Friday: The Games are open, but we're still waiting for puck drop.

Hello HJC, welcome to Friday's post. Today was the opening ceremonies of the Sochi 2014 winter Olympics. I got up early today and watched the whole thing. It was pretty cool to see Vladislav Tretiak, the legendary goaltender lighting the Olympic cauldron. Hockey is the most anticipated event in the winter Olympics, and although the games are on, we still have to wait until tomorrow to see the women start their tournament, and until the 12th for the men to start their olympic tournament. For those of you who are curious, here is the full schedule for Olympic Hockey.

Well this week has been a busy one for HJC:
- We launched our new 'Leave an Idea' page. If you have an idea for a sweet concept, but lack the artistic skills, suggest it on that page.
- We crowned Justin C. as the COTY champion (2 years in a row, congrats again Justin!)
- We had a record turnout for COTW and COTY voting

Let's take a minute now to keep that record voting turnout up!

COTW Jan 27 - Feb 2 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Calgary Flames Top 5 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

This has also been a huge week for HJC in terms of amount of concepts. We have 15 for you today, so we better get to 'em!

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Here are today's concepts:

Team Canada - Mike S.

 

It seems like a no brainer to get this post rolling with an Olympic concept, and Mike delivers a solid effort here fro team Canada. I would love it if the IOC lifted the ban on IIHF logos being used, becaise these are so many goo one that are not showcased, like Norway's awesome polar bear, and this logo for Canada. All in all a solid effort here, no real gripes. One suggestion would be to keep the collar black on both sweaters, just for consistency of colour balance. 7.5/10.

Calgary Flames - Christian L.

DO MY EYES DECEIVE ME? Christian, our resident Nordiques specialist is making concepts for other teams! A solid effort here. I appreciate the pattern from the shoulder patch making its way onto the jersey striping, but can't say that I would want to see it there full time. One thing I would change is to make the striping match on both jerseys. The striping on the home jersey looks full and well developed, but the striping on the away jersey looks empty. I would make the home jersey the basis for the away. 7/10.

2015 Stadium Series - Winnipeg Jets vs Montreal Canadiens -  Stephen T.

As far as the sweaters go, not bad. They are a bit plain for my liking, a bit more creativity would be nice. I am a fan of keeping the 1944-47 white sweater authentic with the yoke cutting in to the arm stripes. Now let's talk about those socks. I like the Cooperall effect, but these teams never wore Cooperalls, so I give a big thumbs down here. This style would be a fun throwback for one game for the flyers (or whalers), but do not work here. 6/10.

Arizona Cardinals - NFL - Gerard M.

Looks like Gerard is setting out on a NFL to NHL series. I really like the consistency of these sweaters, having the striping remain the same, and only changing the background colour works really well here. I also like the NOB in the yoke. 7.5/10.

Winnipeg Jets - Winnipeg Falcons (Olympic Gold Medalists) Throwback - Danny R.

I really would love it if the Jets tried to feature more grey in their uniforms. A Falcons throwback would be a great idea for a Heritage Classic. Here we get a good combination of both of these. One suggestion I would put forward would be to go with WINNIPEG on the front instead of JETS, just so that the callback to Winnipeg's hockey history, rather than simply the Jets, would be more direct. 6.5/10.

Calgary Flames - Greg D.

I just really like the look of these sweaters. I am not a fan of relegating the flaming C to a shoulder patch, but the main logo here does look really good. One thing I would work on is getting a bit more yellow onto the white sweater, it is really lacking right now. One glaring mistake is not colouring in the collar on the white sweater, perhaps yellow would look good there. 7.5/10.

GEC Ritter - Germany League 3 - Volker D.

I can't say that I am a huge fan of these sweaters. The gradients, the piping, the chest numbers, how busy these are, the strange positioning of the logos... But, it is kind of cool that this sweater was used in real life. That, I think, is one of the ultimate dreams for us concept artists. 5/10, for design, but props on having these made up!

Minnesota Wild - David K.

Getting a green home sweater for the wild just seems right to me, and the set that David serves up for us here is really nice. Good job using red and green on these sweaters, and not making them seem too "Christmassy." One gripe that I have is that the bear head logo is not more prominent. It is one of the best logos in the league. It should be showcased. 7.5/10.

Ohio Bobcats - NCAA - Patrick E.

The overall look of this sweater is really good, especially for a college team. The one thing that is taking away from this sweater is the flag on the cuffs, a good idea, but distracting. I would try sublimating a more subtle version of it on the cuffs to fix that. 7/10.

Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire - Stephen T.

This crest looks really good on these sweaters. The flags as shoulder patches are not always my favourite, but here they are oh so appropriate. Good simple design here. I also really like the striping on the pants, they remind me of caution tape, which ties in well with the fire department theme. 7/10.

Ottawa Senators - Christian L.

Not a bad look overall here, but there are a few things I would change. First off, I am not sold on the white stripe, either eliminate it, or add a matching one below the other stripes. My biggest gripe here is with the logo. It just seems weird, unbalanced, and disembodied. The cool thing about the Sens normal logo is that it forms a subtle O for Ottawa, this modification loses that. 6/10.

AHL Stadium Series - Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins vs Rockford Ice Hogs - TG

I love the horizontal pinstripes on the Penguins sweaters, a very unique and modern look. As for the Ice Hogs jersey, I would have liked to see the stadium series lace-up collar, instead of the traditional one. All of the angled striping looks good for the Ice Hogs. 8/10.

Calgary Flames - David P.

I really like the home and road sweaters. No complaints, no suggestions. As for the alternate, I am not sold on the shoulder yoke. To me I think it would look just fine without it. 7.5/10

Calgary Flames - Andrew W.

I really like the red jersey here, it is really simple and feels like a jersey that the flames have worn before, all the while being new and fresh. The other 2 sweaters don't do it for me. The black one seems a bit too busy, and the shoulder yoke on the white one seems out of place. 7/10.

Team Russia - IIHF - Mike S.

Well, Team Russia marched in last during the opening ceremonies today, so naturally we will have team Russia close out the post today. Flag striping, especially for international concepts is something that I always like to see. Mike does something brilliant here by highlighting the flag and separating it from the rest of the sweater with small gold stripes, really good job with that. 8/10.

Well loyal HJC readers, don't forget to vote for COTW, and the Flames redesign competition, and have a great weekend enjoying the Olympics. See you here next week.