From The Ground Up, Part 8

A lot happening this weekend with the Icethetics fantasy hockey league — not sure if that's the name, just what I'm calling it right now. Let's outline what's what.

First, the North and Northeast Division city selection process is over. We have the five cities that will be included in each division. That will be revealed tomorrow in the post where you guys will begin submitting name nominations for those teams.

That brings is to the Pacific and Central Divisions. We are now finished with the nominations for those divisions and I've narrowed down 20 names from each city. I know this may irk some of you, but let's face it, some of those names weren't exactly spectacular to begin with. Plus, simplicity is king in my book.

The next step is you guys choosing each team's name. This will be a simple process. For each city you'll be directed to a page with all 20 name finalists. You will rate each name individually from 1 to 5 stars. The name with the highest star rating will be the team's official name. In the event of a tie, a runoff poll will be held the next week.

This process assures that you aren't forced to choose one name over another. You simply rate each name on its own merits. You like it or you don't. This should allow us to get a fair consensus of what everyone considers to be a good team name.

Here's the thing, at this point is when we start doing one division per week. It'd be an insane amount of work for me to keep up with both divisions. So this week you'll rate the names for the Pacific Division. Next week the Central. The week after that Northeast... and so on. The process of determining the names for all 30 teams will take six weeks starting today.

There are links in the Fantasy League section in the pollbar directing you to the list of names for each city in the Pacific Division. Rate as many or as few names as you want and you're done. All the results will be finalized next weekend and we'll start with the Central Division.

An important note. A few cities have the same team names available. Rush, for example, was nominated and is a finalist for both Anchorage and Los Angeles. Obviously, two teams cannot have the same name. If, by some miracle, the same name is selected for two cities, the city for which it got the higher rating gets to keep it. The other city has to give it up and go with the second place name. If there's a tie, we'll do a runoff poll.

If you guys have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'll address them as a reply to your comment or email, or make an addition to this post.

Sun's Silly Sens Sweater Surmising

All right, rarely will you catch me taking a newspaper to task but a recent story appearing on the Ottawa Sun's web site is laughable! I think it's fair to say that I've probably been paying almost as much attention to the new third jersey releases as the NHL marketing gurus actually doing the job. So try to understand my position as I write this.

The following make up the first four paragraphs of the article in question, written by Chris Stevenson.

The Senators will have another new look on the ice this season.

After a year's absence, most of the teams in the NHL, including the Senators, are expected to unveil another third jersey to complement their home and away duds this season (never mind that for many of the clubs these new jerseys will actually be their seventh or eighth versions over the last few years).

According to an image obtained by Sun Media and believed to be approved by the NHL, the Senators' third jersey could look something like this: Black with red and white trim and the word "Sens" climbing up from the right to left on the chest.

"I've seen a sheet that had the third jerseys on it and it was stamped 'NHL Approved,' " said a source. "That's the Senators jersey I saw."

The "image obtained by Sun Media" is this.



It was created by JerseyDatabase.com as part of a series of concepts based off of a report by Howard Berger back in July. I wrote about the concepts last month. See the next image, a screen grab from the original JerseyDatabase.com blog post.



Then a "source," which is a roundabout way of saying "anonymous poster on a message board," is quoted as saying he's/she's seen it on a sheet stamped "NHL Approved." Ok, my sides are sore from all this laughing.

Since when do legitimate news-gathering organizations quote blind sources on something this ineffectual? That's usually left to the likes of blogs — like Icethetics. I quote blind sources like it's my job, here.

By the way, I'd love to see this "approval" stamp and witness this 1950s bureaucratic process in action.

Anyway, sorry if my reaction came off as a little over-the-top, but I got a few emails linking to this story and I just wanted to offer my take on it. I'm all for "leaks" and such but let's call a spade a spade. This is just funny.

While the image above may be a close representation of what actually is the Ottawa Senators' new third jersey, this article doesn't have me convinced. What do you guys think? (Keep it clean, please.)

Oilers Put 30th On Ice

A photo of Edmonton Oilers rookie Taylor Chorney on the team's official web site reveals the new paint job on the ice at Rexall Place. It's the traditional Oilers logo with a giant "30" at the bottom.

You can go to their site or see the image below.



By the way, I said "traditional" because you'll notice the distinct lack of a red circle encompassing the logo. It's what I anticipate seeing on this season's third jersey.

Thanks to Darren for the tip on the photo.

It's a simplified version of the 30th anniversary logo I posted last month. That logo was found in public document filings by journalist James Gordon. For a refresher...



I imagine that or something similar will serve as a special patch somewhere on the Oilers' jerseys this season.

IHA Poll: St. Louis Spirit

Cast your vote and leave a comment about your decision. Then tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Starts Fri Sep 12
Ends Mon Sep 15


This is the final IHA logo poll. It closes on Monday so sometime in the middle of next week I'll post all the winners and this project will be complete.

Happy voting!

Sabres' Jersey Leak The Real Deal?

It would appear that leaked photo of a Buffalo Sabres jersey that's been floating around the web is the real thing.

Just to be clear, I don't consider anything "official" until it comes directly from a team, but I do trust journalists and John Vogl of The Buffalo News wrote in his blog Sabres Edge that it has been confirmed — I'm assuming he means by the team. He also had a couple more tidbits we didn't previously know about.

This jersey photo that has been leaked is, in fact, the actual third jersey, The News has learned. Two other things have been cleared up:
1) The logo is the same color as the jersey, the darker blue. It only looks different because the different fabrics aren't reflecting the same.
2) It will have numbers on the front shoulder.

In case you forgot what it looks like, here's the jersey we're talking about.



The Sabres are scheduled to officially unveil their new third jersey next Saturday, September 20 at Puck Drop 2008. I'll have complete coverage at that point right here on Icethetics.

Thanks to Mike for the heads-up on this!

Regarding NHL 09

I've been receiving a lot of emails regarding the release of EA Sports' NHL 09 video game. The questions are about whether the game, which was released yesterday in North America, features the new third jerseys.

Last year, when the new Rbk EDGE jerseys were released, NHL 08 featured a special code to unlock the jerseys since the game was going to be out before all the teams had unveiled them. That didn't work out so well since the code was "accidentally" leaked before it was supposed be.

Regarding NHL 09: It is my understanding this game also features an area where a code is to be entered to unlock 19 "alternate jerseys" for 18 teams. It actually features two for the Sabres. My guess is that one is the third jersey, which is blue, and the other is possibly the Winter Classic sweater, which was white.

I do not own a copy of the game so I'm only going on what I've been told by others.

Now for the important part. No, I do not have the code. No, I do not know when it will be released. I'm sure that if it does leak, someone will send in screenshots of the jerseys included in the game — just like last year — and I will post them.

That is the extent to which I'm going to talk about the game on Icethetics since that is the extent to which the game is relevant to hockey jerseys or logos.

I hope that clears up some things. This is all I know so any more emails on the subject will be disregarded.

No Third For Wild — This Year

Michael Russo, beat writer for the Star-Tribune, says the Minnesota Wild will not have a third jersey this season. In his blog Russo's Rants he wrote the following about two weeks ago.

I’ve gotten a number of emails this summer regarding when the Wild will unveil its third jersey. The Wild is not having a third jersey this season but is exploring one for 2009-10.

That came just two days after team owner Craig Leipold pretty much said the same thing. So for anyone still wondering, there's no way to make it clearer than this — the Minnesota Wild will NOT have a third jersey this season.

I, for one, hope to see a return to the green jerseys if they move forward with this next year. What better way to celebrate an anniversary than to use a throwback jersey — yes, going back all of three years. Still, the Wild have never disappointed me with a jersey design.

IHA Poll: Minnesota Millers

Cast your vote and leave a comment about your decision. Then tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Starts Thu Sep 11
Ends Sun Sep 14


By the way, I'm trying out a new poll layout this week. We'll see how it works out.

Happy voting!