Friday: Fridge Raiders

Hello everyone, welcome back! As T.C. mentioned yesterday I swapped days with him, so now it's my turn to take his spot.

As I'm sure many of you know, NHL 18 officially released today, along with the some of the EA Sponsors being able to play a week or so ago, and the Young Stars preorders coming out on Tuesday. The game contains a circuit mode in NHL Threes where you travel North America, playing teams from the CHL to the NHL as your squad.....the Fridge Raiders.

Screenshot from NHL18

The logo isn't that great from a design standpoint, in fact it's really amateur looking. Though, for something fun like this, and considering that your starter team seems like a "beer league all stars" team in a sense, I think it fits perfectly, and I quite like it in this context. It's silly enough to be awesome.
Overall: 3/10 in a vacuum, 8/10 in context

The jerseys on the other hand...yuck. way too plain, and the color balance makes no sense. They look like practice jerseys, even for a beer league team. Something over-extravagant would have been much better, at least to fit with the logo/beer league theme. I've seen that the Fridge Raiders have unlock-able alternate jerseys, so I'm hoping those look better, cause I'd love to use a Fridge Raiders jersey in game.
Overall: 3/10

I personally wish that you were able to create your own logo and jerseys to use in circuit mode, or have it as an unlockable option (unless it is, and I haven't gotten that far yet), but this is the first year of having Threes/circuit in the game at all, so if this continues into the coming NHL games, it's possible that it will be added. It's not that big of a deal, though, so for the time being I'm just going to enjoy the game.

What do you guys think of the Fridge Raiders fictional identity? Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments!

----------

This upcoming week in voting we'll have our normal COTW vote, along with the continuation of the arena logo competition. We're halfway through, so get those entries in this week!

 COTW vote Sept 8-14 (ends Friday @ noon EST)

Arena Logo Competition (due Sept 22 @ noon EST) 

----------

Anthony C. - Drummondville Voltigeurs

+This fits well with Drummondville's current identity.

+Good color balance.

+I like red as the primary color instead of black. It's a nice splash of color compared to their last alternate.

-Very minor detail, but I think the collar should be black.

Overall: 8/10

Anthony C. - Rimouski Océanic

+I love to see the return of teal. It's a very nice welcome compared to their boring monochromatic blue and gray and white.

+Using this design is a good way to tie in their previous identity (aka their previous use of the Ducks template) without copying it.

+I'm usually not a fan of the socks having the dark color on the bottom, but I think it works here. Provides a nice vertical symmetry to the uniform.

-Again just a small nitpick, but I think the cuff stripes come up just a tad too high, and might look better if they were just straight across instead of coming to the point on the sides.

Overall: 8.5/10 and my COTW nomination

Jets96 - Alaska Aces

+I love how bright and colorful this set is. The blue and white give it a very "icy" feel.

-It makes me wonder if this identity could have worked without even having black, or at least using it less prominently. That could be very subjective though.

+The simple striping works really well, and the cuff fills below the stripes work perfectly to make sure it isn't too plain.

-I'm not sure why they're curved downwards, though, unless it's the template.

-It's hard to tell without seeing it on a full body setup, but the white's color balance may be off, because the black and blue may compete as the secondary color.

Overall: 8/10

Jets 96 - Gwinnett Gladiators

+God, that color scheme looks gorgeous. And the colors are balanced well, too.

+I don't mind the logo choice here.

-But I wonder what some of their other logos would look like recolored, instead.

-As you know I'm a bit of a stickler for consistency...but...

+I can't tell if I think it works here or not. I will say, it doesn't bug me as much as inconsistency usually does.

-The jersey looks really plain from the back especially. Repeating the chest stripe pattern and put it all the way around the hem may help that. I have a bit of a reservation about this comment, though, cause it may also make the front look too busy.

Overall: 7.5/10

Noah B. - Anaheim Ducks

+While I don't mind Anaheim's current color scheme, especially the orange, seeing a return to these would also be welcome.

-This is subjective, but I've always preferred the eggplant as primary color.

-Less subjective, the eggplant clashes and blends with the jade a bit where you have them touching. If you swapped the silver and white stripes on the home jersey you'd be okay, though the road jersey would take a bit more to make it work.

-I think the color balance would be a little better if you swapped the white and eggplant on the home jersey, too.

+I like the font choice, I think it works well here.

Overall: 7.5/10

Noah B. - Tampa Bay Lightning

+I love the brighter blue and the addition of black.

+I think the bolt pattern really works, especially on the sleeves.

-I'm less sold on it for the hem, but I still think it works fine.

-I would thicken the outer stripe a bit, though.

+I like the logo used. I'm not sure if I would prefer it, but it works.

+I think having the logo black on the road jersey works really well, actually. Keeps there from being too much blue.

Overall: 8/10

Stealin' T. - Dallas Stars

+I mean...I can't say I've seen this idea before...

-I think there's good reason for that, though.

+Keeping the name and numbers in white was a good move for contrast.

-It really doesn't fit the rest of the jersey, though.

-I have no idea what you were trying to accomplish here. It's an idea to start from (a design with two colors that blend like this...not that the lights went out), but this is going to look nothing like a plain black jersey with numbers and a name on it from a distance, and won't work unless something is done to add some contrast somewhere other than the numbers and name.

Overall: 3/10

----------

And that's all for today's post! I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you again...sometime...not sure what day yet.