Saturday: To Sochi we will go!

No, the title of this post does not actually refer to any concepts in today's posts. Instead, it refers to the fact that yesterday the NHL confirmed that NHL players will be allowed to play for their respective national teams at the Sochi Olympics next year. That means that there are a total of 716 players we could see representing their countries in Russia, though of course the number will be nowhere near that high. Since I know the US will be participating, I've decided that my next hockey jersey purchase will be a white USA jersey. Because I already have a Patrick Kane Blackhawks jersey, I won't be getting a Kane jersey. Instead, if the US wins gold, I'll get the name and number of whichever player scores the medal-winning goal. Going off of the US' 2010 roster (though I know it's not a really good barometer of the roster four years later) I really hope it's not Ryan Kesler.

I'm looking for someone who is good at converting raster images to vector versions for a project I'm currently working on. I need some images vectorized because I'm a perfectionist and working in SVG is the only way for me to be 100% sure that the colors are what they should be, and Wikipedia lacks some of the logos I need in SVG form. If you're interested in helping out, please send Ryan an email and tell him to pass your address on to me so we can get in touch. Thanks.

As a reminder, the HJC Open Round 2 voting runs until 6PM Eastern time tomorrow. Get your votes in!

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St. Louis Blues (by Brady)

Brady continues his Nike Swiftifying of the NHL and this is one change I definitely approve of. No, it has nothing to do with the fact that he used two of my templates. Stop looking at me like that! Ahem... Anyway, the Blues' current uniform is a mess, so this is an easy upgrade. Seeing this reminds me that I need to post the most recent update to my template. Sorry, Brady, but I've made some upgrades thanks to feedback here and elsewhere. Overall, I'll give it an 8/10.

Mississauga Steelheads (by Caleb)

Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. Wow. A simple and stark color scheme. A great design. This one is just fantastic. I have no criticisms for it. Overall, I'll give it an 8.5/10.

San Antonio Rampage (by Daniel)

Remember how I've said I'm a sucker for red and black as a color scheme since I'm a Blackhawks fan? Well, since I'm also a White Sox fan, I also like black and silver (Kings excluded) and this one looks fantastic. Random thought: I know that AHL teams being far from their NHL affiliates isn't unusual but it still seems strange to me for a team in Texas to be the farm team of a team in Florida. My only critique of this one is minor: even though it's far from universal among AHL teams, I think AHL teams should have their NHL affiliates' logos as shoulder patches and that should have been done here. Overall, I'll give it an 8/10.

EHC München (by Jake88)

Let me start by saying I love the checkerboard design. It worked really well on Nashville's Edge third and here it looks even better because it's a highly-visible pattern. It's not a common design outside of horse racing but here it really works well. The color scheme just works for a hockey team. I can't exactly explain why, but here it works. Overall, I'll give it an 8/10.

Straubing Tigers (by Jake88)

Unfortunately for Jake, I can't give this one quite as high a rating. I just can't approve of the horned Edge template because quite frankly, it's horrible. Not even incorporating the claw marks into the "horns" as a design element fixes it. That being said, bad template aside, this is a good design. The double blue actually works here and if you modified this design to fit a regular template, it'd be much better. Overall, I'll give it a 7/10.

Hartford Whalers (by Kyle)

Kyle's two concepts today are of two teams that immediately come to mind if (bearing in mind that further expansion is completely infeasible and that the league really needs to contract instead) the NHL were to expand to a proper divisible-by-four 32 teams instead of this new-fangled ridiculous unbalanced conference mess. I really like this design since it pays tribute to both of the Whalers' NHL design eras. Honestly, I think the little bit of gray actually complements the green and blue and if the Whalers were to come back, I would prefer them to be in a design like this than just solely green and blue. Overall, I'll give it an 8/10.

Quebec Nordiques (by Kyle)

I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again: regardless of the red in the logo, I just don't see how adding more of the Nordiques' provincial rival's color would be a good idea. It just doesn't look right for the Nordiques. If it was up to me, instead of using red, I'd use the shade of blue from the Quebec flag. That would definitely complement the light blue well. Color issues aside, I have no problems with this design. It definitely works well. I really love the arm stripes on the white jersey. Overall, I'll give it an 8/10.

New Jersey Devils (by Stephen)

Ok, this one automatically gets a good review for being a Nike swift template with the dark jersey mesh actually colored properly. THANK YOU! Stephen's design is an adaptation of the Devils' original red road jersey adapted to modern colors and this is probably the only kind of jersey Devils fans could accept. Seriously, it seems like the only teams more uptight about their uniform designs than the Devils are the Original Six and even some of them aren't as bad (looking at you, Leafs and Bruins) about refusing to change. Anyway, the design works because it's almost a rule that New Jersey has to look conservative and this definitely fits the bill. Overall, I'll give it an 8.5/10.