Thursday: Where have you Ben?

What is up, Party People?

Welcome to your typical Thursday Ben Shaffer Day post here at HJC. We've got a whole bunch of concepts to share with you this week thanks to an overwhelming response after last week left us with a two per day diet.

In terms of voting, we've got the COTM vote for March as well as the normal COTW Vote and the final day of voting for the Colour Swatch Competition. I'm a little biased as to the best look in the COTM pool, but there are certainly a number of deserving concepts. No matter who you vote for, make sure your voice is heard by letting us know who should reign supreme in each of the three polls 

REMINDERS:

COTW-March vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

COTW March 30 - April 5 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

Colour Swatch vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

On to the concepts!

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Ben S.- New Jersey Devils

In out first concept on Thursday Ben Shaffer Day, we head North of the Border to the (second) home of the Sedin twins. I think a green third jersey is a step in the right direction for the 'nucks and it works here. I like the attention to detail with keeping white and blue separate in (almost) all applications. The V cutout in the arms works great and is a beautiful callback to the Canucks of old. My main concerns come from the logo choice and the pants. I think a simpler pattern of a thick white stripe and a thinner green stripe would get the job done on the latter (essentially matching the hem). The chest logo, while strong in its own right, wouldn't be my first choice given the hubub of the potential return of a geographic rival with a similar historical identity.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Orca out, green in. We've got a real winner here.

Ben S.- Vegas Golden Knights

Vegas, baby! To Nevada we go...

I'm going to start by saying that pants design is beautiful, the sword looks great and ties wonderfully into the Knights' arsenal. That being said, I'm disappointed to not see the idea mirrored on the arms of the set. The shape lends itself well to an extended yoke, as you already have here, but it stays relegated to the pants. Don't get me wrong, what you have looks fine, it just seems you caught lightning in a bottle and let it go to waste. Not a fan of the logo choice here. I know the Knights are a young team without a lot to go off of, but I don't think the classic script look serves them well. The Knights have a very strong primary and I see no reason for it to carry full weight on all three jerseys. Speaking of that helmeted beauty, while I appreciate the idea of the team wearing a gold dome to match that of their primary log, I don't think it'll ever be a strong look unless it's paired with a similarly gold jersey.

  

Overall Rating: 6.0/10

There's some beautiful ideas here, I just wished they were featured a bit more across the set as a whole.

Ben S.- San Jose Sharks

Let me start by saying, I'm a sucker for the San Jose Sharks. Teal is my favourite color and the shade San Hose employs is simply beautiful. I know many dislike the inclusion of orange, but I think it works well in the scheme it just needs to be used as more than an afterthought. Ben solves that here, allowing the orange to breathe and really hold its own in the set. The striping is great on this one, beautifully laid out and consistent across the set (excepting the helmet, which I'll get to in a second). The black arms look great and give the sharks the opportunity to really emphasize the beauty of their unique color pallet. The two downfalls here for me are the logo choice and the helmet. The sharks have several beautiful logos that are underappreciated and even unused, although I understand that you are going for more of a classic look here, so I can excuse the decision. What I can't excuse, however, is that helmet. While this idea works for college hockey teams that base their identity of their football counterparts (I'm looking at you Penn State), it simply makes no sense for a professional team, especially without a prominent NFL team to share the city, and looks extremely minor league. The helmet is also the only place the striping loses its consistently in the set. The arms, hem, socks, and even the pants all adopt the same pattern, yet the helmet falls away here.

   

Overall Rating: 8.75/10

A look I really, really like; but one with a fatal flaw that's too garish to overlook.

Ben S.- St.Louis Blues

From the far west to the Gateway to the west. Ben gives us a Blues concept with a heavy dose of white, too much for me if I'm honest. The recolored chest logo works surprisingly well and I don't mind the arched text above it. What I do mind however are the startlingly white yoke and hem. While I think the white cuffs work due to their proximity to the yellow in the arm striping, the yoke and hem are just too bare and bright to be effective and cause some color balance issues in the set. Although this really sours the look for me, I do think there's simple fix to take this from a flop to an NHL-ready look. Outline the hem and yoke with the same yellow and blue combo as the arms and you've got yourself a winner.

   

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

A look with a fatal flaw, but one that can be fixed with just one small adjustment.

Ben S.- Winnipeg Jets

From St. Louis we head north to conclude Ben Shaffer Day with the city of perennial playoff champions, Winnipeg (all jokes aside, congrats to the Jets for capturing their first playoff victory in franchise history last night). Ben imagines the Jets promoting their light blue to the forefront of an alternate here and I think that's a move that works fro the most part. I like the logo-inspired striping, but I think that logo may be a touch too detailed and too strange a shape to be an effective chest logo. The striping pattern is certainly unique (and this may just be a factor of the double blue), but I'm getting strong CBJ vibes from this set. I think the set would look better without the red as it's currently a minor part of the Jets' visual identity and would need to be injected in a more influential role for it to really take hold. Not typically a fan of off-colour name-bars, but I think it works here as neither the navy or white would stand out particularly well against the light blue backdrop on their own,

   

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

As much as I'm a sucker for logo-inspired striping, I'm left thinking the Jets still need some tuning up before this set is ready for takeoff.

Well, should be pretty easy to guess who's getting the COTW Nomination this week, less so to guess which concept. This week, I'm sending it all the way to San Jose with Ben's Sharks Concept.

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