Monday: Round 1 Reflect

Welcome to the Monday post!

The playoffs so far have been hit and miss for my predictions. The Leafs have been competitive with the Capitals as I expected (though how long that lasts we'll see). Habs and Rangers has gone as planned, but I could see this series going all 7 or being done in 5. Pens have been for the most part have dominated the Blue Jackets which I think is not a huge surprise but I did expect the Blue Jackets to be up 2-1 at this point. As for the Bruins Sens series I have no idea how to feel about either team because they're both so close and when the Sens are good they can win this in 5 but when the Bruins are good, they can win in 5. Frankly I don't see the Cup winner coming from the East unless it's the Caps or Pens (but hey, maybe I'm wrong) but their games are easier to watch in my time zone (4 hours ahead of the west coast means Edmonton's games end around 1:30am at the earliest.

As for the west the Preds have been the most dominant team. I don't know how long that momentum will last or whether the Blackhawks will wake up and win 4 straight, but it's been an interesting series to watch. Anaheim and Calgary all comes down to Calgary at least winning 1 in Anaheim but need to win 2 in the Saddledome for that to matter. Edmonton and San Jose have been close as expected, I still think Edmonton has the advantage but their inexperience may catch up eventually if the Sharks can push it to game 6/7. Finally there's the Minnesota/STL series, and I'll be completely honest I've been wrong on 100%. I would have pegged St. Louis as a team that seemed to limp into the playoffs (even though they went 7-1-2 in their last 10) but I think that was more so the Jake Allen struggles pre-trade deadline carrying over. I'll admit when I was wrong, it was the Wild who were really limping with a horrible March and a lost chance at winning the President's trophy, Western Conference top seed or at least the Central division. I think Devan Dubnyk is still a Vezina front runner, but that's not gonna get him, Staal, Parise, Sutter, Dumba and the rest of the Wild on the cup.

If I had to choose 2 teams to meet in the Conference Finals in each conference, it would be Washington/Pittsburgh and St. Louis/Nashville, but there's still another round to play in between, and teams like Montréal Pittsburgh, Ottawa and Edmonton could hit their strides and make a Cup run.

COTW voting has reset for this week, check out the concepts on the side of the blog
We also have the COTW 4th quarter vote. It seems like yesterday we were voting for COTY 2016, but now is the first chance to see one of the at least semi-finalists for COTY 2017.
Finally, the Norfolk Admirals Redesign competition has entered its voting phase. Click on the boat banner on the top of the blog, pick your top 3 concepts and get that done by Friday.

1st Quarter Vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

COTW vote April 7-13 (ends Friday @ noon ET)

Norfolk Admirals Top 3 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

On with today's concepts.

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Toronto Maple Leafs Concept (By: Anthony C.)

+ I wouldn't have thought it worked, but the '67/Northwestern striping really works with the new logo

+ While some people may not like this, the mix of script and logo on the pants looks good

+ It's part of the concept to be a little more realistic to what Adidas has done in the past, I actually mind the 3 stripes too much here

+ Continuing to improve on execution

- Captain's C is slightly too high

- TV numbers are slightly too low

-It's more of a preference thing, but having the realistic leaf details on the shoulder patch would make it look slightly better

- Again a preference thing, but the so called "Toilet Bowl Collar" found mainly in the NFL doesn't work that well, but not the worst thing in the world

Rating: 7.25/10

Minnesota Wild Concepts (By: Ryan C.)

+ You could call the current Wild white jerseys nearly perfect, which they are, but these aren't any worse, intact I'd say they're lateral (which is good considering what it's lateral to) and I like the inclusion of red on the stripes

+ Matching green jersey looks great

+ Big fan of the oversized red horse collar 

+ Great execution

- If you wanted to use rounded numbers, I would have used the pre-edge numbers or a block number, not this merge of the two

- I'm all for using the State of Hockey logo, but it still has wheat on items which has been excluded from the rest of the logos

- NOB is slightly too large

Rating: 8.75/10 

2018 Winter Classic Concept (By: Lucas D.)

+ On the Adidas template, I really like the look of the pre-original 6 script on it

+ Also like how much red is on the Rangers jersey in the striping

+ Buffalo jersey is like a simplified version of their 2010 alternate with a chest stripe

+ Good execution

- Both jerseys desperately need shoulder patches, I know the event logo hasn't been unveiled, but, especially with the Buffalo jersey, you could put shoulder patches on both shoulders and have room on the chest (or arms for the Rangers jersey) for the event logo

- The Rangers numbers need a red outline, and maybe on the logo script as well
- Unless you do put the event logo on the arms above the numbers, because of how small the yoke is, the numbers look too low. I don't think they are but they look it.

Rating: 7.75/10

Boston Bruins Concepts (By: Garrett M.)

+ Like the large yokes still being used, even with the alternate like striping
+ Good colour balancing
+ Good logo choices

- NOB is much too spread out, which makes the numbers look small
- TV numbers are too large
- Sock stripes are too high up on the sock and slightly too thin
- The concept would look better with a hem stripe
- Yokes this large lend them selves well to putting the name bar in them

Rating: 6/10

Washington Capitals Concepts (By: Ryan C.)

+ In watching the Leafs/Caps series, when you can't see underneath the wing things on the Caps arms, you'd swear they wore something like this, and it looks great! 

+ Connecting the oversized collar to the arm stripes looks great

+ Good choice of star placement 

+ Good colour balancing

+ Great execution 

- Blue stripe on the hem could be a little larger 

- I'd need to see it before I say this concept definitely needs it, but using the current primary as a shoulder patch would look great

Rating: 9/10 COTW Nom from me!

South Dakota Coyotes NCAA Concepts (By: Jake M.)

+ The Coyotes have nice logos for shoulder patches, but none that work for a primary, so the Rangers scripts work well 

+ I really like the double script on the red jersey, it wouldn't work in every situation but this looks great

+ Good choice of shoulder patch 

+ Striping is nice and simple, doesn't clash with the script

+ Great execution 

- The one logo I would like to see either on the helmet or pants is the paw print logo 

- NOB is a little hard to read

Rating: 9/10 

NHL 100 Classic Concept (By: Mike F.)

+ These are two looks we haven't seen either team throw back to (the Habs wearing the red version of their WC jerseys and the Sens cup winner jerseys)

+ Both logos are era accurate, but refined enough to work now

+ Some might not like it, but the white helmet works with the canvas pants on the Sens concept 

+ Great execution 

- Both kits would look better with lighter canvas gloves 

- Would like to see the O patch on the Sens shoulder 

- The Ottawa NOB would be easier to read if they have a namebar and didn't try to squeeze the name in between stripes