Penguins Winter Classic Preview

The Pittsburgh Penguins are preparing to unveil their brand new 2011 Winter Classic sweater, according to the Tribune-Review.

An article published this morning goes into little detail about the new threads, except to say that they're blue and the scarf-wearing penguin will finally see its way onto a sweater. The story is more of a retrospective on Bob Gessner, the man who created that original Pens logo.

First, the good bits in a quote box:

A new blue-colored alternate uniform is soon to be unveiled by the team. It will debut at the outdoor game against Washington, and the Penguins plan to adopt it next season as a "third" uniform. Also, the first day of 2011 will mark the first appearance of the Penguins' original logo on a uniform.

If you managed to catch my radio interview last weekend, you heard me make a bold prediction I didn't have much basis for. That being, my guess is the Penguins will go with a mish-mash jersey, like the Bruins did at the last Winter Classic.

Rather than recreating a past look, I wouldn't be surprised if they combined elements of several looks and got a little creative with it. Based on this article's assertion that the 1967 scarfed penguin will be on the jersey, it sounds like I could be right. How rare.

There's no date set for the unveiling, but the story does say the new sweater will "resemble uniforms worn by Mario Lemieux's son's local youth team." If anyone reading is involved with that team, maybe you have a photo or two you could provide to give us an idea of what to expect.

For the record, a quick Google search turns up this photo of Austin Lemieux's team in action from February 2008. They are wearing the Pens' current third jersey — which debuted in the NHL just a month earlier at the 2008 Winter Classic. Perhaps they've redesigned their uniforms since?

Anyway, this post is already getting long so I won't harp on the last bit. If you want the inside scoop on the design of the Penguins' logo, you should really read the rest of the article. Gessner says he never liked the scarfed penguin and he doesn't think he'll be impressed with the new sweater.

Update on Saturday · Sep 25 · 2010 | 3:19 PM PDT by Chris

After this post went up, I got an interesting email from Icethetics reader Jeff S. who tells me a site called NHL Snipers posted what it claims will be the 2011 Winter Classic jerseys — for both the Penguins and the Capitals.

Penguins' Winter Classic jersey?The post featuring these images gives no details as to where they came from, who designed them or even whether they're believed to be real or not. Still, I can't help but feel like there's an inkling of plausibility to the designs.

Perhaps I'm leaning in that direction because they fit my predictions perfectly. This powder blue Pens sweater borrows from a number of eras in team history. And it comes together spectacularly.

The sleeve stripes and shoulder number placement call back to the black-and-gold look of the 1980s. The dark blue in the uniform was part of the 70s design. And the numbers match the original sweater worn in 1967.

Capitals' Winter Classic jersey?The Washington Capitals will officially unveil their Winter Classic sweater a week from today. There is no one who thinks it will look like anything but this design.

It's the Caps' original sweater from 1974. And seeing Alex Ovechkin wearing it will be surreal. It's littered with red and blue stars and features the retro logo previously unveiled at the announcement of the 2011 Winter Classic.

The only real question is whether the players will sport the criminally hilarious white pants for the game.

Anyway, these drawings are all well and good to give us an idea of what we might expect on New Year's Day, but it doesn't really matter until we see photos of the actual uniform.

Remember, the Caps unveil theirs a week from today. The Pens... "soon." Maybe we'll get theirs in the next week or two as well.

Winter Classic Logos Unveiled!

At a press conference this afternoon, the NHL unveiled the logo for the 2011 Winter Classic along with the retro logos to be used by the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins.

The outdoor game will take place on New Year's Day at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. The logos were revealed on giant digital screens at the football stadium, which is normally home to the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers.

Unlike past Winter Classic logos, which have typically used a neutral color palette, the 2011 mark seems to feature only the colors likely to be found on the Penguins' Winter Classic throwback uniforms. To be fair, though, these are the colors most associated with the city of Pittsburgh itself.

And based on the news conference, it seems everyone in Pittsburgh is very excited to be playing in the NHL's most publicized regular season game for the second time since 2008 — though this is Crosby & Co.'s first time hosting.

A staple of the Winter Classic since its inception has been retro logos and uniforms. Every team involved has looked into its past for something special to wear. This year will be no exception.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will call back to their inaugural season, 1967-68 — for the logo at least. The uniforms won't be revealed for either team until the fall. The mark features the original skating penguin wearing a scarf, all set on a "vintage" white.

The use of this logo suggests the Penguins will also wear their inaugural uniforms, which were light blue with PITTSBURGH in diagonal text across the front. Again, we'll have to wait for the fall, but this is probably a fair assumption.

The Washington Capitals will also look back to their inaugural season, 1974-75. The logo is the original script mark used from the team's inception until 1996. The Caps' current logo, in use since 2007, is call back to this mark.

With the expection of the first Winter Classic in 2008, the host team typically wears the dark uniforms, with the visitors in white — as is standard in the regular season these days. That means the Capitals will likely wear their original white sweaters.

Of course talk about Winter Classic uniforms is speculative and premature, it's easy to make educated guesses based on history. I'd really be surprised if we get anything different — though I was definitely surprised by the Bruins last year!

The Capitals will officially unveil their Winter Classic uniforms on Oct. 2 at the Capitals Convention. The Penguins have said theirs will also be unveiled some time in the fall — no specific date just yet. You can read more about today's event at NHL.com.

Caps Sued Over Weagle

Designer claims infringementA few weeks ago a lawsuit was filed against the Washington Capitals for copyright infringement. Apparently, a fan from Vienna claims the team's new secondary logo, introduced in 2007, was his idea.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Washington Business Journal from June 18:

Chris Joannou claims he started tinkering with the Caps’ old logo in his spare time in 1993. He sent the team an unsolicited drawing of an eagle and the Capitol dome embedded in a hockey stick. Very Pittsburgh Penguin-y, but the late Abe Pollin, the Caps owner at the time, allegedly acknowledged the design in a July 1993 letter.

“Very creative, very bold, and I like it,” Pollin supposedly wrote. “We haven’t thought of changing the Capitals’ logo or name; but, if and when we do, your logo will certainly be given consideration.”

A couple of years later, Joannou alleges, he showed Caps officials two versions of another proposed logo, this time with an eagle astride the Capitol building, its wings outstretched in a “W” shape.

The law firm Stueve Siegel Hanson are representing Joannou and included another version of the Weagle logo in their complaint. What do you guys think of them?

Lawsuit logo comparison

It's worth noting there is a reason most pro sports teams don't accept unsolicited artwork. Crap like this. I'm not discounting Joannou's claims. Maybe he created this in the 90s, maybe he didn't. Maybe it's similar, maybe it's not. That's for a judge to decide. All I know is that if you give someone artwork without any prior agreements, you're just setting yourself up for problems.

If you find yourself wanting to submit artwork to a team, I highly recommend first reading this post about unsolicited artwork over at PuckDrawn. Johnny's got a lot of great information there for logo designers, including an Idea Submission Form.

Meantime, I'll try to keep an eye on this story and see where it goes. The Weagle is possibly one of the most popular secondary logos in the NHL. It would be a shame to see it disappear.

Classic Uniforms of the Future

We kicked off our week with the unveiling of the new Maple Leafs jersey, but there are still more big unveilings to come. Today I've put together a brief rundown.

Caps to unveil Winter Classic uniform

The Washington Capitals will unveil their 2011 Winter Classic uniform at the 2010 Capitals Convention on Oct. 2.

The announcement made on the Caps' website offers no details about the design of new sweaters, but traditionally teams look to past jerseys for inspiration at this event. The Capitals have two distinct design eras prior to the 2007-08 rebranding.

From 1974 to 1995, the Caps wore the red, white and blue they have today, but the logo and uniforms come straight out of the '70s — as you would expect. They are most noted for wearing white pants with their red jerseys early on in their inaugural season. In 1995, the Capitals adopted a darker blue and dropped the red in favor of bronze and black.

My bet is that both the Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, who are hosting the New Year's Day game at Heinz Field, will select something from the '70s or '80s for their outdoor game threads. But don't expect to see Washington wearing white pants. (As funny as it might be.)

Flames to don special Heritage sweater

Canada is finally getting its game back! By now, we all know there will be a second outdoor game during the 2010-11 season called the Heritage Classic. The Calgary Flames will host the Montreal Canadiens at McMahon Stadium on Feb. 20, 2011.

On Friday, Flames president Ken King said his team will be donning a special sweater for the big game. Details by way of the Calgary Herald:

A new jersey is a certainty.

“We’re going to have a very special heritage uniform,” King said. “We’re not going to tell you what it is, but I think people will really like it.

“It will be tied to the history of Calgary long before the Flames were here.”

Long before the Flames, you say? Interesting. Major league hockey was first played in Calgary in 1921 when the Calgary Tigers were formed. They won a few WCHL championships, including one in 1924 after which they challenged the very same Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. And lost.

Fifty years later, in 1975, the WHA's Vancouver Blazers relocated to the Stampede City and became the Calgary Cowboys. They were significantly less successful than the Tigers and folded after just two seasons. Calgary developed a proclivity for taking other city's sloppy seconds (just a joke!) when the Atlanta Flames were relocated in 1980. So there's some interesting history there.

The 2011 Heritage Classic will be the first time Canada has hosted an outdoor NHL game since 2003 when the Edmonton Oilers challenged the Canadiens. (Is it just me or should the Flames be playing the Leafs in this one?)

King did not say when this jersey would be unveiled, but one would expect it to be well prior to February.

Update on Saturday · Jun 19 · 2010 | 9:32 PM PDT by Chris

One more thing I just came across. While no logos have been publicly unveiled for either outdoor game, there is a temporary logo being used on the Penguins and Capitals' websites to promote the 2011 Winter Classic.

It's by no means final artwork, but it does bear the traditional look with WINTER in a script type and CLASSIC in something a little more futuristic/gothic. Just wanted to throw that out there. I have no information on when logos for either the Winter Classic or Heritage Classic will be made public. But it shouldn't be long.

Caps Turn 35, Opt Against Third

Note about Logo Tournament: The voting section of the website will only be the Icethetics landing page on Mondays when new polls are posted. Throughout the rest of the week, polls are available by clicking on the VOTE! tab at the top or in the sidebar.

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Capitals 35th patchWe're tracking Washington Capitals jerseys news today. They just celebrated 35 years and the final word on a Caps third jersey is here.

On Saturday night, the Capitals wore a special 35th anniversary patch on their jerseys. This after it was postponed last month due to inclement weather.

Icethetics reader Lowell sent in this photo of the patch (right) and he plans on sewing it onto his Caps jersey.

In the meantime, if you want to see how it looked in action, here's a shot of Alex Ovechkin wearing it on his jersey. The patch-enhanced sweaters were put up on the auction block on Saturday night after the game. Anyone want to guess how much his went for?

While we're on the subject of rare jerseys, the Capitals have no intention of adding a third in the foreseeable future, according to owner Ted Leonsis.

This is a story PuckDrawn picked up on last week. In a video interview on Caps365, Leonsis said:

There's no active discussion, there's no work on it. We introduced new jerseys a couple years ago. The fan base was not supportive of that. My favorite from one of our message board posters was, "How dare you! This looks like a colostomy bag!" I kept that one.

And now I think our logo and color scheme are amongst the most accepted, best-selling and best-looking in the league. Sometimes injecting change is difficult.

I don't feel the compelling need to have the third jersey. I also think it's unfair to introduce a third jersey because people want to then go out and buy them. And with the economy being the way it is, I just thought it would look greedy on our part.

At some point when it feels right, and maybe the fan base gives us permission to do that, we'll certainly do it, but now didn't seem like the right time.

You can click here to watch the video. The third jersey conversation takes place around the 18-minute mark.

So as awesome as it might be, don't expect a blue Weagle jersey anytime soon. Caps fans don't want it. Yet. But when they do, it'll be one of the best around.

The best chance we have now seeing the Caps in anything other than their current jerseys is the 2011 Winter Classic. Assuming the rumors are true, one would hope they'd opt for a throwback sweater like everyone else has done so far — even if their previous jerseys are pretty awful.