Columbus Hosting All-Stars in 2015

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City was set to have game in 2013 before lockout

As expected, the city of Columbus will get a second chance at hosting the NHL All-Star Game in 2015. The announcement was made tonight by the NHL, who also released an updated event's logo.

Ohio's capital was originally scheduled to host the game in 2013, but when the season was shortened by the lockout, the All-Star Game was one of the annual league events to get the ax — along with the Winter Classic which was rescheduled for this season. 

There will be no All-Star Game in 2014 to accommodate the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Who should be the next two hosts?

Not much more to say on this, so let's look ahead. Who do you think should host in 2016? And more important, how about 2017 during the NHL 100th anniversary season? Montreal had it in 2009 and Ottawa in 2012. The only other original NHL city is Toronto and they last hosted in 2000.

Where Are All the Stadium Jerseys?

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There are still nine sweaters we haven't seen yet

The question I'm asked most these days is the title of this post. Where are all the NHL Stadium Series jerseys? Why haven't any of them been unveiled — or leaked — yet? 

Now that all of this year's new third jerseys are out, I thought I'd address it. The short answer is, I don't know. But I'm happy to engage in a little educated speculation if it gives us something to talk about.

To begin, really the only concrete thing we've heard on this subject was back in June when Islanders GM Garth Snow mentioned it briefly. He said his team had something special in development and that every Stadium Series participant does as well.

With seven clubs taking part in the series, it's a great opportunity for the NHL to add a whole mess of new merchandise to the mix. But when do they make the designs public? As someone who makes a living in marketing, that's probably the best way for me to approach this. Hence the educated speculation.

Make the new stuff available by Black Friday

Depending upon how long the new designs have been in the works, the smartest option — in my opinion — would be to get everything on store shelves by the biggest shopping day of the year — Black Friday. (This year, that's Nov. 29.) These jerseys would probably make great Christmas gifts. And the timing would be great since the first Stadium Series game takes place exactly a month after Christmas.

But that begs the question, when do you reveal the designs to fans? The week of Thanksgiving (only talking U.S. since Canada's not involved in the Stadium Series) is tricky because people are out of their normal routines and may miss the announcement. Not ideal for maximizing exposure.

The week before might be good, though. So should the teams hold individual unveilings or should the NHL knock out all seven in one fell swoop? (I'm assuming the Rangers get only one jersey despite playing in two separate stadium games.) All at once would be more efficient but you're probably only buying the jersey if you're a fan of the team. So maybe it's better left to the individual clubs.

But there's a problem. If you introduce a sweater in November and tell people it won't be used for two months or more, it's possible they could simply lose interest. So what's another option?

Hold off on any unveilings until Winter Classic

Another plan could be to wait and get the new sweaters in front of more eyeballs across the U.S. and Canada. Forget about Christmas. Wait a week and unveil them all in Ann Arbor during one of the intermissions of the 2014 Winter Classic. Put them in stores the next day.

There's still plenty of time until the first of the four games, which takes place in L.A. on Jan. 25. And let's not forget about the Heritage Classic. There's two more jerseys right there — but they're Canadian so NBC won't care about that. Still, with the Leafs in the Winter Classic, Canadians will surely be watching.

This idea may be kind of a bummer for jersey geeks like us because it means waiting longer, but it has a lot of merit from a marketing standpoint. It could certainly play into the excitement of the first outdoor game of the season.

What's your theory?

Those are my two theories and, of course, they could both be completely wrong. What's your take?

By the way, my Flames third jersey review is still to come. Just wanted to get this out of the way first.

Flames Unveil New Third Jersey

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Photo from Calgary Flames

Calgary's alternate sweater officially launches

On Sunday afternoon, the Calgary Flames officially unveiled their new red third jersey to fans at Flames Fest. There weren't many surprises since the sweater was mistakenly leaked a few weeks ago by EA's NHL 14 video game. But notice I didn't say "no surprises."

Take a good look at the shoulder yoke. It's difficult to tell in some of these photos, but that's not a straight line that runs from the collar to the shoulder. It dips down forming a sort of triangle. The photo below gives us a slightly better look at what I mean.

Photo from Calgary Flames

The first thing that comes to mind is the old Colorado Avalanche jerseys mean to resemble mountain peaks. And to think Reebok said it couldn't be done with the Edge style. Perhaps this means the Avs can soon be fixed? But this post is about the Flames. So let's continue.

One feature that caught my eye was the new number style. Definitely unique in the NHL.

Photo from Calgary Flames

For one thing, the 5 looks like an upside down 2. It's not, but it looks that way on first glance. That might take fans a little getting used to. But I'll get more into those details in my full review this week. I just wanted to take this time to get some photos up and point out a couple of interesting items.

Speaking of interesting, the Flames also released a video that talked about the development of the jersey and some of what was considered during the design process. Included in the video is a shot of an idea board that shows a lot of unused concepts. I know we love seeing that sort of thing.

Video still from Calgary Flames

You can see some alternate versions of the shoulder patch — which make it more clear the yellow patches were meant to symbolize Alberta's wheat fields, apparently. I had been wondering about that. There were also a lot of cowboy-themed logos under consideration at some point. The bladed boot stuck out to me as a very retro style logo. Any of them pop out to you guys?

While you consider that, I'll leave you with a photo from today's event that features just about every sweater from Calgary Flames history.

Photo from Calgary Flames

Extra points if you can name what's missing — without going to NHLUniforms.com! Again, I plan to post my full review of Calgary's new third jersey this week. Meantime, share your reaction!

Glimpses of a New Calgary Sweater

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New logo found through Canada's trademark office

I know I've been ignoring the blog a bit lately, but I'm pretty excited about the new Jersey Galleries I've been putting together. Time now, though, to get caught up on some Flames news.

The Calgary Flames will officially unveil their new third jersey on Sunday afternoon at Flames Fest. Earlier this month, of course, it leaked. Then last week, the Flames revealed a sneak peek in-arena video. But the fun continues.

Up top you can see the new third jersey shoulder patch design in all its detailed glory — rather than just the video game rendering from before. This is possible thanks to the diligence of a blog called SportsDocuments. Writer James Gordon tracked down the new mark via the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website.

In fairness, the logo depicted there is actually black and white, like this.

Canadian Intellectual Property Office

All I did was fill in the colors based on what we saw in the NHL 14 leak. I can't link you directly to the filing, but if you search Calgary Flames, you should be able to find it. Gordon also pointed out that no other new logos — including the jersey's crest — could be located via the CIPO website at this time. I found that to be the case as well.

It's an interesting mark. Like I've said before, it's like nothing the Flames have used before. Could it be a sign of a new creative direction for the team? Or a simple one-off for a special uniform?

Flames still determined to offer sneak peeks

The jersey has leaked and the Flames themselves have shown a lot of bits already by way of that in-arena video. But regardless, they are continuing to share little "sneak peek" photos via Twitter. They've shown four in the last two days and, presumably, there are more to come before Sunday.

Here's a graphic that shows everything they've tweeted so far.

Calgary Flames (via Twitter)

The first, showing the sleeve or waist stripe or shoulder yoke where the black and red meet, came down Wednesday afternoon. Later that evening came the close-up of the waist with the thin yellow stripe. All stuff we've seen before.

Thursday morning brought a better look at the nameplate — specifically the one on the jersey of Curtis Glencross. Later in the afternoon came another angle, but this time on Mark Giordano's. (UPDATE: As a reader pointed out, this is probably all Glencross. Don't know why I keep assuming Giordano.) And that's where we stand at the time of this writing.

I'll update this post as the Flames release new images. But the main event will be Sunday when the whole thing should be revealed — and then added to the NHL 2013-14 Jersey Gallery. See how we came full circle?

Got any thoughts on the new details we've seen here? Has your gut reaction to the leak changed at all?

Loose Threads: Outdoors & More

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Flames to unveil third jersey at Flames Fest

Got a handful of items today, so I'm condensing them into this post.

First, the Calgary Flames sent an email to season ticket holders last night, inviting them to the first ever Flames Fest on Oct. 27. And getting a starring role at the event will be the unveiling of the team's new third jersey. (In fact, it's mentioned four times in the email!)

Specifically, the jersey will be officially unveiled at 1:30 PM MT (or 12:30 PT, 3:30 ET). Of course, if you can't wait, there's always that leak from a couple weeks ago.

Thanks to Ryan C. for sharing the email.

Ducks to wear fifth jersey to Stadium Series game

In a previous post, I wondered aloud whether the Anaheim Ducks would simply wear the eggplant throwback again in January for their Stadium Series game against the Kings. We now have definitive word that they will not.

According to tweets to fans from Adam Brady, the Ducks' Director of Publications and New Media, the team will have a completely different uniform for the Jan. 25 game — making it the fifth jersey the Ducks will wear this season on top of their home, road, third and last weekend's throwback.

Thanks to Matt Baldock for pointing me to this tweet.

There are also rumors — which may have started with an employee of the team store — saying that the Stadium Series jersey will be primarily orange and feature a version of the throwback Mighty Ducks logo. Probably not unlike what's currently used on the shoulder patch of the third jersey.

I can't imagine we'll have to wait too much longer to start seeing Stadium Series jerseys. Perhaps closer to late November? All seven teams are expected to have them, including the Ducks, Kings, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Penguins and Blackhawks. (We're also waiting on the Canucks' and Senators' Heritage Classic sweaters.)

Do Lundqvist's Stadium Series pads preview jersey?

Henrik Lundqvist BlogSpeaking of the NHL Stadium Series, the New York Rangers will actually play two outdoor games this winter — but I'm only expecting one jersey from them. And Rangers fans may have gotten a sneak

Icethetics reader John F. sent in this photo (right) via Facebook. The photo appears to have been first posted almost a week ago by The Henrik Lundqvist Blog.

Unfortunately, while the writer said the photo was found on Twitter, no source link was provided.

There was also no information about the context of what we're seeing. Where/when was the photo taken? We don't know. Maybe someone reading can help out there and offer a little background.

On the table there's a card that reads:

Henrik Lundqvist
New York Rangers

Stadium Series
Yankee Stadium - January 26, 2014

So it's definitely a recent shot.

All that said, what's interesting about these pads is the striping pattern. While it definitely screams Rangers, it's not like anything they've worn recently.

I can't tell if it's the lighting, but the pads appear to be an off-white color. Vintage white. My favorite. But the heavy use of the Rangers' shield logo suggests we might see used it on a jersey for the first time ever. (The shield was different in 1978 and the 2012 Winter Classic.)

If nothing else, this might be good for another concept artist challenge. Who wants to create a jersey based on Lundqvist's pads?

Bruins throw back to 1940s with Milt Schmidt

Finally, here's one that slipped under the radar a bit. The Boston Bruins paid tribute to Milt Schmidt and the 1940s team on Monday afternoon as part of their 90th anniversary celebrations.

Photos from Boston Bruins

The 95-year-old ex-Bruin stepped onto the ice for the ceremonial puck drop sporting a replica of the sweater he wore way back in the mid-1940s — with the 90th anniversary patch stitched on. (Two minutes for tucking it in, though.)

The scoreboard was also decked out in the 1940s "B" logo, as seen in this photo tweeted by @KyleClauss. 

Seeing Schmidt in that sweater led some to wonder whether the Bruins would make a good opponent for the Capitals at the 2015 Winter Classic. (Yes, I know they've taken part before.) If so, this would be a great jersey to go up against the Caps' classic red look. What do you think?