Monday: Honouring the Rats

Welcome to another Monday post on HJC!

The Albany Devils are on their way out despite a successful season on ice due to lack of attendance, with them replacing the Binghamton Senators in New York next season. While we'll all miss the A-Devils in a way, they have only been called that since 2010-11...Remember the River Rats?! Well they're back for one night only!

Photo from Albany Devils (@AlbanyDevils)

I mean the jerseys aren't much different than what the New Jersey Devils, Lowell Devils, Albany Devils, Albany River Rats, likely the Binghamton Devils, Utica Devils, Trenton Devils of the ECHL and almost every Devils farm team since 1992-93...and yeah it's cool to see this back on the ice but it's too little too late. The A-Devils/River Rats are gone because of poor attendance and it'll either be an ECHL franchise or nothing for a few seasons. It's bitter sweet. One thing I will say is that the Albany Devils logo makes a good River Rats shoulder patch. Here's some of the bad jerseys the River Rats wore back in the day, I always liked the idea of a team wearing a jersey their mascot wears, which they did...but then there's this!

Rating: 7/10

If you thought the Cornwall Nationals of the FHL had worn their most outrageous jerseys....every game, then you're in for a treat with these. In a similar vain as the Knoxville Ice Bears jerseys from last week, the Nationals honoured First Responders in their community with the logos of paramedics, fire fighters, police and tow trucks....wait tow trucks?

Photo from Cornwall Nationals Official Facebook Page

Yes if you've ever driven through the 401 up to Cornwall in the winter (or during a storm like I did two Decembers ago) you'll know that honouring tow truck drivers makes sense. Overall these jerseys are very busy, but there's nothing really too gaudy here. The majority of the colours on the jersey match the logo, and the parts that don't are small enough they don't obstruct anything. I do like the addition of the tow trucks to the arm in lieu of tv numbers for a one night thing. Maybe explaining what the black thing is (whether it's a kevlar vest or something else) would make sense of the pattern on it. The one thing I don't like is how close the shade of the beige is to the colour of inflatable sumo suits. It does match the logo but maybe closing the lighter shade (or black) would look better.

Rating 6.5/10

Further in the FHL, the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds (a team whose logo was designed by HJC alumni/Rangers lover Scott Markiewicz) have unveiled their jerseys via their mascots. Now this might not be their official unveiling and that could have happened before this or these are mascot exclusive jerseys, but let's look at what we've been shown.

Photo from triad-city-beat.com

Do these look familiar? Well honestly they are Blackhawks jerseys, but the Port Huron Prowlers wear Detroit/Team Canada jerseys and that compliments their logo and this does the same. The one change is to the collar on the white jersey where the red has been removed but it's not the worst thing I've seen and likely done to keep these from being a total ripoff. I'm sure we'd all prefer a more original design, but as is, I don't hate it as much as say for instance the Indy Fuel did this full time.

Rating: 6/10

As you may or may not know, HJC will be selling digital portraits of jerseys. They will be sold for $5 CDN a piece or 3 for $10. When you purchase one of these portraits you will receive a free ticket into the HJC draw for a prize yet to be determined. These portraits will become available at the latest Wednesday so stay tuned.

Here are this weeks voting reminders:

COTW March 17-23 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

Hat Competition Top 3 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

On to today's 8 concepts

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Penticton Vees BCHL Concepts (By: Anthony C.)

+ A nice simple striping pattern with a sort of Tampa Bay Lightning look going here

+ Thank you for fixing the tv numbers on the back left arm cutting into the side of the front right jersey 

+ I think you have the makings of a decent concept here, but a lot of corrections need to be done

- The NOB is too close to the yoke

- Numbers on the back are too close to the BOB and too high up on the jersey 

- I wouldn't have put the tv numbers in the arm striping since there is room for them above them

- Inner part of the hem should be the same colour in outside part of it, which would be blue on the home and road 

Colour balancing is off between the white and black jersey swap the black and blue

- We've seen this now in a few concepts from Anthony, but the collars are not coloured in and it's really bothering me because while if you just made them white, whatever but the grey that's there only to serve as a placeholder colour for something else, it's just plain lazy!
- The Vees currently have pretty solid jerseys (neon blue Rangers Winter Classic jerseys) and these would be a downgrade

Rating: 4/10

St. Louis Blues Concepts (By: Lucas D.)

+ Best parts of the Blues' current jerseys (i.e. yoke stripes, similar striping pattern) are kept
+ While the Preds have a similar idea, putting music lines/guitar strings that match the logo works pretty well, especially the parts that line up with the logo
+ Good colour balancing
+ Good execution

- Smaller stripes (yellow and navy/white) are much too thin, if you thickened them by about 25% but kept the spacing the same, aside from on the arms it's look great
- A traditional length yoke would  have worked batter
- Pants need more colour in them
- Gloves are too plain

Rating: 7.75/10

Alaska Aces ECHL Concepts (By: Ryan C.)

+ Angled striping looks excellent with the Aces logo
+ Great logo choices
+ Great colour balancing, it's a lateral move if you want white cuffs but I don't really think they need them (similar to the 1998 Capitals)
+ Good execution

- Not a fan of the rounded numbers; Would have drone with something more angled like the Aces script on the logo

- Sock stripes are slightly too high
- I'd like to see a little green in the striping

Rating: 8.25/10

Frolünda Indians SHL Concepts (By: TC Moore)

+ You've done a good job here for the most part avoiding the Christmas colour scheme pratfall even without the use of black. Darkening the green would further this but it's fine as is
+ Dig the striping pattern, compliments the logo well and good colour balancing
+ It hasn't really been done since Gatineau did it in their Pre-Edge jerseys but the Indians script works as a shoulder patch
+ Decent execution

- Some black in the numbers and a little bit in the striping would look good and help to darken the jerseys
- Arched strip on the back of the collar isn't the worst thing I've seen attempted, but I could do without it; unique idea but one that would crowd the back of a jersey
- NOB is much too small
- The one area of these jerseys that does fall to the Christmas colour pratfall is the red NOB/Numbers on the green jersey, make them white to match with the white feathers on the logo

Rating: 7.25/10

Estevan Bruins SJHL Concepts (By: Anthony C.)

+ A nice combination of Bruins eras that keeps the team from just wearing a Bruins copy despite the name/logos being exactly that (no fault of Anthony)
+ I also like the colour balancing between the yellow and white jerseys, getting that early 60s Bronco Horvath look including the 40s B, there's a lot of potential
+ The real E-Bruins wear 80s copies for the white jersey and similar jerseys with the yellow one with the white and black inverted; this looks more unique and matches

- The blank collars really drag down this concept, particularly on the black and yellow jerseys white a white collar just wouldn't work regardless
- Scrap the black hem piping on the yellow jersey
-  Same issue with the patches/numbers as most of Anthony's other concepts
- NOBs are much too small
- Remember to stop the stitching at the hem jersey if you don't intend on it being a sublimated pattern
- The font chosen doesn't really match the classic Bruins look

Rating: 5/10

Prince George Spruce King BCHL Concepts (By: Anthony C.)

+ The Spruce Kings currently wear Rangers copies, which works with their colour scheme but I like the way the colour balance here between the logo and striping

- TV numbers on this jersey are the worse of the 3 because they should be inside the yoke but they're on the edge of the yoke, which cuts off the piping. You should either reshape the yoke or put the numbers in there
- Collars again, especially on the white jersey
- Numbers on the white jersey
- Same issue with the stitching, button they go right through the striping
- NOB is too close to the numbers and yoke
- Ditch the Rangers pants

Rating: 4.5/10

Team Chinese Taipei Concepts (By: Mike F.)

+ Chinese Taipei/Taiwan (Both are right but the IOC agreed that Chinese Taipei is the name of the international teams representing Taiwan and they use it in the WBC and IIHF so that's what we'll use) wear Montreal copies in the IIHF, and right away this is a massive improvement
+ Striping on the home and road looks great and the white sun logo works as a roundel
+ Blue alternate also looks great
+ Vintage jersey is based on what they've worn relatively recently, and while it does look similar to the Laval Rockets/Florida Panthers jersey, it's a throwback
+ Good execution

- Sock stripes are too low, mainly noticeable on the throwback
-  Might have scrapped the collar laces on the home and road
- The shades of red and blue on the flag and jerseys are different outside of the vintage ones. The way to fix this is to colour correct the flag or make the jersey match (I'd do the former)

Rating: 8.5/10

Edmonton Oilers Concepts (By: Lucas D.)

+ I'm a huge fan of the oversized rink shaped yokes the Oilers had in the early years of the WHA; it's nice to see them in the Oilers current colour scheme
+ Reworking the yokes to get the numbers out of them has benefitted the colour balancing of the jersey, there's now more blue and orange on the arms
+ Great execution, even the NHL 100 logo fits in well
+ This is probably Lucas's best concept in this series

- The one flaw in this concept comes in the collars, and white it doesn't look bad I would have preferred the WHA style collar the current orange jersey/Winnipeg HC jerseys have

Rating: 9.25/10 COTW Nom from me!

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