Wednesday: One More Week

Here it comes! From the Bob Barker Studio at CBS in Hollywood! It's the Price is Right!

Just kidding, it's the NHL SEASON!! ONE WEEK! GET HYPED!

With that I don't have any major news about anything hockey design-related, however, I do have HJC news.

HURRICANES REDESIGN! After the Sens Comp voting is over get your warning flags ready, because we will take on the Carolina Hurricanes. NHL redesigns are always a fun time, and a popular competition for that matter. Get ready.

SPEAKING OF SENS COMP! VOTE! We had a decent amount of entrants and it's up to you to declare a winner!


PRESEASON PICKS!

Metropolitan Division:

1) Washington
2) Pittsburgh
3) NY Islanders
4) New Jersey
5) NY Rangers
6) Philadelphia
7) Columbus
8) Carolina

NOTES: Washington has of late been a regular season team, so they'll finish ahead of a mostly unchanged Pittsburgh team. Devils acquiring Hall solves a major problem of a lack of goal support for Schneider who has proven he can carry the Devils when needed. Islanders made lateral moves, with the exception of Seidenberg replacing Strait. Rangers are on a downward trend, and if things are even the slightest bit worst than I predict, Lundqvist is a goner. Canes need to rebuild properly. Flyers need to shake off dead weight contracts like Streit. Blue Jackets need Bobrovsky to return to his top form and then some to have a chance.

Atlantic Division:

1) Florida
2) Tampa Bay
3) Montreal
4) Boston
5) Detroit
6) Buffalo
7) Toronto
8) Ottawa

NOTES: The Panthers young guns still have a lot of room to become superstars in this league and I expect that to happen. The Lightning resigning Stamkos obviously helps. Montreal will benefit from Weber on the power play. Detroit will miss the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. Boston did not change much, Ehrhoff isn't good enough to improve the team. Buffalo is on the way up with the Okposo acquisition and Eichel's second year. Toronto will benefit from Matthews, but not by much. Ottawa is a mess.

Central Division:

1) Dallas
2) Nashville
3) St. Louis
4) Chicago
5) Minnesota
6) Winnipeg
7) Colorado

NOTES: Strongest division in hockey, both wild cards will be from here and this will be a dogfight. Dallas is scary good. Nashville acquiring PK Subban should help. Tough to pick this division in order, since 1-5 are interchangeable. Minnesota improves by dumping Vanek to Detroit. 6-7 are interchangeable too, but if the Avs want to make an impact, MacKinnon has to step up.

Pacific Division:

1) Anaheim
2) San Jose
3) Los Angeles
4) Calgary
5) Arizona
6) Edmonton
7) Vancouver

Vancouver needs to rebuild. Edmonton needs defense, and spending that amount of money on Lucic is the definition of insanity. Arizona needs goaltending. Calgary's goaltending improved with the acquisition of Elliot. Anaheim is the same as Washington in regards to their performances over the past few years. Dominate the regular season and choke in the playoffs. Hopefully the firing of Boudreau will fix the latter part without throwing away the former. LA and San Jose will be a dogfight, but San Jose beating LA in the playoffs is definitely a major hurdle cleared.


REMINDERS:

COTW Sept 23-29 vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)

Senators Top 5 vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)

ON TO THE CONCEPTS!

Andrew W: Slovakia (IIHF) Concept

This would've been a nice thing to see if Slovakia was it's own team in the World Cup. Gripes about Adidas stripes aside, it's a clean and classic look but I have two issues. 1) The arms, while matching in their entirety, look like a paint-bucket fill. It works to an extent though because of the matching hem stripes. 2) The striping on the blue jersey. Now I know Slovakia has that pattern of striping on their flag, but they have the crest over the striping to differentiate itself from another country with that same flag pattern: Russia. Too much of a conflict for me. Otherwise a clean and simple look.

Rating: 78%


Lucas D: Arizona Coyotes Concept

Here Lucas simplifies the complex striping the Coyotes currently use and switches things around a lot, relegating black to a trim color, with more emphasis on the tan and maroon. But the complaint I have here is the same I have about the current Montreal Canadiens away jersey, as I mentioned in the previous podcast you can find here. The arms are slightly more busy than the Canadiens away jersey, but it's too low for my tastes. Decent look, but not good enough.

Rating: 80%


Lucas D: Buffalo Sabres Concept

Clean and classic, numbers on the shoulders because of the striping, so it bypasses my hatred for shoulder numbers because of how wide the yoke is on that template. Speaking of striping, carelessness reigns supreme on the blue jersey and ruins an otherwise great concept. And as someone who has shown carelessness of late (so much so that I have a new presentation template to build my concepts on), I know how it can ruin concepts. I do like the silver trim as it adds a modern take, like the current jerseys. I'm happy that there isn't any of that dumb silver piping on the front too. I just wish you kept the silver in the logo too.

Rating: 65%


Lucas D: Nashville Predators Concept

Cleaner than the original Predators uniforms, yet still dynamic. Yellow is dominant. Awesome present-day guitar string number fonts. The dynamic arm striping is matched on the bottom. I just wish it were slightly thicker in order to provide more breathing room for the name on the back. Otherwise there are no complaints whatsoever, and this is a stroke of genius.

Rating: 97%


Taylor R: Kelowna Rockets (WHL) Concept

That roundel logo looks beautiful with chest stripes. Based on the Bay Area Stadium Series game, we have a top half and a bottom half with different colors. However I have one major issue here. Conceptually it's beautiful, but how practical can this be? There are several teams in the WHL that have a black or navy jersey as their away sets, such as Seattle, Brandon, Saskatoon and Victoria. With black and white as the primary colors, both equally present, it'll present a major problem on the ice. Maybe throw the crossed rockets logo on the shoulders like the throwback set we saw last year?

Rating: 84%


The winner of my Concept of the Week Nomination is:

 LUCAS D. 

 NASHVILLE PREDATORS CONCEPT 

7 DAYS UNTIL HOCKEY! 8 DAYS UNTIL ISLANDERS-RANGERS! GET HYPED AND I'LL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!!

Problem with my picks? Fight me IRL. Or if that's not logistically possible, fight me in the comments section.