Second Chance at Lagers Jersey!

Lagers jersey on sale again until March 17

If you were one of the people who saw these pictures back in January and thought, "man, I wish I could've bought one of those Lagers jerseys," then your wish has come true!

For a limited time, from now until March 17, the IceHL's Milwaukee Lagers jersey will again be available to buy from the great people at RinkGear — through their Geeky Jerseys store. And just as before, it can be yours, fully embroidered and personally customized for just $95.

If you miss your chance to grab this Lagers jersey now, you'll have only yourself to blame.

The photos in this blog post are great, but I've posted dozens more high-resolution photos that really show off the quality of the jersey on the Icethetics Facebook page. Go check them out. And if there's something else you want to see, let me know and I'll break out my camera again.

For those unfamiliar with the Milwaukee Lagers or Icethetics' fantasy hockey league, the IceHL, check out the free IceHL 2012 Yearbook. It's a quick download and contains everything you could possibly want to know — and then some.

By the way, following this second window for the Lagers jersey, the Hartford Mariners jersey will be up for sale next. It won the last round of voting. So soon enough, you can have not one, but TWO IceHL jerseys in your collection!

Phantoms Sport the Retro and Ridiculous

Last week the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms busted out a couple of specialty jerseys. Nothing new in the minors. But these deserve a special look for two very different reasons.

AHL club returns to Philly in throwback threads

On Friday, Feb. 22 — for one night only — the Phantoms hit the ice at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia — sporting retro purple-infused threads just like they did back when they called Philly home from 1996 to 2009. The club moved to upstate New York when their arena was taken down.

Photos from Adirondack Phantoms (via Facebook)

The Phantoms faced their former in-state rival, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a game which drew one of the largest crowds to watch an AHL game indoors. Borrowing their NHL affiliate's arena was certainly helpful there. But the Phantoms ended up falling to the Penguins, 2-1.

It's always neat to see classic minor hockey sweater make a comeback — even if only for a night.

And then there's this disaster.

Phantoms celebrate mascot's birthday with silly sweater

I guess this is a situation where the universe required balance. The only way to allow an awesome jersey to be worn is to follow it up with an awful one. The Phantoms returned home two days after their trip to Philly to celebrate the "birthday" of their mascot, Dax.

Photo from Adirondack Phantoms (official website)

Last Sunday, grown men — professional hockey players, no less — wore these silly numbers with Dax's cartoon head replacing the classic Phantom crest. If ever there was a specialty jersey squarely meant for the kids, folks, this is the one. It's incredibly dorky and yet somehow charming.

Surprisingly, the Phantoms won while wearing it. They beat the Binghamton Senators 2-1. Still, let this not be a common occurrence. Maybe next year you just get Dax a gift card or something.

Photos from Adirondack Phantoms (via Facebook)

I'll leave you with these close-ups of the jersey. Recognize that awful number font? Remind you of something "Mighty" from way back when?

New NHL Draft Logo Emerges

New logo design officially appears on NHL.com

It was back in December that we thought we got our first look at the logo for the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. But that was evidently not an official version. This week, a new mark prominently featuring the outline of the state of New Jersey started appearing on NHL.com.

Personally, I like it better than what we saw a few months ago. The strange drawing of the Newark skyline was out of place. But this map-centric design makes me wonder if it'll set a new trend for future draft logos. Philadelphia hosts in 2014, so will that logo feature an outline of Pennsylvania?

Do you have an opinion on NHL Draft logos? Ever even thought about them before today?

NHL Modifies Realignment Proposal

CBC's Elliotte Friedman reports new plan being considered

Over the weekend, Elliotte Freidman reported a new NHL realignment proposal is on the table. He talked about modifications made to last year's proposal on Hockey Night in Canada's Hoststove Tonight segment.

For those of us who are more visual, I've put together the map above to show you what the new proposal would look like. The big takeaways from this report:

• Detroit and Columbus would now get to play more road games in the eastern time zone.
• Should the Coyotes end up moving to Seattle, there'd be no need for realignment.
• However, there's no room in the east for any expansion to Quebec or Toronto.
• The majority of the Original 6 is reunited in Conference 2 with Detroit, Toronto, Montreal and Boston all grouped  together.
• Of course, Tampa Bay and Florida are still lumped into the Canadian conference for some reason.
• Poor Columbus. From a division with Chicago and Detroit to one with the Penguins, Flyers and Rangers. These guys can't win. I mean, literally, they cannot win hockey games. Why?

Friedman also said the league is exploring a wild card format for the 8-team divisions. This is because teams in the larger conferences are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to making the playoffs. So we might see a situation where the No. 4 and 5 seeds in Conferences 1 and 2 square off for that fourth playoff spot.

I'm curious to see everyone's take on the new proposal. Here's a question, though. How should the conferences be named? Certainly not by names or letters. Should the league stick with its geographical names or go back to naming them after key people in NHL history?

Wings' Winter Classic Look Leaks Too!

curt4201 via ebay

Well, once the Maple Leafs' jersey was leaked, you had to know it was only a matter of time before the other one came. It appears ebay has now provided us a look at the 2013 Winter Classic sweater of the Detroit Red Wings.

Once again, I have to believe it's a legitimate Reebok product — not because curt4201 says so — but because of the details you find. The embroidering, the tags, the NHL shield. It's all so far from what counterfeiters are capable of producing.

The seller actually calls it a "throwback alternate" jersey. Think it's safe to say he's not a big hockey sweater guy. First, it's not a throwback to anything. It's another homage to the Detroit Cougars with a big of Red Wings mixed in (just like in 2009). It's also not a third jersey — something the Red Wings have never had.

Based on this, we know it was intended for this year's Winter Classic. Back in January, some images of WC merchandise, including t-shirts, were leaked by an online retailer. The Red Wings t-shirt used the exact crest found on this jersey — down to the custom font that spells DETROIT. Even the custom numbers can be matched to that shirt.

However, there's a problem. The Maple Leafs jersey that was leaked was blue. That means neither team would've had a white sweater for the Winter Classic. Is that unprecendented? Of course not.

TheHockeyJersey.co via ebay

A blue-vs-red game could work quite well. I, for one, hope we still get a chance to experience that again when we ring in 2014. It'll be a sight to see.

So, just as with the Leafs jersey, I'm content to say this Red Wings jersey did, in fact, come out of a Reebok factory. Whether it's the real deal or a mere prototype, you can decide for yourself until we get something official from the NHL.

But whatever the case, what do you think of it? Were these two jerseys the right way to go?