Leafs Making Announcement

According to a new video sent to Maple Leafs fans, the team will be making a "fan-related announcement" on Wednesday at the Air Canada Centre. Seen in the video is Matt Stajan and if you want to watch it, it's right here.

I guess the reason I mention this at all is that there appears to be some speculation that the announcement is jersey-related. The Leafs are one of the teams rumored to have a third jersey ready for 2008-09. It's four days away so we'll find out soon enough. I'll of course have it posted here should it be related to the uniforms or logos.

I'd thank the reader who sent in the tip, but he didn't give his name.

By the way, I apologize for the late posts today but I got my new iPhone 3G this morning so I've been a little preoccupied. Plus I went to see Hancock. It was a fun movie. I liked it. Anyone else seen it yet?

Poll: Huskies vs Sea Dogs

	vs
Rouyn-Noranda HUSKIES		Saint John SEA DOGS

This one's for the championship! The winner of this poll gets bragging rights as the best logo in the QMJHL. Place your vote and leave a comment about 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 Jul 11

Poll closing date Wed Jul 16

Freak Out Friday XXXIX

Today marks the debut of the Freak Out Friday on Icethetics. The series carries over from my old blog — NHL Tournament of Logos. If you're new to this, you might want to have a look at some of the ridiculous items that have been submitted to me over the past year.

Along with this comes a new name. The series was formerly called "Just To Freak You Out" — but it is more commonly known now as Freak Out Friday. And as you can see, this is the 39th edition since August of last year. Yeah, we've had a lot of weird and crazy artwork to post in that time. Remember, too, that is a biweekly feature so you'll only see it every other Friday.

With that out of the way, let's dive in because there's quite a lot to get to. I'm beginning with Buffalo. The unveiling of Matt's rebrand of the Sabres this week was met with a rather mixed reaction — that spawned a lot of attempts to fix it. Now, there were some good ones (which I'm saving to post over the weekend) and there were some bad ones (which you will see now).

You may have to stare at that for quite a while to figure out what it is. Kudos to anyone who can figure it out without me explaining it. Naturally, there's a jersey concept to go with it.

Thing about the Sabres, though, is while there are a number of very vocal fans opposed to the "slug" logo, it just so happens that plenty of folks like it. So the trick because how to make it less about the buffalo and more about the sabres.

All from the same artist. Comments?

Let's move on now to the Atlantic Division where we have a number of Combo Concepts, as I think I'll start calling them. First is a current Penguins logo mixed with an old one.

There are some things we should just never have to look at.

I'm sure you can figure out the relevance here. One more...

And now we move way out west for a simple concept based on the old Mighty Ducks secondary mark.

It has wings!

Speaking of Anaheim, if you remember back to the last Freak Out post, you might remember the series of logos based on the Mighty Ducks' old third jersey with the giant duck bursting through the ice. I'm presenting them one division at a time. This time it's the Atlantic.

You'll get another division next time but that's all for this week. Express your disbelief and hysteria in the comments area below if you're so inclined and get ready for No. 40 in two weeks!

Sweaters In NHL 09

Got a few emails today about a new promotional video EA Sports has released for NHL 09.

Evidently, there's some question as to whether a green jersey seen in the video is a leak. You can see the screenshot below but to me it looks like a regular Minnesota North Stars sweater.

Now I personally have never played any of these video games so correct me if I'm wrong, but do they not often include vintage uniforms for use in the game?

My assumption is that this is merely a "vintage alternate" available for the Dallas Stars in the game. Let me know if I don't have this right because I don't want to be misleading people. Just hoped I could clear up some confusion.

In any event, for what it's worth we actually got our first look at the new Rbk EDGE jerseys as a whole last year via an NHL 08 leak. I'm guessing it's possible the same thing could happen with third jerseys this year. We'll just wait and see. And if you guys find anything, feel free to email me and I'll spread the word.

Maple Leaf Sweater Concepts

Maple Leafs fans, yesterday I promised you some concept art and I'm making good on it. I've gotten half a dozen different jersey designs over the past few weeks and today I'm happy to share them with you.

The first one here is a take on Minnesota's home sweater crest. It's cool even if it's somewhat unoriginal.

But if originality is what you're looking for, see the graphic on the right. It's probably a little too awkward to make for a solid design what with the unbalanced logo, no striping on the white and too much striping on the blue. But maybe I'm just being critical.

These two are cool if Toronto were to add black to the color scheme. But obviously as a Lightning fan I would be somewhat opposed to that.

And finally, on the current jersey design is an interesting logo I've been waiting to see someone make — the CN Tower in the veins of the leaf.

It's not perfect but how cool is that?

You know what tomorrow is. Yes indeed, another Freak Out Friday is nearly upon us. Stay tuned for that.