Only Real Men Wear Pink

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Pink seems to be a popular subject around Icethetics these days. You guys have been a great help in tracking down photos of some unique minor league uniforms. The best and most common theme seems to be breast cancer awareness — in other words, an excuse for grown men to wear pink. That's what we've got today.

Stingrays pink jerseyThe ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays held Pink in the Rink night back on February 20.

Icethetics reader Jeff forwarded along this photo (right) of the Stingrays' pink jersey. I know I chopped off the guy's head, but he's not as important as the jersey, right?

The Stingrays were successful in pink, beating the Toledo Walleye 6-0. And according to their website, there was a record crowd in attendance for the win.

If you're interested in more pictures, and I know you are, Facebook is the place to be. On the team's official page is a gallery showing the process of painting the ice pink. They've also got tons of fan photos from the game. Including this one:

Stingrays players thank the crowd for their pink support

Jarret Lukin #40In the Central Hockey League, the Allen Americans wore pink just this past Friday — but failed to find the win.

They lost to the Mudbugs, who've been featured on Icethetics a lot recently for some outlandish specialty sweaters.

The Americans' website said the following with regard to the jerseys:

The players wore pink specialty jerseys as part of the "Pink in the Rink" night. The effort with Susan G. Komen for the Cure aims to raise awareness about breast cancer. The proceeds from the live jersey auction following tonight’s matchup benefited Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Anyone else notice that the pink socks don't quite match the pink jersey? Just saying.

Jordan Evans #5The WHL's Swift Current Broncos refuse to be left out of the pink party. They wore theirs on February 19.

However, they got whacked by the Chilliwack Bruins 3-0. Notice the trend? A big win for the Stingrays, a big comeback (but in the end a loss) for the Americans. And a big loss for the Broncos.

I know this photo isn't the best quality, but it's what they have on their website. You can see more here.

Just look at those things. Obviously we've seen a lot of pink jerseys so we're getting pretty good at telling the good from the bad. This has to rank squarely in the bad. Pink ribbons on the socks!

But if you think that's bad, just wait until you see what's next.

Pink ExpressThe Atlantic Junior Hockey League's Walpole Express may take the cake for pinkest pink jersey of all time — you know, if there were a cake available for such an accomplishment (for what it's worth, I'm sure it would be pink too).

Normally Icethetics doesn't cover much junior hockey outside of the Canadian Hockey League, but the Express sent me these photos directly and they were too good not to share.

The thing about these jerseys is their almost hot pink. I'm told by the team they were supposed to be a lighter pink, but a deadline snuck up on them and they got stuck with this color.

Anyway, that's not the most interesting thing about Walpole's Pink in the Rink event.

Refs wear pink too!This is.

Even the officials got i on the action, donning their own pink garb. I'm told the AJHL was in full support of the Express' pink event, which took place November 1, 2009. They raised over $6,000 for breast cancer research and $2,000 alone from the jersey auction.

So good for them!

As always, if you've come across any pink jerseys worth sharing, don't hesitate to send them along. Obviously everyone's really getting a kick out of this series.

Maybe some sort of poll is in our future to decide which team has the best use of pink in a hockey jersey. If nothing else, it would just be a laugh to see dozens of teams wearing pink.

Icethetics returns to its roots. 3.8.10

Olympic Observations 2010

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I've been really fascinated by Olympic hockey in the last few weeks. Never used to be a fan. Didn't really care about international hockey. After having watched all or parts of every single game of the men's tournament in Vancouver, I've changed my mind.

Now that we're a day away from the games that determine who will play for the gold, I thought I'd share some observations I've made. Feel free to share yours as well.

  • Pavol Demitra #38The Vancouver Connection Most teams are using the same fonts on their jerseys. Obviously, Nike was heavily involved in making all the uniforms look uniform, but I think it's strange that 7 of the 12 teams in the tournament use the same font found on the Vancouver Canucks' jerseys: United States, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus and Germany. (It's called Agency.)
  • Canada's Tradition I thought it stranger still that Team Canada is the only one using traditional/standard block letters and numbers, similar to the San Jose Sharks. Interesting that 4 members of the Sharks play for Canada. Coincidence?
  • Seeing Red Every team except Sweden has red in their uniforms. Seven of 12 teams have red jerseys (if you count Latvia's maroon as a shade of red). Ten of the 12 countries represented have red in their flags, which usually symbolizes courage and sacrifice — as in sprawling out in front of a Zdeno Chara slapshot. Only Finland and Sweden do not use red in their national flags.
  • Another Option The United States is the only team with a third jersey. In terms of striping, it's a dead ringer for the New York Rangers' white sweater. It's meant to be a throwback to the jersey worn by the Americans in 1960 at Squaw Valley, commemorating the country's first gold medal in hockey.
  • Pavel Kubina #77Czech Out the Numbers The Czech Republic uses the same number font as the Atlanta Thrashers. So Pavel Kubina's No. 77 looks the same on both jerseys. (Would've worked for Ondrej Pavelec's No. 31 too but he never saw action.) The Czechs still use Agency for the nameplate though. Only Belarus has a unique number font.
  • Neutral Numbers Switzerland the Scandinavian nations, Sweden, Finland and Norway, all use a Futura-type font for their sweater numbers. The nameplates appear to be something like Akzidenz-Grotesk, if you care to know.
  • Canada's Collar Modification The white stripe around the collar of Canada's new sweaters mysteriously disappeared before the first game. Graeme wrote in to say it made the collars too tight and "the players had trouble getting them on."
  • Which Hossa is Which? Normally when brothers play for the same team, their first initials will be used on the nameplates. For example, on the Czech team Zbynek Michalek's jersey says Z. MICHALEK while his brother Milan's says M. MICHALEK. Same with Daniel and Henrik Sedin of Sweden. The trouble starts when you have a situation like Marian and Marcel Hossa. Oddly enough, Marian's jersey says M. HOSSA. Marcel's just says HOSSA, no initial.
  • Don't You Ever Wash That? The Swedish team never wore anything but their yellow jerseys throughout their run in the Vancouver tournament. According to the IIHF, Sweden had a blue jersey available, but did not get around to wearing it before being eliminated by Slovakia in the semifinals. All other teams have worn both dark and light-colored jerseys at some point.

Here are some other non-uniform-related observations:

  • Ryan MaloneRyan Has the Puck! Seven of the 23 players named to the U.S. team are named Ryan: Goalie Ryan Miller, defensemen Ryan Suter and Ryan Whitney, and forwards Ryan Callahan, Ryan Kesler, Ryan Malone and Bobby Ryan. Ryan is of Gaelic origin meaning "little king." Team Canada has yet another Ryan in Ryan Getzlaf, for a total of 8 at the 2010 Olympics.
  • Too Much Tomas While scratching your head over all the Ryans, it's easy to overlook the 5 different guys named Tomas playing for the Czech Republic: Goalie Tomas Vokoun, defenseman Tomas Kaberle, and forwards Tomas Plekanec, Tomas Fleischmann, and Tomas Rolinek. Tomas comes from the Aramaic name Thomas and means "twin." The Slovaks added another with Tomas Kopecky.
  • Sibling Rivalry It was cool seeing the Swedish brother-sister duo of Tobias and Tina Enstrom playing for their country. Tobias was eliminated last night. Tina still has a shot at the bronze when the women's medal games get going today.

I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking about at the moment. Did you guys notice anything interesting, jersey-related or not? Comment and I'll add some of the good ones to this post.

Blue Jackets Plan Third Jersey

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The Columbus Blue Jackets will launch a brand new third jersey this November, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Jackets beat writer Aaron Portzline revealed this information in his latest posting on Puck-Rakers Blog this evening.

Here is what Portzline had to say on the subject:

Reebok has been handed design ideas by the Blue Jackets regarding the third sweater, to be unveiled next season. The club expects to get a prototype back from the sporting goods' supplier shortly. Local retailers have already been asked to submit orders.

The Dispatch has been told by a high-ranking front-office member that the new duds will be unveiled next November.

One interesting thing in this article is the first line. Apparently, the team is submitting ideas to Reebok and not the other way around as some have surmised. If we can get our hands on pictures of any of these prototype jerseys, you can count on Icethetics to share them with the world.

The Blue Jackets were rumored to be launching an alternate jersey to celebrate their 10th NHL season. This now appears to be confirmed. The last time the Jackets debuted a third jersey was 2003. It was used until 2007 when the logo featured on it became the team's primary mark.

Thanks to everyone who sent in the link!

By the way, I would've posted this sooner, but I couldn't turn away from the Latvia-Czech Republic game. Those Latvians sure put on a good show. I actually wondered for a little while if they were going to pull off the upset.

Pink All Over the Rink & More

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I know it's hard to care about anything but Olympic hockey right now, but there is minor league jersey news to catch everyone up on. So let's get started.

Everblades wearing pinkMy current hometown team, the Florida Everblades held their Pink in the Rink event last night.

Shockingly, I couldn't find any decent photos from the team's website to share. So you'll have to settle for the best my iPhone can offer. Shot this (right) during warm-ups before the game.

A friend of mine said it looked like the Everblades accidentally washed their jerseys with a red sock. It was her first ECHL game.

Also interesting, though I wasn't able to get a picture, the Kalamazoo Wings were wearing blue jerseys with oversized McDonald's logos on them during the pre-game.

Any Michiganites out there that can shed a little light on this? Surprising to see a team go with a warm-up jersey like that on the road.

For the record, it was a great game. Blades battled to a 4-3 shootout victory. Unfortunately, I was not up on my ECHL rules and didn't realize their shootouts are five rounds, not three. Cheered a little prematurely when Colin Nicholson scored in Round 3 for the 2-1 advantage. Oops.

Mudbugs wearing pinkIn the last minor league report, which was exactly a week ago, the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League were big news as they had two ridiculous specialty jerseys on deck.

They've worn both since then, including this Pink in the Rink night jersey, twice this week. It's probably the worst pink-infused jersey we've seen (and we've seen a lot) but the Mudbugs were able to pull out wins both nights.

If you're just dying to see what the back looks like, here's another photo. For the record, if it looks familiar, the Lightning wore that exact numbering and lettering style between 1995 and 2001. Just saying.

Mudbugs go Mardi Gras!The Mudbugs also wore specially-themed jerseys to ring in Mardi Gras last weekend. Just as terrible as expected. Here they've opted for the Predators' font for the numbers and nameplates.

And once again, if you just have to see more angles of this jersey, the Mudbugs are happy to provide photos.

As much as we mock them, it is fun to see the ridiculous things minor league teams will wear on the ice in honor of a good cause. By the way, bidding on those Mardi Gras jerseys ended earlier this evening. So sorry, but you can't have one.

Hitmen wearing pinkSince we can't get enough of pink jerseys, the Calgary Hitmen have us covered. On Sunday, March 7 they'll go pink for Hockey Mums Fight Breast Cancer Night.

The cancer awareness promotion began in October and runs through next month. So if you are going to bid, I'd be ready to start high.

And for what it's worth, all the information you could possibly ever want about this event, including how to bid on these special sweaters, is just a simple click away.

Cyclones celebrate RedsThe ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones celebrated their Salute to the Reds night back on December 5.

Icethetics reader Andy just sent in a photo (right) of what the jerseys looked like. Imagine if the Cincinnati Reds played hockey. Probably what they'd look like.

If you want a better look, there's also this picture of the Mark Voakes modeling the sweater — possibly just before getting his mug shot done.

I couldn't find a detailed write-up on the Cyclones' website so I don't really know what the deal was — whether the jersey were auctioned off and what charity benefited — can't say.

And finally, Icethetics reader Chip writes in to let us know that the Edmonton Oilers are re-activating their dormant AHL franchise for the 2010-11 season, but this time in Oklahoma City. So that will be another new logo and set of uniforms to look forward to when JerseyWatch 2010 kicks off this summer.

Chip says he hopes the yet-to-be-named club will get the Blazers moniker that has existed in some form since the 1960s and, most recently, as a team in the Central Hockey League. Any thoughts on that?

Luongo Debuts Canada Mask

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Roberto LuongoWith the NHL on hiatus for two weeks, we're all turning our attention to the Vancouver Olympics this month. One of the most exciting things for Vancouverites has to be seeing your Canucks' goalie backstopping his nation's team.

Icethetics reader Matt sent in this image of Roberto Luongo's new Team Canada mask. No reason to lose the Canuck theme after all, right?

It's very well-designed mask and I'm excited to see it in action tomorrow when Canada takes on Norway at 7:30 PM EST (on CNBC in the U.S.).

Just before that will be the first men's hockey game of these Winter Games when the U.S. battles Switzerland at 3 PM (on USA Network).

If the women's matches have been any indication, these will be very high scoring games in favor the North American clubs (sorry Europe).

Ryan Miller's USA maskAnd not to be outdone by the Canadians, here's a look at Ryan Miller's very American goalie mask.

Rich sent in this photo from The Times Herald in Port Huron, Michigan. That link takes you to a great article on the work put into creating this mask, which was designed by Ray Bishop.

It's nice to get an early look at some of what we'll see in the coming weeks up in Vancouver.

That reminds me, in case you hadn't read my note on the Jerseys page, I will be adding Olympic jersey galleries as games start getting underway. It's a slow process but I'll get to all 12 countries in time.

Also, I just got an email from a reader asking about a goalie mask gallery to go with all the jersey galleries. I think that's a great idea! However, I have my hands a little full with these jersey galleries and I haven't even gotten to home and road sweaters yet. It'll happen... eventually.