Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Rumors & Possible Leaks

Leafs fans, just when you thought all was quiet on the jersey front after this morning's announcement, something strange has happened. In the Game Master section of the team's official site is the following graphic.



That's confusing. For sure it's not what the Toronto Maple Leafs' jersey looked like last season. It had different striping and no laced collar. Thing is, it looks and awful lot like one of those concepts I posted back in the early days of NHLToL. In fact, see for yourself! It's a dead ringer!

In fact, that jersey I posted last August was one fan's recoloring of a Rbk EDGE Bruins jersey. How did that exact image make it on the Leafs' official site?! That's my question. Weird. Are the Leafs considering a jersey alteration already?

I'll keep you posted on whatever I find out. Thanks to Tyler for pointing this out to me.

And as we near the new season, I'm getting more and more emails from people who say they've seen or spoken with someone who's seen new alternate sweater designs. I can't speak to the veracity of the claims, but I'm happy to post them nevertheless. So here's what's been going around recently:

Bruins
black with primary and secondary logos swapped like previous rumors
Oilers
royal blue and orange vintage style
Senators
black with SENS written across the chest
Sharks
black, no further details
Blues
similar in style to Minnesota's home sweaters
Maple Leafs
white vintage style with laced collar, like 2006-07 alternates

One source is reporting that 17 teams will have alternates for 2008-09. Previous rumors said 18.

And finally, the Canadiens will apparently have three different jerseys throughout the season to commemorate their centennial. I'm assuming this means three in addition to the regular home/road uniforms.

That's it for now. Should I hear anything else, you'll be able to read it here. By the way, I plan on migrating the big rumors post from NHLToL to Icethetics soon just so you don't have to leave this blog to see it. I'll wait for a slow news day so it doesn't bump everything that I've posted recently.

Wallpaper Wednesday VI

Another Wednesday brings another set of wallpapers — all player-centric. First is Brad Boyes of the Blues.



We had a cool Bruins wallpaper last week based around Marc Savard. The same artist brings us Zdeno Chara this time around.



Like Trevor Linden? Apparently he is forever a Canuck.



And last, we have a simple design for Flyer Jeff Carter.



Keep the wallpapers coming guys if you want this to continue to be a weekly series. Otherwise, I'll just go ahead and make it a biweekly series like the Freak Out Friday.

Leafs Announcement & Winter Classic

Couple of news items I wanted to address briefly. Last week I wrote a post about the Maple Leafs' announcement which was made today. Rumors suggested it could be about a new third jersey. Turns out it was just about the team offering free admission to an exhibition game.

Also, the NHL announced today that the Winter Classic will, in fact, take place at Wrigley Field between the Blackhawks and Red Wings. Those rumors had been around a while and it turns out they're true. Just like last year the game will take place on New Year's Day. When a logo is released, I'll post it here at Icethetics.