Greg Wyshynski over at AOL’s FanHouse alerted me to this, uh, video…

I’ll let Greg do the talking and then let Courtney the Hockey Fan further do the, um,talking?

I was checking news feeds from my favorite blogs and David Singer’s The Ice Block got my attention… “NHL Network Coming to America” was a compelling post title seeing people have been waiting for this forever…

Well, forever is here. Forever is now. Especially in Tampa Bay.

I haven’t checked the other local cable operators but Bright House Networks offers the NHL Network as part of their Sports Tier package ($2.99 extra) on channel 808 on digital cable boxes. Note, the station is NOT listed in the above link — but it’s there from my own surfing-the-cable-box verification. I personally don’t subscribe to the sports tier — but that may change now that the NHL network (and how long before the NFL network?) is here.

Chris at the Tourney of Logos has done a solid job all off season covering the RBK Edge change over and keeping fans involved via polls and other user-created-content requests.

At any rate, he’s got a Southeast Division concepts post that leads off with a Lightning design that I myself have sorta pondered but have never been able to pull off…. It’s a very modern design of the Lightning crest that eliminates basically all we know.

But it works. At least for me.

I won’t post it here, there is more than one concept but it’s the top one that captivates me. It’s also a little late now for a new Lightning concept but like I said, this one compelled me… Some people might hate it but it’s such a nuevo concept… Hmm

With much thanks to Chris at NHL Tournament of Logos, I’ve been made aware of a video of the logo unveiling on YouTube:

Chris also left some comments in the other thread regarding how he feels on the new jersey:

I think the new uniforms look amazing! After 15 years in the league’s most boring sweaters, we finally have something sharp to wear on our backs! The extra splash of blue has me sold. I’m filling out the pre-order form as I write this.

My own thoughts are just left with shock and awe. I have to admit I like the white jerseys more than the black which has usually been the other way around the last few years. I’ve commented that I prefer the logo on black instead of white and yet from the video — it looks better the other way around. The crest with the text is terrible though and hard for me to swallow but other elements are brought along nicely. Some people hate the new number-on-the-front trend but I don’t mind it.

Seeing a player in full gear wearing this thing may change my perception or clarify it. But right now I’m a bit lost. **shrug** Not sold but not pushed away by it.

Update I need to taper the positive and so-so comments with something negative. Lets give Tapeleg at Jerseys and Hockey Love some time on the soapbox:

After seeing the new Tampa Bay Lightning jerseys that were unveiled today, I had one thought…

“Please, don’t let the Avalanche screw up this bad.”

I just don’t get it. Do we need a modern era of hockey jerseys? When (most) any fan of the game from the 70s would tell you that it isn’t a jersey, it’s a sweater, you have to wonder if we need something that looks like a bad science fiction outfit.

I can’t say I disagree with his point. This is the truth of most of the RBK Edge designed jerseys and new logos that have been unveiled.

Lightning Strikes has a post challenging graphic designer fans to re-design the Lightning logo themselves. It gives a chance for fans — both local and international I would think — who want to show off their abilities to show some creativity in re-doing the Lightning logo.

Submission criteria (an email address) is on the post in question (I’m not posting it here in order to keep the spam at bay for them)

Just a heads up for Lightning fans in the Tampa Bay area on Bright House cable networks — Jay Feaster will be appearing tonight in the studio during the 11 PM Sports Connection telecast…

Some people think he’s an outright bad seed, others think he was the victim of character assassination by way of the St. Petersburg Times. Regardless, he’s caught the Tampa Bay regions attention and inspired Tim (from The Journey of Jack Tripper) to write and record the Elijah Dukes is my Daddy Blues.

(Hat tip to Sticks of Fire where I saw Tim’s post)

Give my regards to YouTube

Ah, The instigator… How I love thee:

As if I needed to show the masses another reason to rib the St. Pete Times and their (online, this time) coverage of the Lightning, check out the featured photo they used to summarize both Saturday night’s game and this morning’s story about Vincent Lecavalier:

(click on the image to view the full size)

Now, maybe I am being a little anal for making a thing about the Lightning using a stock photo from 2004, but with the Lightning fresh out of Calgary and Lecavalier fresh off his 46th goal of the season… Wasn’t it a little more relevant to have a recent photo (from this season) in place on the Lightning’s page at the Times?