The Ice-O-Topes Return!

One of the longest running gags on TV is the location of Springfield on The Simpsons. There's never been a definitive answer on where the city is officially located, but the fact that it's Anywhere, USA is why a lot of their jokes work effectively. In reality, more than half the states in the United States have a Springfield township or city, but we're only concerned with one of those Springfield cities in this article. That Springfield is located in Massachusetts, and it's the home of the AHL's Thunderbirds hockey team! Or, as they'll be known on Saturday, the Ice-O-Topes!

Sinc 2019, the Springfield Thunderbirds have been holding a "Springfield Ice-O-Topes" night annually as a promotion for their team that incorporates TV's longest-running primetime animated series. They'll host the defending Calder Cup champions in the Hershey Bears on Saturday as the Ice-O-Topes, and I'm pretty excited to see the Thunderbirds in these fun jerseys while will be put up for auction after the game.

"It's really cool," Al Jean, a writer and executive producer for The Simpsons, told NHL.com in 2019. "Now we finally know where Springfield is."

While Jean wouldn't go as far as saying that Springfield, Massachusetts is the actual Springfield where Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie live, it seems as though the Thunderbirds are willing to be that city for at least one night per year. What makes this promotion a little cooler is that the Springfield AHL franchise actually toyed with the idea of calling themselves the "Ice-O-Topes" in 2016 before landing on Thunderbirds as was reported in Pat Pickens' NHL.com article above!

The previous jerseys worn for Springfield's one night in honouring The Simpsons are below. Honestly, these are pretty amazing!

Clearly, the Thunderbirds have some good design sense because these jerseys are fantastic. I love the logo they used on these jerseys, and the colours pop well. The navy one on the right could use a little more bright colour to offset all the navy, but I'm not complaining loudly about that when it comes to these one-night-only jerseys!

The Thunderbird logo was also drawn in the same manner as the animation on The Simpsons with the logo appearing on the shoulders of the previous jerseys. This year, however, it seems the team is updating its look because the atomic logo for the Ice-O-Topes is gone, and will be replaced by the logo at the top of this article!

Referencing Blinky, the three-eyed fish from The Simpsons, the Thunderbirds will sport their new three-eyed logo on their chests with the Ice-O-Topes logo moving to the shoulder. For those asking, Blinky makes multiple appearances in The Simpsons throughout its history, but Blinky has also popped up in Futurama, and is the Springfield curling team's mascot!

This year, the Ice-O-Topes will look like our model goalie to the left as the Thunderbirds and their three-eyed Boomer logo play the Hershey Bears on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd of 6793 at the MassMutual Center. Hershey enters the game with a 36-8-2 record and 74 points - 13 points ahead of Providence for both the Atlantic Division lead and first-overall in the AHL. Springfield, meanwhile, enters the game at 21-19-5 and in fifth-place in the Atlantic Division, sitting 27 points back of Hershey. On paper, this game seems like a mismatch, but never count out the Ice-O-Topes!

Kudos to the Springfield Thunderbirds for bringing back another chapter to this fantastic promotion. Let's just hope that the Thunderbirds can keep this going for as many seasons as The Simpsons have been on network television!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!