Friday: Penguins Punish the Predators

Oh my.  Last night's game was hard to watch if you're rooting for the Preds.  The Penguins dominated, and Sidney Crosby was looking in incredible form.  I'll admit, I had to stop watching after goal number six, which was thankfully the last one scored.  It was just painful to watch a team get shellacked like that.  Pekka Rinne looked less like a wall and more like a slice of Swiss cheese, and they couldn't produce anything at the other end of the ice to make up for it.  The Predators have been riding a wave of excitement and momentum through the playoffs, and it's been fun to ride with them.  Sadly though, I think that wave is about to break.  I just don't see how they can come back from a loss like that.  

No news in terms of uniforms, so we'll just continue with the final entries into the HJC Open Logo Comp.

Brendan P.

Ricky M.

Look later today for the polls for COTW May, COTW June 2-8, and the Open Logo top 3 vote.

 COTW June 2 - 8 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET) 

 HJC Open Logo Top 3 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET) 

COTW May vote (ends Friday @noon ET)

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Now on to today's concepts!

Anthony C.- Colorado Avalanche

Our first concept of the day is Anthony C.'s design for the Colorado Avalanche.  I love the move to the logo from their third jerseys here, it's a great logo that celebrates Colorado and its hockey history.  I really hope that they make the switch with the upcoming move to the Adidas brand.  I'm also a fan of the navy here instead of their traditional shade of blue, I think this logo works better with the darker coloring.  The striping pattern is good, but I'm not a fan of it breaking up the full length yoke.  I think that if you're gonna include the yoke, you need to keep the striping to the underarm.  Also, I think the breaking up of the yoke on the back is an odd design choice that the Avs have that could easily be fixed.  I do like the revival of the Bigfoot shoulder patch, their current one would just mirror the main crest and look redundant.    As for the third jersey, it is essentially just a white version of their current thirds with a different shoulder patch and an odd collar.  I'm not a huge fan of white thirds, I think that a bonus jersey should be used to freshen up home games, not away.  I love the Avs in burgundy, so switching this up to that color could really improve it.  I do like the gear, but the helmets need logos and I would have liked to have seen socks.  One final execution note: you are lacking any sort of manufacturer's logo on the jersey.  It's not a huge deal, but it should be included.  Final verdict: I like the direction, but some design choices and execution errors hold this concept back.  7.5/10

Cody R.- Boston Bruins

Next up is Cody R. with a design for the Boston Bruins.  Here, Cody takes the design from the black thirds that Boston wore from 1959-1965 with updated logos and creates a matching away set.  I really like the striping patterns on both the main set and the alternates.  I also really like the decision to use yellow lettering on the dark jersey, it really blends the original design with the current styling.  I love the idea of a yellow alternate for Boston, and using the old yellow B spoke works really well with it.  I do think that pants for the sets should be switched, I think the striping pattern on each works better with the other jerseys.  While I do admire you staying with the Bruins' tradition of yellow socks with the dark jersey, I wish you'd bucked the tradition of mismatched sock striping.  This has always perplexed me, and I think that this striping pattern especially lends itself well to the socks.  As for the alternate socks, I don't know if I like the doubled up hem striping for it, I probably would have just mirrored the arm striping.  Final verdict: I love the design and could definitely see the Bruins adopting this for the switch to Adidas.  9/10

FC Macbeth- Thailand

FC Macbeth continues his Asean series with this concept for Thailand.  Let's start with the positives: I really like what you've done with the striping, it's a great use of the flag in the design.  I also like the font used for the numbering, I think it works well for Thailand.  Now for the negatives: one of the greatest parts about hockey jerseys is that they are the only sport that features the team's logo prominently on the front, and this design has none.  Without some sort of logo, this design just looks kind of bare.  Thailand's Garuda Emblem is a really cool logo, and while it's too busy for a jersey, a simplified version would work really well as a main crest.  I also think that the striping should continue on the back, and the arm striping should be slanted to match the chest striping.  I don't really know where you got the highlighter yellow idea from, but it's just not working for me.  There's just too many primary colors vying for attention.  The placement of the captain's patches is an odd choice, the white numbers on the white yoke doesn't work, and I am not a fan of the glove design.  The thing that confuses me the most is the mixing of template designs, it looks like you used an Avalanche jersey template and the original Buffaslug template for the pants.  I just don't think that those designs work well together.  In terms of execution, the pants are super pixelated and the Reebok text on the back of the yellow jersey should be one color.  Final verdict: Good striping idea, but a lot of questionable design choices.  5.5/10

Jets96- Brandon Wheat Kings

Next up is our own Jets96 with a design for the WHL's Brandon Wheat Kings.  I'm going to start this off with a controversial statement: I love the Wheat Kings' old wheat grain uniforms from the late 00s.  Granted, I think they came a decade too late, but I just love how they use the grain in their design.  That being said, this is a pretty good design in its own right.  The light jerseys are very similar to their current set, but with a different hem stripe and more basic full length yoke.  I love the switch from black to yellow for the dark jersey, it works really well for the Wheat Kings.  Good logo and font choices, and good job on the color balance.  The pants are pretty much unchanged from the currents, except for an extra white stripe added to the bottom.  I like hem striping  and the matching socks, they look better than the current color block socks.  The one thing I miss compared to the old set is the white stripe between the yellow and black of the yoke on the light jersey.  It's a small detail, but I think it really works.  Other than that, there's nothing really wrong with this concept, but there's nothing exceptionally right with it either.  It's almost a clone of the current with a different hem stripe and socks.  I just really wish you'd taken more of a risk in this redesign, nothing really pops out at me. Final verdict: a good design, but not much creativity.  7.5/10

Noah B.- Dallas Cowboys

Noah B. continues his NHL City Mashup Series here with a design for the city of Dallas.  I spent three and a half years of my college career in Dallas, so this city holds a special place in my heart.  As such, I understand their obsession with the 'Boys, and I think this concept does right by them.  The home set does a great job of mirroring the Cowboys' actual home uniforms with the exception of the missing star in the arm striping.  This omission is excusable, as I think the star on the chest would make the striping star a tad repetitive.  I also agree with your decision to go with dark pants instead of the silver, as well as having the sock striping match the arms and hem.  The away set once again mirrors the styling of the Cowboys' actual uniforms, but uses the same navy as the home set, correcting their inexplicable use of a lighter shade of blue on the white jersey.  Both sets do a great job of staying true to the Cowboys' design, even in the number font, and even improves upon those designs.  The only negative I can think of is that the lack of grey in the away throws off the color balance, but there's no way to change that while sticking to the traditional design.  Final Verdict: Noah has done a great job of taking a classic football uniform and turning it into a fantastic hockey uniform that could easily be for an actual team.  9.5/10 and my COTW NOMINEE!!!

Ryan C.- Los Angeles Kings

Next up is Ryan C. with a concept for the LA Kings.  First off, I love the return to purple for the Kings.  I've never been a fan of the straight silver and black, it just looks boring on the white ice.  I'm also a big fan of this particular shade of purple, it's not as blue as their original purple and I think that that makes it pup more.  I like the striping pattern, it's a return to the striping they used when they first put purple into the mix.  I've never been the biggest fan of the Burger King logo, but I hate the home plate logo even more and I think it actually works well here.  I also think that the black pants were a good decision here, purple pants would have been a bit much.  While I do appreciate the nod to their earlier uniforms, the Kings text in the hem stripe doesn't work as well as the Los Angeles text, and even that didn't work that well.  I love the shoulder patch from the 2014 Stadium Series game, but when combined with the text in the arm stripes, it becomes too much.  It's gotta be one or the other.  If you stick with the shoulder patch, I would reverse the coloring of it on the purple jersey so that it pops more.  While I do like the font used, I think that their current font matches the text on the jersey better.  As for execution, the pants logo looks a tad too big to me.  Final verdict: a good idea, but a little too busy.  8/10

Taylor R.- Cornell Big Red

Our final concept of the day is a Cornell concept that comes to us from Taylor R.  Cornell currently wears very basic, Red Wings-esque uniforms that look simplistic, yet classic at the same time.  This design is roughly the same, but adds numbers to the front and a sleeve length yoke.  I gott say, I'm not a fan.  I'm not a huge proponent of full yokes, but when I am it's because there's something exciting that adds to the design, usually an interesting striping pattern underneath.  With this one, there's just nothing that makes up for the yoke.  By adding to the design, you've somehow subtracted from it; it went from a classic look to just being bland.  I do prefer this number font to their current one, but that's about the only improvement that I can find.  Some sort of shoulder patch would vastly improve this design, but I don't know if even that would salvage it.  Final verdict: not a lot added to the design, but a lot subtracted from the aesthetics.  6/10

That's all for me today! See y'all next week!