Front Numbers Of the Apocalypse

Sure, I'm a bit late to the party, but I wanted to see how they panned out first. The NHL is apparently going to try out having numbers on the front of the helmets for this upcoming season. The news first broke when the equipment manager of the Minnesota Wild put a picture up on Twitter of Dany Healthy's helmet with the front numbers on them.

During preseason games, you could see team like the Wild and Nashville Predators try out this new invention, which the NHL is claiming to use to help the people at home watching with who has the puck and broadcasters, as well. Not that that big number on back and "TV" numbers on the sleeves were enough for some people.

My point is that these look so far out of place, it's laughable. As much as I hate the front number to the jerseys because it's out of place; I'd much rather have those than the numbers on the front of the helmet. Hell-- I'd rather have unnecessary piping on the helmets than to have these front numbers.

There's a lot of other hypothesis about why these numbers are there-- that it's the start of helmet branding is one of the funnier ones, but someone suggested that it's to maybe get the players from focusing on the head, as if it were a guy with his back turned. If you see the numbers, don't hit them is the rule you learn in pee-wee hockey, but still we have those issues today. If that's the reason, the NHL should come out and say that rather than to actually have the audacity to say that it's due to making it easier to watch.

People have eyes and will probably be able to tell the numbers from the back rather than in the front. Plus, you'd be able to tell skating styles and all that other junk, but at the same time-- if this is for safety measures; it probably is going to get as ragged on as it has been. Odds are people would accept it more and maybe even applaud the decision to do something like that. Yet-- here we are....front numbers; hopefully the helmet companies will take my piping line as a joke.....god, I hope.

The CHL Edge is Here

Today, the entire CHL rolled out their Edge jersey designs. I'll go league by league and you can take a look for yourself at the links attached, which will pop up so you could follow along.

WESTERN LEAGUE: While you have some teams that went through the templated designed (like the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice), the fact remains that some teams actually stuck to their old jerseys, with maybe some piping here and there. The Everett Silvertips kept their forest design at the bottom, while the Prince Albert Raiders, Red Deer Rebels, Spokane Chiefs, Medicine Hat Tigers, and others kept their trademark look. The Kelowna Rockets stylized their look a bit, but kept rocking the Ogopogo with fantasticness.

The big leap could be the Calgary Hitmen, who will use just a black mask for their white jerseys and, while they keep sort of a template design, they have the team colors on part of the sleeve on each of their jerseys. It looks pretty fancy and pulls off well.

Best Look: Kelowna Rockets-- I have a soft spot for the red, teal, black, and copper look. And they didn't stray away from much of the original design.

Worst Look: Brandon Wheat Kings-- something about their jerseys are much too plain and look like a practice jersey. They could have done much more.

ONTARIO LEAGUE: In this instance, there's some spot of template designs, but it seems that some teams are willing to take some risks. Some took a little much, like Mississauga and the piping and name at the hem; and some took just right like the barbershop design on Ottawa's sleeves. The Brampton Battalion were able to keep their insignias on their sleeves, as well.

London and Kingston both went to retro designs from the 70s, I believe-- though I think Kingston's looks classier than London's, but that's because I hate the Stars design.

Best Look: Ottawa 67's-- something about the barberpole speaks to me, and I enjoy that they were able to do it so classily....though that's not a word.

Worst Look: Mississauga St. Michael's Majors-- The big "M" on it, along with the team name on the hem on the homes and city name on the aways; not to mention the piping-- it's just a jumbled mess.

QUEBEC LEAGUE: The Q could be the template capital of the world. There's too many jerseys that look the same, just paint-by-numbers attached-- it's horrific. Some teams like Rouyn-Noranda Huskies' gradients, the Gatineau Olympiques' bright orange jerseys, or Chicoutimi Saqueneens' shoulder-poles think outside the box to a point. Overall, there's nothing that's breaking too much away from the pack.

Again, some teams stuck to their guns with their old designs like Montreal Juniors and Quebec Remparts; but it just seems like a complete dulls-ville for the Quebec League.

Best Look: Cape Breton Screaming Eagles-- they don't have a template gig, plus they are going with classic colors of black and yellow in sort of a Bruins motif, but lighter on the yellow. Classy look for them.

Worst Look: Montreal Juniors-- with the college number system and too plain design, all they needed was unnecessary piping for me to hate them to death.

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So that's that-- the unveiling was nice, not too many leaks out there on the open market and in general, aside from the QMJHL, I'm pleased with what many teams were able to do with the perimeters. They were able to make or keep their old identity without blending in with other teams out there in the league.

Thoughts, ideas?? Leave them in the comments.

Going Retro: In Design and Progress

It was brought about by Howard Berger of the Fan 590, but I read it from my good buddy (so I say to get better street cred) Greg Wyshynski from Yahoo, but some leaks have come out concerning the new third jerseys in the NHL this season. As you can see from the post, the lay out has happened for those teams.

First off, touching on the retro designs-- for me, it's a toss up. There are some that are really, really nice to hang onto and bust out on occasions, then there are some really bad one that become cool out of spite, with another section being very dull and uninspiring....like the Leafs one is; because be honest, there isn't much of a change between that and their current unis.

However, the retros better not too out of control. It seems that the MLB has been having a constant retro night for most of the teams. In fact, the Blue Jays have instilled a retro Friday, where every Friday home game, the Jays wear their powder blue uniforms. That's a little much for me, though some of the old MLB uniform are so delightfully horrible, they're classic.

Point is, the retro duds really should be used for special ocassions, while a new third jersey should be produced to make some kind of fresh look to it. It's not hard to make a "modern-retro" jersey-- just ask the Penguins and the Capitals. Both teams took an old design and updated it to make it a little more sleeker and with the times, as it were. All being said, I'd take the original Sabres logo over the Buffa-slug and Goathead anyday of the week.

Aside from the black alternate jersey trend that's happening again, it seems that teams are getting a tad lazy. With the Senators and Thrashers just using a wordmark as their alternate, it almost seems that the creativity has gone down the crapper. Especially considering both teams could have come up with uniform gold ("Gold, Jerry!! Gold!!"). Granted, the thought is that the new RBK Edge fabric really limits the ability to have anything elaborate on the uniforms themselves.

When all is said and done, at this point-- it's a wait and see. Much like the Edge uniform, all of these designs are speculation and may be able to change at a moments notice. Fun times in hockeyland when the uniforms are the hot-button issue.