Thursday: Sabres, Warrior Cup, and More!

Hey everybody, Tyler here. First off, I want to congratulate Ryan and HJC on 1000+ posts, an awesome milestone. And secondly, I want to congratulate Andrew G. on winning the HJC Open, someday I hope to win it too! Anyway, we have some concepts to get too, so let's go!

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***Edit by Ryan*** 

Earlier today the NHL held a press conference on the field of Yankee Stadium. I wonder how the Yankees felt about all those people walking on an unprotected field? Anyways, it was really just an official presser for the two Stadium Series games in New York. The bonus came when we got a look at the Stadium Series logo! It probably should have been expected though.

The logo itself was all over the big screens and the boards which demonstrated the position of the rink. As per the usual, the NHL was closely guarding the logo and we really didn't get a nice clean look at it...until now. When I noticed that there weren't any distinct Yankee Stadium designs on the mark I began to hypothesize that one logo would be used for all three cities, and I was right.

New York Stadium Series patch

Just like the Winter Classic marks, anything used in promotional material will feature the Coors Light logo. When the patch is placed on the special jerseys (more later) it will not have the Coors logo. Which is a good move by the NHL, as they very carefully monitor the use of corporate logos on game sweaters.

Courtesy NHL.com

At the press conference, Islanders, Devils, and Rangers players were all wearing their usual home sweaters. Have no fear though, there WILL be new sweaters introduced for all of the games. Why? The reason there are six outdoor games this upcoming season is because coming out of lockout #3 the NHL and NHLPA formulated a plan to generate $1 billion in new revenue over a certain period of time. These games help, but to reach a broader scale you need to sell new sweaters to a lot of people all over the continent and world. That's why every team will have a new sweater for their game. The Rangers might even have two, but that also could be too risky.

The Rangers will play the Devils on January 26th and then play the Islanders on the 29th. The Rangers will be the road team for both games because seriously, would you want to give up two sellouts at MSG? Now they can have nearly 41 sellouts at MSG and share in the profits of two outdoor games.

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Here are the daily voting reminders...

Warrior Cup Challenge entry phase (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

COTY-July vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

COTW July29-Aug 4 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

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Here are today's entries for the Warrior Cup Challenge competition...

Adam H.

Brady S.

Darren H.

Eric W.

Jake88

Kristofer

Matt Mc.

William B.

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Winnipeg Jets concept (By: Kyle N.)

Kyle starts us off today with a new take on the Jets. There is actually some red on the jerseys now, and I like that. These sort of remind me of the old Buffalo Bills uniforms. Anyway, I like the new striping and everything, but I just don't think anyone would be happy with these over their current uniforms. Anyway, good job here.

Rating: 7.5/10

2015 All-Star Game concept (By: William B.)

William has the 2015 All-Star Game in Glendale, AZ and I'm not sure about that. Maybe it could be a good move to sort of get people there into hockey and keep the team there. Anyway, I love the old Coyotes striping here, awesome idea and it's executed perfectly. Would love to see something like this in the future.

Rating: 8.5/10

Gatineau Olympiques QMJHL concept (By: Bastian)

The Olympiques currently have LA Kings jerseys and I feel these really give them their own identity. I really love the curved striping and that font is really awesome. Great job as always, from Bastian.

Rating: 8/10

Detroit Red Wings concept (By: Frank C.)

Frank comes up with a new Red Wings concept here and I really like it. I would love to see these in (another) future Winter Classic I love the "D" logo and the striping is classic. Awesome job.

Rating: 8.5/10

Team Scotland concept (By: Adam R.)

One of our first international concepts in a while (which won't last long come Olympic time), and it's the Scottish team. First of all, these jerseys seem like they were squished down and compressed. Now to the jerseys, I actually really like the simplicity of them. Fix the "squished" issue and these are some great concepts.

Rating: 7/10

Buffalo Sabres concept (By: Caz W.)

We've seen a ton of Sabres "guesses" and personally, this concept by Caz is the closest to what I think it'll look like. Well, I'm not really sure how to judge these since they are just guesses, but I can tell you if this is how these end up looking, Sabres fans aren't going to be too happy. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I don't think these are going to look good.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk KHL concept (By: Jake88)

We haven't seen too many KHL concepts since the lockout, but Jake88 is happy to supply them for us. I like the "wavy stripes" on the hem, those are cool. As always, the ads are great for realism on KHL and really, any European jersey. Very cool concept here.

Rating: 8/10

Columbus Blue Jackets concept (By: NB14)

We've seen enough of the Sabres alternate concepts, how about a Jackets alternate concept! I really like their current alternate but other people don't seem to. I'm not too sure about the whole "sash" thing that's going on here, but I actually kind of like it. The logo choices are great and that font is really cool. Great job here.

Rating: 8.5/10

Buffalo Sabres concept (By: Bastian)

Well, I guess we haven't seen enough of the Sabres, but these are VERY cool. I get a very classic feel from these and I love the striping. Amazing job here and I wish the Sabres would bring these out instead of the thing it looks like we're getting.

Rating: 9/10 and a COTW nom from me

Thanks for reading, have a good Friday everyone!