Icethetics Season Preview

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Today, I'm announcing the Icethetics Season Preview. The Preview is basically a week of festivities leading up to the start of the 2008-09 season.

It's everything to get you ready for the year — you know, in terms of jerseys and logos. And "festivities" might be an oversell. Still, it's a week's worth of coverage to make sure you know what's new for the new season. And it all starts in just two weeks.


  • New Anniversary & Commemorative Logos
    Monday, September 29: I'll outline all the new NHL logos that will be used this season to symbolize birthday celebrations, tributes and memorials.

  • New Center Ice Designs
    Tuesday, September 30: I'll tell you about all the NHL arenas with new paint jobs on the ice.

  • New Minor League Logos
    Wednesday, October 1: I'll step back from the NHL mid-week and show off all the new logos that will be used this season around the AHL, ECHL and any other relevant HL.

  • New NHL Logos
    Thursday, October 2: All of the new logos being introduced throughout the NHL will be on display. Plenty of teams are adding new alternate logos for their third jersey, which brings us to...

  • New Third Jerseys
    Friday, October 3: This year, third jerseys are making their comeback! I'll outline all the official new alternate sweaters going into service for 2008-09. Not just for the NHL either. I'm covering the AHL and ECHL too on this one.

So there you have it — the Icethetics Season Preview. Remember, it kicks off in two weeks and you won't want to miss it.

Oil Shows 30th Year Patch

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The Edmonton Oilers are showing off their new 30th anniversary shoulder patches at the Oil Country Rookie Tournament going on now.

A photo gallery on their official web site showed a picture of a bunch of white jerseys with a new patch.

If you're looking for it, the gallery is titled Rookie Camp: Day 3 and there's a direct link from the home page. I mentioned on Saturday that the Oilers put a simplified version of this logo at center ice for the coming season.

The reader who sent in this picture also mentioned that it was only on the right shoulder of the jerseys being used in the tournament.

I can't say for sure whether this logo will be on the home, road or third jerseys for the regular season. I also don't know whether this patch would be worn on both shoulders or just one. We won't have to wait long to find out though. Season starts in three weeks.

Admirals AHL Logo Game

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I was surfing around tonight when I stumbled across something kind of funny. I happened to click on the Milwaukee Admirals' web site. (Can't remember what for. Usually I have no interest in the AHL.) In the Fans section of their site is this funny little Flash game based around AHL team logos.

It's called Logo Face-off and you can find it here.

Basically, you control the goalie with the arrow keys on your keyboard, moving him left and right. Various team logos are falling down at various speeds and your goal is to catch all the Admirals logos. Weird because as a goalie you shouldn't be stopping your own team, you should be stopping everybody else.

I don't know how long this game's been there or how long it will stay, but if you're bored, it's a decent way to kill a few minutes.

For the record, I got 74 points.

From The Ground Up: North Names

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The five markets with the most votes to be included in the North Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Over 7,000 individual votes were cast in the poll (which is strange since its sister poll had more than 3,000 more.)

Here, 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. This is interesting because we're staying squarely in Canada for this entire division.


  • CALGARY, Alberta
    Alberta | Calgary | Lethbridge

  • EDMONTON, Alberta
    Alberta | Edmonton | Red Deer

  • REGINA, Saskatchewan
    Saskatchewan | Regina

  • SASKATOON, Saskatchewan
    Saskatchewan | Saskatoon

  • WINNIPEG, Manitoba
    Manitoba | Winnipeg

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. Up to 20 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.

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 Northeast Division. You have until September 20.

Start submitting!

I've been reading some of the submissions and it's a little pathetic. I think a lot of you are trying too hard to find a name that "means something" to the point where you're losing sight of the fact that we're trying to name sports teams. Forget about trivial nonsense and suggest some names you'd want to chant in an arena of 20,000 people. Just something to think about when making your nominations.