Thursday: A Very Hairy Blog Post

Well, if the post title hasn't scared you away, congratulations, you're in for a treat. As you may know, November means "Movember", a cause where a lot of men grow must aches to support mens' health. This is, of course, a great cause. The Movember movement is very popular amongst hockey players, and November is always a great time to see some great (and awful) facial hair art.

Why is this relevant at all, you ask? Well, this will be my last post for the month of November, and I thought I'd celebrate by changing the rating system for a day. You'll still get my Yay or Nay review, but since number scores are just relative anyway, I thought I'd score every jersey today on a scale of mustache-growing hockey players. Confused? You'll catch on by the end of the post.

But first, I mustache you a question (sorry, couldn't help myself). Have you voted for COTW yet? No? Well do you and your fuzzy upper lip a favour and vote already! Done that? Good, now finish your Captain Fishstick competition concept and send it in. Done that? Excellent, then ask yourself: "Self? Am I an awesome writer with a good eye for design, and have nothing to do on Fridays*?"... If you said yes, then click the link above and apply for our Friday Writer position. Even if your facial hair is a little lacking, we'll still accept you, as long as you have the ability to be awesome, and remember the difference between 2:30am and 2:30pm (I'm still working on that one).

COTW Nov 18-24 vote 

(ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Fishsticks Competition entries 

(due Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

HJC Writer Applications 

(due Saturday @ 12:00pm Eastern)

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Here are today's Fishstick Competition entries:

Etienne H.

Maxx B.

Mike S.

Trevor M.

Tristan M.

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Edit by Ryan

Have you checked out the two new articles on the HJC Design Blog yet? Give them a read if you'd like.

Islanders' Jersey Reveal

Heritage Classic Jerseys Reveal

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Milwaukee Admirals Concept - Zack M.

Yay- The first in our tetra of Admirals concepts. I loved the designs we got from this contest, and we have a really cool colour scheme to go from. This design keeps it nice and simple, which I like, and the striping is typical to what a traditional uniform would have.

Nay- Unfortunately, thats where the Yays end. The logos, numbers, and name are all too big, the font choice is cool, but not great for a hockey jersey, light-blue text on a white jersey with no outline is a big no-no, and the middle light-blue stripe on the home jersey should be white, to match with the away set better. There are also colouring and pixelation issues aplenty here.

Overall- The bad news is, this is very low on the mustache scale. On the plus side, you now know everything there is to know about junior hockey.

Milwaukee Admirals Concept - Matt R.

Yay- This jersey came 2nd in the Admirals competition, rightfully so.  The striping patterns here are great. Simple and clean on the main set, and downright classic on the 3rd jersey. This concept uses all 3 colours very well on each jersey, and I'm very much a fan of the light-blue 3rd jersey. 

Nay-While the striping patterns are nice and traditional, the home and away set doesn't look like they match, because the outer black stripe blends with the jersey, and the blue is simply extended outward. The only other complaint is that, even with the outline, I'm not a huge fan of the white font on light-blue background. Its definitely not the easiest on the eyes.

Overall- A few changes I'd make, but definitely a solid design; worthy of 2nd place in the competition and a classic 'stache from Dirk Graham

Milwaukee Admirals Concept - David P.

Yay- David got 4th place in the competition.  It's hard to beat a traditional look. The cuff and stripe design fit well with a traditional look.  I also like the introduction of grey into the jersey. Its hard making a jersey with black and 2 very bright colours, but David shows us you don't have to.  The font choice isn't exactly traditional, but it does look different enough to be cool, traditional enough to be realistic.

Nay- The biggest one is that the blue on the logo doesn't match the blue on the jersey. The logo's blue is brighter and greener (I think).  The 3rd jersey is near perfect, but I don't like the light blue outline on the text. It makes the text look a little distorted.

Overall- Its a simple design that works well. The logo colour issue doesn't help the cause much, but I still like the classic look overall. Classic, you say? Almost as classic as the late Pat Burns and his personal lip blanket.

Milwaukee Admirals Concept - Jake88 

Yay- The last of the Admirals jerseys, I never thought I'd get tired of seeing baby blue. In contrast to the last few jerseys, this takes a more modern approach, with the aid of a neatly recoloured logo from the early-2000's. I'm a big fan of the Nashville-style "number pattern stripe thing".  The yoke outline and striping patterns are pretty cool, and fit with a tame Nike template (if that's even possible).

Nay- Not a huge fan ok numbers on the yoke, it's just way too high on the arm for my liking. The name is really close to the collar too, since the jersey narrows around the neck, it could be hard to see in action. The main number isn't too bad if it has to cross over the yoke stripes, but it really doesn't have to, a few pixels down would be enough.  The striping and cuff style doesn't match between the jerseys either, and its enough to make each other look out of place.

Overall- I'm a traditionalist, but the modern approach here looks nice. A few execution fixes and style choices could help this concept a lot. This isn't a great concept, but it's decent and full of potential, which best describes young vet Carey Price and his facial fuzz.

Washington Capitals Concept - Tom V.

Yay- I become more of a fan of Tom's work every time I see a new concept from him. The arm pattern is really cool, and suits the basic modern approach this jersey takes. There are still the traditional stripes on the arms, which I think is a plus. The logo is really awesome, and is a cool mix of their current secondary, old secondary, and their old colour scheme. I'm very fond of the bronze and blue Washington colours, and they look great on a modern set here. The jersey detail, with the fabric look and the bevelling, are the icing on the cake of a fantastic concept.

Nay- I'd love to see some sort of hem striping on the bottom of the jerseys. Jerseys that are bare from the logo down bother me. The striping that is used on the arms could definitely work, and in turn would look more in place on the arms as well.  Right now the traditional arm stripes look a little out of place, but with the additional stripes on the bottom, they'd look more in place, I'd think.

Overall- Fantastic work. Lanny would be proud.

Washington Capitals Concept - Steve M.

Yay- Another Washington jersey, with another use of the Weagle logo. This jersey is everything your eyes can see when you hear arena-filling chants of "USA, USA". The combo of stars and stripes make this jersey to "out-there" for a main jersey, but perfect for a 3rd jersey. A white version of this wouldn't work too well, but this blue jersey is fantastic.

Nay- Not sure how I feel about the hem stripes and cuffs. They match and all, but don't look as American as every other element of the jersey. Maybe a red-white-red stripe instead, or just red-white, or something like that, without the blue gap. The number font looks good, but the lettering on the name looks underwhelming. Its neither retro-sports or fancy and bold, its just bland.

Overall- It's a great jersey, and the Nays here are mostly just suggestions. For a great American jersey, I'll give a great American 'stache. Good work.

Buffalo Sabres Concept - Steve M.

Yay- Steve goes for the double with this Sabres 4th jersey, which honestly is 1000 times better than their 3rd. The logo is from their original logo I assume, but used in a way I've never seen it before, and looks pretty cool.  It looks like a classic jersey, helped by the simple logo and the traditional but non-plain striping. The font looks retro enough to belong with a jersey like this. This is definitely a believable Sabres jersey, which is great.

Nay- I love how the logo is used, but it leaves a weird plain space in the front of the jersey, which just makes the front as a whole look underwhelming. Maybe if there was something done extra with the collar, that would help. I like how the jersey is almost all blue and yellow, especially with the striping, but it makes the number outline look really out of place. Either ditch the outline, or add some white striping.

Overall- Did someone say white stripes?

Yes, I know that isn't a hockey player.  But even though I'm not sure how much I like the mustache, it's original, different maybe, but classic enough not to look goofy. Thats how I feel about this design.

Phoenix Coyotes Concept - Justin S.

Yay- Someday soon, you'll see me attempt to recreate the classic Coyotes stripes. It fails miserably compared to this. There isn't much to say about this concept, and thats not a bad thing. The striping is executed perfectly, the cuffs and hem are what they should be, the font stays true to the Coyotes look, and everything just feels like it belongs on a Coyotes jersey. This is a design that needs to happen for real down in Phoenix.

Nay- Not Justin's fault, because neither the Coyotes or I have figured out how to have the beige colour on the jersey without totally sacrificing white. It looks weird having a primarily white jersey then having a jersey with no white at all, but I'm having a hard time seeing how it could work myself. The only other thing is the yoke. It's just an outline, and the yoke itself is really unnecessary, so I think the jersey could do without the outline of a yoke that isn't there.

Overall- This concept is a combination of what people love with the old and new jerseys. The picture below is a new style on the old Jagr, and everyone loves that. I love this concept, plain and simple.

Anaheim Ducks Concept - Justin S.

Yay- Wait, another old style turned new concept? Fantastic! The Mighty Ducks had one of the most unique looks in NHL history. While the Ducks striping now is indeed original, it just doesn't capture the weirdly awesome retro-modern style the Mighty Ducks had. Justin changes that, and does so with perfect execution. I'm a minority here, but I love diagonal stripes on the front of the jersey, especially with the Mighty Ducks and Blues in the 90's. The colours here are translated perfectly, and I would rather these over the Ducks' current set.

Nay- There isn't much, but I'd suggest changing the away collar to something that is 2-toned, like the home collar. Black-orange or bronze-orange would work best I'd guess.  Otherwise, I got nothing.

Overall- This concept is probably my favourite for today, so it deserves my favourite hockey mustache, coincidentally from while he was a Duck.

Buffalo Sabres Concept - Caden P.

Yay- Am I the only one here who likes the "goat head" logo? I love how Caden has gave it some life again, and successfully made a grey jersey that could actually pass for an away jersey AND fit in with the colour scheme. Doing both of those is hard to do, hence why you don't see many grey jerseys. I don't like the plain Nike style shown here, but it does belong with the Sabres look, surprisingly. And unsurprisingly, this looks like a very believable Nike jersey. The 3rd jersey here, which is my least favourite, is still 1000 better than their current 3rd, so congratulations on that.

Nay- The plain Nike arms can get my approval for the main set, as they look like they belong with Nike's modern approach to things. But the classic 3rd jersey with even plainer arms? I'll pass. I'd like to see some more striping, and maybe some more white on the jersey somewhere. Also, there aren't any TV numbers anywhere to be seen on these jerseys. Realistically, you probably can't see the whole number on these templates, but you'd see one full digit on either side, or half of one if the number is only one-digit.

Overall- The overall look to the jersey is believable to the owner, but the execution of the jersey is a little lacking. The wimpy mustache is believable on baby-faced Danny Briere, but again, the mustache itself is still lacking.

Washington Capitals Concept - Justin C.

Yay- Yet another Washington concept with the Weagle logo.  While the concept is lacking the stripes that made the previous Caps concept more "American", this jersey is more plausible with a white away jersey.  The shoulder stars are kept, and work well with these jerseys. The striping is simple, but original, and it matches with the equipment as much as it needs to. The font choice fits in well with a Capitals jersey, which has always had some different but suitable fonts.

Nay- I think the stars should stop after the arm stripes. The wrist moves and turns so much and is usually covered by the glove anyway, so it would be hard to notice the detail, and to me it just looks overkill anyway.  The arm striping style matches throughout, but the sizes of the arm stripes aren't exactly constant. The top stripe on the home jersey looks larger than the top one for the away jersey, for example. 

Overall- It's different, but a little too different to have "great-mustache-status". It's definitely a good concept though, and with a few fix ups it can be a great concept. But for now, its a work in progress; just like this patchy 'stache from Washington's enemy #1

Los Angeles Kings Concept - David P.

Yay- The last concept of the day is a chromed Los Angeles concept for their Stadium Series game. From how recent the NYI jersey has been released, and the usual waiting time for concepts to be shown here, it's fair to say it wasn't certain that the chrome logos would be used on the jerseys, so good guess on his part. The striping, however basic, is done nicely and executed well. The font choice works well, and the main number outline gives the number a nice pop to it.

Nay- The outlines on the TV numbers doesn't quite work as well. The outline is too big, and makes the number harder to look at. It's readable, but not so much one this jersey is in motion. The striping style is really simplistic. While I like traditional looks, this is just a little too bare for my liking, and it sounds like the Stadium Series jerseys won't go for the traditional look. 

Overall- Its not bad, or weird, or scary... but it's just boring and plain, kinda like this mediocre mustache from an active legend.

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After careful consideration, I've chosen Justin S.' Anaheim Ducks concept as my COTW nominee. George Parros would be pleased.

That's all for today's mustache-filled post. Hope you guys don't mind the change up for today, I promise I'll go back to boring old numbers next week, unless someone talks me out of it. Anyways, have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for reading!

Images From: http://www.cavyhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/pierre.jpg, http://www.cavyhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/DirkGraham.jpg, http://www.cavyhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/patburns.jpg, http://cdn.25stanley.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/20101123-125254.jpg, http://www.s-trip.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/S-Trip_blog_Mustache_lanny-mcdonald.jpg, http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/327550261.jpg?1308713109, http://www.theplugg.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/image016.jpg, http://flowgods.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/20130616-173518.jpg, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQmez7-1xUNCgvkmTiyPn6VmuYgifx55ZS9FO5t1rScqzrSq80ydBCOOiR97p8sALESF2OrIXRezYULmeSfFPZ8C3ZTkp-zuQGFMCovboEtTAy7FMdD-jsVOHth8nE9UEBQzs0U8lcmGnm/s1600/Parros1.jpg, 

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/001/526/928/briere_display_image.jpg?1320612308, http://cheesesteakswithbarkley.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/croby-stache.jpg, http://blogimages.thescore.com/nhl/files/2011/11/133871314.jpg