Thursday: Not as Good as Last Week to be a Pens Fan

As I said last week, the Pens' 2-0 series lead cushion guaranteed them absolutely nothing, and now here we are, tied 2-2 about to go into a pivotal game 5 today.

This must be a very enjoyable Cup Final for those of you whose favorite teams have already been eliminated from the playoffs, and it's shaping up to be a lengthy series as well. As a Pens fan myself it may not be as enjoyable as you think, since a losing isn't exactly fun to watch, though the winning games are a lot more exciting to watch when it is my favorite team, so I suppose they balance each other out.

I guess it's time again to see how the series plays out, and by the time I'm back next week we'll know our Stanley Cup Champion. So let's go and enjoy the hockey, and Let's Go Pens!

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This week in voting we have a simple one, with only the COTW vote going on. While that may be the only vote, we also have the HJC Open logo competition ending tomorrow at noon, so get those in!

 COTW May 26 - June 1 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET) 

 HJC Open Logo entries (due Friday @ noon ET) 

In other news, the Quad City Mallards have contacted Ryan looking for a U.S. Military appreciation jersey design to be worn during warm ups. This will not be a formal competition on HJC, but you can send in your designs to concepts@hockeyjerseyconcepts.com for consideration.


HJC Open Logo entries (as of 2:00pm EST):

Ryan H.

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Anthony C. - Minnesota Wild

+Not many teams can pull off a vintage white color, but Minnesota is one of them. And one of the issues I have with many Minnesota concepts is that they use both white and wheat, so I'm glad you only used one of them (the alt excluded since it's a new uniform entirely).

+Similarly, many Wild concepts that use both red and green tend to look Christmas-y. While this one doesn't avoid that completely, it doesn't scream Christmas or anything.

-I think the concept would have even better if you used the striping pattern from their current roads, making the top, smaller stripe on each in red.

-I'm also not a big fan of the extra red outline on the logo, it's a bit unnecessary.

+I like the idea of the alternate. It's a good way to call back to the North Stars without being too direct.

+I also think the roundel works well here since it's an alternate uniform.

Overall: 8.5/10

Ethan B. - Metallurg Novokuznetsk

+This is a definite improvement over their current uniforms...

-Still a bit on the plain side for my liking, though.

+They do definitely look like they belong in the KHL, though.

-The names look a bit high.

-I also don't think the plain black numbers work too well.

-I may be wrong about this being required, but you're missing TV numbers.

Overall: 7.5/10

F.C. Macbeth - NHL Tour Game Series

+If I can't give you credit for anything else, I can at least give you a lot of credit for the thought put into this concept.

+I really like the way your inspiration for the Islanders jersey translated to the jersey, though a sailor schoolgirl's uniform is a bit of an odd inspiration for a hockey jersey.

-I'm not so sold on the inspiration for the Devils uniform (at least with the anime-esque character...the Rockies one makes perfect sense), though I'll give you the benefit of the doubt because I don't know much about Japanese culture aside from stereotypes.

-I also don't really understand you explanation for the "Sweet Devils" at the bottom, though that could easily be because of the reason I mentioned in my last point.

+On to the actual jerseys, I think the Devils logo you have fits well with the proposed name of "Sweet Devils, as does the addition of the pink.

-The pink blends in with the red stripes...

+But it actually works pretty well. From afar, it'll look like one thick stripe, and up close you'll see the detail.

+The Islanders uniform actually looks pretty great, especially considering that it's inspired by a schoolgirl's uniform.

-Not sure where the yellow comes from, though, I'd put that in orange.

+The script works pretty well here...but I'm also getting some flashbacks...

-Not a fan of the hem stripes on that one. Just keep it consistent with the rest of the jersey.

Overall: 8/10

Jake M. - Esbjerg Energy

+The first thing I noticed about this concept was the logo. My god does it look nice.

+Nice, simple design, but not too simple. Good balance.

+Speaking of balance, good color balance on this one. The yellow accents the blue and white really well with that extra pop of color.

-I think you could drop the gray, though.

+That font looks really nice on this design.

-I think the numbers could use an outline, though.

-This is less of a negative comment rather than pure speculation, but I wonder what the white jerseys would look like if you kept the thick white stripe from the blue jersey, and added a blue hem along with the blue upper arms.

Overall: 9/10 and my COTW nomination

Jets96 - Mississauga St. Michael's Majors

+Double blue is such a nice looking color scheme, especially when the colors are well balanced.

+Simple striping fits these colors well.

-Not the most creative, though.

-Why not make the sock stripes consistent with the jerseys? And maybe even the pants while you're at it.

-That logo has way too many outlines.

+At least too many of them aren't visible from afar, otherwise this would be atrocious.

-I'm not a huge fan of that font.

-I know you have your screen name as the name and number on the jersey, but adding some extra I.D. to the concept is never a bad idea.

Overall: 7.5/10

Jets 96 - Lousiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns

+I like the modern look of this one, it fits well for a team like this.

+I wouldn't mind seeing more yellow on the road jersey somehow, but that doesn't take away from the good color balance you have.

-This wouldn't be sensible for real-life usage so I'm not really detracting for this, but just in general I think red pants would work better on the road jersey.

+Good consistency on this set.

-I'm not a big fan of that font again, I don't think it fits too well here.

+Good logo choice.

Overall: 8.5/10

Taylor R. - Brown University Bears

+This uniform looks very collegiate, and the script "logo" fits that theme well.

-Just because it fits well doesn't mean I like the way it looks.

+Although if that bear logo you have on the image would be the only other option, you made the right choice.

+I like the font choice as well for both the back name and numbers and the front script

+I think that striping pattern works well, especially the way it combines together with the yoke stripe.

+The full length yoke also really helps the color balance on the road jersey.

-I'm not sure how much tradition Brown has with their uniforms or anything, but imagine how nice double-brown would look on this, similar to the Hersey Bears.

Overall: 8.5/10

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That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all again next week.