Chris Berman introduces the Connecticut Whale

Although considered a tool by some, Chris Berman deserves to be commended for supporting Howard Baldwin and the new Connecticut Whale.  Bonus points for incorporating the Brass Bonanza in the background.  Even with a minus-1 for relying on his lame catchprase, and a minus-2 for the cheesy joke at the end, Berman comes out ahead for adding some star power to minor league hockey in the capital city.

Connecticut readers, if you are at all interested in hockey or supporting the Whalers' future return to the NHL in Hartford, you should consider going to one of these AHL games.  You can always get seats down near the boards, and the hockey talent is pretty good (especially with Wade Redden -- and the 6-year, $39 million contract he got from the New York Rangers in 2008 -- hitting the ice every night).  And how can you beat 2 games for $15?

Connecticut Whale logo unveiled

Howard Baldwin, the former owner of the Hartford Whalers and current head of Whalers Sports & Entertainment, recently took over the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, the minor league team affiliated with and owned by the NHL's New York Rangers.  Baldwin is going to run the business operations of the club.  His first move as head honcho was to rename and essentially rebrand the team as part of his ongoing efforts to bring NHL hockey (and specifically the Hartford Whalers) back to the Hartbeat.

The result, ladies and gentlemen, is that midway through the upcoming season, the Hartford Wolf Pack will become the Connecticut Whale.  And just yesterday at around 6:00 p.m. EST, the team unveiled the new logo and color scheme for the Whale:

Readers, I am interested in your thoughts about this new look.  Personally, I think it is terrible.  It looks like it was designed by a high school sophomore who was playing around with an outdated and illegally downloaded version of photoshop.  The "C" could not be more generic.  The logo also fails at transforming the peaceful whale into a fearsome hockey player (perhaps this is why the original Hartford Whalers logo featured only the tail rather than a full whale).  Speaking of the whale tail, it is the only homage to the original NHL logo, and it is tucked away in the bottom right-hand corner!  The entire image, in my eyes, is typical minor league garbage.  It is plain and boring.  Just look at the font used for the team name....I cannot detect even a whiff of style or flair.

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