kiwi_canadian

This Canucks-Flames game is a very good looking game. The last time these two teams looked like this was the 1994 playoffs with Bure beating Mike Vernon to send the Canucks into the second round... Dare I say, I would be okay if the Canucks brought the flying skate back full time, if not full time, then as the alternate.

This!! Jacobs has WAY too much pull in the NHL I think. He's the main reason the NHL did not allow the Houston Aeros into the NHL when they "expanded" and absorbs the Oilers, Nordiques, Whalers and Jets. I also believe that Jacobs is the real commissioner in the NHL and Bettman is the puppet and does what ever the Jacobs ownership group says.

China is finally out:

I have a question, why is the positioning of the Nike logo different on the Olympic jerseys than on the World Championship jerseys? On the Olympic jersey, the Nike logo is below the shoulder stitching while on the World Champ jersey, it is above the shoulder stitching. Here's an example:

Exter Chiefs have revealed their rebrand as they are one of the many teams that are ditching North American Indigenous imagery for their branding. Old logo: New logo: The new logo includes imagery of the Dumnonii Tribe who occupied parts of England from the Iron Age to the Saxxon period.

Not sure when this happened but I just noticed this for the Victoria Royals. Their black and white alternate jerseys used to have the shoulder outline on their jerseys but now they have disappeared. They actually look a lot better now that they have been removed. Old: New:

Western Force have revealed their kits for the upcoming season. Done by Oneills. As for the Colorado/Glendale Raptors leaving the league, I guess it was a disagreement with league brass and I understand the reasoning behind them leaving... however in a country that rugby is not a popular sport and in a league that is in its infancy, they will need to bring in that aging, foreign superstars to attract people to the seats and get people hooked. It will take time but the eventual growth of homegrown talent will happen and it will take strategies like getting aging superstars. To me, this is a short sighted view to leave the league over something like this. They are taking a page out of the MLS and how they are developing. In my eyes, the league didn't really take off until they brought in Beckham and now they are doing pretty well for themselves.

Yeah I thought that as well with the orange with SD. I prefer them in red. I'm not sure if they were kicked out or if they chose to fold but that was a strange one considering where they played, Glendale, is known as Rugby City USA. Not sure if it was due to financial reasons or not getting along with the league as their reasons.

And they are out!!! MLR has a league wide deal with Paladin Sports to provide their kits and they are continuing with that this upcoming season. Overall I like the new kits for everyone. A little disappointed Seattle didn't keep the green secondary kit. DC kept their same kit from last year and Dallas didn't change their kit as COVID prevented them from starting last year. I do have a soft spot for New England as the design is similar to my old Claremont Spartans jersey from back in the day when I played high school rugby.

First big change out of MLR, Rugby United New York is now just Rugby New York:

MLR league wide kit reveal will be tomorrow. Toronto Arrows looks like they will be modifying their hooped jersey for the upcoming season.

It will be interesting to see what Bettman does here. He tends to drop not so subtle hints on cities that need new arenas and always pushes local governments to cover the cost of them. Then if the local governments put up a fight he threatens relocation. With the whole Phoenix situation, I wonder if he will put up a massive fight to keep the Flames in Calgary if it comes down to it? If I read the article on TSN correctly, the reason it got terminated is because neither side signed off on something to do with construction by a certain date which automatically caused the termination. I don't think the Flames owners are going to move the team. It is probably one of the most stable ownerships and markets in the league. I know a few years ago when Brian Burke was their president, he threw out the line about there being a nice new arena in Quebec City that they could move to if a new arena deal didn't get done. In the end, they will pull the same strategy that Katz did and they'll get their new arena. I know when Nansheed was mayor in Calgary, he was very much opposed to the new arena but signed off on it in the end. I think that the new Calgary council will do the same thing in the end. Calgary is Alberta's largest city and with the amount of oil and gas companies there, they won't let the team move. Too much profit there.

So there are tons of new Nike jerseys now... Austria: Belarus: Czechia: Denmark: Finland: Germany: Great Britain: Italy: Japan: Kazakhstan: Latvia: Norway: Russia: Slovakia: Sweden: Switzerland: USA: Canada has kept their current (non Olympic) jerseys, just swapped in the new collar. Some of these are really nice. Big fan of the British, Italians, Norway, Denmark, and Hungary's white jerseys.

With the most recent roster update on NHL22, EA Sports has added 3 more international teams. Hungary, South Korea and Slovenia have been added to the game. Hungary is the only one without the updated jerseys. They are using their Nike ones from when they were last in the top division... On another side note, just looked at the IIHF website and Hungary is using the new Nike template.

Olympic Athletes from Russia has released their jerseys. How long do they have to compete as the ROA?... And I thought this was going to be throughout various sports and they weren't allowed to compete as Russia.

I think for two reasons. 1. Starting in 2010, countries were no longer allowed to use federation logos on the front of their jerseys when participating in the Olympics. 2. I think that the Olympics are when Nike shows off their new templates for their next cycle of jerseys for the top divisions in the World Champs (mens, womens and mens U20). We saw this with the last batch of Nike jerseys that were debuted at the 2018 Olympics and pretty much every team in the World Champs went with that template that year up until now.

I recall one reason why the USA only had white helmets was because they were having issues with the helmet manufacturers matching the right colour of blue with their jerseys. It was either too dark or too light. They could never get it right. I'd love the US to keep this set full time. It would be a nice look and brighter on the ice compared to the dark navy.

Here is what the Japanese women will be wearing:

An interesting read from a few years ago about the IIHF's uniform agreement with Tackla. Who knew that certain sizes came with certain numbers. Anyways, here's the link for it. IIHF Uniform Program Guidelines

Moana Pasifika have revealed a third kit for their upcoming season. It's a heritage kit that's supposed to represent the nations of Tonga (red) and Samoa (blue) where the majority of the team will draw its roster from.

Saw this on a IIHF Jersey and Memorabilia group on Facebook. It's a Team Canada jersey with all the IIHF tags and what not and done by Nike. Anyone know the backstory of this?

Is Portland, Oregon on the map at all? I know that when Lemieux was threatening to move the Penguins if he didn't get a new arena deal, Portland was one of his relocation ideas. It would set up a Cascadia Cup for hockey with the Canucks, Kraken and Portland Buckaroos (maybe?)

A second NHL team in Toronto? Haven't they already been there? Lets not forget the Toronto Legacy!!! They were going to go with what was said earlier about selling tickets cheaper than the Leafs.

Another European Championship kit, this time from Toulouse.

The IIHF video for the Slovak jerseys: