Friday: officially no pre-season... but also officially national jersey day!

Yesterday the NHL pre-season was officially cancelled. This comes as a huge blow no surprise to us fans, and we are heartbroken kinda saw it coming. What will we do without the furious action and drama of the pre-season?

In other sports news, it looks like the NFL has come to an agreement with its locked-out officials after massive fan backlash over a game-changing blown call on Monday Night Football. In my opinion the NFL has it right, they are profitable, exciting, competitive, have an awesome TV contract, and value their fans. But, I digress.

I learned yesterday that today is National Jersey day in Canada. This was created in part by CBC, as a part of Sports Day in Canada (which is a national celebration of sport on all levels). So even though you probably never heard of this special event, I would encourage you to wear your favourite hockey sweater today, simply because you may not have occasion to for a while.

There is plenty of stuff going on here on HJC. We have new concepts today, and still have the BK contest vote going on. Click the banner above to see the entries. Email your 'top 5' votes to:

HJCcontest@gmail.com 

BK COMP Top 5 vote (ends Saturday @ 11:59pm EST)

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On to our concepts!

New York Rangers concept (by Kyle C.)

I like where this rangers concept is going; I mean who doesn't love those shoulder yokes, and Lady Liberty? The one thing I would suggest is simpler striping, especially on the arms and hem. also the arm stripes look a little too slanted on this concept, otherwise REALLY well done. 7/10.

Russia concept (by Daniel J.)

These are solid concepts for team Russia. I really love how Russia looks menacing, united, and well, RED, when they wear their home uniforms, so for me the blue helmet on the red uniform doesn't really fit. I am also not sold on the blue air-knit underarm sections on both jerseys. Nice work. 7/10.

Ottawa Senators concept (by Stephen T.)

I can't say I like this jersey, but I understand what Stephen has done here, basically creating a black version of the current home and away Senators sweaters for use as an alternate. Basing a concept off of this template and the Sens sweaters just makes this look like a job done entirely with the fill tool, but this isn't necessarily Stephens fault, like I said I understand what was trying to be done here... I just don't like the finished product. Clean execution though. 5/10.

Edmonton Oilers concepts (Stephen T.)

Here Stephen takes the current Oilers sweaters and subs the orange for copper. These sweaters don't look bad, but you have to factor in the great sweaters that they are replacing. I don't like these for the oilers, but I think these would be AWESOME for the OKC Barons. Just a presentation note, there is A LOT of empty space on this concept, sizing the image properly (getting rid of the extra blank space) before you sed it in to Ryan will make it appear bigger, and look better on the blog. 5/10.

Defunct NHL Teams concepts (by Dmitri G)

All I can Say on this one is WOW! the sheer quantity of jerseys overwhelms me on this one. I will leave it to you guys to comment on your favourite ones in the comments below. Overall, I generally like what is going on here. I like the Swiftification. One thing that puzzles me is that some teams get a treatment like we would expect, but other teams get really modern treatments (even recolours), which don't necessarily fit with whats going on overall. My favourite jersey set from this one has to be the KC scouts, I really love how the colour scheme works with the logo. I don't like the pit stains though. Overall for all of these concepts. 7/10.

St. Louis Blues concepts (by Darren H.)

Darren has sent along these concepts which, as far as I understand it, are not meant to be considered a set. Darren draws nicely on a lot of eras from Blues history. The more modern jerseys don't really do it for me, I would want a stronger hem design, especially on the white jersey; without it, these sweaters look empty. I really like the throw backs here. The one from the Brett Hull days is super cool. I love the  diagonal numbers, it is a really unique treatment, and makes the numbers seem 3D and pop off the sweater. My favourite sweater is the dark blue one. It looks really solid, and I like the presence which yellow and red have on this sweater. 7/10.

Los Angeles Kings concept (by Justin C.)

This was Justin's entry into the BK contest. As always solid work from Justin. My one complaint with this sweater is that having a king with a purple beard makes no sense; I would have used silver instead. clean, classic design from Justin. 8/10.