Week of May 30 - June 5, 2011

Hope our American readers are enjoying their holiday weekend. Here's some HJC news, info and concepts to add to your day.

An entry for the North Stars ReDesign came in late last night.

Minnesota North Stars concepts (by Magnus)
Voting for the ReDesign is on NOW! You can vote by clicking on the banner on the right. You can also see all of the entries by clicking the link once you get to the page...by clicking the banner on the right. Voting runs until Sunday @ 11:59pm EST.

Our next ReDesign will be a little more involved. We are collectively going to create a team from scratch! On the right side of the page you will find a poll that asks what city you want to create a team for. You can enter ANY city in the world. That poll closes on Wednesday @ 11:59pm EST. Once we get the city we'll go through the same process for a team name. Then we'll have a submission phase for logo concepts and then jersey concepts. Should be fun!

Last week's poll saw the inevitable and asked who you would let go of first if the Sharks lost the semi-final again. You guys have spoken and the overwhelming answer was Dany Heatley.Dany had 38 of the 77 votes cast (49%). Heatley scored 3 goals and 9 points in this year's playoffs. He was also a minus 2 and had 12 penalty minutes. He isn't paid what he's paid to have those numbers after April. The rest of the possible scapegoats had between 7 and 9 votes each.

This week's poll is very simple. Who's going to win the Cup?Voting is on the right side of the page and obviously you only have two choices. Voting goes until Sunday @ 11:59pm EST. At the halfway mark of the season, the weekly poll asked which team you think will win the Cup. Vancouver led the way with 35% of the votes. Boston however, only had 6% of the votes. I think this will be a very good series and I am looking forward to sitting down and immersing myself in every second of the action.

That includes Game 1, and I hope you can join me with your Bruins and Canucks concepts for the HJC Live Blogging. It will start just before puck drop on Wednesday.

The PLAYOFFS 2011 page has been updated with my prediction for the Final. Go there and leave yours as well!

Concept of the Week nominees have been revealed. Go to the CONCEPT OF THE WEEK page to see them. Then, vote on the left side of the page. Voting runs until Thursday @ 11:59pm EST. After this week's vote we will immediately go into COTY-May voting on Friday!

Atlanta Thrashers concepts (by Kevin)These may be the last Thrashers concepts I post where I won't refer to them as defunct. Anyways, Kevin sent in the home and road concepts and they were posted on Friday. In the comments, as 3rd jersey for the set was requested and Kevin was happy to oblige.

Buffalo Sabres concepts (by Michael)We get a couple Sabres concepts here from Michael. I'm still waiting for a grey jersey in the NHL, it's one of the things I'd really like to see (done properly). I'd also like to see that old Buffalo alternate logo in use again, somehow.

Minnesota Wild concept (by WinnipegJets96)This one could use a little cleaning up. The stripes on the arms run off a little bit. How to fix that is covered in the PAINT.net TUTORIAL. The lines on the back are supposed to be scratches I think. That reminds me of something you might see on the first batch of alternate jerseys back in the mid 90's.

Nashville Predators concept (by Kyle)I'm okay with this one. Instead of just colour up the sides, what about some sort of design or striping, like the Ducks' 3rd? I'd also prefer a more sports type font on the back.

Team Sweden concept (by Tex)Looking at this makes me think, when the next World Cup of Hockey will be. I heard rumours of 2012 but, plans would have already been made public I would have thought. Check out the design on the back of the jersey. I really like those types of things!

Columbus Blue Jackets concepts (by Trevor)Check this out, Trevor has switched up the Jackets jerseys. I think that home jersey would have been more accepted if it was introduced as the 3rd instead of what they did use. The matching road looks good also.

Springfield Falcons concepts (by Trevor)Trevor after his Jackets re-design, has given their farm team some new jerseys to think about. I really like the old Indians logo on the vintage white version! I'll give that a COTW nom. The white one looks pretty cool too!

Winnipeg Jets concepts (by Brian)You're going to see a lot of Jets/Moose/Winnipeg concepts over the summer. Brian sends his in using the very popular concept logo by SyPhi Creations. The design on the sleeve is classic an unique! These are really great Jets jerseys.

P.S. Bob McKenzie (TSN) has reported on Twitter that the deal to move the Thrashers to Winnipeg is just waiting approval from Atlanta lawyers and could be announced as early as tomorrow, Tuesday, in the morning.