Nittany Lions Tweak Jerseys for 2013-14 (Updated)

At the 2013 edition of Be A Part From The Start, an annual pep rally for incoming freshmen held in Rec Hall, Guy Gadowsky and the men's hockey team helped get the new students fired up to be Penn Staters.

That, in and of itself, isn't really news - the team frequently participates in spirit events. The news is what they were wearing Sunday night while shooting t-shirts into the crowd, as it appears that a handful of minor jersey modifications are in store for the inaugural season at Pegula Ice Arena.

Via Onward State:

The differences are subtle from last year's threads, but they exist:

• On the numbers, the font has been altered slightly to one with more serifs, and also enlarged a bit.
• The so-called "TV numbers" have been moved further down the sleeve from their previous perch on the shoulder.
• Nike's swoosh has been centered, just above the logo. Before, it resided on the left (as looking at it) chest. Despite that move, the tie-down still appears to be in place - it's protruding pretty visibly from the unidentifiable player to the immediate right of Nate Jensen, the player closest to the camera.
• And look closely at Jensen's back. Is that a contrasting blue nameplate with white lettering, similar to the style worn most famously by the Philadelphia Flyers?

Yes, it is. Just for comparison, here's Max Gardiner modeling the 2012-2013 whites at the jersey unveiling event last September.

This season's jerseys, of course, will also feature a Big Ten logo on the chest and possibly some sort of patch to commemorate the opening of the long-awaited arena. The former is something that has already been applied to other Penn State athletic teams.

Presumably, the blues will mirror the font and sleeve changes, although there's no word yet on whether those will include names (probably the most frequent criticism of PSU's uniform is that the home whites have names on the back while the away jerseys do not) or whether the women's jerseys have also been altered to match.

Check back for updates should that information - or better pictures - become available.

UPDATE 8/26, 10:10 A.M.: Via Tina Hay, editor of The Penn Stater, here's our best look yet. It appears as if the "B1G" logo has already been affixed.

I left the photo in its original state for obvious reasons, so click it to enlarge.

UPDATE 9/6, 1:40 P.M.: Since the original post, scraps of not-worth-an-update evidence have indicated that the women have received the identical new-ish look seen on the men. On Friday afternoon, that knowledge was both confirmed and enhanced by the women's team's Instagram account, as their blue jerseys have arrived.

Nameplates! Yes! I dare anyone to come up with a way in which these are not perfect.

Three Stars: September 10-16

3. Meet #25 Katie Murphy
(YouTube)

I debated whether to headline Murphy on this week's entry reserved for the women's YouTube countdown since I also popped her in below for something else, but I couldn't help it, because we have something very important in common. Third question, if you really need to know (it violates a self-imposed TYT rule to directly say it).

Also this week: Birdie Shaw, Jenna Welch, Sarah Wilkie and Emily Laurenzi.

2. Penn State sports facilities projects on hold
(Centre Daily Times)

In a somewhat under-the-radar story, intercollegiate athletics pulled $25 million from plans to upgrade the extremely-dated McCoy Natatorium and add to the tennis facilities. The student-run committee responsible for spending the facilities fee charged to each University Park student quickly responded by removing their $30 million from the equation as well. The stated reason for the athletic department's move was, in fact, the NCAA sanctions.

This situation illustrates precisely why I'm still keeping my eyes and ears open for potential impacts of the sanctions on hockey despite the party line, which is to point out that the consent decree with the NCAA doesn't allow cuts from non-football sports. The athletic department in this case isn't chipping directly at the swimming and diving teams' budgets, but at the facilities budget, so it's not a violation. I'm fairly certain that those teams aren't particularly happy about this news, though - it surely hurts them from a competitive standpoint, as McCoy is already well below par compared with peer institutions. The bottom line, the reason I included this, is that this illustrates how the consent decree is not ironclad protection for non-revenue sports.

It's interesting...if you had asked me before all of this whether I'd rather have $102 million for hockey from one guy or $102 million for hockey from, say, 50 guys, I would have taken the second option every single time. It's not that I'm not grateful to the Pegula family, of course I am. This blog is named after my gratitude. Terry Pegula, while I don't know him personally, seems as if he has a sincere desire to use his vast fortune to grow the sport of hockey for the right reasons (obviously, there's plenty of evidence of that well beyond State College). He's engaged in the fruits of his generosity, but only as a matter of interest - I don't see him as a micromanager, the type of donor who would call up Joe Battista to demand that someone be fired. I'm just generally wary of being indebted for life to one single guy who, as a result, has largely unchecked power over the program, regardless of that guy's identity.

That said, I've now come around to thinking it's beneficial to have that one guy, at least at this particular moment in history. While the power that Pegula holds can very easily be detrimental under a different set of circumstances, it's reality that just about every athletics and facilities expenditure is under intense scrutiny right now. In that climate, I think it's vital that hockey has an extremely high-profile (largest private donation in Penn State history, celebrity stemming from his ownership of the Buffalo Sabres) backer capable of scaring Dave Joyner and cronies away from harming hockey in a way not possible from fifty $2 million donors - who are also not of one mind and would likely be split on something like repurposing their donations from "hockey only" to "general" if asked. It's not off-the-map crazy to suggest that a hypothetical involving more evenly-distributed donations would have resulted in abandonment of NCAA hockey at Penn State shortly after last November.

1. Penn State Hockey 2012-13 Season- Enemies
(YouTube)

PSU law student Aaron Griffin, who immortalized himself as the sixth person to ever buy student tickets for NCAA hockey at Penn State, assembled this unreal primer on the opposition this season. I'm going to eventually type a lot of words about these teams, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a five-minute video is worth...I don't know, probably more words than I'll have for you.

Best of the Rest

Is that Toaster? I don't think I've ever used Toaster. I like Sutro and X-Pro best.

kpegula
(Instagram)

Hey, remember that time Terry and Kim Pegula donated $88 million (at the time) to Penn State to build an arena and endow scholarships so that the men's and women's ACHA programs could elevate to NCAA Division I? Of course you do, especially since I've already discussed it in this post. Remember how they were given customized Icers jerseys at the press conference on September 17, 2010?

Well, the white one is in good hands, those of Terry's and Kim's daughter Kelly. I wonder if Jessie has the blue one.

Penn State Unveils New Look
(The Pipeline Show)

I'm not going to link every opinion out there concerning the new jerseys, but this one was more detailed than most, and also provides counterpoint to my own opinion.

The TPS guys, before you get too mad at them over this, have been absolutely fantastic to the Penn State program so far, including an hour-long studio appearance by Guy Gadowsky in July and previous interviews of both Gadowsky and freshman forward Reed Linaker. This post still counts as good publicity as well.

College Hockey Roundup: Penn State’s New Threads, NBCSN Schedule, Culture at BU
(The United States of Hockey)

This jersey opinion from Chris Peters generally reflects the non-PSU consensus in my observation: simple, sharp and classy, although maybe a little boring. He did toss in a couple of curious comments, though.

The one deviation from traditional hockey jerseys is the smaller numbering resting a little higher than normal on the shoulders, which is an interesting look. We’ll see how that shows up on the broadcast (As a part-time broadcaster, shoulder/sleeve numbers are crucial to identify unfamiliar players).

The placement of the so-called "TV numbers" is due to the structure of Nike hockey jerseys - one would think that Peters would have noticed that as a guy blogging about Nike-outfitted USA Hockey. Observe:

Clockwise from top left: the Nikewear of Penn State, USA Hockey, Michigan State and Hockey Canada.

As you can see, there's sort of a wedge-shaped area right at the shoulder junction which, due to the way the jerseys are put together, is the best, most convenient place for those numbers. It also limits their size to the space between the top and bottom seams (looking at the edges of the numbers in relation to those seams above, PSU's numbers may be smaller than others, but not by much at all if that's even the case). These weren't design choices made by Penn State out of the blue, and the placement is certainly something Peters should have seen before in his part-time broadcast work (you can almost see him huffing his own fumes as he dropped that parenthetical in, because FastHockey is just like NBC).

While the “We Are Still Penn State” signs might make you (and me) a little squeamish...

Wait, hold up Chris...I thought we were talking about hockey jerseys, not what you ridiculously labeled the "Sandusky-Paterno" scandal and your uninformed opinion of our reaction to it. Stick to fluffing NTDPers and Ryan Kesler while receiving entirely too much credit for it bud. Actually, you can keep being a hack if you want, that's ultimately not my concern, but at the very least, maybe you should try digging a little deeper into the hack toolbox than "express disapproval of Penn State in an unrelated story to try to win over the audience and generate clicks...and make sure you sneak the name 'Paterno' in as well." That one's been dulled from overuse.

Both of those...views are wrong.

Well, they're opinions, so they can't really be wrong...but yeah, yours are anyway.*

Oh, almost forgot...

Hope you puke.

* Yes, I know that last quote is well out of context. In fact, it's from an entirely different subsection of the post.

@t_wea36
(Twitter)

The women's team enjoys conditioning sessions enough to pose for team photos to commemorate them. Really nothing not to like about this group.

katie_murphie
(Instagram)

Speaking of the Lady Icers Nittany Lions women, Katie Murphy and Lindsay Reihl had a little skate baking party Thursday night (for those who don't know, baking new skates helps break them in so that they fit better, and look good, feel good, play good). Of course, skate baking parties are a lot more fun when you're working with these:

Aligning D-III men’s title game with Frozen Four has pros, cons
(USCHO)

Understandably, the powers that be in Division III are concerned with the lengthening of the season required to play their national championship game on the Friday of the Division I Frozen Four weekend. That said, figure it out, because the proposal, which would be effective with the 2014 event in Philadelphia, is a fantastic idea.

Outlook’s NCAA 2012-13 Preseason Women’s Hockey Awards
(outlookhockey.com)

There's probably no need to click through, as PSU gets completely skunked on the preseason CHA awards here. Well, unless you want to learn about some of the top players elsewhere in the league I guess.

LVC ice hockey preview: Goalie Matt Turner
(Stack the Pads)

Matt Turner will bring his sick mask to the Ice Pavilion on October 5th to face the ACHA's Ice Lions. And Derek Meluzio will bring his sick goalie previews to Penn State in the near future to give us a first look at what the troika on the Nittany Lions roster will be wearing.

Pegula Ice Arena Sneak Peak 9/14/12
(Big Froggy 101)

I struggled with the decision to share this because of how completely amateurish they make my PIA photos appear, but holding it back would have only cubed my amateurishness factor, right? Oh well, some country station gets access to the site that I don't for whatever reason. I'll survive. Here's a taste of what the link offers:

Jersey Day Wrap-Up

For more on the jersey unveiling, see Jersey Day Photos and Jersey Day Interviews.

I suppose the only appropriate way to close the book on the reveal of Penn State hockey's new look is to offer an opinion. There's just one problem - in a way, I already have. Once again, here are the jerseys:

Hannah Lane/Onward State

Now look at this set of concept jerseys I posted back on August 10th:

The two alternates are obviously throwbacks to the 1940s varsity teams - and yeah, I still want to see those at some point - but the regular home and away? Pretty similar, I'd say. Just so I don't lose my jersey geek card, the differences are that the concepts:

• don't have a tie-down.
• do have a name on the away jersey and don't have the little Nittany Lion logo under the back collar on the name-free actual away jersey.
• have a slightly different font for the numbers - compare and contrast the 2s on (real) Max Gardiner and (concept) George Saad.

So it's pretty safe to say that I approve. I mean, all I did was endorse an (essentially) identical design before the fact without inside knowledge and without (in my recollection) ever so much as speaking with anyone involved with either program about jersey design until the unveiling. I'm not alone in that opinion, as this latest reflection of the classic "Penn State look" has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from all corners of the college hockey internet. The pro hockey internet's reviews were a little more mixed because...well, can you really blame them after staring at Don Fehr's scowly face all day every day? Their rods and cones are messed up or something.

This may come off as overly picky (and it probably is), but if I had to offer a couple of criticisms...

1. There's a reason I didn't include a tie-down in the concepts: I'm just not a huge fan of them unless used on a vintage-style jersey intended to look and feel like something from back in the day. Otherwise, they come off a little bit like an attempt at forcing something that isn't there.
2. Although the Icers put surnames on the home jerseys but not the away jerseys for the last several years, the decision to keep that tradition (I guess it's a tradition) going is a little curious. I don't know that I categorically disagree with doing so, but I wouldn't mind hearing the rationale behind it.
3. The tiny chipmunk on the back collar of the away jerseys is a nice touch, but why repeat the logo from the front of the jersey? I'd place a block "S" or even a "Penn State" wordmark there instead.
4. I wouldn't have minded seeing some difference between the men's and women's jerseys. Even keeping the striping pattern consistent and going with the logo on the front of one and a block "Penn State" on the front of the other would have helped the teams keep their own identity to some degree without violating the "One Team"/synergy ideal. It admittedly is a little bit odd not seeing some form of "PSU"/"PS" or "Penn State" on the jersey for the first time in Penn State hockey history.

Just to re-iterate, I give these jerseys a solid A. I don't want there to be any confusion about that. And yes, I will get my fanboy on and buy an authentic version in each color. Along those lines, I'm sure the athletic department would appreciate my pointing out that jerseys are available through the Penn State Bookstore (both the HUB and All-Sports Museum locations) or by calling (814) 863-0205. Authentics will run $125 and will ship in early November, while the replicas are $80 (adult) and $75 (youth) and will ship in early October.

Maybe the best thing about Tuesday is that the outstanding new design finally and officially buries the previous Icers jerseys after 13 years. Despite being part of the longest-running uniform set in team history, and despite my support of the student-athletes who wore them and the team and school they represented, they were most certainly not my flavor. They were garish (by PSU standards, anyway), dated (the general design was used by several Nike schools in the early aughts before being dropped by everyone but the Icers), and perhaps worst of all, contained grey, which is not a Penn State color. So here's one more picture for the road, before I make every attempt to use photos involving the new threads whenever possible.

Goodbye. Adieu. Auf Wiedersehen. Gesundheit. Farewell.

Jersey Day Interviews

Here are videos of the VIPs speaking at Tuesday afternoon's jersey unveiling.

This first one is sort of a highlight reel, and comes from Penn State Athletic Communications. It was sent out as part of their media package, so I uploaded it for all of you to enjoy. It's about 55 seconds of men's coach Guy Gadowsky, 32 seconds of women's coach Josh Brandwene, and 20 seconds of the players posing for photos. Suffice it to say that they're working with better equipment than a Samsung Galaxy SII.



The rest are my recordings from the media scrums.

Men's head coach Guy Gadowsky:



Sophomore forwards Max Gardiner and Tommy Olczyk:



Women's head coach Josh Brandwene:



Senior defender Lindsay Reihl and junior forward Taylor Gross:

Jersey Day Photos

First off, there are a couple external galleries out there, from GoPSUSports and Onward State. Additionally, the women's team's Facebook page added several photos of players not at the ceremony wearing the new duds.

Here are a few TYT-exclusive photos - these are shown at less than full size, so click on any of them for the gallery and a slightly larger look.

 

 

These last four photos were sent out as part of the media release for the event, and are actually different than those in the GoPSUSports photo gallery. They're also less than full size, by the way, so feel free to click them.

Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications

Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications

Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications

Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications

Jersey City, New Jersey

There are only 57 days until the first women's game at Vermont and the official dawn of the Division I era, and we're sort of in an awkward place where there isn't that much left to know about the teams for the coming season. At the very least, we're probably done with major announcements. Well, except for one: the jerseys (or sweaters if you prefer, but I'm going with "jersey" for the remainder of the post).

Before we find out where we're going, let's look at where we've been. I covered a lot of this in a Breakout Past back in April (there are better photos there, if you're interested), but one more quick review, starting with the original varsity team, is still in order.

Those are the two designs worn by said varsity team, of course.

When the Icers started up in 1971, they wore the the jersey from the top left, above. Those were out after two seasons in favor of an arched "Penn State" design as seen in the other three photos. There were some inconsistencies with that second group of jerseys, as one might except from a new-ish club team (note the size, font and spacing of the lettering), but that general idea lasted through 1979.

Note: From here on out, just assume that an opposite-color counterpart to everything shown exists.

Joe Battista's sophomore season brought one of the longest-running jersey designs (above, left). It did undergo some alterations in the mid-1980s (slightly enlarged letters, a different striping pattern involving one broad stripe flanked by two narrow ones), but for the most part, this was the look for nearly a full decade. By 1988, it morphed into the above right jersey, which had a short but honor-laden life, including the 1989 ICHL playoff championship and the 1990 national championship. That latter jersey was also notable for the debut of official university branding, in the form of an oddly-placed chipmunk.

In 1990-1991, the Icers introduced a look that would be substantially re-visited later on.

Nike's entry in 1996 led to a couple of short-lived late-1990s jerseys, until replaced by...

...the longest-running Icers jersey (2000-2012).

I'm not ignoring the women here, it's just that their jersey history is much simpler. For the most part, they've worn the 1998-1999 men's look (above), which gave way in the last couple years to...

The backs of the jerseys are largely unremarkable - basic block numbers of contrasting color have been the order for both teams throughout their histories, with grey trim added to anything after 1990. Another thing that started around 1990 (for the men, anyway) was the presence of names on the jerseys. The earliest examples used basic letters in blue or white, as appropriate. It's worth highlighting the two styles that have popped up since 1998 though, since they're a little different.

Why did I just do all of that? Well, because I like doing it, for one thing. But more importantly, I think history can help inform our opinions as to the next jersey. I can't speak for all of you, but here's what I think I want:

• No grey whatsoever. Penn State's colors are blue and white. Penn State hockey managed just fine without grey prior to 1990, and most PSU sports teams manage just fine without it today.
• The chipmunk is a great logo and should probably appear somewhere.
• Block "Penn State" lettering is something of a tradition, and in my opinion, most of the best looking jerseys across college hockey use lettering, not a logo, as the primary element.
• However, the chipmunk AND "Penn State" on the front is probably overkill. A tough choice is probably going to have to be made in that respect.
• Standard block numbers should be a given.
• I'm open to names on the back, and I'm open to no names on the back. But if there are names, please pass on the oversized fonts (as seen in both examples above).
• Above all else, keep it simple, stupid.

With all of that in mind, here is the revised TYT endorsement. First, the men:

You may recall that I presented a previous version in a Three Stars two months ago. Well, as it turns out, those were nearly identical to Connecticut's jerseys. So the primary jerseys are essentially the same as before, except with the logo on the front instead of the "Penn State"/number combo (to be honest, I feel like they're going to go in that direction anyway). The alternates are, of course, throwbacks to the 1940-1947 varsity era. It would be insane to pass on the obvious symmetry there, and it would come close to making my season if PSU were to break out "Alternate 2" for the October 26th game at Army since, after all, Penn State likely looked like that at Army on February 12th, 1947, the second-to-last game of that original varsity team.

The women's jerseys I propose are similar, but not a copy. I think it's important that they retain a unique identity.

For these, I used the mid-1970s Icers jerseys as my starting point and tweaked them, adding the shoulder patch and sleeve stripes, as well as reducing the large contrasting area to just the yoke on the white jerseys and to nothing on the blues (in the 70s, it went all the way from the collar to the end of the sleeve on both white and blue, as you can see above). If you've been reading this post and not just scrolling to look at the pictures, you might note that I went the other way with the "tough choice" I mentioned. One of the perks of having two teams to work with.

Because I went without names on these, I should point out that they represent junior forward Taylor Gross and senior defender Lindsay Reihl.

Before I close, I want to make one more observation. While Penn State does not have the department-wide branding program of Michigan State, there is still something to be gained from looking at a couple of the other 29 PSU sports teams. If there is something that can be called the "Penn State look," it wouldn't be a terrible idea to get on that bus.

That's vaguely familiar...

I could definitely live with that.

Three Stars: June 11-17

3. Black Hawks accept invite to Junior World Cup
(wcfcourier.com)

2013 G Eamon McAdam's team will represent the U.S. in the second-ever Junior World Cup August 18-26 in Omsk, Russia. The tournament, won by Krasnaya Armiya of Moscow last year, features teams from ten countries split into two groups, with the top two following an intra-group round robin advancing to the semifinals. Canada, incidentally, will be represented at the World Cup by the OHL's Sudbury Wolves. Unfortunately, they're not in Waterloo's pool, meaning that somewhere, USHL commissioner Skip Prince is considering human sacrifice to get both teams to the semifinals.

On a more serious note, it should be a nice opportunity to get an early look at McAdam (who is the most experienced returning goalie for the Black Hawks) against top-shelf competition.

2. Pine Creek grad assumes big leadership role at Penn State
(Paisley Hockey)

Women's captain Taylor Gross gets some nice run from veteran college hockey scribe Joe Paisley. And she sounds ready to run show on the CHA.

“Even if I was not captain, I would still need to be a leader because of my Division I experience on a team with a lot of freshmen,” [Gross] said. “But, I think we will surprise some people. We will be better than most people will expect.”

1. The Jersey Thread
(Pride of Pegula)

If you think about it, the revealing of Penn State's NCAA jerseys is really the only big thing left unannounced to this point, so why not hit the boards and engage in some pointless and ultimately futile (but fun) speculation about it?

The picture leading this post is the official TYT endorsement for the jersey design. For the home and away, I kept the lettering and numbering basic (because we are Penn State) and the striping single to mirror PSU's iconic football helmets, which hockey borrows as well. I didn't include the chipmunk anywhere, because I concluded that "PENN STATE" lettering has been more significant as an element of historic PSU hockey jerseys and adding a chipmunk would clutter things. That said, I would be open to using it as a shoulder patch or even in place of the front numbers, similar to the current jerseys. Or, you could even remove the last names and place a small chipmunk in that space, which would be pretty solid. Anyway the alternates, of course, are a nod to the jerseys of the first varsity team in 1940-1941:

Special thanks to PoP proprietor Aaron Griffin, who really deserves credit for the idea on the alternates, by the way.

If you want a better look, click here (after allowing me to remind you that I'm some random guy in Ohio with zero influence on the jersey design process). If you think you can do better, well that's what the thread is for.

Best of the Rest

Pegula Ice Arena Construction Photo Gallery
(statecollege.com)

Friend of TYT Ben Jones took some time off from covering the Jerry Sandusky trial to snap some PIA site pictures. He stole my thunder on that a little, but I'm not at all mad - I avoid Sandusky coverage as much as I possibly can (unfortunately - in this case - staying on top of PSU hockey news means I have to keep up with "general" PSU news outlets, so...), I can only imagine what it's like, for someone who cares at all about Penn State, to have to take a front-row seat to it as a job requirement. Taking a break to give some time to a positive story, yeah, I get that.

Anyway, they're from last Wednesday. And looking quite good.

Lions, and Dutchmen, and Bears! Oh my!
(Stack the Pads)

Be on the lookout for some great PSU coverage from StP, with special attention given to the goaltenders. I think it's axiomatic in the hockey world that non-goalies don't truly get goalies, so I'm looking forward to the insight.

Coaching veteran Guy Gadowsky to speak at Hockey Coaches Conference‏
(The Coaches Site)

I mentioned this in a Three Stars a couple weeks ago, but since the hosts actually sent me the press release, I'll give them one more go. I have no idea how they even know of TYT, but I'm honored to be considered that legitimate. Here's the canned quote on Gadowsky:

"Guy Gadowsky is one of the top amateur coaches in North America. He built both the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Princeton University Mens’ programs into National contenders; however, it’s his track record of developing his players on the ice and in the classroom which sets him apart." said Aaron Wilbur, managing director of the Coaches Site. "His contributions to grass roots hockey are immeasurable and we are excited to have him represent the NCAA and Penn State University."

@TheoFleury14
(Twitter)

Correction: Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Graham Spanier allegedly (for the time being, that word still needs to be in there) tried to cover this up to protect there [sic] 51 million dollar a year profitable football program. I've never done 28 tons of blow over a decade and a half, but not surprisingly, it apparently affects your cognitive abilities.

I try to stay out of the whole thing as much as possible unless it touches the hockey program in some way (AD changes, Terry Pegula reaffirming his donation, etc.) and like I just mentioned, I don't envy those who don't have a choice in the matter. But a hockey hall of famer guy who could have been a hockey hall of famer, had he not trashed his career, tweeting about it is noteworthy, I guess.

Ohio State men's hockey schedule coming together for last CCHA season
(examiner.com)

Included for the fact that an Ohio State guy semi-admits to his program's weakness. There's something that doesn't happen very often. Well, it doesn't in football, but maybe it does it hockey. Going to have to play the "I'm still new here" card on that.

The format [for the Pittsburgh College Hockey Invitational] has not been decided but if it’s one where the winners advance to the title game then Robert Morris would likely select OSU for its first game based on Miami’s better record the past few seasons.

It’s unlikely the Buckeyes and Miami would want to face each other in a nonconference game unless some hardware was at stake.

So...RMU wouldn't pick Miami because OSU sucks more. They wouldn't pick PSU - which, it has to be said, sucks more than everyone as a new program until otherwise proven - because OSU would throw a hissyfit about playing Miami in a non-conference game. Hey, here's an idea: pick Miami anyway and give us PSU-OSU, RMU-Miami. Because pairwise credit is fun and everyone gets two games regardless. And because it's the best draw of any of the arrangements. And because RMU plays both PSU and OSU in December.

Wait, that's what the Target Center looks like?

NCHC believes its on target with tournament site
(Omaha World-Herald)

Since the NCHC hitting the Target Center in Minneapolis for their tournament (opposite the Big Ten in St. Paul) is old news now, I searched for, and found, an article with something more interesting than the typical write-up.

"I’m sure the Target Center is willing to go head-to-head with the Big Ten, based on the teams," [Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean] Blais said. "Obviously if Minnesota is playing (in St. Paul), they’ll sell it out. But if fans can’t get tickets to that, or — nothing against Penn State or Michigan or Michigan State or the Big Ten — if those teams are playing, I think they’ll want to see our tournament."

Two can play at that game, Deano. If North Dakota's out of the NCHC tournament, you're left with a choice of: a) two branch campuses, b) two MAC schools (and I love the MAC as a current student at a member school), c) two schools 900+ miles away and d) St. Cloud State in e) a facility that's almost universally seen as second-rate for hockey compared to the Big Ten's Xcel Energy Center. So good luck with that. The Big Ten, without Minnesota, still offers three all-time top ten men's hockey programs and five schools with universal brand recognition. And (including Minnesota again) the main campuses of two NCHC schools, although Nebraska doesn't sponsor hockey yet.

Actually, it is worth pointing out that the Big Ten's entire tournament will be played in St. Paul (or Detroit, in alternating years). In other words, Minnesota will have at least one game at the Xcel Energy Center every single year the tournament is there. North Dakota, on the other hand, will have to get through a best-of-three campus site first round to make it to Minny. They probably will most of the time, but hey, no guarantees when you've recruited the eight best hockey programs in the country into one conference.

Quick break while I finish laughing from typing that last sentence...

ND vote lets school scrap Fighting Sioux nickname
(Yahoo!)

I'm. So. Pumped. And no, it has nothing to do with my opinion of Native American mascots, the NCAA's rule on them or the larger social and political issues involved. I just hate North Dakota, so things that make them sad make me happy, simple as that. All of that said, this is The Story That Will Never Die (TM), so I'm not throwing the party until what's apparently a minority of the state's residents are unsuccessful in their next avenue of appeal, an attempt at a constitutional amendment.

Back at ya, buddy.

NCAA Sends North Dakota State's Championship Banner To Rival UND
(SB Nation Minnesota)

This isn't a hockey story, but it's hilarious. Fun fact: North Dakota State has more hockey national championships than North Dakota. 8-7.

Ice Hockey Will Host Delaware in Outdoor Game
(godutchmen.com)

Lebanon Valley College is taking on the defending ACHA national champs at Hersheypark Stadium on January 22nd, following an AHL outdoor game between Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on the 20th. If LVC gets their team up to standard, it should be a great event.

Wearable Art

First off, please accept my sincerest apologies if you don't find this post newsworthy. Some blogs post every time anything at all relevant comes up, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it's generally not how this one has operated. If it's not a pressing story of immediate concern or if I don't have more than 100 words to say about it, I tend to save it for Three Stars on Mondays. This, however, is too long for a Three Stars entry, and because I'm a jersey geek who doesn't mind shilling once in a while (and because it's June)...

So anyway, I stumbled into this last night, on the website for a company called Tiedman & Formby:

It probably shouldn't fascinate me any longer when someone merchandises Penn State hockey now that we're wearing big boy pants. Still...wow. For those who don't know, that's the jersey of one Joe Battista.

I hate to have anything bad to say about something so clearly awesome, but I hope they just slapped some Arial on the website picture as a placeholder. Obviously, both letters and numbers are of the block variety, and although such things certainly aren't my department, likely very easy to reproduce. Since I didn't think to take a picture of the back of Battista's jersey at the alumni banquet in February, here's the best I have to offer.

But wait, there's more.

These are clearly coming from someone who did his or her homework. Not only did they get Battista's number (many of the company's products simply use the last two digits of the year being honored), but they pulled this rather obscure nugget from Icers history:

As you may have gathered, I'm normally a stickler for accuracy, but I'm actually okay with the omission of "PROPERTY OF" in this case, as that's one of the more obnoxious concepts in sports apparel (in my opinion, anyway, and probably because it's stating the obvious). Still, I would've gone a different route. If you need blue, instead of a practice jersey with a font from a wanted poster, how about a Josh Brandwene special in the model that won the 1990 National Invitational Tournament?

Really though, the biggest problem, other than the font thing, is that these aren't for sale yet. From what I gather by reading the website, a lot of it has to do with licensing issues since the company just relaunched in 2009.

Tiedman & Formby is restricted from selling directly to customers for certain institutions for which we are licensed (it is a rigid system!). Please contact us directly if you cannot find a jersey in your team or local area; it may mean that we simply could not get the license for your team, in which case, we would ask you to sign our petition to resubmit to the licensing directors of those respective institutions.

Some good news: T&F have already successfully licensed several Penn State American-style football throwbacks including Franco Harris, John Cappelletti, Curt Warner and a special No. 66 jersey in tribute to Joe Paterno, so at least the university has proven willing to work with them. Another postive, related to the Battista jersey, is that it seems as if the representations on the T&F site don't always match up perfectly with the actual product. But if you've seen any of their jerseys around (or even own one), I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on their quality and authenticity.

Rest assured that I'm contacting them through their form (click here for that) to offer my assistance in getting their hockey products into the marketplace. I hope you consider doing the same. Companies interested in Penn State hockey - and that seem to be socially responsible as well - deserve our support.