Olympic Observations 2010

I've been really fascinated by Olympic hockey in the last few weeks. Never used to be a fan. Didn't really care about international hockey. After having watched all or parts of every single game of the men's tournament in Vancouver, I've changed my mind.

Now that we're a day away from the games that determine who will play for the gold, I thought I'd share some observations I've made. Feel free to share yours as well.

• Pavol Demitra #38The Vancouver Connection Most teams are using the same fonts on their jerseys. Obviously, Nike was heavily involved in making all the uniforms look uniform, but I think it's strange that 7 of the 12 teams in the tournament use the same font found on the Vancouver Canucks' jerseys: United States, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus and Germany. (It's called Agency.)
• Canada's Tradition I thought it stranger still that Team Canada is the only one using traditional/standard block letters and numbers, similar to the San Jose Sharks. Interesting that 4 members of the Sharks play for Canada. Coincidence?
• Seeing Red Every team except Sweden has red in their uniforms. Seven of 12 teams have red jerseys (if you count Latvia's maroon as a shade of red). Ten of the 12 countries represented have red in their flags, which usually symbolizes courage and sacrifice — as in sprawling out in front of a Zdeno Chara slapshot. Only Finland and Sweden do not use red in their national flags.
• Another Option The United States is the only team with a third jersey. In terms of striping, it's a dead ringer for the New York Rangers' white sweater. It's meant to be a throwback to the jersey worn by the Americans in 1960 at Squaw Valley, commemorating the country's first gold medal in hockey.
• Pavel Kubina #77Czech Out the Numbers The Czech Republic uses the same number font as the Atlanta Thrashers. So Pavel Kubina's No. 77 looks the same on both jerseys. (Would've worked for Ondrej Pavelec's No. 31 too but he never saw action.) The Czechs still use Agency for the nameplate though. Only Belarus has a unique number font.
• Neutral Numbers Switzerland the Scandinavian nations, Sweden, Finland and Norway, all use a Futura-type font for their sweater numbers. The nameplates appear to be something like Akzidenz-Grotesk, if you care to know.
• Canada's Collar Modification The white stripe around the collar of Canada's new sweaters mysteriously disappeared before the first game. Graeme wrote in to say it made the collars too tight and "the players had trouble getting them on."
• Which Hossa is Which? Normally when brothers play for the same team, their first initials will be used on the nameplates. For example, on the Czech team Zbynek Michalek's jersey says Z. MICHALEK while his brother Milan's says M. MICHALEK. Same with Daniel and Henrik Sedin of Sweden. The trouble starts when you have a situation like Marian and Marcel Hossa. Oddly enough, Marian's jersey says M. HOSSA. Marcel's just says HOSSA, no initial.
• Don't You Ever Wash That? The Swedish team never wore anything but their yellow jerseys throughout their run in the Vancouver tournament. According to the IIHF, Sweden had a blue jersey available, but did not get around to wearing it before being eliminated by Slovakia in the semifinals. All other teams have worn both dark and light-colored jerseys at some point.

Here are some other non-uniform-related observations:

• Ryan MaloneRyan Has the Puck! Seven of the 23 players named to the U.S. team are named Ryan: Goalie Ryan Miller, defensemen Ryan Suter and Ryan Whitney, and forwards Ryan Callahan, Ryan Kesler, Ryan Malone and Bobby Ryan. Ryan is of Gaelic origin meaning "little king." Team Canada has yet another Ryan in Ryan Getzlaf, for a total of 8 at the 2010 Olympics.
• Too Much Tomas While scratching your head over all the Ryans, it's easy to overlook the 5 different guys named Tomas playing for the Czech Republic: Goalie Tomas Vokoun, defenseman Tomas Kaberle, and forwards Tomas Plekanec, Tomas Fleischmann, and Tomas Rolinek. Tomas comes from the Aramaic name Thomas and means "twin." The Slovaks added another with Tomas Kopecky.
• Sibling Rivalry It was cool seeing the Swedish brother-sister duo of Tobias and Tina Enstrom playing for their country. Tobias was eliminated last night. Tina still has a shot at the bronze when the women's medal games get going today.

I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking about at the moment. Did you guys notice anything interesting, jersey-related or not? Comment and I'll add some of the good ones to this post.

Update on Saturday · Feb 27 · 2010 | 9:13 AM PST by Chris

If you haven't been reading through the comments, here are a few things worth noting that Icethetics readers have brought up.

• Seeing Double?The Vancouver Connection, Redux Bando makes an interesting observation. Is it a coincidence that Germany's dark jersey is nearly identical in design to the black one the Canucks wore from 1989 to 1997? Check out the striping. It's awfully similar. Or maybe we're just seeing what we want to see.
• Canada's Type Dallas, who works at a jersey shop, commented on the lettering font used on Team Canada's jerseys. Earlier, when I said it was similar to the Sharks' I was speaking in general terms so as to draw attention to the large number of San Jose players on the team. But more specifically, Dallas tells us the numbers and letters are actually the same as what the Oilers and Stars currently wear.
• Ruutu vs. RuututRuutut? Tom added a funny image to the discussion. I don't think this was seen by American viewers, but on TSN it was pointed out that prior to one of Finland's games (I'd assume the first one), Tuomo Ruutu skated out onto the ice for warm-ups with his name mispelled, RUUTUT. His brother Jarkko, however, had the correct spelling. Obviously, it should've said T. RUUTU. Chalk it up to seamstress error.

Thanks to everyone who contributed observations!

Luongo Debuts Canada Mask

Roberto LuongoWith the NHL on hiatus for two weeks, we're all turning our attention to the Vancouver Olympics this month. One of the most exciting things for Vancouverites has to be seeing your Canucks' goalie backstopping his nation's team.

Icethetics reader Matt sent in this image of Roberto Luongo's new Team Canada mask. No reason to lose the Canuck theme after all, right?

It's very well-designed mask and I'm excited to see it in action tomorrow when Canada takes on Norway at 7:30 PM EST (on CNBC in the U.S.).

Just before that will be the first men's hockey game of these Winter Games when the U.S. battles Switzerland at 3 PM (on USA Network).

If the women's matches have been any indication, these will be very high scoring games in favor the North American clubs (sorry Europe).

Ryan Miller's USA maskAnd not to be outdone by the Canadians, here's a look at Ryan Miller's very American goalie mask.

Rich sent in this photo from The Times Herald in Port Huron, Michigan. That link takes you to a great article on the work put into creating this mask, which was designed by Ray Bishop.

It's nice to get an early look at some of what we'll see in the coming weeks up in Vancouver.

That reminds me, in case you hadn't read my note on the Jerseys page, I will be adding Olympic jersey galleries as games start getting underway. It's a slow process but I'll get to all 12 countries in time.

Also, I just got an email from a reader asking about a goalie mask gallery to go with all the jersey galleries. I think that's a great idea! However, I have my hands a little full with these jersey galleries and I haven't even gotten to home and road sweaters yet. It'll happen... eventually.

Update on Tuesday · Feb 16 · 2010 | 7:47 AM PST by Chris

Evgeni Nabokov's Russia maskIcethetics reader Colton just sent in a great link to even more first look photos of Olympic goalie masks. Here (right) is a shot of Evgeni Nabokov's Russian headgear.

I highly recommend stopping by inGoal Magazine for a look at Marty Brodeur's mask and many others, including Henrik Lundqvist, Jonas Hiller, Marc-Andre Fleury, Tim Thomas and Tomas Vokoun.

They've also got photos of the masks designed for women's team goalies Kim St. Pierre and Shannon Szabados of Canada. All worth checking out.

USA Unveils Olympic Jerseys

...four days ago. Better late than never, right? I had the hardest time this week both finding decent pictures of Team USA's 2010 Winter Games sweaters as well as time to post what I could track down. It's now Friday — four days after the actual unveiling of the sweaters to the media — and at last I have a post for you.

USA Hockey unveiled three jerseys — a blue and two whites.Let's start with the announcement of the new jersey on USA Hockey's official web site, which includes this photo from the press conference.

Team USA Olympic jersey unveiling

Unlike Hockey Canada, the US doesn't seem that interested in providing us with any really great pictures of the jersey. But I guess that's probably because most Americans don't care. Anyway, it looks better on the ice than the way that guy's holding it up.

Patrick Kane rocks the new blues

A little dull, but what do you want? It's the Olympics. Short of revisiting the 1980 sweater design — and there really isn't reason enough to right now — there's not much in the arsenal that will still be recognizable. Here's the white one.

Trying on the new jerseys at the bench

Hoping a better picture will turn up. The third jersey is another white sweater, this one modeled after the one worn at the 1960 Olympics where the U.S. won their first gold medal in men's hockey.

The Ryans before hitting the ice in the thirds

And what sort of Lightning fan would I be if I didn't use a picture of Ryan Malone? The other guy is Ryan Callahan.

If you'd like more of an in-depth analysis of these jerseys, might I suggest Puck Daddy? Should I find any new/better pictures, I'll add them to this post. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts below.

Finally, thanks to everyone who sent in links and pictures all week. You are all awesome!

Team Canada Jerseys Unveiled!

Not that it should surprise anyone, but Team Canada's 2010 Olympics jerseys were officially unveiled today — confirming the leaked pictures first posted on Icethetics last week.

Hockey Canada has gone all out with an entire section of its web site dedicated to the new sweaters. Click here to see it. You can see a detailed version of the crest, download desktop wallpapers featuring the jerseys and the new crest, and even check out past Team Canada jerseys.

The official photos of the jerseys provided on HockeyCanada.ca give us a much better look at the overall design.

Personally, I think I favor the white one for its attention to contrast. Notice how you can clearly make out the leaf crest.

And, of course, for your viewing pleasure, the new crest in all its glory.

One more thing. At the risk of coming off as self-serving, I'd like to encourage Icethetics fans who plan to purchase either or both of these jerseys to show your support by clicking on the IceJerseys.com link and buying from them. They've got great prices and the small amount of money Icethetics makes from ads goes a long way to keeping the site running. And hey, just remember where you saw this jersey first, right?

Enough with that.

Team USA also unveiled their 2010 Olympic jerseys today but I have yet to come across any decent photos worth sharing on the blog. In the meantime, there are a couple of low-quality cell phone pictures I posted on Twitter. When better photos are available, I'll have them here.

Olympic First Look: Canada

— ICETHETICS EXCLUSIVE —

We're less than a week away from the official unveiling of Team USA's jerseys for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. And while I haven't yet come across a date for Team Canada's Olympic sweaters, I do have a first look for Icethetics readers.

Team Canada's 2010 Olympics red sweater

Kind of what a lot of fans were expecting. Classic, old-time hockey feel. Very impressive. Same with the white ones.

Team Canada's 2010 Olympics white sweater

The red shoulder yoke keeps the sweater from looking washed out. Now you're probably all wondering about that odd-looking crest, wanting a closer view. Check this out.

Team Canada's 2010 Olympics sweater crest

The subtle nod to the style of the Vancouver Olympics artwork all but makes these jerseys perfect. I'm no Canadian so I want to know what you guys think of these.

By the way, for those not in the loop, the reason this was such a big deal is that with the announcement that national federation logos would no longer be permitted as crests on Olympic jerseys (i.e.: Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, etc.), many wondered what the new sweaters would look like. Now you know.

Update on Friday · Aug 14 · 2009 | 11:28 AM PDT by Chris

For those who haven't heard, it's worth pointing out again. Team Canada will officially unveil these jerseys on Monday afternoon. Team USA will do the same. I will, as always, have pictures to share.

By the way, welcome Toronto Star readers! Once you get your fill of the Olympic jerseys, have a look around the site. I'm sure you'll find something you like.