monkeypower

The Kings are hosting a ‘90s night against the Oilers and Fox Sports is bringing back the Glow Puck for the broadcast.

The black Hitmen mask logo is on the back hem next to the CHL logo.

The Hitmen have Cowboys, Wranglers and Centennials shirts, sweaters, hats and toques for sale along with the jerseys in the Saddledome ahead of their games in the Corral. I have a picture of the jerseys, but I’m in phone so I’ll post later. I’m wondering who the Hitmen had to get rights from to sell this stuff? The Wranglers and Centennials still exist (Lethbridge and Tri-City respectively) and who owns the WHA’s Cowboys trademarks?

This doesn't really have anything to do with the branding of the Whiskey Jacks and I'd never heard of this new team until now, but I find it kind of interesting this Brandon team is in this American league instead of the WMBL (now WCBL) Canadian league with teams in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Upon googling, I found articles saying the Expedition League wanted a team in Brandon and not the other way around (also the Expedition League only started last year, which is probably why I had never heard of it). I know from being a fan of the Hitmen in the WHL that Brandon is in a odd place off by itself in the junior sports world and is subject to long bus rides, but from a cursory glance, the travel distance appears to be about the same for the most part for Brandon in either the WCBL or Expedition League.

Well, Edmonton doesn't have a Rogers sports station. Both the Oilers and Eskimos are on 630 CHED, while the Oil Kings are on TSN 1260. Down in Calgary, the Flames and Hitmen are on Sportsnet 960 while the Stampeders are on 770 CHQR, which is is Corus-O&O.

I just came across this alternate for the Jr. A Calgary Mustangs and could this possibly be the worst kerning/letter placement on a logo ever? Not just the nearly touching L and G and S and T, but both words also look unbalanced and it seems some of the letters are more slanted than others. I'm sure someone with more knowledge on this sort of stuff could comment better on it.

Canadian cell phones plans are the most expensive in the world, especially related to the amount of data offered. There is no way you're getting an unlimited data plan up here.

Not up in Canada. But as far as I know, all the Canadian NHL teams are on either Sportsnet or TSN stations who took over existing sports radio stations in most, if not all, of the markets.

I was going to say Barrie might be some of the worst jerseys in the entire CHL, which they are (up there with PA and Moose Jaw), and then I came across the Charlottetown Islanders. These are terrible, so much unnecessary piping and the white jersey carries over the Reebox from the black jersey but then still switches up the colour on the front chest swatch so it looks even stupider.

That's definitely a Flames move to accidentally draft the wrong guy, so there might be some truth to that part.

I'll start by saying I'm in favour of Anaheim being used as the geographical identifier and I think it can be after so many years of being used as one, but it is definitely a Disney creation. Last season the Ducks put a bunch of old newspaper articles on their website ahead of this year's 25th anniversary from back when the team was announced. A few of the articles talk about what this new team will be called, including one where "Anaheim" is discussed with an Angels spokesperson being asked about it. I crudely cut and pasted it together here. Another article (which I linked to them above, they're all very interesting) talks to Eisner and then a Disney spokesperson after the team was conditionally approved but before it was official. One of the conditions of the official approval being Disney needing to get a deal done with an arena in Orange County/Southern California with the now-Honda Center being built for reasons unrelated to the Disney expansion team. (I like how [Disneyland] is added in before Matterhorn. Was the writer worried readers would think you could see it from the actual Matterhorn?)

Yeah, I don't think the Angels are going to move. They had either now or 2028 to opt out of the lease and with a local election on the way, why not opt out now and try to get something from a new mayor? They also just sunk a bunch of money into the stadium this previous season for new video boards, so kind of a weird move to do a major upgrade to the stadium and then want to leave. --- I don't know where I stand on what happens if they do move. I'd much rather have them stay in Anaheim, but I don't know if I would stop being a fan of the team if they were to move. The reason I became an Angels fan was because of the Ducks so I'm a fan of two local teams, but I'm not a local fan.

As I noted earlier in the thread, the mockups for the retro jerseys the Hitmen are wearing for the Corral games this year are on the Adidas template, so maybe that's connected? Or it's just the Flames design team only having an Adidas template to work with.

I've come to the realization the Prince Albert Raiders uniforms which were unveiled in 2013 are pretty much everything that was wrong with the initial Edge roll out in 2007 that had been fixed for the most in the six years in between. No hem striping, weird arm striping, a vertical side stripe and sock striping that is afraid of the back of the legs. The CHL switched to Edge for the 2009-10 season and then switched out the Reebok patches for CCM patches a few seasons ago.

Get settled in here because I have many thoughts on this, I think the Flames really screwed the pooch with their their jersey retirements Forever a Flame program. They retired Lanny McDonald's 9 in 1990 and Mike Vernon's 30 in 2007, though in good Flames fashion the Vernon banner was in the style of the then current uniforms, ones he never wore. That has since been fixed when they updated the McDonald one and matched the Vernon one, though both those banners don't have the correct number and NOB font. Then in 2012, they introduced the Forever a Flame program because "The Flames have established a tradition that permits Flames of the future, with an opportunity to proudly wear the numbers of some of the Flames all-time greats." (direct quote from the article in 2012 including the [sic] comma) and "didn't retire" Al MacInnis' 2 that year and "didn't retire" Joe Nieuwendyk's 25 in 2014. No one has worn 2 since 2004 and 25 has been worn for a total of 109 games by Brandon Bollig, Freddie Hamilton and Nick Shore since the 2014-2015 season. So now are they going to Forever a Flame Iginla? Because either way, nobody's going to wear 12 ever again for the Flames and he should really be retired. But if you go and retire 12, why not 2 and 25? I also don't know if anybody's going to wear 34 again, though I also don't know if Forever a Flame will come soon for Kiprusoff. (Nobody has also worn 14 for the Flames since Fleury was traded, though I also don't know how soon his Forever a Flame will come either). They also had the Hitmen and Roughnecks to start the "Forever a Hitmen" (which I just now realized is grammatically incorrect with the other two "Forever a ..." because it really should be Forever a Hitman) and "Forever a Roughneck" programs. I have less of a problem with those because the Roughnecks hadn't retired any numbers before the program started and the Hitmen had only retired one, but due to the nature of junior hockey, a lot of players aren't around for many years so numbers get recycled and you can take into account their NHL careers as well. The Hitmen retired Brad Moran's 20 in 2005(?) and then Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Ladd got Forever a Hitmen banners in 2015 and 2017 respectively while Kaleb Toth and Tracey Kelusky got Forever a Roughneck banners in 2013 and 2017 respectively.

Weird that they're being shown on Adidas templates with the collars in all their glory, but the CHL still uses CCM. And all the fonts are the same and wrong for all three jerseys. I hope those are just place holders mockups.

The Calgary Hitmen are going to be playing three games in the first week of February in the old Stampede Corral and the email release says they're going to be wearing "commemorative jerseys" from the past including Calgary Centennials, the Calgary Wranglers and the Calgary Cowboys, who all played in the Corral. The Centennials and Wranglers being the previous WHL teams in Calgary and the Cowboys being the WHA team. It seems like with three games and three teams, they'd be wearing a jersey for each game but it could also be just an only warmup thing.

I think there are only four banners (five including retired numbers) that teams should hang. Stanley Cup Champions - self explanatory Conference Champions - winning the Conference finals Presidents Trophy - also self explanatory Division Champions - most points in the division at the end of the regular season, so no hanging a division championship because you were the last division team standing in the playoffs

sa-skatch-win

The Oil Kings unveiled a new shoulder patch back in August. I don't hate it, but I can't help but feel there's something "off" about it. Maybe it's because of the size and shape. Side note, the Oil Kings have created an identity issue for themselves with the black and green alternates. It's like they can't decide, especially now with a white version of the black/green jerseys, which team they are and they don't want to entirely commit to the black/green. Living in Edmonton for school, all the ads I've seen have been black and green and their internet presence is mostly black and green, but the red and blue still makes a lot of appearances.

Here's Calgary's flag. It's hard to tell here on the white background of the of the site, but there's a strip of white above and below the red. It looks like it could have been a logo for the Calgary Cowboys WHA team.

I think Edwards would sell the team in the case of them moving to Houston and who knows what would happen with the other teams. Though all four have dedicated fanbases here in Calgary, though will major overlap. Okay before was the wrong word and obviously the Saddledome is priority, but it terms of amenities and fan gameday experience, McMahon Stadium is in worse shape than the Saddledome, especially compared to the new ones in the league. And calling it minor league is kind of flippant. But yes, an arena is needed and people here are in favour of a new arena, just not of what’s been proposed. By and large, I think most in Calgary are on the City’s side and not the ownership’s.