Wild 10th Logo & AHL Report
Wild's 10th anniversary logoThe Minnesota Wild will celebrate their 10th anniversary next season. And we all know that no anniversary can be properly celebrated in the NHL without its own branding.
Meet the Wild's 10th anniversary logo. It started showing up recently on the team's official website in ads meant to promote 2010-11 season tickets. It's simple — a red X in the form of a pair of crossed hockey sticks with the years 2000 and 2010 in a wheat banner surrounding the primary logo. Gets the job done.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are also celebrating 10 seasons in the NHL this fall. However I have not yet come across their anniversary logo. I'm not even certain they'll have one. (But they probably will because it means being able to sell more stuff.)
That's not all. I also have a handful of AHL specialty jersey updates.
Mike Ivall's winning Wolf Pack jerseyThe AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack held a jersey design contest this season, asking fans to design a specialty jersey.
It was subsequently announced that frequent Icethetics contributor Mike Ivall was named the winner and his sweater design would be implemented for a couple of games in late February. That did not happen.
The Wolf Pack instead told Icethetics that it would be worn for the final home game of the season on Fan Appreciation Night. That was last Saturday. And the jersey looked great. Congrats to Mike!
Nice to see an Icethetics artist taking his concept art all the way to the pros. NHL, here we come!
And there are a ton more photos on the Wolf Pack's Facebook page if you'd like to see more of the jersey. But nothing really beats a fight pose.
Albany's final gameThe AHL's Albany River Rats sported special sweaters for their final regular season game in upstate New York.
Tom S. emailed in about this photo which appeared alongside a web recap of the 3-2 victory over the Adirondack Phantoms over the last weekend. Neither of us had seen that red jersey before, so I assume it was just used for this game.
No other details were available about it on the River Rats' website. And they did make the Calder Cup playoffs so they'll have a few more games up there before they head to Charlotte. (Scroll down for an update.)
AHL Pens' specialty jerseyFinally, the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins wore special sweaters to honor the military last Friday.
The design is similar to their third jersey — a knock-off of the Blackhawks' Winter Classic/third jersey — though it swaps the red and black. And the logo text is replaced with "Support Our Troops."
The Penguins defeated Albany 4-3 in the game and now the two teams are facing each other in the first round of the AHL Calder Cup playoffs.
The Penguins are also utilizing their Facebook page to provide even more photos for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately none of these guys is in a fight stance, but they're still worth looking at anyway.
Thanks to Dave B. for the email!
Albany vs. Adirondack for Time Warner CupFollowing up on the River Rats story, it turns out that while that is a specialty jersey, it had nothing to do with it being the team's last regular season game.
Matt C. explains:
The Albany River Rats red alternate jersey described in today's blog post is actually the jersey worn during Time Warner Cup games between Albany and their Northway rival Adirondack (Glens Falls) Phantoms.
Each team wears a special alternate jersey for these games — Albany's jersey is actually a representation of the jersey worn by their mascot "Rowdy" in their logo, and Adirondack wears an orange-colored jersey with "Adirondack" spelled diagonally across the front similar to the jersey formerly worn by the Adirondack Red Wings.
Always great to get insightful emails like that. Thanks Matt!