Just wanted to point out that the next poll in the Center Ice Tournament is up! You can now find all the polls for this tournament in the pollbar to the left. It's Phoenix and Carolina. Go vote!
If you want to comment, you'll now find a Comments link in the poll box after you've voted.
For more about the changes being made to the blog, click here.
By now you might have noticed some dust. Icethetics has officially been going for a full month so I got inspired to do a little sprucing up the design. As I've said, the design I've had all month was never meant to be permanent. I'm always looking for ways of improving the blog.
I'll go more in detail about the changes later on, but suffice to say I'm adding a new column for polls. It's one of the main features of the site so to have them buried in the posts just doesn't work. I've also got a new banner at the top of the page. Hope everyone likes it.
Back to work now.
UPDATE (10:24 PM): All right, it's getting late so I think I'm going to call it a night for all these upgrades. By the way, the feedback in the comments here has been awesome! Thank you guys for all the suggestions! Now let me explain a little about what's what.
Obviously I've made some changes. The banner at the top is new. Hope you like it. There's a new sidebar on the left side of the page. I'll refer to it henceforth as the pollbar so there's no confusion. At the top will be the bracket for the current tournament. Beneath that will be all of the polls for the current round of said tournament (including the closed ones).
Now that the polls are no longer part of posts, it makes commenting a little different. Instead of leaving a comment here on the blog, you'll leave it on the poll via the PollDaddy web site. After you cast your vote, a comments link will appear within the poll box. Click that to see what others have said and add your own two cents into the mix.
Unfortunately this means comments posted on those polls up to now are in between worlds. They're not gone, but they aren't currently accessible. I don't see it being a problem for now, but I'll try to find a way to get them back in the future.
You may be wondering about the IHA polls. For now, that's staying the way it is. I may change it at some point, but for right now those polls will stay within posts. You can get quick links from the sidebar.
Anyway, I'm sure I'll be making even more changes tomorrow. Just keep letting me know what you guys think and if you experience any problems.
This isn't earth-shattering news or anything but I just thought I'd point out that the Kings have officially confirmed that they'll have a third jersey this season on their web site.
Season ticket holders will receive a free one — wonder if that means they think they'll have a hard time selling them.
Anyway, like I said it's not like we didn't know the Kings would have a third jersey this year, but amidst all the rumors I think we sometimes forget that very few of these alternate sweaters are officially confirmed yet and the carpet could be ripped out from under us at any time. So I still plan to keep a close eye on what the teams are saying — along with Howard Berger and other rumor-mongers.
Here's a rundown of teams that have confirmed a third jersey is some official capacity:
Sabres
Prior to the Winter Classic, Buffalo alluded to the use of a third jersey without setting a specific timetable when managing partner Larry Quinn said, "Our future retro jersey will be the dark blue sweater, so this maybe one of the last times our team wears this [white] jersey."
Kings
As stated above, Los Angeles has made their alternate sweater official by offering a "Kings Free Alternate Jersey (with mystery photo)" to season ticket holders.
Flyers
Philly was the first to confirm a third jersey last year, doing so within the online form to buy a new Rbk EDGE sweater. It read, "Black and white jerseys are available this year. A third orange jersey will be released next year."
Sharks
In May at San Jose's "State of the Sharks" event, CEO Greg Jamison confirmed a third jersey's existence by saying, "There is a good chance it will be black. It is still being decided on. I can tell you we get input from the fans, staff and the players. The players were very involved in the jerseys for this year. I think the third jersey will be very neat."
Those were the only teams for which I could find quotes on official web sites. I don't consider a media interview with a team executive to be an official confirmation, because that's not coming through team channels — if that makes any sense.
If you come across anything I haven't found, shoot me an email and I'll add it to the list.
The Hockey News, as they've done every year since I can remember, has released their logo rankings. The Blackhawks are No. 1 on their list — far from that on mine.
Below are their Top 10.
Pretty much what you'd expect. Here are the Bottom 5.
I'm a little surprised to see the Hurricanes down there. Not at all surprised to see the Ducks last. Shame about my Lightning, but what THN says is true. They just can't find a font that works.
I highly recommend checking out their full ranking complete with rationale and everything. (You'll understand my joke once you've read that.)
Now that's not all THN has going. Yesterday they launched a new web feature that I can't decide whether I should be miffed or flattered by. They announced their Logo Rankings & Tournament. This is a lot like any one of our logo tournaments where we pit logo against logo and you vote for the best.
Theirs is on a larger scale. They're holding a tournament of the 40 best logos from 16 different leagues. A great idea, but not an original one. Still, I think you guys should all go vote in their logo competition and see how it all turns out. I'll still continue doing the same thing here.
I'm curious to know what you guys think of this. Read up on what The Hockey News has going and then drop me a line by email or comment.
Cast your vote and leave a comment about your decision. If you chose a non-finalist, tell us which one. Then tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
Starts Fri Aug 1
Ends Mon Aug 4
As promised, below are a handful of the logos that were submitted but not selected as a finalist. If you think one of these should be the Washington Stars logo, select "non-finalist" in the poll and tell us your pick in the comments.
