Center Ice Champion

Congrats to the Penguins!
With 58% of the nearly 4,000 votes, the center ice design of the Pittsburgh Penguins has been declared the best in the NHL. My thanks to all who voted and all the folks who linked people here! The visitor count for the blog skyrocketed this last week for this final poll.

I'm working on championship banner ideas. I think I'll include all the logo champions from both NHLToL and ToHL in the new banners. Hope to have them posted at the bottom of the pollbar in the next few weeks.

I'm also thinking about the next logo tournament. I'm considering an IHA Tournament of Logos. Maybe a Rbk EDGE jersey tournament. Third jerseys for sure once they've all been unveiled officially. If you've got any other ideas, let me know by email or comment.

IHA Final Art: Pacific

This week we're unveiling of the winning logo sets for each team in the IHA Project. This week we've looked at the final artwork for the Atlantic, West and Northeast Divisions. Today we're doing the Pacific.

Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.


Roccot


Bleetch


Emilis Acus


Emilis Acus


Roccot

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated in any other way for all your work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know. However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Tomorrow I'll unveil the final logo designs for the Great Lakes Division. Then next week you'll vote on the Central Division logos and the following week I'll post the final designs and this project will officially come to an end. I look forward to seeing artwork from the same talented designers for the next project!

Sabres Tease Third

The splash page for the Buffalo Sabres' official web site has what appears to be a new third jersey teaser on an ad promoting the sale of preseason tickets.

It's a close-up of a blue jersey with a yellow collar. There are laces and a silver section at the neck with the NHL shield. Here's the image appearing on the web site.



Remember, they will officially unveil the new third jersey two weeks from Saturday.

Thanks to everybody who sent in this info. And seriously, there were a lot of you. I appreciate that.

IHA Final Art: Northeast

This week we're unveiling of the winning logo sets for each team in the IHA Project. This week we've looked at the final artwork for the Atlantic and West Divisions. Today we move on to the Northeast.

Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.


Marc


Brad


Roccot


Ivall


Ivall

There's a big change you may notice. At the request of the league operator, Nicolas, I've swapped colors between the Ottawa Capitals and Toronto Knights. That means the Capitals are now red and the Knights are blue.

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated in any other way for all your work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know. However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Tomorrow I'll unveil the final logo designs for the Pacific Division.

Leafs Redoing Centre Ice

Just as we're wrapping up our Center Ice Tournament, we learn things will be changing pretty drastically for one team — not the Canadiens. In fact, it's their arch-rival the Toronto Maple Leafs I'm talking about.

The man with all the info — allegedly — Howard Berger had the following to say on his Hockey Buzz blog tonight.

Fans attending games at the Air Canada Centre this season will notice a pair of significant changes. The centre-ice design will now feature a giant Leafs logo enveloping the entire circle, rather than the two smaller logos that previously flanked the checkered red line. I saw the updated art-work earlier today and it looks sharp.

For those with short term memory loss, here's what was entered into the competition for the Leafs.



Yeah, not surprisingly they saw a first-round exit from the tournament at the hands of the Blue Jackets. Should be interesting to see what they do this year. But don't count on Berger to provide pictures though. He's industrious enough to "see" things but can't quite show them to us. Ah, but he is a radio man after all, right?

Tip of the hat to Alan for the link. He's asked that anyone interested throw together a concept of what this new ice design might look like. My inbox awaits.

IIHF Gets An EDGE

I got an interesting email linking me to the International Ice Hockey Federation's web site. Apparently Reebok has now taken their shtick overseas.

There are jerseys in the Rbk EDGE style for the 14 teams in the Champions Hockey League — not quite sure what that's about. (I guess I could've read up.)



I have a passing interest in that one only because they Lightning are playing them in an exhibition game before hitting the ice in Prague against the Rangers for the season opener. I believe they are called Slovan Bratislava. (That was a copy/paste.)

Thanks to Paul for the info.

IHA Final Art: West

This week we're unveiling of the winning logo sets for each team in the IHA Project. Yesterday we looked at the final artwork for the Atlantic Division. Today we move on to the West.

Below are the logos you selected for the IHA. On the left is the team's primary logo. To the right is the secondary and the wordmark is beneath it. Under the graphic is the designer's credit.


Erroneous Art


Cartello


Roccot


Harnock


Jason New Era Usher

To all the winning designers: If you would like your credit changed or a link added, please don't hesitate to let me know. Since you aren't being compensated monetarily for your hard work, the least I can do is offer a link to your web site, blog or online portfolio — just in case certain eyes are looking. You never know.

However, if you would like to remain anonymous, that's fine too.

Tomorrow I'll unveil the final logo designs for the Northeast Division.

New Sabres Logo On Merchandise

The guys over at 3rd Man In allegedly stumbled across some Buffalo Sabres merchandise today with the new third jersey logo on it.

They snapped a couple of pics. Here's one of them.

credit: 3rd Man In

To see the other one, check out their blog. By the way, these are not pictures of the jerseys, obviously. I think they said they were t-shirts.

I have no reason to doubt the veracity of these pictures. Notice the silver outline around all of the elements of the logo. That's really the only thing that makes it "new." Otherwise it's just the old logo from the Sabres' early days.

So it's not conclusive evidence, but one more reason to believe that 18 days from now, this is the logo we'll be seeing on the Sabres' new third jersey.