Pleasing Vintage NHL Logos

This is somewhat of a subjective list of logos, but so is most everything else on this site.

I find myself occasionally perusing Chris Creamer's Sportslogos.net site for older logos that are pleasing. This gives me a creating boost in an odd, tangential way: I like watching a logo's progression from utilitarian to pleasing to garish and (hopefully) back to pleasing. It helps me conceptualize timing in a manifested and branded way.

Examples of this idea (mentioned without logos) from baseball and basketball, respectively, could be the Blue Jays and Warriors.

Anyway, the following logos are the middle ones, the ones I find quite nice, in no particular order. Let's reminisce:

This is the original negative-space-using Hartford Whalers logo. Whaling as an industry was important for the growth of many a maritime nation, but today has become a lawless and gruesome practice, with many whaling vessels being attacked by vigilantes funded by the late Sam Simon.

For those reasons I appreciate the use of this logo to make fun of the Piper Maru, a notorious Japanese Cetacean Research Institute vessel (the CRI is a mostly state sanctioned whaling operation).

Anyway, this logo is quite fetching. I always found it interesting that this franchise represented the only major league team in any of the four major North American sports that resided in Connecticut. The team has since moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, a city of roughly the same metropolitan area population size, and taken the name Carolina Hurricanes.

Now in Dallas and called simply the Stars, this Minnesota North Stars logo has yet to be updated for the '90s. It retains the simple charm that many logos from that era had before the '90s came along and italicized and metallicized nearly all known logos.

Like the Whalers before, the 90s version of the North Stars (pre-move) was metallicized and italicized.

This team never got the metallic or italic makeover. This is a slightly updated version of the Quebec Nordiques logo. I'm not sure why the igloo-and-hockey-stick logo speaks to me as strongly as it does. Like the two teams before, the Nordiques moved from the riverside Quebec City (and the furthest north major league franchise on the continent) to Denver and became the Avalanche.

I always liked this logo. I don't know why. Oddly enough based on the previous three logos, Edmonton still has their team and beyond tweaking the colors, hasn't changed the logo since the team's inception in the WHA during the 70s. They've even changed the name (from "Alberta Oilers" to "Edmonton Oilers") while leaving this logo intact. Maybe I'm not the only one it speaks to...

This is that rare find: the vintage logo that is still in active duty.

Has It Been That Long?

When I was a kid we moved from California's Bay Area to Sacramento, a few months before the Kings made the move from KC to Sacramento. Essentially, we both made it to Sac at the same time. I've since left, but my brothers still live there, and I enjoy my visits.

I also still occasionally root for them. I mean, of course I root for the Kings, but they have given precious little to root for since the refs helped the Lakers back in the 2002 playoffs. As of now, June of 2015, it's easier to root for the Warriors as the de-facto Northern California basketball team.

Anyway, I came across the anniversary patch the Kings wore this season, fondly remembered the script work markings, and then found some of the other anniversary patches.

The first:

From the mid 2000s, after the sputtering of a possible dynasty, after Peja and C-Webb, Bibby and Vlade, the 20th anniversary logo had the current purple and black logo mixed with red and blue from the original Sac color scheme. Not great, not awful. Like the Kings...

The next one, the quarter-century mark, sees a nice doctored up skyline of our capitol city, with both the dome and the I-Street bridge:

And then the last one, the one that started me down a short rabbit hole. I'm not sure why, but I prefer this script lettering to the block one they use as a primary, and while I prefer blue and red to black and purple, that's mostly because I'm biased towards blue:

I would certainly rock this Boogie shirt:

It has the script while also using the black and purple. See? Not so bad...

Here's to hoping Vivek figures his shit out and becomes the owner we know he wants to be.

Mariners Take Cue from Own Past

I do like what the Mariners have done with an alternate home kit this season. Here is their normal home uniforms:

And here are the alternates about which I speak:

They've taken their current design but tweaked the color scheme to coincide with the beautiful gold-and-blue color scheme that was popularized with Ken Griffey's debut:

I'm an admitted sucker for blues and golds, and for the Pacific Northwest in general. I do think these alternates work. I also like their short-season Single-A affiliate Everett Aquasox homage to the Red-Sox for an alternate logo as well:

Everett is getting away with some stuff here, like the Mariners 80's Trident "M" as the "E":

And the entire bufotenin toad connection...love the twacked out eyes...