From The Ground Up: South Names

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The five markets with the most votes to be included in the South Division of our fantasy hockey league are final. Over 4,000 individual votes were cast in the poll.

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.


  • DALLAS, Texas
    Texas | Dallas | Fort Worth | Irving

  • DENVER, Colorado
    Colorado | Denver | Boulder

  • HOUSTON, Texas
    Texas | Houston | Beaumont | Galveston

  • NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana
    Louisiana | New Orleans | Baton Rouge | Shreveport

  • SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
    Utah | Salt Lake City | Salt Lake

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 any name that has already been selected for this project.
• 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 Southeast Division. You have until September 27.

Start submitting!

Blues Unveil Third Jersey!

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Today, the St. Louis Blues became the fourth team to unveil their third jersey for the 2008-09 season.

The team posted a photo gallery on their official web site shortly after the unveiling ceremony at FANfest. It features Brad Boyes wearing his brand new sweater.

Below you can see shot of the complete uniform and a close-up of the crest — a new logo featuring the iconic Gateway Arch.

From what I can tell, they kept the same pants but got new socks to match these sweaters. They've also dropped the lighter blue from their color scheme for this jersey. They have a very classic yet not retro feel to them.

The third jersey features the same numbering and lettering style as the regular home and road jerseys.

For what it's worth, it looks like the sneak peek I posted yesterday was dead on — just really terrible quality.

To the right you can check out the full photo gallery which now includes several pictures sent to me by folks who attended today's FANfest in St. Louis where the jersey was unveiled and on display.

As with all of the photo galleries, I'll add game action photos when the jerseys finally hit the ice.

Live Chat Time Change

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All right guys, I'm going to give the Live Chat another chance today. I've changed the time to 12:30 PM EDT.

According to the Blues' official web site, the third jersey unveiling will take place at 1 PM (noon, locally). It will not be streamed online like the Sabres and Hurricanes events were. However, they say there will be pictures posted on the site as soon as the jersey is unveiled. And I figured if we get things started at 12:30 it'll give me time to take some of the questions and comments I was unable to get to yesterday.

So, a lot is going on this weekend. I'm working on getting the next step of the fantasy league set up. In the meantime, I updated the Sabres' third jersey unveiling post from yesterday. I just added new pictures from the team's web site and the wires. Much better quality than the screen grabs from the live stream that I was using.

I kept an eye on some of the other fan events that were going on around the league as well. The Coyotes, Senators and Blackhawks all still have their new third jerseys under wraps. Nothing was unveiled or on display at these events — that I know of. If I missed something, please let me know.

I'll add the Live Chat window at about 12:15 PM EDT.

Sneak Peek At Blues Alternate

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I got an email from a reader earlier claiming to have scans of all of the new third jerseys. He's sent along what he says is the St. Louis Blues' new sweater. I can't say one way or another whether it's legitimate, but what could it hurt to share it?

We'll see the real thing tomorrow straight from the source anyway. So here's what was sent to me.

It's terrible quality. Nothing I can do about that, I guess. But if you squint and sort of tilt your head you can kind of make out the logo on the front. It's a white circle with the Blue Note and the Gateway Arch over it. It could also be the Virgin Mary.

Anyway, just a little something for you while we wait for the Blues to show us the actual jersey.