Way Cool Wednesday

Howdy HJCers! Hope you're all having a wonderful week! I'm sure you are as the PRESEASON HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED!!! It's fantastic to see hockey so close to being back in full swing! And we finally got to see the new 3-on-3 OT last night between Chicago and Detroit and I gotta say, it's interesting. I've never seen the issue with a shootout but this will definitely prevent a lot of shootouts. All it will take is one silly mistake from a defense to allow an odd man break and boom... Game over... I mean, that's what happened last night. The Hawks won on a 3-on-1 tic-tac-toe play and boy was it pretty.....

Speaking of pretty.... or things that should be... The Avalanche unveiled their Stadium Series jersey the other day... Not at all what I was expecting. No sash stripe, so that must be only a Wings thing, which sucks, I was hoping to see the Blackhawks with one. What is interesting is the Avs going with white as the home team.

Photo - Colorado Avalanche

Not to say it isn't good looking, but it's not perfect. There should be no black. The black should be replaced with the lighter blue. And the numbers are comically large, but I guess there's a purpose for that... At least it's not as bad as the Avs' actual uniforms... whew.... Now we patiently await the other 5 outdoor jerseys for the season...

While we're waiting... you should vote for the COTW

COTW Sept 13-19 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

And now that you're done with that... I'll show you some concepts...

Saint Johns Sea Dogs Concept - Alan H.

Alan again utilizes what I like to call, the "Alan Cut". I call it this because we've seen Alan use this cut/template/whatever-you-want-to-call-it quite a bit. For example: here, here, here, aaand here. I'm fairly certain those aren't the only concepts it been on, but I found those pretty quick and didn't feel like going through the whole HJC Archive. Now, it's not a bad looking cut. Sometimes it looks better than others. But I can only see it so many times in so many color schemes for so many teams. It works but that doesn't make it any more interesting seeing it over and over.

Rating: 7/10


CM Punk WWE Jersey Concept - Brian B.

Brian shows off a much darker themed CM Punk jersey than the one I reviewed last week. Much less Chicago themed too, although the flag stars still appear on this jersey. I think this one may fit better with the "tougher" "edgy" look the WWE would probably look for, while the one last week may have done better identifying with CM's personality... or maybe not... I don't know. I'm not a WWE enthusiast.

Rating: 8/10


Anaheim Mighty Ducks Concept -- Taylor R.

Taylor seems to want the Ducks to go back to being Mighty for the Adidas takeover as he simplifies the old Mighty Ducks jerseys by straightening the striping out and giving it a more timeless hockey look. The color balance on the white jersey is more eggplant heavy than the originals, which was more jade. I think it's too eggplant-y though. Get rid of the yoke on the white jersey and you're golden. I'd want to see the dark jersey with the jade on the cuffs and bottom of the hem... or perhaps some white. I liked the yellow sticks in the logo better than the silver sticks.

Rating: 8/10


New York Islanders Alternate Jersey Concept - Tristan M.

Tristan has the Islanders sticking with blue, but darkening it to be closer to black without actually wearing a black jersey. The striping is pretty close to the actual alternate with extra colors and hem striping, which is a huge plus. I think a hybrid between this and the actual alternate would be the best.

Rating: 8.5/10


New York Islanders Alternate Jersey Concept - Jamie R.

Oh how I wish the Islanders would have done something like this for their "Brooklyn Black" jersey. Like I had said before, the actual jersey isn't terrible but it could have been better. I like how this jersey brings in the black that the team wanted but also doesn't almost completely throw away any trace of their old identity.I have no issues with this jersey besides the silver. I'm not sure it needs to be anywhere on this jersey.

Rating: 8.5/10


And there you have it! Wednesday!