*Cue the Sad News Music

The regular season ends this week, and these two things I know to be true as of today: the Toronto Maple Leafs will not be making the playoffs...again, and the Calgary Flames are all but done as far as making the playoffs go.  The Maple Leafs not making the playoffs isn't exactly news, but what is news is that this season was quite possibly the best that the Leafs have had since the lockout.  They were eliminated earlier in the week when the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres just simply wouldn't lose.  If there is a silver lining in all of this, the Leafs look ready to be contenders for years to come.  Now, a lot of that will depend on whether James Reimer is the next Johnny Bower or the next Vesa Toskala.  The surest sign that Toronto is on their way up: despite being in striking range for a playoff spot at the trade deadline, they stuck to their plan of gaining assets to build toward the future instead of mortgaging it in favor of a possible one and done this year.

Yesterday's scoreboard watching for the Flames was particularly painful, as the two teams that had to lose, the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks, just simply refused to cooperate.  It's not official, but it might as well be, as the Flames only have one game left and all Chicago or Anaheim have to do in their remaining games is to reach overtime once.  The Flames will be entering the postseason golfing with many questions to answer, which includes the future of the GM position.  They would be wise to add to their farm systems because it's in dire need of fresh blood.

The Swoop Effect

Just so I don't put a set time limit on what I do as far comparing each of the team's pre-RBK Edge designs to their current designs, I won't be doing the "30 in 30" deal, since there are other things to get to that need attention, like the NHL playoffs, which are coming soon.  Having said that, let's start with the first team.

When the RBK Edge jerseys were introduced, the Anaheim Ducks were a year removed from losing the "mighty" in their name.  The design of their original jerseys since being just the Ducks is quite similar to the current set of jerseys with the exceptions being the collar and the adjusting the swoop designs to fit within the confines of the RBK jerseys.  A third jersey was introduced this year, which had the webbed D as the primary logo and more orange in its jersey.  Ultimately, I would like for the Ducks to adopt the webbed D as its primary logo and the wordy "DUCKS" logo that is there now to be on the alternate jersey.  I've never been a fan of the collar that the Ducks (or any other team that uses it) use in general, as it just looks out of place.  Not horrible looking, but not too great, either.

Scott Columbus R.I.P.

Some sad news in the metal music world, as Scott Columbus, one time drummer for Manowar, has passed away at the age of 54.  The cause of his death has not been confirmed as of press time, but this post will be updated once the details come out.  As for Columbus, regardless of how you feel about Manowar, and there are certainly strong opinions on either side of the fence, Columbus was in one of the more influential bands in metal music.  Though he wasn't in the spotlight like Eric Adams or Joey DiMaio, Columbus did offer his own contributions to the band that proved to be on par with the other members of Manowar.  Columbus leaves behind a legacy that to this day, continues to hail and kill.

NHL Uniforms

When trying to come up with ideas on which looks on the ice are horrible, one of my favorite sites to go is NHL Uniforms.  It has the most comprehensive databases for each team, past and present, and goes into detail as to what each team wore during specific time periods, as well as offer a season by season look of what each team wore that season, from the jerseys, to the socks and breezers, even the patches worn for that season, be it for being host to an All-Star Game or marking an anniversary for being around for so many years.  It's useful for those who wish to customize a jersey to a specific season and would like to know how to replicate that particular year perfectly.

It is this website that I will be using in assessing each of the current teams' usage of the Reebok Edge design that was introduced in 2007.  A few years have passed, and I think the time is right to see how it's worked for all of the teams so far.

Mandi Schwartz

It's never easy to deal with death, and certainly, cancer makes it even tougher to deal with it.  Yesterday, cancer claimed yet another person, as Yale hockey player Mandi Schwartz succumbed to the the disease.  However, let us not remember her for the way she died, but the way she lived and the legacy that she leaves behind.  A hockey player on the women's team with Yale, her story inspired Mandi's Heroes, which organized a day of prayer for Mandi in January.  The school also organized The Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registry Drive, which will be a part of the nationwide Get in the Game, Save a Life campaign for the Be the Match registry, and it will be held on April 21.  Schwartz wasn't the only hockey player in her family, as her brothers Jaden and Rylan played for Colorado College, and Jaden was a first round pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2010.  If you would like to help with the Be the Match campaign, click here for more info.

Winnipeg Gets a Retraction

As you could tell from yesterday's piece, I decided to have a little fun with the Winnipeg Jets returning to the NHL rumors that always seem to be floating around.  Now, for why I picked on the Florida Panthers, in case there's all of their 10 or 15 fans ready to write complaint letters to me (I kid about the numbers).  The decade since they've made the playoffs is fact.  That one is something that anyone who follows the NHL to a fair degree knows.  As for attendance figures, they're 22nd as of this writing.  That the team has ranked no higher than 19th since the lockout in attendance figures, which was in fact, the year after the lockout of 2004-05, speaks to the team's inability to field even one playoff run.  Not helping matters is that the Panthers have to compete with the Miami nightlife for people.  Naturally, this kind of thing runs through all of the Miami pro sports, so it's not necessarily an isolated problem.  However, the Panthers don't even have a superstar player to hang their advertising strategy on.  In a sense, what I'm trying to say here is that Florida isn't worse than the Coyotes, but trying to fight for attention in a city where there's so much to do made it an opportunity for me to think about pulling off the jokes.  And if there are any people in Miami who read yesterday's piece, I'd like to apologize for that, and don't take it too personal.

Winnipeg Gets the Jets Back

In a shocking development this morning, according to sources, the Florida Panthers have officially announced that they would be moving to Winnipeg at the end of this season and will be called the Winnipeg Jets.  Since 1996, Winnipeg has been without an NHL team and even though the team has been trying to find funds for a new arena, it was the Panthers' inability to draw a respectable house combined with the team's inability to even make the playoffs in the past decade that forced NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's hand.  Who exactly will own the ex-Panthers/soon-to-be Winnipeg Jets team is unclear, but hockey fans across Canada are rejoicing at the news.  Fans in Miami were unavailable for comment, as they were too busy working on their tans or recovering from their hangovers from the night before.