Monday: Red Blue Jackets

Welcome to another Monday post!

Congrats Pittsburgh on your 5th Stanley Cup victory, and second back to back win. This does mean historically speaking you'll be done for at least a few years, but hey, go for 3 as long as it doesn't involve beating Winnipeg, and maybe you'll finally win one at home.

Fun fact the only team from the 90s expansion to have not made at least one cup final is Winnipeg/Atlanta (Tampa Bay 2, Anaheim 2, Ottawa 1, Nashville 1, San Jose 1). On top of this, only two teams of either the expansion or relocations in the 90s and 2000 haven't made a Conference Final, those being of course Winnipeg/Atlanta and Columbus (Colorado 6, Anaheim 5, San Jose 4, Dallas 4, Tampa Bay 4, Ottawa 3, Carolina 3, Phoenix/Arizona 1, Minnesota 1, Nashville 1, Florida 1), I won't throw Vegas in because they have yet to play a season, and though unlikely, they could get to the Conference Finals hypothetically. Of the expansion franchise from 1967-1975, Buffalo, New York Islanders, Dallas, Washington and St. Louis have not made the Cup Final since Dallas v. New Jersey in 2000. New Jersey, LA, Pittsburgh, Vancouver have made it, with every one of those teams but Vancouver making it at least twice. Every Original 6 team has made it to at least the conference Finals since 2000, while only Toronto & Montréal have yet to get to the Cup Finals.

As you might have read on Saturday's post, I was the lucky e-Bay winner of Ryan's Doug Gilmour Blackhawks home (at the time) jersey. First off, thanks Ryan for holding this e-bay auction, I got an almost too good to be true deal on a player I've always liked and a jersey that's almost essential in a jersey collection. I can assure it's in good company and going to a good home. I figured I'd take this post to talk about my jersey collection, and my plans for it in the future to hopefully generate a discussion in the comments or podcast.

I'm currently trying together at least one jersey from each of the 31 teams in the NHL, and whatever previous teams that exist (obviously a pre original 6 defunct team is very difficult to buy a jersey for unless CCM Vintage releases a Maroons or New York Americans jersey (hint hint). Currently, I'm missing jerseys for Arizona, Minnesota, Nashville, NYR, Ottawa, San Jose and Vegas. The teams I own multiple jerseys of are Atlanta (4), Toronto (3), Modern Winnipeg (3), Buffalo (2), NYI (2), Chicago (2), Washington (2).

Customizing jerseys is one of my favourite things to do, and I tend to like to wear my customized jerseys more than my blank ones. The nice thing about buying a jersey blank though, is you can pick any player you want, not just the players NHLShop thinks are good. Call me crazy, but I don't usually like getting superstars on my jerseys, unless they happen to also be my favourite player on that team.

Here's a list of my customized jerseys

2015 Toronto Maple Leafs home- 21, JVR
1989 Calgary Flames SCF home- 10 Roberts
2004 Buffalo Sabres alternate-  81 Satan
2009 Atlanta Thrashers alternate- 24 Chelios
1995 Winnipeg Jets home- 25 A, Steen
2008 Atlanta Thrashers home w/ ASG patch- 8 Recchi
2004 New York Islanders home- 27 C, Peca
2004 Vancouver Canucks home- 55 A, Jovanovski
1998 Washington Capitals home- 37 Kolzig
2016 St Louis Blues away- 1 Elliott
2003 Philadelphia Flyers alternate- 32 Cechmanek
2003 Florida Panthers home- 43 Olsen (pre season game worn)
2009 Colorado Alternate- 16 Tucker
2015 Chicago Blackhawks Winter Classic- 81 Hossa
1997-98 Michigan K-Wings (IHL)- 17, no name but John Emmons did wear 17 so it'll be that

So what's the plan for the future? Like most of you I'll be waiting for the Reebok Edge stock to go on sale to clear room for the Adidas jerseys. I'm also looking forward to next year's Stadium Series jerseys between Toronto and Washington. There's also the distinct possibility a team unveils an awesome jersey (looking at you Buffalo, Edmonton, Dallas and Colorado). However the main part of my plan is to get jerseys customized, which includes patches. Things like the Winnipeg inaugural patch, a 1990s Goals for Kids patch for my CCM vintage Winnipeg jersey, a bunch of outdoor patches (i.e. 2014 Detroit WC, LA 2015 SS, Toronto Centennial Classic) and any anniversary or ASG patches (Carolina comes to mind for this one.

As for the recently acquired Blackhawks jersey, I do have a patch planned for it. In 1999-2000, Doug Gilmour was captain of the Blackhawks for 63 games during a very mediocre season. On top of that it was the year those snazzy NHL2000 patches came out. I'm guessing the Gilmour jersey was customized some time in the previous season when Gilmour wasn't captain and the team wore no other patches. Nothing wrong with that at all, my guess is the jersey was customized during the previous season where there were no patches and Chris Chelios was still captain, but given the chance and having a red NHL2000 patch already, I'm gonna take it. I'll be sure to post pics of it once it's fully customized! Until my trip to Toronto in July though, the jersey will be worn as is.

Tell me in the comments what your jersey collection plans are!

As mentioned since Wednesday, the Quad City Mallards have reached out to Ryan to ask the HJC community for Salute to Service/Military Tribute jersey concepts for next season. This is an informal competition of sorts, so they may decide not to chose any of the concepts sent, but it's still an awesome opportunity to get a concept used by one of the most well know minor league identities out there today. Thanks to the QC Mallards for putting out the request!

Remember to send your entries to the REGULAR HJC E-MAIL (concepts@hockeyjersyeconcepts.com) and NOT the contest e-mail. Please also be sure to make the subject line something like Quad City Mallards Military Entry to make it easier for Ryan to sort entires and get them sent off to Quad City.

Voting for this week has 3 votes for you to get involved in. There's the COTW where yours truly representing the MAINEiacs takes on two awesome concepts from Jordan for two defunct NHL teams. It's an all defunct COTW vote, so have your say! There's also the COTW May vote, where the best on last month go head to head, and lemme tell you, it's one of the best COTW monthly votes I've ever seen. Finally, there's the HJC Open logo top 3 votes! Check out the logos by clicking the tab above and pick yer favs

COTW-May vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

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

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

On with today's concepts!

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Winnipeg Jets Concept (By: FC Macbeth)

+ The idea of using multiple layers of piping to create vertical striping I don't think is necessarily a new idea, but something we don't see often

+ And that striping pattern looks pretty solid!

+ Execution is getting better, especially in terms of TV numbers, helmet logos, the crispness of the logos etc, and concept layout as a whole

- This is a very unorthodox jersey to day the least, and one thing that hurts it is the lack of continuity between the arm stripes themselves, and those stripes and the piping/star on the bottom of the jersey. If the stripes were both navy and white, it'd work, but the grey thrown in unnecessarily darkens the striping 

- This sort of vest design with the side panels being used for striping and the rest of the jersey being different colours than the front and back panel isn't attempted often because it makes the jersey look like a robe or shall with a Jets t-shirt underneath 

- The Star on the bottom of the jersey is something that could work on a t-shirt, but not on a jersey

- Because the piping is so thick, you've had to move the name bar down much lower than it looks good at 

- If you wanted to keep the vest design, I'd scrap the navy yoke and make it the lighter blue 

- Finally, the gloves need more colour in them; as they are now they look like they were dipped in blue paint and left like that 

Rating: 5.75/10

Columbus Blue Jackets Concepts (By: Anthony C.)

+ Kind of like the Rangers, the Blue Jackets are team I would almost never want to see in red outside of a fashion jersey, but the recoloured cannon logo works decently with red as a primary colour

+ Excellent colour balancing between the home and road

+ Alternate is really simple but it works and is something the team could use now

+ Good logo choices

+ Good execution 

- The helmets need a logo

- Numbers on the back look a little thin for my liking on the home and road

- There are some loose pixels on the collar of the home and road jersey

Rating: 8.5/10 

Team USA IIHF Concepts (By: Noah B.)

+ Blue jersey is good with the flag striping on the arms and something similar but not the same pattern on the hem

+ The best way to judge a USA concept that does flag striping on the blue jersey is by the away, as often times colour balancing falls apart if the same pattern is used. And while it's not exact, the little white spaces in-between the red and blue really looks good here 

+ Presentation is solid

+ Good execution 

- There's a definite difference in thickness between the home and road primary logos

- Under the left arm of the blue model, there is a patch of white that I have no idea what it's supposed to be or if it's just an unfilled part of the template missed  when the rest of it was filled light grey

Rating: 8.75/10 

Chicago Blackhawks Concepts (By: Brooks F.)

+ Despite this concept being over exaggerated because 90s, I could really see a black alternate using the colours of the feathers in the striping working today 

+ Good choice in the order of the stripes

+ It's the little things that make this concept work, like the outline on the black jersey's primary logo]

+ Also really like the feathers on the pants, that's a 90s touch 

+ Great execution 

- You know, call me prudish, but I think the feathers on the shoulders kill the jersey in terms of practicality. An oversized C logo would have been better imho

- Not a huge fan of the font used, the 2015 WC font would have worked a lot better 

Rating: 9/10

Colgate University Raiders NCAA Concepts (By: Taylor R.)

+ This might be a weird comparison, but the Raiders remind me of the Utah Grizzlies during their time in the AHL (hard to find photos, but they did wear Phoenix Coyotes copies at least in 2003-04 and 04-05), and this pattern works for them, which works for the Raisers too
+ Colour balancing is near perfect
+ Big fan of the Blue Jackets alternate-like numbers
+ Fantastic execution

- I would have scrapped that lighter red bevels on the C to make it look 3D or add that light red
- It's super minor, but I'm always a fan when league/divisional logos match the team colour schemes

Rating: 9.25/10

Team Canada IIHF Concepts (By: Noah B.)

+ Huge fan of this style of maple leaf, it's completely unique and nothing like we've seen before
+ Striping is simple but it works
+ Colour balancing is good, with black gear not over powering either jersey and acting as a neutral base for gear
+ Again, fantastic layout and thank you for including the NOB
+ Good execution

- Adding black to the blank stripes, numbers and outline around the leaf would look really sharp
- Gear could use some red on it, particularly the pant stripes

Rating: 9.25/10 COTW Nom from me!

Washington Capital Concepts (By: Anthony C.)

+ A soldi balance here of original striping, and the classic Capitals look, without copying Pittsburgh and pretending it's 1992
+ Part of that is the colour distribution, which lots of navy to go with the red, and those really sharp blue cuffs
+ Alternate is very simple, similar to the Blue Jackets alternate, but it looks good
+ Good execution

- No helmet logos
- There's a clear size difference between the primary logos on the home and road
- Weagle's right wing clips into the Captain's C

Rating: 8.75/10

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