Friday: Fresh New Roster

Hey y'all and welcome to another Friday post here at HJC.  The trade deadline has come and gone, and while it was relatively sparse compared to recent years, there were some blockbuster deals that managed to garner major media attention.  As a Rangers fan, I can say without a doubt that our team was hit the hardest.  The Blueshirts lost a handful of marquee players including Grabner, Nash, Miller, and even captain Ryan McDonagh, who is the second straight captain to be traded to the Lightning, following his predecessor Ryan Callahan.  With the release of the "cleaning house" statement earlier last month, these moves were somewhat expected, but expectation does not make these trades any less foundation shaking.  That being said, the new blood that the team brought in with the hopes of kickstarting the rebuild has certainly made an immediate impact.  In Wednesday night's game, many of the new players' first, the Rangers managed to snap a seven game losing streak with a 6-5 overtime win over the Canucks.  Newly acquired Vladislav Namestnikov posted an impressive showing with an assist and an unassisted goal, and Ryan Spooner managed to rack up three assists, including on the game winner scored by Gilmour.  As a Rangers fan, it's somewhat scary to see so many unfamiliar faces out on the ice, but with the performance that these new faces are bringing to the ice, it's becoming easier to warm up to them. 

In voting news, we have the regular COTW vote for February 23-March 1, as well as the Week Five vote for The Season competition, both of which end Friday at noon EST. 

COTW Feb. 23- Mar. 1 vote (ends Friday @ noon EST)

The Season Week 5 vote (ends Friday @ noon EST) 

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Now on to today's concepts!

Joe D.- Team USA

Our first concept of the day is Joe D.'s design for Team USA.  As an American, I love the idea of a jersey that hearkens back to the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" jerseys, it's the shining moment in our nation's hockey history.  That being said, there's really not that many changes between this set and the originals, and the ones that do exist are a bit of a downgrade to me.  the Home set is the same basic design with the colors in the striping swapped and the elimination of the star shoulder patch.  The away is the exact same as the original, minus the yoke and shoulder patch.  Gear looks alright, but nowhere near as good as the original gear.  While this isn't exactly a bad looking set, it's basically just a "what would an old uniform look like on a new template?" design, which is one of my biggest pet peeves as a writer here at HJC.  Final verdict: not a bad looking design, but the complete lack of creativity really kills this one for me.  4/10

John E.- Toronto Maple Leafs (SS)

Our next concept is John E.'s "fix" for the Maple Leafs Stadium Series jersey.  While I do love the tribute to the Canadian military included in the Leafs' actual Stadium Series uniforms, I think that the Leafs went a little too basic with their design, it's pretty bland and the coolest part about it is completely lost on the ice.  I love John's design for this game, it's a much better look for a specialty game.  The basic design for it seems to be inspired by the white jerseys introduced in 1967 (*cough* the last time they won the cup *cough*), but with the hem stripe moved up to the chest and some contrast added with the blue on the cuffs and hem.  The move to the chest stripe actually works really well for the Leafs, as we've seen in other specialty games, and here is no different.  John does a freat job of using white outlines on the numbers and logo to keep them from bleeding into the chest stripe, and the arched name plate works really well.  While I have lambasted white gear in the past, and rightfully so, I think it actually works well here.  My only issue with this design is the decision to make the socks blue, I always hate socks not matching the jersey, and it's made even worse by the fact that literally everything else in this uniform is white.  Final verdict: a great looking set for a Leafs specialty game, and swapping the socks would make it perfect.  9/10 and my COTW NOMINEE!!!!!

Noah K.- Denver Blue Knights

Our final concept of the day is the latest entry in Noah's DCI series, this time for the Blue Knights of Denver.  I like the idea of a double blue color scheme for this team, as well as the color blocking on the arms instead of traditional striping.  With that said, the grey seems almost shoehorned in, it works okay in the striping, but looks forced in the logo, and just plain unnecessary in the yoke.  I like the logo choices, that geometric design works much better as a shoulder patch than a primary logo, and the script gives this set a great old-school collegiate feel.  As for the gear, I would eliminate grey from the gloves, match the helmet to the darker blue of the rest of the gear, and flip the striping on the breezers so that it looks more like the hem stripe on the dark jersey when the player sits down (it's upside down this way when they're on the bench).  Final verdict: some decent ideas, but this set leaves a lot to be desired.  6/10

That's all for me this week, see y'all next Friday!