Thursday: Playoff Jerseys Pt.2 - The Reflection

It's Thursday, Thursday, gotta get dow- huh?...that's not how it goes...?...whoops.

Hello everyone, welcome back for another Thursday post! As I told you last week, I was going to revisit my predictions for the teams' playoff jerseys, so let's get to it.

Washington: The Capitals went with their regular home jerseys, which was quite a surprise to me. Swing and a miss on this one.

St. Louis/Anaheim: I was leaning in the right direction for both of these picks, however I still placed them in the middle on my predictions, so I don't think it would be fair for me to rate these as either for or against me. 

Pittsburgh Penguins: As predicted, the Penguins opted to go with their alternate jerseys. I believe they've also been using Pittsburgh gold colored decals on the road helmets at least in practice, as you can see in the tweet below. Interesting.

When you remember that the Stanley Cup Playoffs start tomorrow. 😄 pic.twitter.com/xSAguinpvb

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 12, 2016

Minnesota Wild: As predicted by many, the Wild also decided to use their alternate jerseys in the playoffs again. Good choice, in my opinion.

New York Rangers: Their classic home jersey predictably trumped their alternate jersey. 

Philadelphia Flyers: Just like I said before, this one here is the same case as the Rangers again.

New York Islanders: A case in which I just couldn't see the alternate being chosen over the regular homes, and I was right.

Tampa Bay Lightning: With jerseys that don't have the type of classical appeal that the previous three do, there was less of a reason to go with the regular homes. However I still couldn't see the alt beating out the regulars, and another correct prediction.

Boston Bruins: Well...

Overall: 6/7 for the ones I decided I could rate for this reflection. Not too shabby.

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So we've got a few different things going on this week, starting with the never-changing COTW vote. The first quarter vote is also going on, man it's hard to believe it's already been that long since the year started. We also have the RHI competition.

1st Quarter vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

COTW Apr 10-16 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

RHI entries (due Friday @ 10:59pm Eastern)

Speaking of which...

Zeke G.

Sam T.

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Before we get into the concepts I want to give a quick apology for how often I switch my review style, if it bothers any of you. I also apologize if this color coding I'm doing today is distracting (I hope it's not), but I'm hoping it makes this review style easier to follow, as the bullet points are not arranged by positives and negatives, but they're mixed up. Just give me a heads up if this doesn't work, and I'll switch it up next week. On to the concepts now!

**Edit** Darkened the green. Sorry about that. Does it work now with the darker green or still a no go?

Alan H. - Colorado Avalanche

+Great (slight) revamp of the color scheme, the navy blue looks much better than black, especially in the logo.

-But the navy blue trim on the home jersey gets lost in the burgundy.

+I do really like that the gray is almost nonexistent on the home jersey, though.

-Which leads me to think that the roads may look better without the gray as well.

+Solid edge adaption of their original jersey style.

-But the design loses a bit of creativity because of this, since it isn't too much of a departure from what they used to wear.

-The arched name looks a bit squished in between the yoke design.

-The logos are incredibly pixelated, it doesn't turn out looking too great.

Overall: 7.5/10

Brooks F. - Texas Wildcatters

+Definitely can't say that this one isn't unique.

+Really like the way the yoke design looks on the white jersey.

-It falls short on the black one though, leaving the jersey looking a bit too plain with the stripes being pretty thin.

+The oil tower design looks solid on both of them though.

+The alternate takes on a bit more of a traditional design with modern elements, and does so well.

-The yoke design doesn't work in my opinion though, I like the idea but I just looks out of place. Maybe try filling it in black and making it a tad smaller.

Overall: 7.5/10

Jared L. - Arizona Coyotes

-ADD ID, you wouldn't want your concept stolen would you?

+I really like the yoke design, it looks surprisingly good going down so low on the collar.

-I'd keep it a solid yoke down through the arms where you have the stripes though, instead of having a stripe dividing those two areas.

+Interesting idea with the "hem stripes", though I'm not completely sure what that's supposed to be.

-The black and burgundy get lost in each other a lot on this concept, mainly with the numbers.

-Speaking of numbers, the front numbers are unnecessary and a bit much.

-Regular white and a vintage white/wheat/sand color usually don't work well together, this is no exception.

-The execution really deteriorates this concept though unfortunately. The image itself is really blurry, and the lines and stripes on the concept are inexact and to some degree look drawn in.

I believe I saw you say on the CCSLC that you use your phone for your concepts (and I'm sorry if I'm mistaken). If you can, I highly recommend getting a free computer program such as paint.net to use instead, and a computer as well if you don't have one to use. You'll see the quality improve tremendously. I tried doing concepts on my phone at first too, and I had similar problems to what you are now. I can tell you have some good and out of the box ideas, it'd be a shame to see this ruin them. 

Overall: 5/10 

Lucas D. - Columbus Blue Jackets

+For some reason I've never thought of this as a good idea for a Blue Jackets jersey, but man does it look great.

+The design balances the colors perfectly.

+Great choice with changing the shoulder yoke design, and great choice of a design for the yoke.

-Not a fan of the font, I don't think it fits well with this design.

-For a more direct throwback/fauxback, switch the red and blue. However I don't think that was the point of the concept so this is more of a general idea than it is a negative point of the concept.

Overall: 8.5/10

Taylor R. - Arizona Coyotes

+The Yotes don't have their own classic jersey to throw back to or draw inspiration from, so nice job creating one for them.

+The striping pattern reminds me a bit of the Yotes' previous jerseys, and it gives off a good vintage look, so it's a win-win there.

+The yoke looks nice and fits in well.

+A script logo was probably the best choice for a concept like this.

-That script looks a bit too modern for my liking though.

Overall: 8.5/10

Zeke G. - Arizona State Sun Devils

+The first thing I noticed about this concept is it's great consistency. The striping is exactly the same on both jerseys, down to the color. I love when jerseys do that.

+This is, in my opinion, an underused color scheme, and this jerseys gives it a good look.
-However, it suffers from the classic yellow on white syndrome, and they blend in together too much in some places.

+Pretty simple look, hard to go wrong there.

-The name looks a tad too big.

Overall: 7.5/10

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And that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you again next week!