Thursday: The Great White North

Happy Thursday, Ladies and Gents.

As the first round of the playoffs nears an end (Congrats to the Golden Knights and Sharks for already punching their ticket to the next round), we're quite busy here at HJC as well. Tomorrow marks the end of both our regular COTW Vote and the COTW Vote for the first Quarter. The winner of which will be the 1st of four concepts to make it to the COTY vote at the year's conclusion.

Ending next Friday is the entry phase of the St. Andrew's College Competition, which is honestly the most exciting competition we've had on the site in awhile in my opinion. As nice as it is to win a competition, there's nothing more rewarding than having one of your concepts come to life (noted I'm speaking entirely theoretical, since I've yet to have the pleasure, but here's hoping that changes with this one...)

Let's check on those entries...

Lucas D. (Entry 1)

Dylan T (Entry 2)

REMINDERS:

 1st Quarter Vote (ends Friday @ noon ET) 

 COTW April 6-12 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET) 

 St. Andrew's College entries (due April 27 @ 6pm ET) 

On to the concepts!

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Adam G.- Montreal Canadiens

Adam starts out the day with his next entry in his NHL De-Edge series, this time for the Montreal Canadiens. First off, I love the idea behind this series and think it's really interesting to explore what could've been had CCM's contract had the staying power to last another rebrand for each team. I love the idea behind this concept as well, with the striping on each set drawing from the hem striping that's graced each of the Canadiens sweaters since the early 50s. Unfortunately, this set also reveals why the Canadiens have relied on a chest stripe on their home sweater for so long. There's simply too much red in that logo to pop off the body of a red swearer. Like the inclusion of one of the 100 anniversary logos as a shoulder patch. The one thing that really sticks out to me is the hem of the road. Every other pattern on the set duplicates the two-stripe pattern, but here its only done once. Fix that and I'd say we have a pretty damn successful De-Edge for the blue, blanc et rouge. 

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

If the Canadiens ever want to break from tradition, this may be the way to go. Beautiful look.

Adam G.- Winnipeg Jets

From Quebec to Manitoba, Adam takes us west to Winnipeg for our second De-Edge of the day. For a team that never existed in the Pre-Edge era (at least in their Jets identity), we get a pretty solid look at what could've been should the Thrashers lack of success ran them out of town at an earlier date. The angular color blocking looks great in the Jets' updated scheme and the pattern fits their logo well. Color balance is executed nearly perfectly across the two looks and the NOB and #OB play off the logo coloring quite nicely. My one complaint here is that grey could be used more effectively in both looks as it blends into the white on both the home and away. 

  

Overall Rating: 7.75/10

Flight ready set for the Jets here, though I think it'd be a neat idea to fits the new Jets' look into the Thrashers' identity of old.

Chase C.- Ottawa Senators

Chase re-imagines the Senator's NHL 100 Classic uniform as a home and away set by swapping silver for gold. I've gotta say it works really well here. I'm a big fan of the 100 Classic look as well as the Sens in red. The old centurion looks great on the shoulders as well. Colors work on the road look as well, outside of the #OB. I think it'd be more effective in white as it blends into the chest stripe as is. These some pixelation issues with each of the chest logos with loose pixels around the O on both sets. Despite it being a good look, gotta take some credit away due to the lack of originality on this one.   

   

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

A great look, but unfortunately little more than an effective recolor of an existing look.

From a day flush with concepts from North of the Border, the team that borrows its name from its inhabitants takes home COTW Honors (Adam's Canadiens set gets my nomination this week).

Got Questions? Send 'em our way by stuffing the HJC Mailbag.