Thursday: Teal & Blue

The way things are going so far these playoffs seem to be one to remember. Outside of things like the Islanders' first series win since the early 90s, there's been a few interesting things outside of the hockey itself this year. So, why not share my favorites, er, the only two I know of.

I use twitter quite often, so naturally that's where these both come from. While a lot of people just begin to watch hockey at some point in their lives, one guy took advantage of it and gained a large following on twitter by 'live tweeting' the first game he watched, and pretty humorously too, I believe it was St. Louis and Chicago Game 7. This is my personal favorite from that night.

He's actually gained enough attention that the Blues are hooking him up with tickets to one game and a jersey. Nice move by the Blues to welcome in their new fan.

Now this one may be getting a bit more coverage than the last, being covered on SportsCenter, TSN, The Score, and possibly even more that I don't know about.

Long story short, he's keeping his promise and doing it. If you'd like to read more, there's a recap of it that you can check out right here, so that way I don't keep talking about a Gary Bettman tattoo on a hockey jersey blog.

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So unlike yesterday,  now we actually know the teams in round two, which means you can choose the San Jose and Nashville now! Now to Ryan, for the playoff pool update:

*** EDIT BY RYAN ***

The 2nd Round of the Playoff will begin on Wednesday...before the 1st Round is complete! This will affect the Playoff Pool and submitting picks. I have determined the fairest way to deal with this is to give everyone two days of Round 2 for free.

You get to watch the Islanders-Lightning game before you submit your picks. You will also get to watch all Thursday games if you wish, before submitting your picks.

Round 2 picks will be due by FRIDAY at noon Eastern time.

Just a heads up.

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Along with that, things have calmed down a tad, with the COTW vote to go to, essentially a 1v1 this week when it comes to the concept artists, and also the RHI competition to vote for. This post won't go anywhere, so it's okay if you go vote

COTW April 17-23 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

RHI Top 3 vote (ends Friday @ 10:30pm Eastern) 

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So last week I tried out that new review style, and Steven used it last Friday, and as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I'm going to give it another go (but with a darker green this time). Just let me know if it's good to go still!

Alan S. - San Jose Sharks

-Like Phil mentioned yesterday, the template is fairly rough, mainly around the edges, but it's a good adaptation of those Adidas jersey reveals regardless, so I'd just fix that if you can.

+Love the removal of orange from the jerseys. I personally think it's an unneeded complication of the color scheme.

+Good choice keeping it simple too, their original edge jerseys were a mess.

-I think the home jersey could use a hem stripe though.

-The hem stripes would look better matching the arm stripes, but...

+I'd say that falls into this point, that this concept is an accurate representation of what I'd imagine them doing, even the three stripes on the side :( .

-Not a big fan of the logo used, looks too dated.

Overall: 8.5/10

Jared L. - New York Islanders

-ADD ID, I'm not sure if these concepts were just sent in all at once or something, but the reminder won't hurt. Even just typing out your name is fine, no need for a logo or any sort of branding like that.

+Not a bad design overall

+The execution has improved a bit, not being very blurry and not being completely obvious that you drew with a brush.

-However..you still did draw in the stripes with a brush...not a great way to go about it unless you're really accurate with it.

-In reality it's really not much different from what they use now, so it's not very creative at all.

-From the changed you've made, I'd say they're both downgrades. The blue they use now is more vibrant and saturated, which looks better on the ice in my opinion, and the thinner white stripe on the blue jersey isn't as bold or strong as the thick white one.

Overall: 3/10 (this rating mainly comes from the creativity)

Jared L. - New York Rangers

+You have ID on this one.
-As mentioned before, I'd imagine Eric Staal wouldn't be alive in 3237, nor would we, but I suppose that's small potatoes for the concept itself.

+The font is a stereotypically futuristic font, so that fits in a way.

+I see callbacks to the current Rangers design, with some new features. Fair enough for design innovation.

-The stripes on the inside are way too small though.

-It's really hard to tell what hockey jerseys would look like in the future, but this seems too current to be futuristic.

-The photo is very blurry again, and I can barely see the small stripes.
-The fight strap stitching area on the back of the blue jersey should be colored in blue.

Overall: 4/10

Lucas D - Stadium Series

+Solid, simple designs for both teams.

+I like the use of black on the Senators concept, and the red is balanced with it really well.

-Not a huge fan of the font there though.

+Good job getting the number on the Habs jersey to stand out.

+I like the logo choice for the Sens too.

-While this is a concept, and to each their own for concepts since it's our own ideas, the Stadium Series still seems as a more modern thinking game, these designs are to classic for that. Most likely more realistic for the Canadiens though, since they've had essentially the same design for a large chunk of their existence, so this is really something new.

Overall: 8.5/10 and my COTW nomination

Ryan C. - Burlington Cougars

+The Cougars are a Junior A team who (I'm assuming from what I saw) currently use Canucks copies. The fact that this is a new design is already an improvement.

+A simple 2 stripe design like this (or technically 3) often makes a solid design, this is no exception.

+I like the choice of green as the primary dark jersey color, differentiates them from the Nucks.
-The font isn't bad but it looks a bit off too, though I'm not exactly sure what it is about it.

Overall: 8.5/10

Ryan C. - San Jose Sharks

+No matter what, you gotta give Ryan a lot of credit for trying out new things as often as he does.

+I like the initial idea here, the white is almost reminiscent of a tooth, at least in this 2D view of it.

-I think the hem stripe looks a bit out of place, I think filling below it with black would fix that.
-The sock design is a tad odd, it may look better with just 2 straight stripes. I think this still could work though.

~The font is just fine, but I think a less "traditional" one may fit better.

Overall: 8/10

Spencer M. - Team Mexico

+Mexico isn't exactly a hockey superpower, so it's nice to see a concept for them.

+Interesting idea here, it could look great with some grooming.

-The logo would look better as a solid one color M.

-The name and number on the red jersey should be white to give them more contrast, it's a bit hard to see like this.

-White gloves are usually, if not always, something to stay away from.

-I'd stay away from phantom yokes as well.

-The jersey is very plain, it could use, at minimum, some arm striping, and I'd wrap the chest stripe around too.

Overall: 5/10

Spencer M. - Team USA

+A very red, white, and blue set for the US.

+The multitude of stripes is a good feature to call back to the flag, despite the number of said stripes, and the rest of design is simplistic enough to make up for the stripes' business.

-The rest of the design is really just a paint bucket fill job though.

-The name and number should be white on the blue jersey, for better contrast, along with the arm stripes.

-This point also goes for the last concept, there's really no need for two different sets of gloves, especially not if they're the same color like on this concept. The blue jersey's glove design is very odd and most likely wouldn't look too good.

Overall: 5.5/10

Steven M. - Michigan Wolverines

+Solid, simple, and realistic look.

+I like the exclusion of white on the blue jersey, and the colors are balanced great on the white jersey.

-The yellow number outline bleeds into the white a bit though.

-The thin blue stripe on the blue jersey is much too thin.

-Not a fan of the adidas stripes on the sides, but unfortunately that may be realistic.

Overall: 8.5/10

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