November 26, 2008

NHL Jersey Concepts

I haven't been putting up many jersey concepts recently so I decided to put up a whole plethora of them for this post.

Starting with the Thrashers.

Buffalo Sabres, using their new modified vintage logo.

Florida Panthers. A red version of their current jersey

Los Angeles Kings. White version of their new alternate.

Montreal Canadiens. Haha! Like they would ever change their jerseys.

Minnesota North Stars. Apparently they were supposed to go to black at one point in the 80's as their road sweaters.

New York Rangers. This is just a fun jersey, not really a good one.

Washington Capitals. I took their 70's/80's design and gave it the new logo and colours.

There ya go.

November 24, 2008

Final Alternate Jersey Update

Now that all 3rd jerseys have been officially released lets look at my original guesses versus what was actually produced. You can view the original post of all my guesses here.
Also, here is the graphic I provided from that post.

And here are all of the new alternate jerseys courtesy of nhluniforms.com

I was dead on with Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Edmonton, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Toronto.
I messed up on some of the colours and stripes on Atlanta, Buffalo, Los Angeles, San Jose, Tampa Bay, and Vancouver.
If only I had continued my elbow stripes completely around the arm on the Kings' jersey, then I would have been correct.
I was completely off on Carolina, Ottawa, Phoenix, and St. Louis

Here is my worst to first list of all the new alternate jerseys.

18. Phoenix (had high hopes for this one)
17. Carolina
16. Dallas
15. NY Islanders
14. Philadelphia
13. Ottawa
12. Pittsburgh
11. San Jose
10. Boston
9. Vancouver
8. Chicago
7. Edmonton
6. Tampa Bay
5. Atlanta

4. Toronto

3. Los Angeles

2. Buffalo

1. St. Louis


That's all for third jerseys for this year. Early word is that Minnesota and Washington will have new alternates next season.

November 14, 2008

The progress of Ian White

Ian White, of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is not a superstar, but he is a defenceman turned forward. Last season while playing solely in the backend for the Leafs he scored 5 goals and had 21 points in 81 games. Lets take a look at his mug shot from last season...

This season, he had a tough time getting into the Leafs' lineup. He played in nearly all of Toronto's preseason games, but was a healthy scratch for the first 11 games of the regular season. For the last 3 games of the preseason, the Leafs made an interesting move and put Ian White on forward, only because they had too many defencemen. Lets take a look at White during the preseason.

He finally got into the lineup on Sunday, November 2. He played forward and scored a goal in his first game of the season. One couldn't help notice that something was different. Take a look.

The power of the "stache". Since sporting that tickler Whitey has 2 goals and 5 points in 6 games. We'll see how well the "stache" can play for the rest of the season.

November 11, 2008

NHL Shootout

As the shootout to decide tie games enters its fourth season in use I have a couple of issues regarding it.

First off, I was never in favour of the shootout, but that is not for debate anymore. The shootout is here to stay, end of story. Secondly, I don't mind a stat being kept in a team's record for shootout and OT losses, but it should be kept seperate.

For example, the Maple Leafs currently have an official record of 6-5-4. Officially, they are one game above a .500 winning percentage. As far as I see it, They are 6-9 (3 games below .500) with 3 of those losses being in a shootout and one in OT. I think the record should read as follows

W - L (OTL - SOL)
6 - 9 ( 1 - 3) 16PTS
The extra point would still be awarded, but the loss would be counted in the regular LOSS column and noted in a seperate OT LOSS column.

My other major point is, that the younger players know how to get it done in the shootout. They have far more creative moves than older players. Crosby, Ovechkin, Toews etc. are all very exciting in the shootout. As opposed to Sakic, Selanne, or Modano who may only give you one or two side to side moves.

Five years down the road the shootout will be very exciting because of all the young, talented, creative shooters. Also, the new shootout event at the All Star Skills Competition will only get better every year.

November 5, 2008

Cheering on Your Team In Enemy Territory

Tomorrow I will make the 9 hour drive to Boston to watch my beloved Maple Leaf take on the Bruins. This is not my first road trip into enemy territory, as I have made the 90 minute drive to Buffalo twice, and the 5 hour drive to Montreal twice.

Which leads me to my point. If you really love hockey, then one thing to do before you die is go see your home team play in another team's building. It's exhilarating when your team wins, and you want to leave as fast as you can when they lose.

Previously in Buffalo I saw the Leafs lose 6-0 the day after they were eliminated from making the playoffs. Two years later, I went back to the HSBC Arena and saw them thump the Sabres 4-1. Buffalo is a lot easier to deal with than Montreal, as 50% of the fans are Leafs fans anyways.

Different story in Montreal. If you ever feel like you're behind enemy lines, Montreal is the place. The people there love their hockey, and even more so, their Canadiens. I think some Habs fans even take more joy in seeing the Leafs lose rather than the Habs winning. In October of 2005, I saw the Leafs defeat the Habs 3-2 (most fun ever!). Last year I saw the Leafs lose 3-1 to the Habs in the last game of the season. The city celebrated as if they had just won the Cup!

Another thing to do before you die is get to an NHL game in Montreal. The buzz in and around the building during the hockey season is phenomenal.

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