onto today's news — or something like that. Two months ago I posted a really cool secondary logo someone designed for the Minnesota Wild using the outline of the state itself. Well another one was sent to me and I think it's even better!

I can't get over how many talented people read and contribute to this blog. It's really a great thing. That logo matches so well with the primary while at the same time maintaining its own identity. That is very impressive work and I'd like to be the first to say so.

On a separate yet Wild-related note, several fans have suggested the team return to green home jerseys and keep the red for an alternate sweater. So here's what the current home jersey would look like in green.

It certainly is unique and not all that bad, if you ask me. Yet for some reason this one conjures up Christmas for me — unlike the red one. So I'm posing the question to you all. What do you think?

Beyond that, what do you think of that logo? Impressive work isn't it? I look forward to reading your comments as always.