Tuesday: THE FOURTH... of February

What's up everyone! Happy Tuesday once again!

I'm sure you all saw Ryan tweet out his newest baby, and by which I mean his newly acquired Penguins jersey.  It's always nice to see someone adding to their collection, and it's even better to add to your own! At the beginning of the hockey season some of you may have seen that I got one of the Icehogs' new alternate jerseys, you might also notice it was absent in pictures of my collection from last week.

Well that's because it was off being customized. I spent the whole season figuring out which Icehog I wanted on the back of my jersey, and after being called up, and having a spectacular December and (hopefully) eventually taking over Corey Crawford's spot in net... I chose Antti Raanta!

He's quickly become a fan favorite here in Rockford and Chicago so I'm hoping he stays around for a long time!

Thought I'd share my baby with you all! Don't forget to share your collection with us here at HJC!

Well, the 2013 COTY has been named, and it wasn't me guys, but instead, good pal Justin Cox! I congratulate him and wish him luck this year! He's gonna need it! ;)

So just because the most important vote of the year has passed doesn't mean you shouldn't vote anymore! Every vote is important as it leads to the big one! So let's keep that vote count UP!

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

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

Also, don't forget to make use of the new "Leave an Idea" page here on the blog if you don't have the time or ability to make a concept of your own, but still want to make an impact here on the site!

NOW, onto the concepts!

Washington Capitals Third Jersey Concept - Ben A.

Ben is seeing stars in DC. I can see where he's headed with this but this concept needs some polishing. The logo looks way too big and placed too low on the jersey. Both the rows of stars and the shoulder patch are placed completely on the front of the jersey, at least according to the image. So it looks like Ben might be having trouble with clipping masks. To have the stars and patch appear to be "centered" on the sides of the jerseys would mean one half shows up on the front of the jersey in the image and the other half on the back. The way this is set up, the stars and Weagles would be very awkwardly placed.

Anyway, the colored namebar doesn't look good here to me, and the number needs a white outline to stand out better. The socks are bad, that's one of Reebok's biggest mistakes when they redesigned everyones equipment, use the hem striping pattern on the socks. I'd rather see a blue helmet as well, and I don't know what's going on with the pants, I'd keep them all blue or all red. There's also no NHL patch on the collar insert

Rating: 4/10 - Keep practicing Ben! The idea is there, and the execution will come!


Tampa Bay Lightning Stadium Series Concept - Wings98

Supposedly the Stadium Series is stickin' around for next year. And Wings thinks if LA can participate in an outdoor game, so can Florida. Black is the main color which I don't care for. The logo should swap the blue and white. It would look better and go along with the name and numbers. The REEBOK on the top of the back should be white too. The striping makes a chevron instead of continuing up the back of the arm. But maybe, since this would be a future Stadium jersey, they could change up the jerseys a bit. I don't like the white yoke and mostly blue striping. Colors seem to be off everywhere

The logo seems to be more pixelated than it needs to be, same with the player's name.

Rating: 5/10 - Not a fan of the way all the colors are used here.

Columbus Blue Jackets Third Jersey Concept - Patrick E.

New third jersey here for the Jackets, which keeps the blue and vintage white, but now adds red to the mix. Nothing new here in terms of design. It's all something we've seen before. It is interesting to see though. It's not bad looking, just unoriginal. I think the red arm stripe could be thinned out a bit, while making the red sock stripe a bit thicker. Find a happy medium between the two and use that for both. Not a fan of the hem stripe here. Have it go all the way around. Maybe its me but I feel like the TV numbers are a tad big. Also, the right of the yoke on the back of the jersey is uneven with the left side. Right above the "SK" in the name you can see it.

Rating: 5.5/10 - Nothing new, with a few tweaks, yeah, it'll be a good looking jersey. Nothing new and exciting though.


Colorado Avalanche Concept - David P.

It's always interesting when people put the Avs in a more traditionally striped jersey set. I think it looks good in these colors. Don't worry, the arm length yoke isn't gone, it sticks around as the alternate jersey. Color balance seems awkward to me here. I really like the amount of blue and maroon on Avalanche dark jerseys (Both the old jerseys and their current ones) but the light jerseys always odd because it can't have a large amount of blue AND maroon in their current jersey cut. I feel like the home here needs more blue and the away needs more maroon.

Rating: 6/10 - There's got to be a way to fix the color balance issue I'm seeing, but again, it might just be me.


Phoenix Coyotes Concept - Felix T.

Felix gives the Yotes some fresh new sweaters which may be happening in real life as well since next year the team will rebrand as the "Arizona Coyotes". I'm cool with everything here, I think the striping may be a bit thin but it's a good striping pattern. The color balance is what gets me here. I feel like the white jersey has too much black. I think the white jersey's striping should be exactly the same as the black jersey's. That or the yoke should be black, but I'd rather see more "brick red" than black. Same goes for the white jersey numbers.

Overall, I'd rather see the red stay the primary color on the home jersey with the sand color as the secondary, while the white jersey uses brick red as the secondary.

Rating: 6/10 - The striping should be thicker and the colors played around with more


EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams Concept - Stephen T.

Love this team name and the logo. Definitely my favorite European team! That being said, I don't care for this pinstripe heavy jersey cut for this team. I'm sure some European teams wouldn't look half bad in it, but not my Grizzles... Love me some Grizzles. I'd like to see a set of jerseys with arm striping that equally balances orange/white on the dark jersey, and orange/black on the white.

Rating: 6/10 - Love me some Grizzles, but not all pinstripe-y


Columbus Blue Jackets Third Jersey Concept - Torader

Torader! What a name. Sounds like a robot. Here's something we don't see often. Sublimated pinstripes. Sounds better in the head than it looks when applied. The body of the jersey looks ok on its own, but when combined with a solid yoke, and arms that have a lighter blue section and a darker blue section everything looks off. The namebar is meh. Even if this isn't "sublimated" and its just two shades of blue, everything I said already would still apply. Hats off to ya for the attempt, but it just doesn't hold up on the concept itself.

Rating: 6/10 - Interesting idea, I'm not sure this could work, but there's several other ways to try and pull it off. I wouldn't give up quite yet.


AHL Stadium Series Concept - Hartford vs. Bridgeport - Phil B.

Holy modern jerseys Batman! Phil plugs in the Stadium Series elements on these AHL jerseys hardcore, which was the purpose of the competition we had. Technically, this is the Predators/Blues jersey cut, and I don't know if that was intentional or just being used as a similar looking replica for the Stadium Series cut, which I guess doesn't have a ton of templates out there ready to use.

Wolf Pack jersey looks good, I'd rather the yoke be blue though. The striping is actually a way better version of what the Rangers tried to do.

The Tigers' jersey is VERY orange as opposed to their parent club that went blue. The incomplete hem stripe is new to the Stadium Series jerseys.

Now something I'm seeing here, that I've seen on 95% of Stadium Series jersey concepts, both NHL and AHL, is the striping shown as is on the image creates a chevron instead of starting low on the front and continuing up onto the back of the arm. Some of my favorite SS concepts are the ones that execute the arm striping correctly.

Of course it's hard to tell if someone did it differently on purpose, didn't realize how they were doing it was "wrong", or just didn't even know the SS jerseys did their arm striping that way.

Rating: 7/10 - The jerseys definitely accomplish what they were supposed to, and the Wolf Pack one doesn't look half bad.


New York Islanders Third Jersey Concept - Andrew W.

Andrew keeps the new NY logo around and puts it on a new orange jersey for the team headed to Brooklyn. I do like that new logo and I'm looking forward to seeing it more. The new logo deserves a jersey of its own though, This jersey, to me, is too similar to the Ducks' current alternate, just a little less busy on the striping. It's not a bad looking jersey, it's just not very unique and suffers for it. Since you have almost everything else here it'd be nice to see the socks. I feel like the colored nameplate is a little unnecessary but I guess it doesn't look bad here.

Rating: 7/10 - Not bad, I like the colors but I see the Ducks' alternate when I see this jersey cut now.


Atlanta Hawks Hockey Concept - Deferoiler

Deferoiler puts the NBA's Atlanta Hawks in a Nike sweater. Right away, I like the striping and how it connects and interacts with the yoke. That being said, I know the hem is mimicking the cuffs but I'd rather see another set of white and blue stripes on top of it to be a little more interesting. The logo could use an outline to stand out better on the red. And the TV numbers need to be a bit bigger, and play around with the stripes width if you don't want the TV number to overlap the stripes. Or ditch the shoulder patch and replace it with the numbers. I'd like to see the back of the jersey!

I like the jersey here, don't mind it's cut, even clever to replace Nike's branding with the NBA's logo. But if you wanted 100% accuracy, which isn't necessary on a fun concept like this, but I would think, since Adidas is the NBA's jersey manufacturer, they'd just take a Reebok Edge jersey and brand it with Adidas since they own Reebok. Just a thought!

Rating: 7/10


Vancouver Canucks Concept - Jeff H.

The arm V is back. It looks best on the white jersey but if you're going to use it it might as well be on both jerseys, it just doesn't work on the home jersey's striping, at least in white. I like how the striping looks different but it's the same pattern, just colored differently. The gray alternate is a bit out there, never would have thought of using gray for the Nucks. It's not bad though, could use more white to make a good case for being worn.

The logos on the home and away use a brighter shade of blue than the jerseys and it bugs me. Gotta keep the blues the same, otherwise, I want to see that brighter blue on the jersey somewhere.

Rating: 7/10


1988 Winter Classic Concept - Edmonton vs. Calgary

Jordan always has some of the best series. As for the jerseys, its hard to grade straight throwbacks because it's not really a "concept" as much as it is recreating old jerseys stripe for stripe. But to me, the focus of this series is the jerseys, but the presentation, event logos, and the idea in general as a whole!

BUT... Fuhr and Vernon! Again, can't really score this concept based on the throwbacks. Though, it's nice seeing the Oilers in orange, and I actually really like those Flames fauxbacks. They look like some weird hybrid between the Blackhawks and Red Wings with a Flames logo on them. It's actually a good look. 10/10, would recommend! The event logo is ok, fits the era well, and even the home team's branding, at least the colors, but I don't care for it personally.

Rating: 7.5/10


Pittsburgh Penguins Concept - Stephen T.

This is what I'm talking about Stephen. As a non-Pittsburgh fan, I could care less if all the teams used Black and Yellow/Gold. I think the Penguins look best in blue, But this combination of navy blue and vegas gold is awesome. I'd like the gold to stand out more on the white jersey, and same with the white on the blue sweater, but I really like this combo. The logo on the front seems to be way big, and same with the number on the back.

Rating: 8/10 - I really like the blue/gold Penguins scheme. Not one we see often around here.


Boston Bruins Concept - Steven G.

I like the striping pattern, a little bothersome at first that the bottom stripe on the arms is thicker than the rest but I see what Steven was going for. Everything else is cool, especially the yoke stripe on both jerseys... BUT... what IS bothersome is the socks. I've always hated the Bruins' home socks because they're yellow while the jersey is black. The white sock is fine, just the way it should be. But both socks striping is technically different from the jersey striping. Mimic the arm striping exactly on the socks and I'm ok with the one sock, that other one though, that yellow one.... He gets a mean glare from me.

Rating: 8/10 - Fix those socks, and this is a 9. Straight up.


1987 Winter Classic Concept - Minnesota vs. Chicago - Jordan R.

Again... I don't think the focus of this series is the jerseys, but the presentation, event logos, and the idea in general. The event logo on its own is brilliant. Obviously it could use some polishing, but the idea and layout of it is damn clever. On the Minnesota jersey I'd rather see the arm stripes in green not black.. The jerseys alone wouldn't fetch a lot of points but the ENTIRE concept alone gets the points.

I wanna see the TV numbers on the goalies, they would be visible on the goalies in this stance.

Rating: 8.5/10 The logo is great to me. True to the era's aesthetic as well as clever as hell.


Another day down in the books here at HJC! How do you feel about the concepts today? Any that really stick with you? Good or bad? Let us know!