Wild Mulling New Road Sweater?

There's another possible jersey redesign in the pipeline for 2013-14 — that's assuming the NHL has finally resumed by then. This lockout is well beyond absurd.

Report: Wild getting fan feedback on potential redesign

Recently an Icethetics reader emailed in to report that the Minnesota Wild are in the process of getting feedback from fans regarding a possible new road sweater design. I'm told that during a tour a couple of Wild fans were invited to take a look at two different concept designs and give their input.

The reader provided descriptions but got the information secondhand so the details are somewhat sketchy. I'm relaying them here but take them for what they're worth.

One was a white sweater with the large, Wild head crest on the front, vertical stripes are gone. Replaced with 2 horizontal green stripes on the arms. He said the "red was gone" from the shoulder yoke, but didn't specify whether the shoulders had any color left.

The other option was basically a reverse of the current alternates. Antique white base with the Minnesota Wild Script and green accents.

I'm eager to see what the Wild come up with if they do redesign the road sweater, if for no other reason than their current road uniforms are my least favorite. They just don't fit in well with the club's home and alternate jerseys. Very different look and feel. But it's one that was carried over from the team's inception in 2000 to the Reebok Edge league-wide redesign in 2007.

If this report pans out, what would be the timeline? As we've learned in the past, teams generally have until the end of December to make uniform changes for the following season. Check out the calendar. Assuming the team has its new design picked out this week, a change could certainly happen in time for next fall.

Another one to keep an eye on. Think we may need to get JerseyWatch 2013 started in the coming weeks to keep track of what's on the way because it's starting to add up.

Sound Tigers Honor Sandy Hook

Bridgeport, Conn. AHL club holds touching tribute

The AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers had the youngest victims of last week's school shooting on their mind when they hit the ice yesterday against the Adirondack Phantoms. Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14.

There's no one who doesn't already know the story. But what you may not know is the Sound Tigers' close connection to the school.

“Sandy Hook Elementary School has been a part of our family, supporting the Sound Tigers at games and community events since the team began calling Bridgeport home, 12 years ago,” Sound Tigers president Howard Saffan said. “We are honored to recognize the victims of the heartbreaking events that happened less than 20 miles up the road.”

Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images via Sound Tigers (official Facebook)

Players wearing names of young victims in place of their own

From Thursday's Sound Tigers press release:

In place of each player’s last name, every jersey worn at home beginning on Sat., Dec. 22 when the Sound Tigers take on the Adirondack Phantoms, will have the name of one of the 20 students whose life was lost on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn. The names of the six adult victims will appear on the center hung digital scoreboard throughout the entire game.

The Sound Tigers will wear their black alternate jerseys for these games. The month-long tribute concludes on Jan. 20 when the team hosts the Springfield Falcons.

During that game, the Sound Tigers will honor the Newtown community, as members or representatives from each family will be invited to take home their jerseys off the players’ backs at the conclusion of the contest.

The Sound Tigers will hold a number of promotions and auctions over the next few weeks, the proceeds of which will go to Sandy Hook Elementary.

Sound Tigers tribute will continue through rest of season

The tribute to the Sandy Hook victims doesn't end on Jan. 20.

Earlier this week, the team announced that they will wear commemorative ribbon patches on the jerseys and stickers on their helmets for the remainder of the 2012-13 American Hockey League season, and a graphic with the initials “S.H.E.S.” and the date “12.14.12” will be painted into the ice behind each net at Webster Bank Arena.

For more pictures of the black jerseys worn during last night's game, The AHL's Official Facebook page has a great photo album you can check out.

Winter Classic Shifts to Desert, Indoors

Despite the preceding headline and logo, the world, in fact, did not end today. Then again the day isn't yet over. So we'll see what happens. But while we're all still here, it's back to the blogging grind for me.

On Tuesday, the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers announced that they will be hosting the Ontario Reign for the Indoor Winter Classic at the Orleans Arena on Jan. 1, 2013. Yes. This story is too funny not to be true. The Wranglers have a marketing department that just can't help themselves. And why should they? Got to do something to rally a tourist town around your hockey team.

In fact, the press release itself demonstrates a refreshing sense of humor that we don't often get from professional hockey teams. Take a look.

“The game will feature many arena doors being left open in hope of creating unpredictable breeze patterns,” said Wranglers President and Chief Operating Officer Billy Johnson. “We are hoping for quite a draft.”

A trophy, which is currently being built, will be presented to the winning team and will feature a chain and a padlock somewhere in the design. The emphasis on the chain and lock is as yet undetermined because it’s a “budget matter,” said a team representative.

Advance weather forecasts for inside the arena call for intermittent snow for the Indoor Winter Classic, as well as the sound of whistling winds throughout the game.

“We hope that with time the Indoor Winter Classic grows and we will be forced to move it outdoors,” Johnson said.

Fans will be allowed to skate with the Wranglers following the Indoor Winter Classic, and rental skates will be provided at no additional charge.

In previous seasons the Wranglers have presented Dick Cheney Hunting Vest Night, Rod Blagojevich Prison Uniform Night, and Rapture Night: The Last Hockey Game on Earth. The Wranglers have also played at least one game at midnight since its inception in 2003, and hosted such performers as Mini Kiss and Tony Clifton at games.

A "budget matter," said a team representative. That line alone made me actually laugh out loud. You know why? Because if you can't laugh about this asinine lockout, you'll only cry. Good on the Wranglers for at least making a little extra cash off of it. Somebody should.

The team also says it will host Over 18 Night: The World's First Topless Hockey Game on Feb. 4. Only in Vegas. Can't wait to see the special jerseys for that game! Er... well.

Top 10 Worst NHL Logos of All Time

Guess this is it. The final 24 hours of existence. The end of everything. You know, or not. But let's just say armageddon is coming. Might as well finish tallying up the best and worst logos in history of North American pro hockey.

We began with the Top 10 NHL logos. It only makes sense that we'd bookend the week with the worst. So here they are. In my estimation, these are the 10 worst logos the NHL has ever seen.

1. Columbus Blue Jackets

In 2000, when the Columbus Blue Jackets took the ice for the very first time, they were wearing this dreadful thing on their shoulders. You'd think I was making that up. But I'm not. In those days, electric green and powder blue were part of the club's color scheme. And this funny-looking bug was originally meant to be part of their primary logo. It's a relief they wised up. Their current primary logo would definitely be in my Top 15.

2. Buffalo Sabres

The No. 1 spot was a toss-up between the Blue Jackets bug and the Buffaslug. (But come on, the green bug, obviously!) The yellow buffalo got a lot of stick during its brief lifespan. All warranted. Someone earlier this week told me to separate the people and events surrounding these logos from my judgment of the actual design itself. As if this were an objective exercise. That's impossible. If these logos were standalone pieces of artwork, they would mean nothing and would therefore be impossible to rank. Part of what gives a logo its personality is what it represents. But even if I could separate things, I'd still consider this to be an awful design.

3. Boston Bruins

Need to add one more shoulder patch to the worst logos list. This logo and its successor (often nicknamed Winnie-the-Pooh) shows us why the Boston Bruins should stick to their classic spoked-B and stop trying to put actual bears in their logos. That said, they did get it right with the new shoulder patch in 2007. I will say, though, that this logo is good for one thing. You know those "guess how many" contests? We held one at my workplace recently. How many marshmallows are in this huge jar? Closest guess wins. You could do a similar contest counting the number of sharp points in this logo. But then someone would have to actually sit there and count them all.

4. Tampa Bay Lightning

Here. Proof I checked my homerism at the door. I love Phil Esposito to death, but that man should've hired a logo designer instead of scrawling something on a napkin way back when. He is credited with designing the Tampa Bay Lightning's original logo which debuted in 1992. And that's too bad. It was sort of a relief to me when they updated it in 2007 with a better looking bolt. But why leave Tampa Bay at the top? They finally fixed it last year. It just missed my Top 10 and I am sad about that.

5. New York Islanders

We mock it every chance we get. The New York Islanders introduced this spray-tanned fisherman in 1995 for no apparent reason. They already had their perfect logo. And it only took the team two and a half years to realize and correct their mistake. And that was before social media! Guess fans protested well enough back then with their wallets.

6. Phoenix Coyotes

This one is a controversial pick. I get the feeling there are just as many of you that love this logo as hate it. But it does seem to be one of those marks that elicits a strong reaction. Nobody just says "meh" when they see it. You either love it for having a distinctive style. Or you hate it for being weird. Personally, I love it. But I will always consider the Picasso desert dog one of the worst logos in NHL history and something never to be repeated.

7. Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators had a perfectly good logo when they debuted in 1992. Then they came up with their first third jersey in 1997. And it had this multi-colored mark on the front. And we all asked, "why?" Turning the guy's head to make the logo more three-dimensional takes the logo to a weird place. And it just looks bad. The Sens thought they fixed the problem in 2007 by adding bolder lines and sharper corners. But they didn't. Long live the 2D head.

8. Vancouver Canucks

I anticipate my Vancouver friends will fillet me for this one. But I just can't stand it. Why all the lines? The Canucks had a pretty good thing going with the stick-in-the-rink mark. Boring, maybe. But it wasn't terrible. This and the color change in 1978 were just uncalled for. But they kept it around for 20 years until they brought in the orca.

9. Atlanta Thrashers

When this logo debuted in 1999, I was impressed. The colors were new and unique and I thought the bird looked pretty cool. But the perspective that only time can bring showed me the error of my ways. For one thing, the hockey stick was completely unnecessary. This logo would be instantly improved if they lost that. But then they were trying to get people to watch hockey in Atlanta. And not to pile on, but after someone once described this logo to me as a bird stirring itself into a pot of soup, I've never been able to look at it the same way. Still, I was sorry to see them move. And that brings us to...

10. Winnipeg Jets

This logo is so bad that when it was first leaked online, I refused to believe it was legitimate. It looks like an exploding airplane. Not a great visual. And while I appreciate the symbolism of the compass pointing "True North," I still only ever see a detonating jet. And that's not the icon that should represent a hockey franchise.

I'm anticipating a lot of disagreement so I'm curious to see what you guys have to say about this particular list. But get your complaints in quick. Don't forget the world is ending soon.

And if it doesn't, well let's do the world's largest hockey logo ranking project in 2013! It'll be a big endeavor but I think it would be hugely entertaining to learn about what makes a hockey logo popular or not. And at the same time, it'll be free market research for the next team that wants to do a rebrand. What do you guys say?

Best & Worst ECHL Logos of All Time

This week — our last week on the planet according to a handful of ancient cultures — we've been taking time out to consider the best and worst hockey logos of all time. Monday we covered the Top 10 NHL logos. Tuesday brought the best and worst of the AHL. Next is the ECHL.

The East Coast Hockey League was founded in 1988. When it merged with the West Coast Hockey League in 2003, it became known simply as the ECHL. Over the last 24 years, many teams have come and gone along with a great many logos. Today, I'll try to quantify them. The Top 5 and the Bottom 5.

Top 5: The Best Logos

1. Orlando Solar Bears

Yes, I firmly believe that the best logo the ECHL has ever seen came in its final year of existence — if the Maya and Hopi are to be believed. This season brought about the resurrection of an IHL team that was founded in 1995 and was disbanded when the league folded in 2001. The Orlando Solar Bears were re-established with this absolute gem of a logo from the immensely talented Joe Bosack. His firm has been responsible for most of the sporting world's greatest logos in recent years. If the world weren't ending, I'd say we could hope for many more to come.

He's done amazing things here. It's hard to believe that a polar bear wearing sunglasses and holding a hockey stick while surrounded by the brightest color palette in sports could be among the best logos. But it is. Right there at the top and everything.

2. Kalamazoo Wings

In minor league hockey, clubs come and go frequently. But often new teams in old markets are branded with familiar names and marks. It's something I touched on yesterday with the Peoria Rivermen. The Kalamazoo Wings are another example. The name and winged-K logo date back to 1974 in the International Hockey League. In 1995, they became the Michigan K-Wings, adopting the simplified nickname. When they lost their affiliation in 2000, the team shut down. But over in the United Hockey League, a Wisconsin-based team head to Kalamazoo and adopted the classic moniker. In 2009, that team transferred to the ECHL. Now this history lesson isn't what makes this a good logo. The simple and beautiful design, on the other hand, does. The longevity proves it.

3. Florida Everblades

I know. How is it possible that two Florida hockey teams crack the Top 5 ECHL logos of all time? You could call it a bias toward my home state. But then you'd just sound silly. The Florida Everblades' logo may be a little more intricate than the two that preceded it, but every detail just improves it. It's one of those rare instances where a ferocious animal really gets the job done. 

4. Wheeling Nailers

Back to "simplicity is king" with this one. The Wheeling Nailers absolutely nailed their logo. And I'm sorry about the poor pun, but I'm writing this at 3 AM when I should be sleeping. The old-time goalie mask and crossed railroad ties (I presume) provide this West Virginia hockey team with the ideal mark. Now if only they hadn't gone and ruined it this year by dropping the red. That was a big disappointment.

The franchise was created in 1981 in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League as the Carolina Thunderbirds. After that league folded, they became a founding member of the ECHL in 1988. They moved to Wheeling in 1992 and a few years later lost a trademark dispute with — of all teams — the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds (or so says Wikipedia). In 1996, they became the Nailers and have always used some variation of this logo.

5. South Carolina Stingrays

In one fell swoop back in 2008, the South Carolina Stingrays went from having the ECHL's worst logo to one of its best. If you don't believe me, take a look at who leads the Bottom 5 below. This is a classic, clean and simple logo, the likes of which we rarely see in minor league hockey. But the good news is that marks like this have been the trend in recent years. Thank goodness.

Honorable Mentions

I have to give a shoutout to some of the logos that got serious consideration for the Top 5 list. These would definitely be in my Top 10 though. The Cincinnati Cyclones is just awesome. It's not an animal, but the designer gave a twister an angry face and a hockey stick anyway. The Cyclones have existed with this logo in multiple forms dating back to 1990.

Then there's the Boise-based Idaho Steelheads, a carryover from the WCHL where they were founded in 1997. They survived the 2003 merger but have changed their logo a couple of times recently. As of last year, it's now just a fish. Way to be on the nose. I loved the goalie mask with the ricocheting puck.

And lastly, what can you say about the Greensboro Generals? The franchise only existed for five seasons from 1999 to 2004, but it provided my favorite wordmark logo of all time. Just goes to show you don't need an angry animal biting a hockey stick to make a sharp logo. Hey, as a matter of fact...

Bottom 5: The Worst Logos

1. South Carolina Stingrays

Look at that. It's torture. This piece of feces was not created in the 1970s or 80s as it may seem. No, the South Carolina Stingrays adopted this ugly excuse for a drawing as a logo in 2000. And players actually wore it on their sweaters. Really. How could one man do that to another? I know I'm being harsh, but there are no redeeming qualities here. Let's move on.

2. San Francisco Bulls

If not for that blasted Stingrays thing, the year to end all years (a.k.a. 2012) would've brought us both the best and the worst the ECHL ever had to offer. Seeing what the Solar Bears came up with gave us high hopes for the ECHL's other 2012 expansion franchise. But the San Francisco Bulls logo wasn't just disappointing, it was almost appalling. Who would look at those two logos and believe they were created in the same year? I'd love to see how they're looked upon in 2032, but I suppose the point of all this is that we won't be making it that far.

3. Greenville Grrrowl

Maybe it's all the Rs. Maybe it's the cross-eyed puppy biting a hockey puck. All I know is this is not a logo that should've ever been worn by professional hockey players. And yet for eight seasons from 1998 to 2006, it was. Then the team met with financial ruin and ceased to exist. What a relief.

4. New Orleans Brass

You'd think I had something against the color combination of purple and gold. I assure you I don't but there are better ways of putting it to use than with these logos. The New Orleans Brass, for one, had a bad name. But all I can think of when I see this logo is that rejected St. Louis Blues third jersey from 1996. You know, the one the players almost had to wear but for Mike Keenan stepping in with some dignity-saving common sense. But associations aside, this is just a poor logo. Nothing about it tells me I'm about to see some hard-hitting hockey. Maybe a symphony?

5. Mississippi Sea Wolves

So many bad logos deserve to be on this list, but I had to limit myself to five. And as such, our final spot belongs to the Mississippi Sea Wolves. It's an abomination of a logo. All I want to know is why the sea wolf captain has an earring and a hook. I'm glad the madness is behind us, but I do feel bad that the team was force to shut down because of the lingering impact of Hurricane Katrina. No team deserves to go out that way. Not even one with a logo as bad as this.

And there you have it. The best and worst logos of the ECHL. Would you agree? Did I leave out any logos that should've been on one of these lists?

We'll wrap up the week — and our time on Earth — tomorrow with the Top 10 worst NHL logos. The world will then end sometime on Friday. Dawn? Noon? Anyone know when?