Tuesday: "Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley, Bring Me the Brandy!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Winner." And the Stanley Cup goes to . . . the Chicago Blackhawks! Certainly well deserved and certainly well fought for by the Bruins from Boston. Then again, we had a fairly competitive Conference Final and Semi-final round as well. I'm sad to see the NHL season officially come to an end, but that's what the Cup is all about. As I fill in this week (and I'll still be back on Friday), we will have a regular writer for next Tuesday. I know we have some happy HJC bloggers to personally congratulate, but for me it was a lot of fun to be able to jump into the line of fire in the middle of the postseason as I did!

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With the Cup being won, it of course is followed up by the championship merch. Let's take a look at the locker room headwear and t-shirt . . .

While the mesh is always a good start (if you just won the cup, you'll probably be sweaty and want something breathable). But as much as I like having something on the back, I'm not sure that the finals patch is what I'd put back there - maybe just the cup by itself will suffice. On the front, I like the granite look and the subtle-ness to it. However I would highlight the winning team's logo a little more.

With the shirt, again, I'd like to see the winning team's logo highlighted a little more - it is about them after all. But I like the shirt logo better than some of the more recent ones. The shirt font should probably match the one on the cap (which I like better) or vice-versa, but since when has the league cared about that?

Above images provided by shop.nhl.com

Also, you can check out the phantom gear for the Bruins phantom gear at Chris Creamer's website. There are no Madmen contest entries, so I will continue onto the next order of business.

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The winner of the HJC Playoff  Pool is Colin Magee, who beat HJC founder Ryan by one correct series prediction! Kind of like coming down to Game 7. Correctly predicting the Cup Finals was my saving grace after showing up following the start of the first round and not doing too well until the Finals. Congrats to Colin and thanks to all who participated!

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Your reminders for this week are available for you below, as per the usual.

COTW June 17-23 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern time)

Logo Comp Top 2 voting (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern time)

"Madmen" entries due (Saturday @ 11:59pm Eastern time)

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Greenville Road Warriors (Mike S.)

I'm not liking the "asphalt silver gray" here, I might use the copper instead. Everything else for the jersey being this color is fine, but some of it would obviously have to change if using the copper. The NOB and numbers would be one of the few things that wouldn't and the others are variable. An 8 out of 10.

Owen Sound Attack (Alan)

This logo does not look like a bear as it's supposed to and it's hideous, but Alan had to make do with what he had. but for the jerseys themselves, not bad at all. What catch my attention are the striping pattern on the sleeves, hem, and yoke. That's what really make the concept with a nice addition of NY Rangers style pants. The only thing is that the black stripe closer to the body of the jersey needs to be a little thicker for my taste, enough so that it evens out the red and gold stripes. An 8 out of 10 here.

Kalevan Pallo {KalPa} (Jake88)

Jake 88 continues with his SM-liiga series and this on would also look good for German soccer team Borussia Dortmund. I like everything down to the piping, except that the sleeves below the striping need to be plain. I might also add some white in there (not too much, of course). Otherwise I like what I see. An 8.5 out of 10.

Naylor HS, MO (Caz)

I always like when we see non-professional or non-collegiate competitive team concepts. I'm not sure that I can see where Caz mixed modern and retro with this concept, but it looks doable. The only thing I am not too keen on is the striping, I might switch them to match the pattern of the yoke and therefore thinning the gold stripe even more. But in general it is leaving me with mixed signals. The script should either be by itself or off completely, else-wise at that size it serves no purpose. Caz graduates with an 8.5 out of 10.

New York Islanders (Bobby P.)

As Bobby continues with his Ideal NHL series, this is both good and bad. The big thing is that there are three different striping patterns. While the socks are sort of close to matching the jerseys, the pants have a more symmetrical design. I understand how it plays into the jerseys, but it still doesn't look right for this set. The striping on the jersey was fine until I got to the hem. if the striping was a little higher up, the blue would look more balanced to the blue on the sleeves. A 7.5 out of 10.

New York Islanders (Gerard)

Speaking of the Isles (and someone with three concepts today). Gerard cleans up the team at the Nassau very well. The highlight of this set is the alternate. Somewhat resemblant of the old alternates plus adding the alternate from the "Fishsticks" era is genuinely fantastic. The colors in which the striping is used are also in the opposite order that Bobby did. Gerard continues to baffle my mind with where he gets these unique ideas from. Everyone else has some pretty cool ideas too, but there is something to Gerards work that stands out for some reason. Who said the island is lonely, a 9 out of 10.

Edmonton Oil Kings (Dylan W.)

As i have mentioned before, the style of this logo is not my favorite. But what I'm really concerned about is the color. The blue especially looks almost grainy and childish, and by childish I mean looking like the team is from a kids league. But the simplicity in design makes good for any Canadian Hockey League team. I don't know if I would include a yoke outline on the white jersey though. The well was a little dry, a 7.5 out of 10.

New Jersey Devils (Bobby P.)

Bobby gives last year's Eastern Conference champs a little more red by switching the order of colors in the striping on the road whites. This is a great move and I would really like to see it actually happen. However to counter, the yoke also becomes red This is one instance where I would either add a yoke outline or keep the yoke black without one. But if the road white yoke stays red, then the home red would also need a yoke outline. "Devilishly clever, Batman" - an 8 out of 10.

Phoenix Coyotes (Gerard)

Gerard keeps a lot of stuff the same on the home and roads and one of them is not in favor with me. the this numbering font always seemed that it doesn't belong on jerseys of any kind and makes it kind of look Photoshopped. Also, I have been waiting to see black on the home and roads. Maybe black in place of the brick red surrounding the center stripe on the home brick reds. On the road whites, you would then have to make the center stripe black. The only thing with adding black to both is that they wouldn't match each other, which I'd be okay with for once. On the alternate, I do like the placement of numbers on the front despite the font style of the numbers. Still very productive, an 8 out of 10.

Tri-City Americans (Dylan Wonka)

This logo reminds me of the American Armed Forces during the World Wars. It certainly helps the concept along quite nicely. For the striping, I would consider doing as the Islanders might and ad a white stripe to separate the two stripes already in place and it doesn't necessarily have to be thick. The striping near the cuff  and hem really aren't necessary and can be eliminated to an already, fairly busy jersey. This is yet another example of where it would be okay for striping not to match the converse jersey. An 8.5 out of 10 as I stand at attention.

JYP (Jake88)

This one kind of looks like it could pass for a Buffalo Sabres set when they donned the red, white, and black for a decade. The striping along the vertical stitching is practical and fits in well to the logo. This one is virtually spot on. A 9 out of 10.

Philadelphia Flyers (Bobby P.)

Bobby keeps traditional Flyers elements while implementing some relatively minor changes. the only thing is that I would like to see a black and/or white stripe included somewhere in the hem. I would also remove the black nameplate from the road whites. A 9 out of 10.

Ottawa Senators (Gerard)

This one from Gerard is pretty god too, but I must say I think I would prefer to see a white version of the alternate and keep the home black as an alternate.This seems pretty up to stuff except the black cuffs on the road white, but they aren't the worst thing that could be done to ruin that particular jersey. A 9 out of 10.

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All in all, another great and busy day at HJC. At first, I thought the countdown on the side of the  page was for the NHL Draft. But now, we can have a virtual one in our minds to see what young talent our favorite clubs are looking at! Until next time.

-Ricky