St. Louis Blues unveil new home and road uniforms for 2014-15

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Our long wait ended as the St. Louis Blues officially unveiled new home and road uniforms Monday night at the Blues Ice Breaker event. The updated look will hit the ice for the first time this fall.

For those following the proceedings on Twitter, some of the thunder was taken out of the big reveal when photos of the jerseys were leaked an hour before the start of the event.

The Blues' new look follows a trend in recent years across the NHL — and hockey in general — to return to traditional style uniform design.

Some would argue the Blues were among the teams hit hardest by Reebok's push to modernize sweater designs in 2007. Here, the team reverts back a jersey not unlike what they wore prior that.

Gone is the unsightly apron-string piping. Back are the horizontal waist and sleeve stripes. And remaining unchanged is the classic Blue Note.

If you haven't yet guessed, I'm a huge fan of the new sweaters. Just as I was back in July when I got my first glimpse and shared the details with you.

From the team's press release:

Constructed from all the latest advanced materials of the Reebok Edge 2.0 system, the jersey's diagonal color striping on the sleeves has been straightened for a simplified, cleaner aesthetic. The same effect has been achieved with the return of stripes along the waistline.

It's definitely cleaner.

By the way, in case you missed the live stream of the Blues Ice Breaker, I wanted to point out some items from Brett Hull's appearance.

In preparation for the jersey reveal, the team chose to lower expectations by reminding us of a time when the Blues wore red. In other words, the new look can't be any worse than this, right?

Luckily, there was no need for low expectations and it served as a fun trip down memory lane nonetheless. I thought it was funny that T.J. Oshie told Brett Hull the Gretzky-era jerseys were his favorite. I know very few Icethetics readers would agree with him there.

Now it's your turn to chime in. What do you think of the Blues' new uniforms? Do they work for you?

New Blues jerseys leak on Twitter before unveiling

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As I write this blog entry, the St. Louis Blues are minutes from the Ice Breaker event where they will officially unveil their new home and road uniforms. But just hours ago, photos of the new threads showed up on Twitter.

Photos via Twitter

These photos were were later removed from Twitter, but I grabbed copies.

This confirms the design details I first shared back in July.  In addition, the photos gave us our first look at the white road jersey and confirmation that the number and letter styles will remain the same — as seen on the home sweater.

Check back to Icethetics tonight for full coverage of today's big unveiling!

See the new chrome NHL All-Star crest on a jersey

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Today we get a sneak peek at what's coming to the 2015 NHL All-Star Game. Specifically that flashy chrome crest.

A source wishing to remain anonymous provided Icethetics this photo (right) showing a Reebok practice jersey emblazoned with the new logo we first saw last month in a Reebok catalog. The design was included on a handful of All-Star Game related products.

Perhaps this is the practice jersey the players will wear prior to the game being held in Columbus this January.

The one thing that stands out to me from the photo is that the crest appears to be unusually large. It could be the angle, but it still looks big.

What do you think?

Possible 2015 NHL All-Star practice jersey?

Islanders offer peek at commemorative Coliseum logo

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An NHL team has now taken the distasteful step of sharing unique content on the silly platform that is Snapchat. I'm disappointed.

This morning, the New York Islanders offered followers a sneak peek at the logo that will be used to commemorate their upcoming final season at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

New York Islanders via Snapchat

From what we can see, the mark bears the Isles' primary logo, the years 1972 and (presumably) 2015, and the four Stanley Cups won during this time.

Beginning in the 2015-16 season, the Islanders will move to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

By the way, I really hope this Snapchat thing doesn't catch on around the NHL. For one thing, the audience is too young to care about a logo commemorating an old building. Then again, if they're just looking to expand their social media presence, I guess it worked on us.

UPDATE · Aug 20 · And there's another one. The Islanders went to Snapchat again to share a second teaser image of the logo today. Not sure this hype is going to pay off in any way.

New York Islanders via Snapchat

No, I am sure. It won't.

UPDATE · Aug 21 · Well, it's over now. The Isles took to Snapchat one last time this morning to reveal the full logo — perhaps realizing that to drag it out any longer would be the very definition of pointless.

New York Islanders via Snapchat

From a design standpoint, good grief. So much text. So many wrong colors — Islander blue is not that bright and I count about six different shades of grey. So many different heights for all the Cups.

But I'll stop. It is what it is. And now it's out there.

UPDATE · Aug 23 · One last update to this post with a look at the logo in the wild. Looks better in patch and puck form than it did on Snapchat.

Lightning leak 2014-15 third jersey schedule

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have yet to schedule the unveiling of their new third jersey, but it seems they've already scheduled when it will be worn during the upcoming 2014-15 season.

The downloadable schedule on the team's official website is nothing more than a JPEG image, but clearly denotes blue and black color-coded home games.

There are 12 games noted in black. Since I know the jersey will be black and that's a common number of games for a third jersey in the NHL — I can only take this to mean these are the third jersey dates.

According to the schedule, the sweater will debut on a Thursday (Nov. 13) but after that will be used on Saturdays only.

  • Thurs., Nov. 13 · vs Sharks
  • Sat., Nov. 15 · vs Islanders
  • Sat., Nov. 22 · vs Wild
  • Sat., Nov. 29 · vs Senators
  • Sat., Dec. 6 · vs Blue Jackets
  • Sat., Dec. 27 · vs Hurricanes
  • Sat., Jan. 17 · vs Avalanche
  • Sat., Jan. 31 · vs Blue Jackets
  • Sat., Feb. 7 · vs Kings
  • Sat., March 7 · vs Stars
  • Sat., March 14 · vs Jets
  • Sat., April 11 · vs Bruins

By the way, I'm holding off on adding these dates to the Icethetics Calendar until 1) we know for sure and 2) the jersey itself has been unveiled.

Click to enlarge.