Mixing All The Eras

When the franchise was founded in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2001, the Manchester Monarchs had their own distinct look and colours. The franchise was actually awarded to Howard Baldwin in 1999, but the Los Angeles Kings bought the franchise from Baldwin's ownership group on June 14, 2000 to operate as their AHL club. When the AHL pushed for western expansion in order to bring the teams closer to their NHL west coast affiliates, the Manchester Monarchs and Ontario Reign swapped leagues as they traded places in the AHL and ECHL. That's when the Kings rebranded the Reign in their own look, introducing a variation of the logo above. Today, they unveiled their new look.

As we know, the Kings have worn purple, gold, black, and silver throughout their history, and the Reign have strictly been a black and silver team. I am thoroughly against the idea of an AHL team adopting an NHL team's identity simply due to the fact that the AHL team should have its own culture within its community. Earning the NHL colours should be something that a player aspires to get, so having an NHL team and AHL team look nearly identical has never made sense.

Today, the Ontario Reign unveiled its rebranding, and it's something!

From a historical standpoint, the Ontario Reign are now officially adopting the Los Angeles Kings' colour scheme and original logo as their own. I am fully aware that the Reign are owned by the Kings, but this is royal narcissism that very few teams have ever attempted to pull off in a rebrand. Honestly, I'm almost impressed if I wasn't so confused as to why the Reign are weaing Kings alternate jerseys.

According to the team's website, there's an explanation.

"The primary logo pays homage to the Inland Empire and Ontario, while tying the Reign to the LA Kings’ legacy through the crown and royal-inspired elements, including a nod to the Kings original color scheme. At the peak of the crest stands the 'O', a reminder that this identity belongs to the people who call it home. At its core, there are five pistons that represent the spirit of Ontario: power, precision, pressure, unity, and relentless forward movement. Beneath it lies the ground it was built on, a mark inspired by the Ontario Motor Speedway, where speed defined the past and motion built a legacy of this land."

Ok, I have many questions like "how does the 'O' remind anyone of anything other than 'Ontario'?" or "why are there pistons on a crown?" or "where do you see ground?" because this crown, while slightly modified, looks a lot like the Los Angeles Kings' alternate crown logo they wore. In looking at the new Reign logo, I wouldn't have guessed that any of those things written above were true or even relevant.

I actually like the white jersey with the black shoulder yoke and significantly-noticeable yellow-and-purple stripes, but the black base for the dark jersey still bothers me in that it has no shoulder yoke when it's begging for more colour. Kudos for the triple-colour numbers as the "inland blue"-on-yellow-on-black looks good on the white jersey while the "inland blue"-on-silver-on-yellow pops off the dark jersey. Silver block lettering works nicely for the player name.

Shockingly, the overall aesthetic isn't terrible, and I suspect the Reign will move some merchandise with this rebranding as the pop of colour will appeal to fans. The Reign still should go back to their ECHL look as it was entirely superior, but these new uniforms are an improvement over the entirely-boring, Kings-lookalike Reign jerseys.

I'm not convinced that the Kings and Reign should be mixing their colour schemes and logos, but it seems they'll do whatever they want. The Reign can use all the marketing garbage they want to justify wearing the crown logo, but I need less "Kings" in the Reign logo. I like the use of colour, but the logo is still a royal failure.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Start Calling It "Evertime"

Overtime in hockey is the one place where it doesn't matter how the previous sixty minutes were played. Sure, they have "sudden death" in the NFL, but hockey has the drama of being one shot away from victory. Playoff hockey bakes the drama in even more with wins and losses in overtime often affecting the outcomes of series. Ask the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 when they won ten-straight overtime games en route to winning the Stanley Cup. But there's another team that has an outstanding overtime record in the playoffs as well.

If you haven't been following the ECHL's Kelly Cup Final, the Kansas City Mavericks ran roughshod over the Florida Everbaldes in Games One and Two by scores of 6-0 and 5-2. It looked like the magic that the Everblades had in the playoffs leading up to this series had disappeared, but the ECHL's unique 2-3-2 set of games meant there was still a chance that Florida could get back into the series with at least two home wins in three games. Would that happen?

Including tonight's final, the Everblades are right back in the thick of things as they made it a best-of-three series by winning Games Three and Four on home ice! The Everblades won Game Three by a 2-1 overtime final, and they scored a 3-2 overtime win tonight thanks to Hudson Elynuik scoring at the 10:36 mark, tying the series at 2-2. Game Five goes tonight in Estero, Florida, and Kansas City may want to avoid going to overtime because the Everblades have made it clear that any period played after the third period ends is "Evertime".

People will look at the statistics and say, "Teebz, Florida is 2-1 in overtime in these playoffs" which is entirely correct. However, since 2022 when the Everblades began their championship dynasty, they have dominated overtimes to the tune of a 20-5 record in extra time! That's an incredible run of winning in sudden death, and it seems they're finding ways to keep that incredible record going this season!

In 2022, the Everblades were 6-1 in overtime as they won every game that ended in the fourth period, but lost the only game that went to a fifth period. For those wondering, that loss came to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits when Nikita Pavlychev scored at 8:51 of double-overtime in the first round to make it a 3-2 series, but Florida would finish off Greenville in Game Six en route winning the Kelly Cup.

2023 would see Florida win their second consecutive Kelly Cup, and they went 5-2 in overtime in that season. The key here is that they were 2-0 on double-overtime games in 2023, improving their record to 2-1 in five-period contests. The Jacksonville Icemen beat Florida in Game Four of their second-round series while the Newfoundland Growlers beat them in overtime in the conference final. It should be noted that both double-overtime wins came against Newfoundland as well as the Everblades won that series in six games and 23 periods.

2024 saw the Florida Everblades become the first ECHL team to three-peat as they captured the Kelly Cup again. They only played four overtime games in those playoffs, going 3-1 in those games. Two of those games came against the Jacksonville Icemen who lost Game Two by a 2-1 overtime score before hanging a loss around Florida's neck in Game Three with a 4-3 overtime win. Florida would eliminate the Orlando Solar Bears in Round Two with a Game Five 2-1 overtime win, and they'd win the Kelly Cup with a Game Five 4-3 overtime win over Kansas City! Matt Wedman was the hero in that game!

2025 saw the Trois-Rivières Lions end the dream of a fourth-straight Kelly Cup for the Everblades, but they still did something incredible when it came to overtime. The Everblades met the Jacksonville Icemen for a fourth-straight year and second-straight first-round series, and the Everblades swept the Icemen out of the playoffs by winning four-straight overtime games! This marked the fourth-straight year that Florida also eliminated the Icemen, moving them to 5-0 in playoff series versus Jacksonville with a 27-7 record versus the Icemen all-time! Before falling to Trois-Rivières in the conference final, Florida had won 14 consecutive Kelly Cup playoff series!

The setback of losing that series last season seems to have pushed Florida to new heights this season as they're back in the Kelly Cup Final and are tied with the ECHL's top regular-season team. Their overtime record took a hit in the Eastern Conference Final this season as Wheeling beat them 3-2 in overtime in Game Four, but that was the only setback Florida suffered in that series and in overtime so far in these playoffs. Combined with the two wins on Wednesday and tonight in overtime, they're 2-1 this season in the extra frame!

Since 2022, Florida is now 62-26 in playoff games including being 20-5 in overtime games and 2-1 in double-overtime games. They have won 32.3% of their playoff games beyond sixty minutes en route to three-straight Kelly Cups and four Final appearances in the last five seasons. What might be even scarier is that of those 25 overtime games played, the Everbaldes are 10-2 at home and 10-3 on the road. It doesn't matter where they play overtime - they simply just win!

Game Five goes tonight at 7pm ET, and it would be in Kansas City's best interest to find and hold a lead. If Game Five goes to overtime, there's a better-than-good chance the Florida Everblades will win, and they'd have two shots to capture their fourth Kelly Cup in five years heading back to Independence, Missouri on Monday.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 716

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is operating a little shorthanded today as Jason will join us from Montreal after flying out for the Scintillation conference! He'll be a busy man on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so we'll get him ready to chat by having him join by phone once he's settled in the "Paris of North America". We have some interesting stories to go over tonight, and we may even squeeze in an exit interview if everything works out in our favour! Will that happen? You'll have to find out tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight on the program, Teebz and Jason will look to have Travis (Montreal) on for his exit interview as we get closer to the NHL season ending. Once we get through that fun, our hosts will take a look at the Dallas Stars' arena situation and how they're doing things down in Texas, they'll discuss the USHL expansion a little more, look into the Baton Rouge Zydeco who have all sorts of problems, and we'll address the elephant in the room when it comes to the Edmonton Oilers. It should be a solid show with some strong opinions and thoughts on these topics, so clear your evening schedule for hockey talk tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will look to send Travis home off Survivor: NHL Playoffs island before talking bad arena deals, mob-style tactics, potential expansion locations, crazy hockey turmoil, ridiculous coaching hires, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

All-Powerful Mother Nature

The image to the left isn't from some new movie or television show. That was one instance of the sky over Manitoba last night, and the storm that hit the southern portion of the province left behind a pile of problems including flooding and power outages for many people. I am happy to report that HBIC Headquarters suffered no major damage, but I am very limited in my efforts to do anything surrounding this blog thanks to having no internet for a second day. I do realize that this is a first-world problem and my complaining about it matters zero in the grand scheme of things when farmers are trying to put their lives back together and people try to clean up following the localized monsoon that hit. I'm hopeful that everyone was able to remain safe.

It became apparent to me after getting home from the ballpark last night during the initial rainstorm just how fragile some of our infrastructure is and how much we rely upon it to ensure we're well-informed. My cell phone was working fine, but a power outage in the north portion of the city killed power to a cell tower that is near my workplace, causing people all sorts of difficulties. Stuff like that shouldn't happen, but it does. Will anyone address it? Hard to say.

What I can say is that I am writing this article while using my phone's hotspot because internet at HBIC HQ has not be restored since it went out on Tuesday night. As per my internet service provider, the outage is apparently known, but there is no ETA on service being restored. I get the crews and technicians are busy, but inclement weather doesn't care about whether I have a wifi signal or not. I'd like to know if we're aiming for more storms tonight so I can be ready.

I'm off to the ballpark again tonight, so internet won't be a huge issue for me. The double-header scheduled for this evening will likely keep me at the ballpark until close to midnight, so I doubt I'll be worrying about internet when I get home. It just makes me think how, for all the technological and engineering advancements we've made, we still haven't solved a simple matter like power and internet outages.

Hopefully, there won't be a torrential downpour tonight like there was last night. A quick sprint across the parking lot to get to my car saw me drenched by the time I got in my vehicle, and the flooding on streets seemed to happen quickly. Knowing how fast that flooding happened is pretty scary knowing that some communities had very little time to prepare for the rising waters. Living in the "information age" is worthless if the medium for that information isn't available.

Stay safe and dry out there, folks. Mother Nature remains undefeated when she wants to unleash her fury, and not being able to access the information as to what might be coming can be devastating.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Priority Selection

At no point does anyone ever think they'll be the first to do something or to accomplish something, and today saw the OHL's Brantford Bulldogs do something that they had never done before, but it did happen once before. The player pictured to the left is 17 year-old netminder Sophie Jovanovic who played with the Toronto Nationals U18 AAA program in the GTHL this season, and, yes, she is a girl. She's not the first woman to be drafted by an OHL team - Sarnia did that with current MacEwan Griffins netminder Taya Currie - but she did become the first and highest-selected woman in the OHL U18 Priority Draft when Brantford selected her with their 40th-overall pick! Clearly, the Bulldogs see talent in Jovanovic with this pick, and, based on her play in the GTHL, I think she has a better-than-good shot at being the first woman to suit up and start a regular season game in the OHL!

If you go looking for Jovanovic's numbers from this season, you likely won't find them anywhere unless you're a scout for a major junior team. The GTHL made the shrewd decision to stop posting statistics from all age groups on their website so that players, parents, and team staff wouldn't have access to every player's numbers. Frankly, I'm all for this decision because, as some may know, hockey parents can be overwhelming regarding their child's statistics, so kudos for the GTHL for drawing a line in the sand for the good of everyone.

What you should know is that Jovanovic has already committed to playing between the pipes for the University of Wisconsin in the NCAA, and we know what kind of players they recruit and produce. If they were asking Sophie to commit to them, she's likely better than a number of male goalies already because the Badgers simply win.

When she was playing with the Marlboros U16 team, Sophie was featured on Sportsnet during Hockey Day in Canada. I posted the video on the January 19, 2025 edition of The Rundown as Sophie's story seemed like the introduction to a woman who is going to have a long and storied hockey career. Her brother, Matthew, was drafted by the Saginaw Spirit in 2020, so seeing her go to the Bulldogs in 2026 is pretty cool! Of course, this is just another chapter in her story!

While she will graduate from high school in 2027 and likely look to join Wisconsin at that time, the option of having the OHL's Brantford Bulldogs should allow Sophie an opportunity to, at the very least, practice with the team. Perhaps she can get into a preseason OHL game just like Ève Gascon did with the QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques in 2021 before heading off to the University of Minnesota-Duluth where she continues to impress with her goaltending talents. Either way, having options is always good for a young goalie like Jovanovic so she can test herself against players at various levels of hockey!

I'll bang this drum again, but Sophie Jovanovic is a goaltender that Hockey Canada should have an eye on as she continues along her path. She's a competitor, she loves playing and competing, and she has a bright future. I'm not saying she'll be an Olympic lock or anything, but her trajectory is certainly on the right path if she wants to reach those heights. She'll be noticed playing with Wisconsin, her education will certainly pay dividends down the road, and there likely will be PWHL offers once she finishes adding to her education.

Sophie Jovanovic looks like she's going to be a game-changer for the Wisconsin Badgers, she could be a future Team Canada stopper, and she may see time with the OHL's Brantford Bulldogs. What can't be argued is that she was good enough to be noticed by the Bulldogs and by the Badgers, and she'll have a chance to skate with one, if not two, incredible programs if and when she chooses. Sophie Jovanovic is a player who you'll likely want to keep an eye on in the future!

Congratulations go out to Sophie Jovanovic on being drafted by the Brantford Bulldogs - another significant step in her career!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!