Hurricanes Put Flag On Ice

Seems like the Carolina Hurricanes have been dominating the news coverage here lately. Anyway, it looks like RBC Center crews are in the process of painting the ice with a new logo.

Check this out.

An image grabbed from the arena's webcam shows that the secondary logo will now be front and center. The logo — which depicts a tropical storm flag tied to a hockey stick and waving in the wind — has long been rumored to be on the front of the team's new third jersey which will be unveiled on Wednesday at this very arena.

For the record, last year the Hurricanes' 10th anniversary logo donned center ice. Before that it was the standard primary logo.

Thanks to Scott for the tip and link.

Championship Banners Are Back

I just added a tiny new feature to the blog that some of you guys have been asking for. A lot of you really liked the logo champion banners I created for the winners of each logo tournament on the old blogs. Well I said I was working on getting them set up here at Icethetics and now I have.

On the left side of the page you'll find the championship banners displaying randomly one at a time. It'll change when you refresh the page. There are 12 banners in rotation — see if you can guess them all — from every tournament we've ever done, be it here, at NHLToL or ToHL. I'll add new banners as we complete more tournaments.

Hope you enjoy it.

From The Ground Up: Central Names

The five markets with the most votes, to be included in the Central Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Almost 10,000 individual votes were cast in the poll.

In this post, I'm outlining those markets (alphabetically) along with the acceptable locators (listed below) for your team name nominations — which I'll begin accepting today by comment only.

• CHICAGO, Illinois
  Illinois | Chicago | Joliet | Rockford


• DETROIT, Michigan
  Michigan | Detroit | Troy | Dearborn


• MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin
  Wisconsin | Milwaukee


• MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota
  Minnesota | Minneapolis | St. Paul | Bloomington


• ST. LOUIS, Missouri
  Missouri | St. Louis

DO NOT SUBMIT NAME NOMINATIONS VIA EMAIL. THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Submit your team name nominations by leaving a comment below. Email submissions will be discarded. I will accept nominations for one week at which point new comments on this post will be closed. All name submissions that fit within the following parameters will be included in the name selection process which will begin next weekend.

If you want your submission included, DO NOT:
• use the name of any current or past NHL or WHA team.
• use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.
• use the name or close variation of any current or past professional sports team within the same market or geographical area.
• use the name of any team from Project: IHA.
• use any name that would be considered vulgar, obscene or in any way inappropriate. (Sorry, this is my call.)

If you decide to use a locator not already on the list above, be prepared to have it discarded. I'm not setting that in stone as a restriction, but I'm also not guaranteeing I'll include anything not on the list. Sorry for all the restrictions but sometimes you have to "guide" originality.

Late addition: I'll also probably be weaning out some of the more ridiculous and absurd names. I don't mind fun ones, but I think you guys know what I mean.

It was suggested that when submitting names you also submit a short reasoning for that name. I won't require that but I will recommend it since it might help your submission get votes later on if folks know where you got your idea.

Don't forget to make your submissions for the Pacific Division. You have until September 13.

Start submitting!

From The Ground Up: Pacific Names

The five markets with the most votes, to be included in the Pacific Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Over 11,000 individual votes were cast in the poll.

In this post, I'm outlining those markets (alphabetically) along with the acceptable locators (listed below) for your team name nominations — which I'll begin accepting today by comment only.

• ANCHORAGE, Alaska
  Alaska | Anchorage


• LOS ANGELES, California
  California | Los Angeles | Anaheim | Long Beach


• PORTLAND, Oregon
  Oregon | Portland | Salem


• SEATTLE, Washington
  Washington | Seattle | Tacoma | Olympia


• VANCOUVER, British Columbia
  B.C. | Vancouver | Burnaby | Victoria

DO NOT SUBMIT NAME NOMINATIONS VIA EMAIL. THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Submit your team name nominations by leaving a comment below. Email submissions will be discarded. I will accept nominations for one week at which point new comments on this post will be closed. All name submissions that fit within the following parameters will be included in the name selection process which will begin next weekend.

If you want your submission included, DO NOT:
• use the name of any current or past NHL or WHA team.
• use the name of any current AHL or ECHL team.
• use the name or close variation of any current or past professional sports team within the same market or geographical area.
• use the name of any team from Project: IHA.
• use any name that would be considered vulgar, obscene or in any way inappropriate. (Sorry, this is my call.)

If you decide to use a locator not already on the list above, be prepared to have it discarded. I'm not setting that in stone as a restriction, but I'm also not guaranteeing I'll include anything not on the list. Sorry for all the restrictions but sometimes you have to "guide" originality.

Late addition: I'll also probably be weaning out some of the more ridiculous and absurd names. I don't mind fun ones, but I think you guys know what I mean.

It was suggested by a reader (ogre39666) that when submitting names you also submit a short reasoning for that name. I won't require that but I will recommend it since it might help your submission get votes later on if folks know where you got your idea.

Don't forget to make your submissions for the Central Division. You have until September 13.

Start submitting!

Toronto's New Ice Logo

I've got a quick follow up on a story form Tuesday talking about how the Toronto Maple Leafs are redesigning center ice at the Air Canada Centre this season. It's now been revealed in a video on the team's official web site.

You can see a screen grab from the video currently appearing on their home page or see it below.

I'd call it a huge improvement. What do you call it?