Tuesday: First Round Winding Down

Hey Hey Folks! Hope you're all having a good Tuesday so far! I know I am as over the weekend my Blackhawks got rid of them pesky Blues. The Bruins Canadiens, and Ducks also finished their series as well as the Penguins last night. AND we're being treated to some Game 7's. The Wild forced a game 7 which I didn't expect at all, and the Kings looked dead in their series but came from a 3-0 deficit to take the series to the limit.

But you know what else is cool? Going to Toronto for the HJC Meet Up this summer.  You know what's even COOLER!? The prizes that will be raffled off. If you didn't see the prizes that Ryan showed off this weekend go check out the Weekend Update. Wouldn't mind getting my hands on that White Lady Liberty jersey. mmmmmm.....

BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S EVEN COOLER?!?! Voting.........

COTW Apr 21-27 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Oilers Playoff vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Barons ReDesign entries (due Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Speaking of Barons......

Michael S.

Will J.

And now normal daily concepts galore!

Boston Bruins Alternate Jersey Concept - Josiah B.

Newcomer Josiah shows off his Boston alternate. Pretty much the current alternate with the logo swapped out for bear claw marks and a number scratched into the back. The striping is pretty good and clean, normally not something we see out of first timers. The scratch and the number is a bit crude. I'm sure there's a font that has a scratchy look to it that could have been used to look more professional. As for the scratch logo, I wanna see more than three yellow lines. Add some depth, as if there's something behind the marks, a bear or a claw perhaps. A logo on the shoulders and TV numbers would help fill out this otherwise "bare" jersey. Also, NHL rules require names on the back of jerseys so that would have to be done as well.

Rating: 4/10


Montreal Canadiens Alternate Jersey Concept - Josiah B.

Josiah designs an alternate based around the home jersey but void of any logos. The chest stripe now has a wordmark placed inside with a number above. Personally I don't care for numbers on the front of a jersey, wordmarks aren't my favorite either, but when placed inside of a chest stripe I don't think they look half bad. I think the wordmark here is too long though and the ends would be hard to see when the jersey is being worn, and red letters are hard to see against the blue background, a white outline would help. The most interesting part of the jersey here is the back number. I think the only way to get that effect would be sublimation. That number style would be really hard to read on a moving hockey player. Its odd how the white outline of the stripe is missing. The name seems too small while both the name and number look slightly off center.

While the execution could use some work, Josiah definitely has an eye for out of the ordinary designs, which is not a bad thing. Keep it up Josiah!

Rating: 4.5/10

Anaheim Ducks Concept - Alex J.

Alex gives us a concept that seems like the most simple fix for the Ducks set, and also what they may be doing for next season. The current alt takes place of the home and a white version is the new away. An orange version of the current jerseys with the classic Mighty Ducks logo takes over as the new alternate jersey. Nothing we haven't seen before but it's always nice to see it all together and done nicely.

Rating: 6.5/10


Quebec Nordiques Alternate Jersey Concept - TG

TG's Nordiques alternate has striping that appears to be inspired by the logo. The look overall is very pointy and ferocious, matching the logo. The sublimated fleur de lis is a neat touch but it might be a bit much to be used throughout the whole torso.

Rating: 7/10

St. Petersburg Anchors (NHL European Series) - S2dio

You know, some sort of NHL affiliated league in Europe doesn't sound too far fetched. A division or conference playing in the North American NHL does though... at least to me. The main logo here gives off a very old timey look and the striping here adds to that, especially with the color scheme. An all gold jersey I'd be very sketchy about. I think it looks better laid out like this than actually worn, but who knows, someone's gotta try it. I really like the white jersey here but I don't know about the gold numbers, I'd go red.

Rating: 7/10


Moscow Reds (NHL European Series) - S2dio

The Reds look like they would fit right in with any Original 6 team though. I think the color scheme used is pretty awesome here and the color balance between the two jerseys is great. I want to see some sort of red in the logo on the white jersey, maybe in place of the white, although, maybe you tried that and it looked too dark overall.

Rating: 8/10


Prince Albert Raiders Concept (WHL) - Scott M.

I think the Raiders new logo used here is a bit awkward. I know what its supposed to be, a P and an A, but I feel it could have been executed better. But the biggest problem with the way its used now by the team is the jerseys its used on. The current set is very modern and bleh. This set is way more toned down and I think pairs well with a complicated, more out there logo like this one. Overall, everything here looks really good, but I'm unsure about black numbers on a green jersey.

Rating: 8/10


Argentina - Stephen T.

Stephen gives us a soccer themed hockey jersey for the Argentinians. I don't think filling in the yoke and top of the sock with blue on one uniform makes it any different than the other. I think the "dark" jersey should just be filled in with blue with a different striping pattern. Vertical stripes like this would probably be way too busy for a hockey jersey anyway.

Rating: 6/10

Barcelona FC - Stephen T.

The top jersey here is recognizable, even for me and I don't even watch soccer. The bottom one not so much, but i looked it up and Barcelona's other jersey is yellow and red, not blue. I don't know the reasoning for using it here. Or its this jersey right here, but I wouldn't know. I'd honestly rather see the gradient jersey pasted onto a hockey jersey than the vertical stripes. The numbers on the back seem off center as well.

Rating: 6/10


Borrusia - Stephen T.

Hmm, familiar. I can't tell if I'm recognizing this jersey from a bumble bee or the two previous concepts. Like the Argentina jerseys, I don't think filling in the yoke and sock with yellow really makes the bottom jersey any different really. Like the Barcelona set, I couldn't find a black jersey with yellow stripes, but a black jersey with a yellow gradient from the bottom. The numbers on the back are extremely hard to read. I like the font choice but nothing is setting the font from the stripes.

Rating: 5/10

Ghana - Stephen T.

Hmm.. Again these look oddly familiar. The red and yellow is used on a jersey by Ghana but with a diagonal line cutting the top of the stripes off, that would have looked neat here and helped set it apart from the other 3 Stephen concepts today. The candy cane jersey isn't even a thing they use. Back numbers look off center as well.

Rating: 5/10

If Stephen wanted to try and pull of A vertical striped jersey with ONE team then maybe it could work. But 4 different teams wearing the same jersey with different colors plugged in is not creative. If any of these teams played each other it'd be a trainwreck. Especially the teams using yellow. Other sports uniforms tend to be way more boring and plain compared to hockey jerseys. The fun part about people making hockey jerseys for teams in other sports is coming up with something new and not mimicking a jersey straight up. Take something unique from a jersey, or something that sets theirs apart and apply it to a hockey jersey. Get creative. Especially don' t make every jersey the same thing, just colored differently.

Ok, I don't wanna seem like this is me trying to be mean and uncalled for, but this is something that's been happening for weeks now and it's been pointed out here before and nothing's really changed... Stephen has everyone beat in quantity, I wouldn't be surprised if he's got the most concepts under his belt and is ahead of the second place guy by double digits. And for awhile, he was churning out some good looking stuff comparable to some of the best on the site, but lately he's sacrificing quality and creativity to get more in quicker. As seen here, 4 concepts on ONE post, that's pretty incredible, but they're all almost the same jersey. And a lot of times there seems to be a few execution errors, somethings small like a stripe out of place or the numbers off center, or something huge like the back of a jersey looking completely different than the front. This isn't necessarily a rant against just Stephen. There's a lot of concepts on a weekly basis that come in and seem uninspired, or that a concept was just made to be made.

Again, this is meant as constructive criticism. I don't want what I said to be taken the wrong way, but I'm also not the only one who thinks it.

Anyway, that's it for today's post. Hate for it to end on such a sour note... so here... TSN did a thing with Luongo and its fantastic because he's a treasure.

Check it out!!!!