This is my second time creating in the SHL, but the first time I will actually be doing something. The first thing I noticed when creating (aside from the creation process that is far easier than any of the other sim leagues I’ve participated in…) are the branding of the SMJHL teams, where my newly created defenseman will start his career. Here is my ranking of the teams I’d like to play for (or not) based exclusively on their branding.
Anaheim Outlaws: B-
Outlaws are a classic sports team logo, especially for a team out West. Using the classic Big Chungus as a team mascot is pretty cool, though. The arena picture looks a little bit like a space ship, but the futurism seems to contrast a little bit with the bandit-style logo. I’d expect the team to play in a dusty stadium with those little doors that everyone kicks open in the westerns to make a dramatic entrance. But I guess it would be hard to play hockey in a place like that, so the different look is forgivable. At least the bandit making up the primary logo looks fierce. The colors seem eerily similar to a certain baseball team based in the Anaheim area, but also I don’t really have a suggestion for a better color for an outlaw to wear. Bad guys wear red or black, but black is hard to make work as a primary color and certainly wouldn’t pop as well on the logo. At least an Outlaw could reasonably taught to play hockey, though I’m not sure the game would go too well due to their tendency to start feuds and shoot people dead in cold blood…
Anchorage Armada: D-
Anchorage is certainly the kind of place I would expect a minor league hockey team to be. Alaska, although I’ve never been, seems cold. And hockey goes well with cold. It’s way easier to wear a sweater when it’s cold and obviously the game is played on ice. So it seems weird to have a boat as your icon when you play a game on ice. Boats get sunk by ice. Haven’t these people heard of the Titanic? I’m assuming that the Armada spend most of their time near the bottom of the standings, just like boats that go on ice end up spending most of their time at the bottom of the ocean. And what’s up with their second logo having an old-fashioned boat that is the same color as the sun with a modern airplane? The yellow is the only bright spot (literally) on the uniforms. Their colors look like a rainy sky, which on a Monday afternoon just make me want to sleep. Boats don’t play hockey, though I’m sure a battleship would make a good goaltender.
Carolina Kraken: A-
That is a lot of orange. I would like it a lot more if I didn’t absolutely hate UT. Now you have to wonder whether I’m talking about Texas or Tennessee because both of them use orange and are UT. In case you really are that curious, I was talking about Texas. Why do most kraken look like an octopus? Everyone knows the legend had more to do with a giant squid, which obviously looks more like a squid than an octopus. In any case, I’m always a fan of a sports team using a legendary mythical creature to represent themselves. The kraken in the logo has limbs that look almost soft and furry and that throws me for a bit of a loop, since kraken live underwater and their arms should probably be more scaly like most underwater creatures. While orange isn’t my favorite, krakens are cool and I could see myself playing there. I could see a Kraken learning to play hockey. If it really is a giant octopus, it’ll have the brains for sure. It could probably learn to pull itself along pretty well and all those arms would be great for shot blocking.
Colorado Raptors: C+
I have spent the last several seasons of my ISFL career playing for the Colorado Yeti and am a resident of Colorado in real life. That alone gives the Raptors some brownie points. Plus there’s the fact that every kid thinks velociraptors were just the coolest thing. Unfortunately, they were probably closer to the size of turkeys and had feathers. I suppose they could have still been terrifying hunters and I’d certainly be scared of one, but I’m just not sure the Colorado Raptors branding is right for me. Blue isn’t a bad color, but the logo looks more like a snake with a row of teeth or a sea creature than a raptor, and the yellow highlighting almost makes it look like the creature is bioluminescent. That seems counterintuitive for a hunting dinosaur. The alternate logo certainly looks like something that would come out of the state of Colorado and looks a little bit like some of the alternate Avalanche logos. Bonus points for staying true there, but it isn’t quite enough in my mind to make up for the below average primary logo. Could you get a raptor to play hockey? Maybe. But it would probably be more interested in trying to eat the other team than actually playing the game.
Detroit Falcons: C
It’s a glowing red bird. This league has a lot of bird teams. The Inferno, Platoon, Steelhawks, Falcons, and Citadelles all have birds on their logos. That’s way too many birds for one league. That said, red just looks good on hockey jerseys. Unfortunately, it reminds me a little too much of the big bad Soviets from the movie Miracle. The Hawks logo looks much better on the mostly white kits than it does when it’s just more red with a slight white outline on the mostly red sweaters. I also have mixed memories in Detroit. I did a band show there once in the summer of 2019. Their NFL team has some of the worst turf I’ve ever marched on, but I got to see a friend after the show so that was nice. At least the team managed to get their stadium sponsored by an airline, which makes sense because planes fly and birds fly. But why is it a blue airline sponsoring a red team? That doesn’t make sense. I suppose it’s possible for a bird to play hockey. If it were strong enough it could grip the puck with its talons and fly a few feet off the ice. It might have trouble generating any kind of force behind its shots, though.
Kelowna Knights: A+
Kelowna sounds a little bit like “clown-uh” when I say it in my head. I’m probably mispronouncing it, though. Someone educate me. The Knight looks badass, though. I’m a real sucker for green. It’s the color of the Dallas Stars, the NCAA national champion Baylor Bears, and green is my favorite ink color when I write with my fountain pens. I like green. I also play on a team called the Nights in a baseball league, and Knights sounds like Nights. Honestly the secondary logo brings things down a notch for me. The primary is clearly the right choice in my mind. The knight looks tough, almost like he knows he’s about to blast a puck past someone in a shootout to win the game. I like that mentality a lot and the color scheme just works. Plus I’m reasonably sure you could teach a Knight to play hockey, though he might end up trying to turn the game into a joust and pick up a few extra penalties.
Maine Timber: B-
More green! I talked about green in the last one, so I’ll take it a easy in this one, but I love green. It’s a great color. I like the presentation of this log. The axes appear to be over an actual tree stump, with the M looking overgrown like an actual plant. Plus we get a few shades of the best color out there to admire. The jerseys are a little less impressive. The brown one just doesn’t show the logo very well and I’m really not sure brown should be used as a highlight color on a mostly white one anyways. And while Maine Timber does have a cool ring to it, deforestation is no joke and I’m not so sure I can support this team unless they can convince me they’re environmentally conscious. The logo seems like a good design, I’m just not sure I like it for a sports team. And I’m pretty sure a tree can’t play hockey, though maybe it’s good for making the sticks.
Nevada Battleborn: B+
Now that is a unique name and the shoulder logo with the mountains at the top of the state is a pretty neat graphic. I do like my mountains. The Ram looks a little too much like something from the NFL Rams. Maybe it’s just the white and gold, but it seems a little too similar for whatever reason. But where the logo may feel a little ripped off, the name certainly is not. It’s unique and makes me curious to know exactly what the envision a battle-born being, but it’s certainly not a team I would want to play against. The blue and gold look good together on the logo, but I’m not really sure it translates as well on the jerseys. Maybe it looks better on the ice. I’m not sure how a ram would do playing hockey. I know they have sure footing, but they seem like they’d be slipping all over the ice. And even if they could find their footing, wouldn’t they be more likely to charge and headbutt a player than care about the gameplay going on around them? Seems like too much of a liability.
Newfoundland Berserkers: A+
Another cool team name and an amazing logo to match. This is definitely my favorite name/logo combo so far. Even the background logo looks nice, as the L is made to look a little bit like an axe, although they could have done more with the N. Black and red might be a little cliché as colors, but I feel they’re used well here. A guy with red eyes wearing a wolf-skin as a hat is objectively cool, and the thing that looks kinda like a shield as the backdrop just adds to the toughness. And while a berserker might be a little hot headed and violent on the ice, sometimes you need one or two of those guys on a team to bring the physicality and reel of some big hits.
Quebec City Citadelles: B-
Knowing very little about Canada, I thought it was weird they went with Quebec City instead of just Quebeck, but I think that just might come down to me being uninformed. Sorry, Canadians. I’m not really sure what a Citadelle has to do with an owl, honestly, but it’s another bird team. The red, white, and blue is a pretty overused theme among American teams, but this one is Canadian so it gets a pass. Using white as the primary color in the owl is certainly gutsy, but they manage to make it look nice, although I think the pinkish-red used as the beak lends it a little more of a cute look instead of the fierce one I’d expect you to go with as a sports mascot. That said, I really like the QC secondary logo. But when I search “Citadelles,” Google tells me there was actually a real ice hockey team in the AHL called the Quebec Citadelles that played in Quebec City. Although that team had a goat as its logo and used white and gold for their colors, which was obviously already taken by the Battleborn. Maybe there’s a weird rivalry there, but I would have liked to see a touch more originality in the naming. Owls aren’t bad, but I feel like they’d be even less likely to be able to lift a hockey stick and fly than a hawk or falcon, so probably wouldn’t be much use on ice.
St. Louis Scarecrows: A
Spooky. Although the yellow on the banner is probably a little too bright to accomplish the desired effect, even though it does kinda resemble a wheat field or something. Also why does the team have three official abbreviations. Choose one like a normal team. The colors used do complement each other pretty well and I like having a spooky primary logo. Every league needs a spooky team. I’m sure they do some amazing promotions around Halloween. The secondary logo is cool until you lose me a bit on the L. The background is neat and I like incorporating the hockey stick, but it just doesn’t quite flow right. Not that I could do any better. I suck at logo design. All in all, I’m sure that if a scarecrow were to come to life, you could probably teach it hockey. It might struggle with the physicality element since straw is pretty light, but I’m sure it could learn to handle the puck.
Vancouver Whalers: B-
Last but not least are the Whalers. They get some brownie points on account of having green featured in their logo. I love green. The team is called the Whalers, but all I see on the logo is a whale. Maybe they should just be the Vancouver Whales. Or put people killing a whale on y our logo, but that seems a little sad. We should be saving the whales whenever possible, not killing them. Plus the shield icon kinda looks more like a soccer patch than a hockey team logo. But again I don’t think I could come up with anything better, so please don’t hurt me. I like whales. I’ve been playing Subnautica a lot recently, so I guess I could enjoy playing for a team that likes the ocean. That said, I feel like a whale would just get stuck under the ice and not really be able to do a whole lot for a hockey team.
#Killowna Knights: A+
Kelowna sounds a little bit like “clown-uh” when I say it in my head. I’m probably mispronouncing it, though. Someone educate me. The Knight looks badass, though. I’m a real sucker for green. It’s the color of the Dallas Stars, the NCAA national champion Baylor Bears, and green is my favorite ink color when I write with my fountain pens. I like green. I also play on a team called the Nights in a baseball league, and Knights sounds like Nights. Honestly the secondary logo brings things down a notch for me. The primary is clearly the right choice in my mind. The knight looks tough, almost like he knows he’s about to blast a puck past someone in a shootout to win the game. I like that mentality a lot and the color scheme just works. Plus I’m reasonably sure you could teach a Knight to play hockey, though he might end up trying to turn the game into a joust and pick up a few extra penalties.
05-10-2021, 06:38 PMephenssta Wrote: St. Louis Scarecrows: A
Spooky. Although the yellow on the banner is probably a little too bright to accomplish the desired effect, even though it does kinda resemble a wheat field or something. Also why does the team have three official abbreviations. Choose one like a normal team. The colors used do complement each other pretty well and I like having a spooky primary logo. Every league needs a spooky team. I’m sure they do some amazing promotions around Halloween. The secondary logo is cool until you lose me a bit on the L. The background is neat and I like incorporating the hockey stick, but it just doesn’t quite flow right. Not that I could do any better. I suck at logo design. All in all, I’m sure that if a scarecrow were to come to life, you could probably teach it hockey. It might struggle with the physicality element since straw is pretty light, but I’m sure it could learn to handle the puck.
Hi Ephy! Good to see you coming over to the SHL! Whoever you go to is going to be lucky to have you!
I've left the team abbreviations as it was when I took over. Supposedly they've all been used in the past. Since I've been here, we've used STL. Thank you for pointing that out, and I'll be making the necessary adjustments!
Every league does need a spooky team, and we do have some in-jokes to that effect about the defunct Hayes costumes escaping storage. I agree that a scarecrow would have difficulties with the physical element, but I think we could get some good Mighty Ducks style antics out of having Hayes on the ice.
05-10-2021, 06:38 PMephenssta Wrote: Detroit Falcons: C
It’s a glowing red bird. This league has a lot of bird teams. The Inferno, Platoon, Steelhawks, Falcons, and Citadelles all have birds on their logos.
05-10-2021, 09:11 PMCapt_Blitzkrieg Wrote: I've left the team abbreviations as it was when I took over. Supposedly they've all been used in the past. Since I've been here, we've used STL. Thank you for pointing that out, and I'll be making the necessary adjustments!
if you make stl's abbreviation anything other than stl i will angrily eat a toasted ravioli in your direction
05-10-2021, 09:11 PMCapt_Blitzkrieg Wrote: I've left the team abbreviations as it was when I took over. Supposedly they've all been used in the past. Since I've been here, we've used STL. Thank you for pointing that out, and I'll be making the necessary adjustments!
if you make stl's abbreviation anything other than stl i will angrily eat a toasted ravioli in your direction
05-10-2021, 09:11 PMCapt_Blitzkrieg Wrote: I've left the team abbreviations as it was when I took over. Supposedly they've all been used in the past. Since I've been here, we've used STL. Thank you for pointing that out, and I'll be making the necessary adjustments!
if you make stl's abbreviation anything other than stl i will angrily eat a toasted ravioli in your direction
05-10-2021, 06:38 PMephenssta Wrote:
Colorado Raptors: C+
I have spent the last several seasons of my ISFL career playing for the Colorado Yeti and am a resident of Colorado in real life. That alone gives the Raptors some brownie points. Plus there’s the fact that every kid thinks velociraptors were just the coolest thing. Unfortunately, they were probably closer to the size of turkeys and had feathers. I suppose they could have still been terrifying hunters and I’d certainly be scared of one, but I’m just not sure the Colorado Raptors branding is right for me. Blue isn’t a bad color, but the logo looks more like a snake with a row of teeth or a sea creature than a raptor, and the yellow highlighting almost makes it look like the creature is bioluminescent. That seems counterintuitive for a hunting dinosaur. The alternate logo certainly looks like something that would come out of the state of Colorado and looks a little bit like some of the alternate Avalanche logos. Bonus points for staying true there, but it isn’t quite enough in my mind to make up for the below average primary logo. Could you get a raptor to play hockey? Maybe. But it would probably be more interested in trying to eat the other team than actually playing the game.
As the one partially responsible for the transfer from the Colorado Mammoth to Colorado Raptors. We had Utahraptors in mind, which were more than 10 feet long and terrifying. You are correct about Velociraptors being smaller. Honestly, the hype over velociraptors, due to Jurassic Park, could have been corrected by just calling them Utahraptors—but Velociraptor just sounds cooler. As for the current logo, I much preferred the logo we installed originally for the team. I understand the need for change for the current regime because making sure they can have merch on the website is a big thing for attracting players to the team.
But I digress. I think the Raptors is a fairly good brand, nothing outrageous or new, and the current leadership team has done what they needed to do to make it usable on the redbubble site. But I can't say I don't miss the Synthwave 80s Raptor we had for almost 20 seasons...
Always good to meet another Colorado resident. Need more of us on the site. (I am also the creator of the Colorado Yeti, lol. Trying to bring Colorado to the masses).
ephenssta
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