Tuesday: Moon Over Parma

Hi folks, welcome back to HJC for the Tuesday post. Well, it's an exciting time for me here in Northeast Ohio: the Stanley Cup Final is underway, and I'm packing up for a move later this week to Parma. Speaking of moves, it doesn't look like we'll be seeing one in the NHL anytime soon. Seattle is going forward with an expansion team, and some teams thought to be on shaky ground like Arizona and Florida seem to be doing fine, for the time being. I must confess, I'm a bit disappointed in this, because it's long overdue for Quebec to have a team return.

Of course, with the success of Vegas under the current expansion lottery system, potential cities probably aren't going to beg for the struggling Coyotes to move in. Oh well, we'll see how this pans out.

 COTW May 18-24 vote (ends Friday @ noon EST) 

Adam G.- Vegas Golden Knights "Caesar's Palace" Specialty Jersey

Adam kicks off today's post with an idea I don't believe I've reviewed before, a specialty jersey for sale apart of the club. It's a neat idea, especially in Vegas to tie into an iconic landmark. I'm not completely sure what the basis of the design is for this; I'm guessing it's to mimic the towers of the hotel. Regardless, this doesn't make for the best crossover to a hockey sweater. The black stripes cut off in awkward places with no evident reason for doing so. I'm thinking the red yoke is to mimic the pediment atop the towers, but the rectangular shape doesn't convey the triangular apex well. The colors are particularly disorienting, with no consistency between the reds, grays, and golds.

Grade: D-

Adam G.- Vegas Golden Knights "Circus Circus" Specialty Jersey

Same artist, same idea. This one is much more successful, with a design reminiscent of the iconic symbol of any circus, the big tents. The arm stripes continuing all the way up to the yoke stitching, with the text making a decent shoulder patch. The hem stripes, however, suffer from the same issue as Caesar's. The gold trim gives the jersey some Vegas sparkle and life, but I wish the gold matched the team gold.

Grade: C-

Alexander W.- Saginaw Spirit "Lumber Kings" Throwback

Here's another neat idea from Alexander for the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL; a fauxback set that blends the current team with a previous one. I love the new logo with lumberjack Eagle, flannel and all. I only have a minor issue with it; the shade of yellow on the beak would best be the same shade of gold as the crown and flannel, for consistency. The jersey is much less creative, but gets the job done to sell the theme. On execution, the fabric of back yoke visible through the collar should be the same color as what's on the back, so it should be gold on the maroon jersey and maroon on the white jersey. One last thing, I hope Alexander can explain this to me in the comments, but why have a home and road jersey for one night?

Grade: B-

Anthony C.- Team USA

Our last submissions of the day come from Anthony, who has two slight variations of the same idea for Team USA. I can't remember the last "prom queen sash" design I've seen for Team USA, but I can see how it works. The trend of design has gradually been swinging towards simplicity recently, and this epitomizes this well. There's enough here to give the jersey life and interest, but it's certainly not too overpowering. The only downside to this set is that the back is very, very plain, and doesn't go well enough with the rest of the set. The pants stripe wisely matches the theme, but the stripes could have been a similar thickness to really make it work. The laces on the blue jersey should be white to make them pop, not camouflaged.

Grade: B-

That's it for today folks. Enjoy the rest of the Final, and keep your stick on the ice.