Power Play Hamilton Steelheads jersey

My jersey arrived in the mail today.  Purchased a jersey from Mr. Murdoch in St. Catherines, ON.  The jersey is a Hamilton Steelheads jersey from a television show from the late 90's called Power Play.  It originally was broadcast on CTV and the series lasted 2 seasons; it was also repeated years ago on Showcase.  Apparently it briefly played in the U.S. on UPN but was pulled after 2 episodes after it bombed there.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Play_%28TV_series%29

The best fan page on the show that I found that is still running is this one: http://www.g2creations.qc.ca/powerplay/.

A 1998 article from the film magazine "Take One" that the author has either quoted or has personally interviewed the producers of the show is online here: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Power+play%3a+putting+drama+on+ice.-a030155914

A Canadian online movie and tv guide has a brief description and review of the series: http://www.pulpanddagger.com/movies/p2_b.html#bot

 If you are looking for the series on DVD or even VHS you are out of luck; none were made.  Tough to find even clips of the show.  A fan of the show made a video montage set to the Tragically Hip's song 'Fireworks'.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snvI_P7CfzE

I would say the most well known actors/personalities that were on the show were Don Cherry (Coach's conrner on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada), Gordon Pinsent (Due South and many others), and Al Waxman (King of Kensington, Cagney & Lacey, etc.).  Famous hockey players that made appearances as themselves in the show include Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, and Jean Beliveau.

Onto my jersey.
Here's some pics.

The show must have renumbered a previous jersey for the Kerensky one.  You can see some glue residue around the numbers. Most evident on the sleeve numbers.

[EDIT - Oct 24th - found complete series online on You Tube.  They were uploaded by 'Twee de bourg' 3 years ago.  Here's a link to the first part of the first episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5KhsyrO0BM ]

Here's a couple screen shots; first one a head shot of the player in the dressing room, others back of player on ice.

 

60 plus hockey games in Duluth: October 2013

My dad and most of the older guys from my Tuesday/Thursday afternoon hockey went down last week to Duluth to play a couple games on Monday and Tuesday.  Like last year they played a team from Minneapolis; in addition this year they played a game against a team from Duluth.  Lost the first game and won the second.  Think the age requirement was dropped to 60 plus in order to have enough players for all the teams involved.  Like last year the games were played in what looks like a very nice looking rink: Sill Arena at the Duluth Heritage Sports Arena.  Here's a shot of the game between Duluth and Minneapolis.

Here's a team pic of the Duluth team.

and here's the Minneapolis team.

If this mini tournament goes ahead next year they have a trophy they are going to repurpose for it.

Ball Hockey 2013 & other stuff

Haven't put anything up in the blog for quite a while.  Call it part not having much to put up (unless I put up something other than DIY jerseys or dug up some pics of some old ones), and being either sick, busy, and/or lazy.

Got some pics of this past summer's annual Ball Hockey game.  Very humid and hot that day at Charry Park in Thunder Bay.  Dave Scott, a man comfortable in goal, was goalie on one side.

  
With no other takers, I put on the pads on the other side either for the first 2 periods or game 1 of 2 (however it went down in the books).

 
A couple people had to leave after that intermission and a couple more filled in; my wife who doesn't play hockey replaced me in goal played a more stand up style and had a better GAA than I did (I had 10 goals against).  I performed a fair bit better when playing out for the last period of the game.  Dave Scott had 5 or 6 goals against after the 2nd period; not sure if this pic was taken at end of the 2nd period or a bit earlier. 

A couple more pics from earlier on in the game.  One with a player about to shoot and one that may or may not have been a goal (I think that's the orange ball hockey ball just on top of my pad).

There were a couple team pics taken, but at this point it isn't known whose camera was used. I will post them if and when I see them.

Here's some pics of the Yothers crest I made and put on a jersey for the ball hockey game.

On a more recent event.  Last week my dad and a bunch of the over 60 guys went down to Duluth to play a couple games in a sort of mini tournament.  They played one game against a team from Minneapolis and one from a team from the Duluth area.  They lost the first game and won the second one.  I'll have to see if any pics were taken.

Also, made a rare appearance in goal last Thursday afternoon.  Wore the red, black and white striped German eagle jersey (and socks).  Stunk in up the first 10 minutes and switched from the dark to the white team after five quick goals.  Was a bit shaky at first for the white team but after some lucky saves, the turning point was a left pad kick save followed by a double stacked pad save the other way on the rebound and finished the play with a glove save while still down.  Got my head and body into the game and ended up with a shutout for the white side.

In addition, may have soon have some pics of a jersey I purchased.  Jersey is from a hockey television show from a little while back.  It should be arriving in the mail this coming week.

Coffee

Nothing new completed on the DIY front.  Working on a Ball Hockey 'Yothers United' crest for a jersey but it's just in it's starting stages.  Will post something when further along.

So here's what's become my addiction in the last couple years - coffee.  Never used to drink it unless I had to get up early in the morning, but now drink it on a daily basis.  Brother got me into drinking his brand - Kicking Horse; my favourite blends are Three Sisters and Kootenay Crossing.  It's pretty expensive so I almost always wait for it to go on a half decent sale.  Kicking Horse is a company from B.C.  http://www.kickinghorsecoffee.com/en/home 

Just use a cheap Black&Decker grinder for grinding the beans.  Since I'm the only coffee drinker in my household I just have this Melitta low tech single cup brewer that takes #2 coffee filters. 

BHL ticket and poster variations

With the BHL game being a little more than month away, and with me with my ass parked in the computer chair this Sunday afternoon decided to create a ticket for this year's game based on the poster.

Fonts used include, Bazar, FoglihtenNo01, Ballpark, Old Typography, and My Underwood. Programs used include Paint.net, Printhouse 2000, and Fotoflexer (online).  Why so many programs? because I'm too set in my ways/lazy to learn the ins and outs of some of Paint.net's many features, am very familiar with what Printhouse does (and doesn't) do, and Fotoflexer has some easy to use effects.

Speaking of features/effects.  I played around a little while ago with some effects on Paint.net and PhotoFlexer for the poster.  Here's a few selections - Blueprint, Bronze and Metallize.

That's all for now. I better get ready to head to my parents for Father's Day.

 

Squirrel jersey - again

Got a few goal jerseys from a local goalie a few years back who was considering hanging up the skates soon.  One of them was blank on front and had his name in yellow vinyl letters on back.
Decided to give to one of my regular spare goalies for afternoon hockey.
Couldn't find a navy or grey crest that would work in my collection so since I already had the template for the large squirrel decided to make that.

 

As for the name on back, asked if she just wanted it covered up or her last name over it.  She liked the latter.

 

 Going to run it through the was before giving it to her this week, but am not going to go through the arduous task of trying to remove puck marks (that I am sure are just going to get added to anyway).

 

Ball Hockey - annual game

Play in an annual summer fun ball hockey game.  This year with be the 7th game.  I have played in every one except the 1st one.  Game is played in the East End of Thunder Bay on the rink area of Charry Park.  Plaque at park plus image of rink taken from Google Earth below.

Most people involved I met through my cousin Mike.  Many no longer live in town and come back from Calgary and other places to visit relatives and friends plus play in the annual game.  Dave Scott is the Commish and has a page on Facebook for this game; page is called The Ball Hockey League (even thought it's really just an annual game).

I made up some souvenir tickets for last years game.  I got the old paper background from somewhere on Deviant Art.  Fonts used were Beauty School Dropout, Georgia, Fake Receipt, and Bellerose.  BHL logo I vectorized, made sepia and faded.

This year I have been working on a poster.  Main part of poster is taken with permission from some artwork entitled 'Hockey Team' by AngusMcLeod that I found on the Deviant Art site.

 
I cropped out two of the players from a jpeg of his artwork, cleaned up some jpeg residue, and tried to fill in the areas where necessary.  It's pretty well finished; only thing that may change is putting a date on it when a date is chosen for the game.  Poster is supposed to look a bit like an old time boxing poster.  Fonts used were Fulton Markers Regular, Acknowledgement, and Commercial Script BT.  Top corners are just some clip art corners.

Dave and his brother Kevin had provided souvenir shirts and jerseys in many of the previous years.  Last years was this one.

Here's a close up of the front and back printing.

Here's a pic of the players in last year's game.

San Francisco Spiders jersey

I no longer have a Spiders replica jersey (sold it years ago) but I still have a picture of it.  The Spiders played in the IHL for one season 1995-96 at the Cow Palace (same arena as the Shamrocks from decade before).

When I had it I was thinking of customizing it as one of my favourite players, who was the player/coach for the team but never did.

Here's a pic of the front and back of a game worn Langway jersey.

On one jersey, hockey, or other online forum (maybe game used universe, maybe somewhere else???) someone had a picture of a prototype for the Spiders numbers.  Apparently they didn't go with this option for the numbers because of the additional cost.

The Spiders were going to move to Victoria, B.C. but the deal fell though due to Victoria not replacing it's aging arena.

DIY Squirrel hockey jerseys

While bouncing around the internet landed on The Canadian Design Resource page and the signage for Expo 67.  http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/graphics/burton-kramer-expo-67  Burton Kramer designed the signs and the iconic CBC logo first used in 1974 (unfortunately modified in 1992).  The CBC shop online has some items with the retro logos.  http://www.cbcshop.ca/cbc-retro/1970s.html .  Here's a clip of the 1974 logo.

There is a book of his designs out http://www.burtonkrameridentities.com/.

Decided to use the squirrel from the Expo 67 parking lots signs for some DIY jerseys.  Had a white, gold, and maroon jersey.  Didn't have much maroon twill left so made a white squirrel.  Sewed the white squirrel on the jersey but was kind of small on so decided to add something to it.  Found a town in Ontario (Exeter) that has white squirrels through some Flickr images.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiless/2686726915/in/set-72157614394297544

Wasted too much time looking through fonts.  Ending up using 'City of' for the Squirrels, 'Grange' for Exeter.  When added the acorn on the back also added 67 in a font (Consort-RR Bold Condensed) like the one used by the Expos (as a nod to the Expo 67 signs).

Only maroon jersey I had laying around was an old maroon, green and white CCM jersey.  Made the squirrel much bigger and put it on that one.  Jersey ended being to small to fit over my hockey equipment - will probably split the seam down the armpit and add some white or green or white&green material to enlarge it.  The #12 on the back has a heat pressed #1 and a sewn on #2; I suspect I put the sewn #2 on because the 2 was coming apart when I got the jersey.

Wore the white jersey for the first time last Tuesday at hockey and got one goal playing forward on a shoveling lob shot off a pass and one goal playing defence on a shot along the ice from the point in a low scoring 3-2 win for the white side over the dark.