icethetics.co

View Original

Season Preview 2010, Part III

The Icethetics Season Preview is giving you a chance to catch your breath here at mid-week. There have been plenty of new logos to digest over the past two days. Now it's time to take a look at some of them in action in the place where every game begins: center ice.

New Center Ice Logos

A handful of NHL teams will display special anniversary logos inside their center ice circle for the 2010-11 season.

Sabres center iceThe Buffalo Sabres have painted their 40th anniversary logo inside the big circle at HSBC Arena.

The team is trying its hardest to rebrand itself with that original logo. It is on everything these days. As it should be.

Also, the center red line now features a string of white stars running across it. A number of teams are getting more creative with the design of that red line. We'll outline some of them this afternoon.

Canucks center iceAlso celebrating 40 years in the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks are using their anniversary mark at center this season.

The logo itself remains mostly intact, but for a few minor alterations. In order to prevent overlap with the red line, the small Canucks primary logo was been removed from its spot between 1970 and 2010. Also, as you can see, the ends of the ribbons are cropped to fit the logo nicely inside the circle.

GM Place was renamed Rogers Arena over the summer and obviously the new paint job represents that change.

Wild center iceCelebrating a decade since the NHL's return to the state, the Minnesota Wild will have their 10th anniversary logo on the ice inside the Xcel Energy Center.

The Columbus Blue Jackets having also unveiled a logo for their 10th anniversary but are not joining the Wild by placing it at center ice. The Jackets' standard primary logo remains there at Nationwide Arena this year.

Also confirmed as remaining unchanged is the Nashville Predators logo at Bridgestone Arena. It was rumored over the summer the Preds would be altering the color scheme of their primary logo to match their third jersey. It now appears that won't happen until at least next season, 2011-12.

Rangers center iceFinally, the New York Rangers are celebrating a big year — their 85th as a member of the NHL. The logo commemorating the event is already in place at Madison Square Garden.

It's a great logo, but I'm not sure the vintage white was such a good idea on white ice. At least the Sabres knew better than to do that.

Additionally, I understand the San Jose Sharks have their 20th anniversary logo painted at center ice at HP Pavilion but I haven't managed to come across any photos yet.

I tried to be comprehensive with this post, but same as yesterday, I'm counting on you guys to help me out if I missed anything. Tomorrow it's the minor league edition of JerseyWatch 2010 as the Season Preview pushes toward the last big pre-season update to NHL JerseyWatch 2010.