Saturday, September 13, 2008

From The Ground Up, Part 8

A lot happening this weekend with the Icethetics fantasy hockey league — not sure if that's the name, just what I'm calling it right now. Let's outline what's what.

First, the North and Northeast Division city selection process is over. We have the five cities that will be included in each division. That will be revealed tomorrow in the post where you guys will begin submitting name nominations for those teams.

That brings is to the Pacific and Central Divisions. We are now finished with the nominations for those divisions and I've narrowed down 20 names from each city. I know this may irk some of you, but let's face it, some of those names weren't exactly spectacular to begin with. Plus, simplicity is king in my book.

The next step is you guys choosing each team's name. This will be a simple process. For each city you'll be directed to a page with all 20 name finalists. You will rate each name individually from 1 to 5 stars. The name with the highest star rating will be the team's official name. In the event of a tie, a runoff poll will be held the next week.

This process assures that you aren't forced to choose one name over another. You simply rate each name on its own merits. You like it or you don't. This should allow us to get a fair consensus of what everyone considers to be a good team name.

Here's the thing, at this point is when we start doing one division per week. It'd be an insane amount of work for me to keep up with both divisions. So this week you'll rate the names for the Pacific Division. Next week the Central. The week after that Northeast... and so on. The process of determining the names for all 30 teams will take six weeks starting today.

There are links in the Fantasy League section in the pollbar directing you to the list of names for each city in the Pacific Division. Rate as many or as few names as you want and you're done. All the results will be finalized next weekend and we'll start with the Central Division.

An important note. A few cities have the same team names available. Rush, for example, was nominated and is a finalist for both Anchorage and Los Angeles. Obviously, two teams cannot have the same name. If, by some miracle, the same name is selected for two cities, the city for which it got the higher rating gets to keep it. The other city has to give it up and go with the second place name. If there's a tie, we'll do a runoff poll.

If you guys have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'll address them as a reply to your comment or email, or make an addition to this post.

Sun's Silly Sens Sweater Surmising

All right, rarely will you catch me taking a newspaper to task but a recent story appearing on the Ottawa Sun's web site is laughable! I think it's fair to say that I've probably been paying almost as much attention to the new third jersey releases as the NHL marketing gurus actually doing the job. So try to understand my position as I write this.

The following make up the first four paragraphs of the article in question, written by Chris Stevenson.

The Senators will have another new look on the ice this season.

After a year's absence, most of the teams in the NHL, including the Senators, are expected to unveil another third jersey to complement their home and away duds this season (never mind that for many of the clubs these new jerseys will actually be their seventh or eighth versions over the last few years).

According to an image obtained by Sun Media and believed to be approved by the NHL, the Senators' third jersey could look something like this: Black with red and white trim and the word "Sens" climbing up from the right to left on the chest.

"I've seen a sheet that had the third jerseys on it and it was stamped 'NHL Approved,' " said a source. "That's the Senators jersey I saw."

The "image obtained by Sun Media" is this.



It was created by JerseyDatabase.com as part of a series of concepts based off of a report by Howard Berger back in July. I wrote about the concepts last month. See the next image, a screen grab from the original JerseyDatabase.com blog post.



Then a "source," which is a roundabout way of saying "anonymous poster on a message board," is quoted as saying he's/she's seen it on a sheet stamped "NHL Approved." Ok, my sides are sore from all this laughing.

Since when do legitimate news-gathering organizations quote blind sources on something this ineffectual? That's usually left to the likes of blogs — like Icethetics. I quote blind sources like it's my job, here.

By the way, I'd love to see this "approval" stamp and witness this 1950s bureaucratic process in action.

Anyway, sorry if my reaction came off as a little over-the-top, but I got a few emails linking to this story and I just wanted to offer my take on it. I'm all for "leaks" and such but let's call a spade a spade. This is just funny.

While the image above may be a close representation of what actually is the Ottawa Senators' new third jersey, this article doesn't have me convinced. What do you guys think? (Keep it clean, please.)

Oilers Put 30th On Ice

A photo of Edmonton Oilers rookie Taylor Chorney on the team's official web site reveals the new paint job on the ice at Rexall Place. It's the traditional Oilers logo with a giant "30" at the bottom.

You can go to their site or see the image below.



By the way, I said "traditional" because you'll notice the distinct lack of a red circle encompassing the logo. It's what I anticipate seeing on this season's third jersey.

Thanks to Darren for the tip on the photo.

It's a simplified version of the 30th anniversary logo I posted last month. That logo was found in public document filings by journalist James Gordon. For a refresher...



I imagine that or something similar will serve as a special patch somewhere on the Oilers' jerseys this season.