Tuesday: Last Day of March.

April first tomorrow...you know what that means, right? Everyone will be pregnant. Get it? I tried to make a funny. Regardless if you laughed or not the end of the NHL season is near. Regardless if your team is in the playoffs, out, or still fighting, I love this time of year. Even when my beloved Sabres are out I love watching playoff hockey. The whole intensity of the game goes up a notch and you can sense it from both the players and fans.

At the start of the year my prediction for the Cup Finals was Tampa Bay and Colorado. To be clear, that was my wish. I love both of those organizations. I love the players on the teams and how they are built. Unfortunately for Colorado, they play in the Western Conference. Granted I don't think they are as good of a team as they were last year, especially with injuries, but if you placed them in the Eastern Conference a long with other Western Conference teams, that might be a different story.

Anyways, I have to predict a new Final two teams going into the playoffs. I still like Tampa Bay but I'm not sure if they can make the run yet. They are still young in areas and I think there are other Eastern Conference teams more prepared and ready. And this year I think Pittsburgh will finally break through. Year after year I believed they were favorites and I picked them to go to the Finals but this year I haven't had that feeling. I kind of have that feeling that they are 'underdogs'. I just think this is the year where get back to the Cup. As for the Western Conference it's a tough call. Always is. The teams are all so good. The 8th seed isn't as far away in depth as the top seeds usually. I'm a huge fan of the Blackhawks and if Kane does make a nice early return I would have them making it to at least the Conference Final again. I don't think Nashville is quite ready... Anaheim? I don't know it's such a close call. I'll probably end up going with Chicago and Pittsburgh again for the second straight year. Eventually, right? I think that would be an awesome series.

Who do you got right now? I know opinions might change when seedings are final but who are your early birds right now? Who did you have in the beginning of the season? Are you still sticking by your guns?

My one team that completely didn't do as I expected was the Islanders. Kudos to them and GM Snow for proving a lot of hockey fans wrong. I was expecting them to be near the bottom again but there were times in the season where they played like a legitimate #1 team. Let's see how far they can go.

COTW Mar 22-28 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Our only voting reminder this week is for COTW. So you won't have to spend hours deciding on who to vote for. Maybe just a half hour or so. Make it count.

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CONCEPTS!

Colorado Avalanche Concept - Christian L.

This one right away is a tough one for me to review. There are concepts where at first glance you love them or you know you don't like them. And then there are concepts like this where it's just so 'meh'. And that's not an insult to Christian at all, he makes great concepts unfortunately not everyone can be a winner. It's not even that this is bad or anything. Execution is great and I love the main jersey color used. The thing that throws me off is the striping. Not so much how he uses it but the colors that are used for it. I think the burgundy with the white outlines has a Christmas sweater/ugly sweater look to it. The zigzags are nice but with the way the stripes are made it kind of has that 90's crazy TV transition to it. My immediate reaction fix to this would be to have the zigzag burgundy at the bottom but right above that have a bold white zigzag outline. Almost like the stadium series jersey from this year but...stylized to how you have the striping. That's my quick fix on this. Not my taste, but it could be someone else's! 

Rating: 7.7/10

 Arkham Harlequins concept - KrakenIndustries

 This concept is one that could potentially become a reality. Ever hear of GeekyJerseys? Well if you haven't you should check out their site. Awesome hockey jerseys made for us geeks! One day I will invest in one but the money isn't their yet. Maybe this Christmas I hope. Anyway, this one takes a Dark Knight turn with the Harlequins. The logo looks really menacing. And all the secondary logos fit well. The jersey design fits along great too.

Geeky Jerseys take peoples concepts into consideration and based off the response that's how they choose to produce them. Obviously they don't want to waste the time making a product if no one buys it. So they make sure that a concept has lovers from the start. If this is something that interests you, go support this cause by going to this Facebook link and liking it, sharing it and commenting on it about how much you love it.

https://www.facebook.com/KrakenIndustries/photos/o.223765340985449/444931788995442/?type=1

Good luck! Hope to see this as a reality someday!

Rating: 8/10

Gay Rights Jersey Concept - Mario A.

 This jersey is for a nice cause. Cool to see Mario making jerseys outside of actual hockey teams. Honestly if you told me that Gay Rights was getting a hockey team together this is the exact jersey I would assume they would wear. So you hit the mark with this as to what it would realistically be. However, as a concept and submitting it to this site to get it reviewed I would take that time to complete the look. Name, number, and TV numbers to give it a full finished product. People have disagreed with me in the passed but the font for name and numbers use are huge in the design aspect of a jersey and can make or break the design. So I would just like to see the numbers used to give the idea of what it would look like if I was looking at the real thing being laid out.

Rating: 8.5/10 On making a concept that would be perfect for the cause. 7/10 for having it incomplete. 

Nintendo vs. Sega Concept - Mario A. 

The great old debate of gaming. Mario takes the stab at them dueling it out hockey style.  My first reaction is..Mario! Nice job with the fonts on this one. The Sega name font could be cleaned up but the fonts used do a nice job of mimicking the old picture of the two companies. The Nintendo jersey does a nice job of being the classic look. One execution note is the arm stripes..looks like the bottom stripe is a little thicker than the other ones. Nice looking jersey. Downfall with the Sega one is that it looks too modern for the logo. The font and logo used makes me think really retro. However the look you have would fit more of an All-Star team look. I would go more a long the lines with the digital feeling you have with the rest of the jersey. 

Rating: 7.5/10

 Hamilton Bulldogs Concept - Ryan C.

 This is a stunning look. As I was talking about earlier about first glances. This one right off the bat is just one of those classic jerseys that is just beautiful to look at. Everything looks extremely well with this. The font, the striping, the colors, everything. The negatives would be the logo being too big and the TV numbers. However, the Pittsburgh Penguins jersey I won also has a huge logo on it and it seems as though it's realistic. However this logo is almost touching the striping so I would reduce the size for this presentation. Great job.

Rating: 9.4/10

Washington Capitals Concept - Tristan P.

Second week in a row we get a concept that takes classic and modern and fuses them together to make an awesome looking jersey. First thing first, great job with the logo on fusing the Weagle with their old logo. I never was a huge fan of that old logo but you did a nice job. I think the Weagle would be a better choice with the way your stars are shaped, but that could be justified. The arm striping with the stars looks sexy and the classic hem striping to me balances out the jerseys so they don't look too insane. A good insane, obviously. To me, this is a very cool design. Whether I'd want it to see the light of day in the NHL, I'm on the fence. It does look really cool though. 

Rating: 8.9/10

Another day another COTW nomination. To me today it's an almost easy decision with 

Ryan's Hamilton Concept.

Have a great Tuesday night! Will you partake in April Fools day? I'm all for new and original pranks that are harmless and funny but I cannot stand the social media status'. The cliche "I'm pregnant" and "My life is an April Fools joke" Hardy Hardy Ha. Peace guys! I'll write another post next week Tuesday and you can come back and love my post then!