New All-Star Logo Coming Friday

The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that the 2013 NHL All-Star Game logo will be unveiled at Nationwide Arena this Friday. The event will take place at noon ET.

The team designing the logo, Frederick & Froberg Design Group, have been hard at work on the new mark for the past several months. For more background on the design process, check out this blog post from February.

If you'd like to see what some of our talented concept artists have come up with for the next All-Star Game, click here to have a look.

Drop by Icethetics on Friday to see the logo and share your reaction.

Denver Adds New CHL Team

Last week, the Central Hockey League got a little bit bigger. The minor league will welcome its 15th team for 2012-13 after Denver, Colo. was granted a new franchise.

This news comes only a year after the Centennial State lost its previous CHL team to the ECHL. The Colorado Eagles graduated this past season and are already set to host the next ECHL All-Star Game in 2013.

The CHL's new Denver team will play home games at the Denver Coliseum. According to a league press release, the venue has a quite a history with hockey.

The Denver Coliseum opened in 1952 and is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and is owned and operated by Arts & Venues Denver, a division of the City and County of Denver.  In its past, the Denver Coliseum has hosted the International Hockey League’s Denver Mavericks (1958-59), the Western Hockey League’s Denver Invaders (1963-64), the Western Hockey League’s Denver Spurs (1968-76) and the International Hockey League’s Denver Rangers (1987-89).

“Hockey has been a part of the Coliseum’s history almost since the beginning and we’re excited to see it return,” said Kent Rice, Arts & Venues Denver Executive Director. “The CHL is putting its trust and assets into this community and we’re extremely proud.”

The team's name, colors and logos have not yet been unveiled. But it's safe to say we'll see them before the summer is out. The team takes the ice for the first time this fall.

Update on 2012-04-19 17:22 by Chris

Looks like Colorado's new CHL team will be named the Denver Cutthroats. According to Denver Post writer Adrian Dater, says the city council mentioned the name and that it references Colorado's official state fish, the greenback cutthroat troat. You can find photos of what that fish looks like here.

Earlier this week, the Denver Business Journal revealed that the team has hired Adrenalin to develop its branding and marketing campaign. That's very good news for logo junkies. Adrenalin is responsible for the Colorado Avalanche logo as well as the 2003-refreshed Phoenix Coyotes logo. You can see more of their work on their website.

The Journal also confirmed the team name, citing documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Though apparently Mile High Magic, Denver Gold Miners, and Denver Storm were in the running or at least liked by fans.

Might as well continue the link dump. We can keep an eye on the team's development via their official website. And on Facebook, they're holding a Guess Our Name contest.

So, Denver Cutthroats. We'll look forward to seeing what Adrenalin comes up with this summer.

Wake Up, Sleeping Hockey Fans!

Blackburn Hawks / Rob DaviesIf last month's NHL JerseyWatch was any indication, news of the NHL uniform variety is going to be hard to come by this summer. Meaning if I'm going to keep this blog from getting stale, I'm going to have to branch out a bit.

As luck would have it, I recently got an email from a reader who lives in a place that has hockey but isn't commonly associated with it, much like my home state of Florida.

Rob Davies is from Blackburn, England and I'm going to let him tell his story.

Long time follower of the blog, and a big fan of all you and your contributors do.

Sunday the 22nd and Sunday the 29th are big nights for a small town in the north west of England.

Blackburn, a town raised in the rush of the cotton trade during the industrial revolution, is mostly known for its football team. The town's pride, Blackburn Rovers, have a prestigious history stretching back to 1875 were English Premier league champions in 1995 but have since fallen on hard times and face being relegated to a lower division as their season comes to a close.

Blackburn HawksHowever, these dates aren't big for that reason. Across town, a small yet passionate fan-base is preparing for one of the greatest moments in their team's history. The Blackburn Hawks, a small hockey outfit playing in the upper tier English National League North are in the two-leg final of the playoffs, and hoping to end their reputation as one of British Ice Hockey's 'also rans'.

Playing out of the Blackburn Ice Arena, the Hawks have traded blows with some of the biggest names in UK hockey, including some of the more infamous televised games against the Manchester Storm, in front of 9,500 in the stands, and many millions more at home. These days the crowds are more modest; just a few hundred barely fill half the stands each weekend, but they are a knowledgeable, passionate and noisy bunch, widely regarded as some of the best fans in the league.

It's hoped that a league title will renew interest in the team and in ice-hockey generally. There are certainly a lot of sleeping fans out there, proven by the number one question I get when people see my jersey on the way to games:

"Blackburn Hawks? Are they still going?"

"Very much so!" I reply.

I've included a couple of snaps of the team's home jersey for you to share with your readers. I hope this will inspire supporters from around the world to share their lesser known team jerseys and stories with you, and perhaps it could become a regular feature.

Only one last thing to add: 'MON T'HAWKS!

Do you have a story to share? Email me and I'll get some good ones posted on the blog.

Gotta have something to read here, right?

In the meantime, I still have so many unread emails in my inbox relating mostly to new minor league uniforms. I think I'll start posting some of those links as I find the time, if only to keep the site fresh.

Elsewhere on icethetics.info, don't forget the the IceHL Project is back and better than ever. We're more than halfway through the process of designing jerseys for all 30 teams. In fact, right now you can vote for the Southeast Division jerseys. Plus, we'll have to design logos for a couple of expansion teams pretty soon.

Plenty still going on in other areas of the site, even if there isn't much news to report on the blog. And of course, don't forget, new concept posts are still going up every single day.

Solar Bears Unveil Jerseys

The Orlando Solar Bears officially unveiled their home and road jerseys today. The Solar Bears are one of the ECHL's two expansion franchises for the 2012-13 season. The San Francisco Bulls, just unveiled theirs last month.

As you can see from the photo provided by the team, they are very brightly colored. But I think we probably could've assumed that when we first saw the logos back in January. There's lots of purple and teal and orange and yellow.

If it all feels like something from the '90s, well, it kind of is. The Solar Bears are a reincarnation of an International Hockey League team that existed from 1995 to 2001. The look is basically the same... just, you know, updated for 2012.

I have to say that, personally, I'm a fan. Would I want to see every hockey team start dressing this flamboyantly? Of course not. But it's a nice breath of fresh air in a sport that thinks black is cool. It isn't. Plus, it's ice hockey in Florida. You gotta stand out. So I applaud the Solar Bears for their efforts here.

The teams says the jerseys are designed and manufactured by SP Appareal in Quebec. As is standard practice in the ECHL, the white one will be worn at home for the first half of the season, then purple the rest of the way.

One debate I'm sure we'll see is over the team using two different crests on these jerseys. I know a lot of readers prefer the uniformity (pun) of using the same logo on both sweaters. I'm on the fence. But if I had to choose one or the other, go with the logo on the white jersey. No need for all that text.

What do you think of the set?

Solar Bears Prep Jersey Unveiling

The ECHL's Orlando Solar Bears recently announced they will officially unveil their uniforms on Tuesday, April 10 — six months before they take the ice for the first time.

This announcement was made a week ago but I kept forgetting to get it on the blog. It was made as part of a contest the team is referring to as a local "star search." They're launching a marketing campaign for their inaugural season that centers on the tag line "I am a Solar Bear" and they want about a dozen fans to be the faces of it.

That event is being held on Monday at the RDV Sportsplex in Orlando, Fla. (The Solar Bears will play their home games at the Amway Center, home of the NBA's Magic.) The winners of the "star search" will be the first to see the new Solar Bears jerseys as they'll be photographed wearing them. Presumably, the campaign will be ready to launch the following week when the jersey is shown publicly for the first time.

I would ask that, if there are any Icethetics readers in Orlando planning to take part, you clue us in on some of the design features of the new sweaters. But more than likely, if you got the chance to see it early, you'd be required to sign an agreement that would restrict you from sharing details with a blog like this one.

Once upon a time, this is what was worn by a team called the Orlando Solar Bears.

These Solar Bears played in the International Hockey League for six seasons and won the last Turner Cup championship before the IHL disappeared in 2001.