spartacat_12

On 5/10/2024 at 3:30 PM, mafiaman said:

Someone went to college for four years, earned a marketing degree, got a job with a high buck agency, and tossed that on the table.  Amazing.  Simply amazing.

These names are just based on fan suggestions to Smith's earlier open ended poll. The branding agency is just going to handle the logos/uniforms.

On 5/11/2024 at 3:56 PM, Cosmic said:

There are already two sabretooth tiger mascots.

 

There's also two lion mascots and two insect mascots, despite there not being any teams actually named after lions or insects.

Colorado doesn't use the yeti mascot anymore anyway.

46 minutes ago, Chromatic said:

"Black Diamonds" is better than some of the names there like "Powder" or "Venom", but thats still a really low bar. I'm surprised its getting love here. 

I've always thought Black Diamonds would be a good name for a sports team in a mountainous area. It's unique without being too amateur sounding, and diamond shapes/patterns are incredibly underused in sports. Even in baseball, a sport played on a diamond with a team called the Diamondbacks, there aren't any diamond logos aside from the White Sox secondary that they hardly use.

On 5/6/2024 at 3:29 PM, ruttep said:

Ottawa, what are you doing??

I was underwhelmed by the decision when it was announced, but after reading some takes from people who were around the Canucks during his tenure, and hearing his opening press conference, I'm coming around. There was a lot of turmoil behind the scenes in Vancouver between Jim Benning & ownership, then when the pandemic hit there were massive budget cuts within the organization and almost their entire roster ended up in covid protocol.

He's known for running a tough training camp, with players often being skated so hard that they've thrown up on the ice. Considering how the Sens have made a habit of getting off to terrible starts, this sounds like exactly what they need. 

On 5/9/2024 at 3:42 AM, Old School Fool said:

I don't hope the Raptors  don't wear a black and gold alternate next season...

I'd be surprised if they don't. As gimmicky as it is, the black & gold has essentially become the team's secondary brand, similar to the Heat Vice look. 

31 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

Perhaps.  But Arizona's black jerseys were really unique.  5 colours, a logo in a unique art style and unconventional striping.  IMO it would take something just as novel to convince me that the league needs another black team.  Guess well have to wait and see.

Yeah, if it were up to me they wouldn't wear black, but there would be potential to make a unique look with the secondary colours. Maybe some purple & copper like the '90s Jazz alternates, perhaps with some powder blue thrown in.

11 hours ago, Morgan33 said:

Black Diamonds would be a great choice.

 

Even if it would result in the misguided and annoying insistence from a vocal minority that  they use black jerseys.

They are replacing a team that wore black jerseys at home, so it pretty much evens out. And given that we're getting generic 'UTAH' jerseys next season, I'd expect them to be black.

8 hours ago, DJT said:

Everyone voting for Black Diamonds (I liked it too originally) realize the entire team name and brand would be a different winter sport altogether right? Like imagine a professional hockey team named the skiers with a logo of someone skiing. I can’t get past that. 

I mean the Indiana Pacers are a basketball team who's brand is based around auto racing.

11 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

B.) Unless they ditched the red Canada Day unis, they already have that. 

I believe they have ditched them. They already have 4 other jerseys in the rotation (white, grey, royal blue, powder blue).

I'll echo a lot of what's been said already. The logos are pretty much perfect, there just might be too many of them. The state outline Y feels timeless and would probably work best on a Winter Classic jersey. The colours are a bit Kraken-y, but I think swapping the navy blue for purple would do the trick. The sleeves & shoulder of the jerseys feel a bit busy, but I do like the curved hem stripe. I'd just have that carry over to the sleeves similar to the old Pens jerseys.

12 minutes ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

Hopefully it's a massive bracket/tournament and not just 8 stupid names. 

Smith has already said it would be 6-8 names in the bracket, and they've trademarked 7 already (Yetis, Blizzard, Outlaws, Venom, Fury, Mammoth, Ice). I don't think Hockey Club is going to be one of the choices, so maybe we get a surprise for the 8th option.

14 hours ago, JayMac said:

You're going to get elements of the uniform that very loosely based on certain aspects of the city. Knowing Nike, they will probably be hot pink and baby blue. 

I feel like the Jays want something that any Canadian would want to buy, so I'd be surprised if they reference something too specific about the city. It could be cool to base the design off something like the old Honest Ed's signage, but I doubt that would resonate with people in New Brunswick or Saskatchewan.

5 hours ago, coco1997 said:

I predict the next two City Connect designs—Guardians and Cardinals—will provide a much-needed break from the deluge of black and dark navy, but then we’ll get another black-heavy design with Toronto at the end of the month. 

With the discontinuation of the previous Canada Day jerseys, I think Toronto is going to make theirs a Country Connect instead of a City Connect. I'm expecting a red base to play up the "Canada's team" angle, similar to what the Raptors did with the NORTH jerseys.

30 minutes ago, GFB said:

Mammoths might be my first choice, but only if it's plural.

 

If it's singular, I can at least talk myself into "Yeti" being collective noun, like "Moose."

13 hours ago, ruttep said:

This Leafs/Bruins feels like one of those games where a loss would be a brutal, franchise-altering loss for either team should they lose. 

The city of Toronto seemed to accept that they were done after game 4. Obviously people won't be happy if they lose tomorrow, but the fact that they forced a game 7 might've been enough to convince the franchise that they don't need to make drastic changes.

2 hours ago, Glover said:

Yeah, a very good chunk of our core over the last 5-6 years will be free agents. Teravainen, Skjei, Pesce, plus some others like Chatfield, TDA, and Martinook whose numbers are a bit easier to replace. Then you have Jarvis and Necas both as RFA's. That list doesn't even include Guentzel who is a rental. It will be an interesting off-season. But I do think we will see a shakeup and lose a key player or two. 

Brind'Amour is probably the organization's most important free agent. I read a quote from Dundon saying he probably won't be as tough a negotiator with him this time around, but there are now reports that Rod may consider testing the market, where he'd likely have the chance to be the league's highest paid coach.

My guess is he'll use the market as leverage to get more money from the Canes, but you never know. His old friend Ron Francis just got rid of his coach in Seattle and ownership there might be looking to make a splash.

12 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

Hockey is increasingly more popular where I live. There was an outdoor game like ten minutes from my house a few years ago. It’s a lot to dredge up, but I don’t think there’s a single decision pro hockey has made in the past decade that I’ve really agreed with. And that extends to their branding, and even location choices. 
 

I just don’t think this league is really for me anymore. Like, even this part of it I find cringey and bad now. 

You claim it's a terrible league and hate every decision they've made, yet you admit that it's growing in popularity where you live. Sounds like this is a you problem and not the sport's problem.

10 hours ago, tBBP said:

Is going to? My brother, it done already won...it just ain't "official" yet. (They ain't fooling nobody with this naming contest...Smith n' em done already picked the name.) 

Smith learned from his mistakes with the Jazz branding. He has said that he has a personal favourite name, but he's going to leave it up to the fans this time. Yetis seems to be gaining the kind of momentum Kraken had during Seattle's expansion process, so I'd say it's probably the favourite, but not because of Smith. You think he was paying kids to chant "let's go Yetis" at the airport?

1 hour ago, PlayGloria said:

 

I really don't understand this take. You don't like the  Yeti's so the entire league is a joke?  I'm going to trust the process here, since the last two new identities in the league (VGK and the Kraken) were a complete success both from a branding standpoint as well as a uniform. 

I'm not sure why it would be so absurd for a team to choose a name that is extremely popular in their new city. Why would they not choose it honestly if it is that popular?  Why give people that will buy tickets, merch, etc the middle finger before the team even touches the ice? Especially a franchise that has been playing in front of 5,000 people the last couple of years. 

All I'm saying is that if I was the new owner of that team, I would feed the frenzy as much as possible.

Some people seem to have an irrational hate for the NHL, and decide to make anything fit that narrative. Despite a few cheesy names like Wild & Kraken, the NHL has the best all-around branding among the Big 4.

16 hours ago, BrySmalls said:

Caps outmatched by the Rags in all facets of the series. This is the third time Ovie has gone without a point in a series against NY. I am still happy Caps made it to the playoffs to subvert expectations. I anticipate there will be significant roster changes this off-season.

If Oshie and Backstrom are both done, that gives the Caps some flexibility going into next season. I'd think the priority would be to bring in more forwards to help Ovi try and get to 41 goals. I wonder if they'd look to bring back Chandler Stephenson.

The cap is nice, and there are a couple cool elements, but I can't help but picture the design process being something like this:

15 hours ago, TBGKon said:

Dont connect too much to this logo, remember Seattle started their generic imagery with red.

 

 

I mean the Kraken did end up going with red as one of their accent colours. 

20 hours ago, BBTV said:

But... he technically remains an owner - so what, does he attend owners' meetings?  Does the lineage die in 5 years?  Questions.  I have questions.

Bettman said that construction of a new rink has to be at least 50% complete within the 5 year window in order for the franchise to be reactivated. If that doesn't happen, Phoenix will just get the same consideration as any other potential expansion market after that point.

5 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

It ended already, when the Senators tried to pretend they were connected to the Silver Seven. Speaking of which, I still wish the =O= set was promoted to primary status.

The current iteration of the Sens has never pretended they're the same franchise as the original Senators. Yes, they brought back the name & have banners in the arena honouring the old Stanley Cup wins, but that's no different than the Jets 2.0 having Avco Cup banners & the old Jets retired numbers in their rink.

We are in agreement on the =O= set though.

A possible hint to one of the colours with the powder blue outline on the script? 

22 minutes ago, Foxxtrot44 said:

With today's trademarks, we have a pretty clear vision of the bracket

Yetis
Outlaws
Fury
Venom
HC
Blizzard
Ice
Mammoth

Talking to people it seems like this is a horse race between Yetis, Outlaws, and "Why isn't Raptors an option?"
Odd that of all the fossil choices available in Utah, they would go with Mammoth. I mean, we have a lot of them, but they aren't the iconic Woolly Mammoth.

I tend to think we have enough "yee-haw" imagery and history to pull from to make Outlaws really stand out. But also I don't care that we're all a bunch of squares.

I don't think "Hockey Club" will actually be one of the options on the bracket. That seems like more of a plan B in case they can't come up with something in time for next season.

32 Thoughts put out an interview with Smith today. It included some interesting comments about the potential brand:

• He was asked how much overlap he expects the NHL brand to have with the Jazz. He doesn’t necessarily want a Pittsburgh situation with identical colours, but mentions that he’d like there to be a bit of symmetry between the two 
• He talks about the popularity of purple, mountain imagery, and mentions blue skies, so it sounds like they’re leaning to a cooler colour scheme
• He says the nickname bracket will be 6 or 8 options. The names Blizzard, Yetis, Venom, Outlaws, Black Diamonds, and Golden Eagles are all mentioned, with Smith saying it’s more than a 50% chance it ends up being one of those names. He has a favourite, but wants the fans to decide

14 minutes ago, ruttep said:

 

Not disagreeing with you, but what Carolina does is just being obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious. You have a great team with all the pieces to push for the Cup. You don't need to act like a 13 year old on Xbox to beg people for attention on top of that.

Well when you pull a pendulum in one direction for so long, you can't be surprised when it swings far in the other direction. Letting an anonymous social media administrator dictate how you feel about a professional sports franchise seems like a miserable existence.

19 minutes ago, ruttep said:

Agreed. The Hurricanes' whole persona is built on taking "traditional" hockey ideals and shoving them in the face of everyone else. I think it stems from them leaning into the "Bunch of Jerks" label in 2019. If old hockey just shut their mouths that year I don't think Carolina's social media presence ever becomes this insufferable.

It's almost as if a lot of "traditional" hockey ideals are antiquated and have often held back the growth of the sport outside of the Northeast, Midwest, and Canada.