World Cup of Hockey: Group H: Slovenia & Finale

[colinturner95]

I don't know of anyone that jumps for joy when you mention the World Cup of Hockey as it currently exists. I feel like it's a good idea but, especially when NHLers weren't going to the Olympics and you'd get a shot at seeing the best players from those countries face off against each other (and it did give us Team North America, which was pretty cool to see, even if it was just for 6 total games). But NHLers seem to be gearing up for an Olympic return in 2026, I personally wonder why they're still trying to make the WCOH a thing. 

 

Now what does any of that have to do with what I'm about to show you? Honestly, probably not a whole lot. But it did get me thinking: what if there was a more "World Cup" of Hockey? What if hockey was a much more global game than it is now and more than 6-8 teams were included, and you had 32 of the best countries playing quadrennially for a chance at immortality? Obviously this sounds a lot like the FIFA World Cup, and where do you think I got the idea? This also goes back to my Idaho HS project, where I wish for more for those kids and the sport in general, and having the ability to conceptualize it and bring to life in a way is a sort of bonus. 

 

So I don't quite have all the details worked out 100%, in terms of how this would affect the existing IIHF world championship, but then I got to thinking, if there were more hockey playing nations around the world and not just in Europe and North America, there's likely be more regional based competitions, like the Gold Cup for CONCACAF, UEFA and the Euros, Africa Cup of Nations, etc. But who needs the finer details when I'm here to do uniform concepts? 

 

 

So for the event and purposes of having a location for the branding, the event will take place across Canada in 2028, chosen due to the country's history with the development of the sport we now know today. I didn't spend too much time on the branding, wanting to at least have a better looking trophy than the real WCOH has offered. The trophy took some inspiration from the existing IIHF World Championship trophies and the World Cup trophies. 

 

Without any qualifying tournaments to get us to 32 teams, I went with the "easy" route and used the IIHF and FIFA rankings to help and now we get into some of the "rules" if you wanna call them that:

 

• Top 12 teams from the IIHF & FIFA rankings comprise the 32 teams I'll be designing. 
  • While Russia and Belarus are still ranked high in the IIHF, with them still being banned from competition in real life, I maintained that status here. 
  • I allowed the 13-16 ranks to be more "designers choice", so those teams I cherry picked a little. 
• IIHF Rankings supersede FIFA's (due to this being a hockey tournament), so teams like France actually tumble and Germany moves up. 
• Groups were drawn in the same fashion as a FIFA World Cup:
  • The 8 countries ranked 1-4 in the IIHF and FIFA were drawn in the first position, 5-8, so on and so forth
  • Groups could have no more than 2 IIHF or FIFA teams in them, similar to FIFA's rule on two teams from the same confederation, save for UEFA. 
•  (My personal favorite) Teams will use their soccer/football team's uniform supplier, so for the IIHF teams, an opportunity for some to get away from Nike. 

 

Groups:

 

Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H

 

 

First teams will be up tomorrow or Monday! Hoping to have fun with this!

[colinturner95]

 

The first group of teams features two current powerhouses in the international hockey world and two teams that would have a long way to go to catch up.

• Do I need to say too much about our hosts? Team Canada is the most decorated team in the history of international hockey, despite the takeover by the Soviets for a couple decades. 
• In recent years, Sweden has challenged Canada for supremacy in world hockey, but still has some work to do if they ever want to catch up
• Morocco, one of three teams in Africa to have IIHF membership, in their case at the associate level, has grown the game significantly in their 13 years of membership 
• Finally, Australia makes a return to top level hockey after almost 80 years away from the Olympic games, and 10 years since dropping from Division 1. 

Starting us off in Group A: Team Canada: 

 

 

One thing I wanted to do here for the hockey nations especially, is to get away from a hockey-centric look, so looking for some inspirations elsewhere, or from their football team. Didn't always happen, but it was something I wanted to do. For Canada, the '98 football kits played a heavy hand on the home and away uniforms, and the current football tops became intertwined with the infamous Sochi black alternate jersey. 

 

Uniform Details: 

Spoiler

 

 

C&C welcome!

[CRDesigns]

Oh this is going to be such a fun series to follow. Canada looks great, big fan of that alternate!

[timberwolf]

Fan of the Canadian set.

 

I'm on the fence with the middle stripe, but that's maybe just because my eyes are so accustomed to the arm striping for the red & white uniforms.  I do think you did it well, very clean.

 

Logo is a big upgrade. The classic logo will always have a special place in my heart but the modern leaf is gorgeous.

 

Excited for the rest of the series!

[colinturner95]

 

A pretty solid aesthetic 1-2 punch when you lead off with Canada and Sweden, the latter of whom has stayed largely consistent in the wake of Nike's relentless nonsense when it comes to IIHF uniforms. However, Adidas in charge here... which doesn't lead to much change. Biggest change is the darkening of the blue to a more navy shade, something I've wanted to try out for a long time on Sweden but never felt like I should and finally pulled the trigger on. Also another first in modern Swedish hockey: a white jersey! 

 

Uniform Details:

Spoiler

 

C&C welcome!

[timberwolf]

Classic set. Love the navy blue (I'm seeing a theme with some soccer inspiration, which I'm a big fan of).

 

White uniform is clean, retro crowns are a solid choice. Crown on the pants is a smart move, don't know if I've ever seen that before.

 

I think I might've dropped the white stroke on the home & away uniforms and left it with pure navy/gold, but that's just a minor, minor nitpick.

 

Intrigued to see what you do with Morocco and Australia.

[colinturner95]

 

The first of the true "non-traditional" hockey countries, and also the first look at a non-Nike or Adidas uniforms (CCM Uniforms will be worn by soccer teams not wearing Nike or Adidas) but I think Morocco settles in well to the hockey aesthetic, especially aided by the design features of '22 WC teams' red uniform. Quick addition of a regional pattern created a solid set of home and away uniforms. Alternate uniform honors Morocco's hockey history to date with the modern touches of the first two uniforms. 

 

I forgot to mention that for player names and numbers:

• Traditional hockey countries, or countries with a degree of hockey history will have historical greats or current greats or possibly future greats (looking at you Bedard). 
• Non traditional/soccer countries will have all time sports legends or current soccer players as the team reps. 

Spoiler

 

Not quite an explosive start to the non-hockey teams but curious to know what guys you think!

 

On 9/19/2023 at 3:36 PM, timberwolf said:

Classic set. Love the navy blue (I'm seeing a theme with some soccer inspiration, which I'm a big fan of).

 

White uniform is clean, retro crowns are a solid choice. Crown on the pants is a smart move, don't know if I've ever seen that before.

 

I think I might've dropped the white stroke on the home & away uniforms and left it with pure navy/gold, but that's just a minor, minor nitpick.

 

Intrigued to see what you do with Morocco and Australia.

I've tried it before with the crown on the pants for a 2022 Olympic series and I thought it was a good look to re-work for this series. 

 

I got back and forth on the white keylines on Sweden's uniforms every time I deal with them. I personally think it adds just enough of a pop to the crowns and numbers. 

 

As for the soccer inspiration... I'm realizing that some teams I might have gone overboard with it 

[colinturner95]

 

Happy Saturday! Our last member of Group A, the boys from Down Under. The Hockeyroos take the ice in a very classic hockey styled uniform, not too dissimilar from their actual uniforms. There's not as heavy a soccer influence on these as the previous 3 uniforms, though the choice to make the gold uniform the away comes from the Socceroos wearing gold as their primary colors. The alternate borrows heavy from the 1960 Olympic team uniforms with a couple modern touches. 

 

Spoiler

 

C&C welcome!

 

 

[colinturner95]

Just like with my Idaho High School series, I also ran the teams through a simulation of a World Cup style tournament, just to see how wild it would get and well...

 

 

Literally took one group for some ridiculousness.

• No one told Morocco they're the underdog and not supposed to be able to compete. Kicking things off with a surprise OT win over Sweden, an even more shocking 4-1 win over hosts Canada and a convincing 5-2 win over Australia. 
• Canada welcomed Australia back to the top with a 6-1 boot to the face, but might have sleepwalked into their 4-1 defeat by Morocco, setting up a huge clash for second with Sweden. 
• Sweden might have hung out with Canada too much, as they fell to Morocco in their first game in OT. They got their swagger back against Australia, doubling up the Roos. But in the end, Canada was too much for the Swedes, falling 4-2 in the de facto 2nd position game and resulting in an early trip home. 
• Australia... well they did better than those days in 1960. Still couldn't get a win, but a -10 GD was much better than the -77 they finished with in 1960.

Again, this bit is just for fun and for me. Onto Group B!

[n312rb]

These are incredible!  I'll look at them again and hopefully offer some positive criticism, but at first blush, I have no issues that haven't been mentioned by other posters.  Excellent work.

[colinturner95]

 

Welcome to Group B! IMO a much more balanced group of countries with a touch more collective hockey history than our previous group. Let's meet the teams:

• Brazil, the most decorated team in World Cup history, has a very modest ice hockey history. They've yet to compete in an IIHF World Championship, but were the first South American country to join the IIHF and competed regularly in the Pan American Tournament. Now they're much more known for their inline team, something many of the warmer climated teams have in common. 
• The ever neutral Switzerland has grown into one of the top hockey countries in the world, rivalling members of the Big 6 for international supremacy. 
• Since the dissolution of the USSR, Latvia has also grown into a competitive hockey nation, and looks to build off of their surprise 2023 World Championship bronze medal. 
• Similar to football, Japan's international hockey presence has been bolstered by the women's successes in recent years, but now it's time for the men to rise to the top. 

 

[colinturner95]

 

Our first entry in Group B, Brazil gave me a challenge initially. Soccer has a very distinct color split when it came to their soccer kits but I think hockey wouldn't necessarily benefit from a similar arrangement. What I think helped in the beginning to solve this issue was the design I chose, which was based off a design the Seleção have used in 1997-1998 and 2010, with a thin shoulder length stripe, bolstered by a triple stripe at the ends and on the hem. The true deviation began when I used gold as a primary secondary color opposed to white, as the football team does. The alternate bridges the whole range of the country's soccer history with a white and blue heavy uniform, akin to their 2019 Copa 100 kit and from the 2020 blues, with the diamond gradient. 

 

I also managed to pick 3 Brazilian soccer legends that all wore #10 at their athletic peak, so Ronaldinho and Neymar used their youth numbers. 

Spoiler

C&C Welcome!

[colinturner95]

 

Another hockey nation that has taken leaps and bounds in recent years, Switzerland mixes traditional hockey aesthetic with some unique design quirks. Black is phased out entirely of the palette, replaced by the darker red that debuted at the 2022 Olympics. The number fits on the chest stripe with the Swiss Cross on the home and away, as well as on the pant stripe toward the bottom of the leg. The alternate is a second red jersey, with dark red featured much more prominently, particularly in the horizontal pinstripe design, taken from the 2020 red soccer tops.

 

Spoiler

 

C&C Welcome!

[colinturner95]

 

Latvia is another team that has risen up in recent years, rising as high as 3rd in the most recent World Championships. Outside of the "metal wing" Nike look, Latvia really hasn't had a terrible look, since they've been an independent team again, and I think the current look is their best of the bunch. So the home and away uniforms come over from the Swoosh pretty much as is, with a tweak here and there, as well as a new alternate jersey, bearing a design feature that some say belongs to one NHL team only, and has some historical precedent. 

 

Spoiler

 

C&C welcome!

[colinturner95]

 

The conclusion to Group B is here! Japan's national athletic teams use a shade of blue as their primary color, except for the hockey teams, who use black. For me, I wanted to bridge that gap in a way, opting for navy to be the primary dark color. The main attraction on the jersey is the origami crane pattern on the upper sleeves and hem color blocks. The alternate is an updated version of a design I had for the women's team from my 2022 Olympics series. 

 

Spoiler

 

And since we're at then end of group, how did these teams (imaginarily) fare against each other?

 

 

Unlike Group A, there was no clear cut top of the group team. 

• Brazil takes a leap from just being a futbol nation, after a big 6-0 opening game win over Japan, followed by a close OT loss to a resilient Latvia squad. And in their final game of group play, a huge win over Switzerland that put them into a good spot to advance to the round of 16.
• Latvia started off with a roller coaster of emotions. A close 3-2 loss to Switzerland followed up by a 6-5 come from behind win over Brazil made for a climactic last game. Unfortunately, no one told about them about the demand for drama, with a 5-1 win over Japan that set them up to advance. 
• Switzerland was in the mix with the latter two nations from the drop, having beaten Latvia in game one, followed up by a record setting 11-1 thrashing of Japan meaning their last game with Brazil would likely have ramifications on who advances and who doesn't. Switzerland had the advantage with two wins to that point, but that mattered little to Brazil, who was able to get the 4-1 win over the Swiss, vaulting them to the top of the table and dooming the Swiss to waiting and seeing the result of Latvia and Japan. 
• Unfortunately for Japan, they weren't invited to the party, losing all three of their games, one by a record margin, and by virtue of their last loss to Latvia, eliminated Switzerland from moving on. 

C&C welcome! Group C coming up!

[colinturner95]

 

Welcome to Group C!

• Belgium is among the best football teams who haven't won the World Cup. Can they bring that talent to the ice rink?
• Following the Velvet Divorce, the Czech's got the history and kept their position in the top Division, leaving Slovakia to rebuild from Pool C. They've since positioned themselves outside the so called "Big 6" and are ready to take it to the top. 
• The Red Fury takes their skills to the ice, and Spain seeks to claim another World Cup, this time on a modern pond.
• Another team that has taken leaps since the Soviet Union fell, Kazakhstan is reaching new heights and looks to make waves in Group C.

Belgium coming up soon!

 

[colinturner95]

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

 

 

 

The trick for Belgium was to not make them look like Germany. Thought it was a challenge, but that wasn't what gave me pause. It was trying to find a unique look to work with. It took some tinkering with soccer jersey elements, but I used the look from their 2016 Euros tops to create a sort of half shoulder stripe/half traditional stripe look. The alternate is easily inspired by the 1984/2018 diamond pattern, this time on a black base. 

 

Spoiler

 

C&C welcome!

[Section30]

The Belgian diamond kit is one of my all time favs and I'm so glad you decided to use it for the alternate, and it actually looks great on a hockey jersey as a chest stripe, possibly my favorite jersey of the series so far!

[colinturner95]

Gonna be hard for Slovakia to follow up Belgium, but they'll try their best:

 

 

The Czechs got the red, Slovaks got the blue in the divorce. On that note, the royal blue returns full time after a shift towards a more steely/navy blue in recent cycles. on the home and away, there's sort of a blend of a shoulder stripe (historical precedence) and the slab stripes (more modern with historical precedence). The alternate might best be categorized as a fauxback, based off of Slovakia's 2002 WC gold winning team, with the anthem lyrics and navy blue brought in from 2014. 

 

Spoiler

 

C&C welcome!

[colinturner95]

 

Some teams borrow from multiple years and eras. Spain pretty much takes it all from one: 2022. The neckline trim from the Qatar uniforms becomes the master stripe for all three jerseys. Home and away uniforms are pretty traditional, with some added collarbone stripes. Alternate takes a little bit of real life inspiration and moves the stripes to the chest. 

 

Spoiler

C&C welcome!