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This morning our site was featured on Post 2 Post Productions as Neil, the host, ranked all 32 of this season's NHL ice designs. Post 2 Post covers all things NHL from big trades to jersey design rankings, and even critiques amateur jersey concept. It is a quality channel with new content daily. (They are not a sponsor--we are just big fans of their videos). We hope you will head over to their channel and subscribe. Here is their ranking of all of the ice rinks.

The ice is ready for the 2022 Discover NHL Winter Classic at Target Field in Minneapolis, MN. The outline of the red line and the snowflake at center ice are a staple of the winter classic in recent years, but the design team has added a few more clever details to the rink this season. The faceoff dots all have snow flakes in them matching the one at the center ice dot. The same snowflake can be found at both ends of the Winter Classic word mark around the center circle. While this isn't the greatest photo of the blue line, it is enough to show us what may be the coolest blue line we have ever seen. Below is a cleaner look at what it looks like. You will also notice that this is the first Winter Classic that does not use any red line through the center circle. The 2020 Winter Classic featured only an outline of the red line. This is sure to make many fans happy and makes us wonder if this could eventually find its way to home team ice designs. The NHL has certainly been testing it out a bit more in recent years during non-regulation games, but this is only the second time for a game with 2 points on the line. The ice is sure to impress the fans. Here is a look at the full rink. For full resolution images and a post-game version, head on over to the center ice archive. Let us know in the comments what you think of the details in this season's Winter Classic rink design.

Have you ever wanted to build an ice rink in your back yard? How hard could it be? Well, there's actually more to it than you might expect, but Jeff Nash, of Rinks Around the League, recently built one and is showing us how it is done with no special equipment.

Our tenth anniversary season isn't over, and we said we would have more new content coming to celebrate. Today we are excited to announce another new feature coming to the Center Ice Archive. We have two new ice rink textures! A couple months ago we announced our new 3d Neutral Zone graphics which would be added to the entire archive. Those have been coming along well, but now we have added new full rink graphics. Under each rink in our archive, you will find two buttons. You can download a mostly clean rink called "Pre-Game Rink" which has an all-new texture to make it look more authentic to a freshly resurfaced ice rink. The second button will let you download a "Post-Game Rink" which features many skate marks and visible wear to the ice surface. We spent a lot of time and researched a lot of overhead shots of ice rinks near the end of a period or end of game to get that skated look as accurate as possible. As of the time of this announcement, we already have completed the new post-game rinks for the following. NHL - current teams (all seasons) PHF - complete archive SPHL - current teams (all seasons) AHL - 2022 season ECHL 2022 season There are some other teams/years that have been completed around the site on top of what is listed above. Any page that contains a 3D neutral zone graphic at the top also has a post-game ice rink. The hard part was getting the current NHL teams done because there are so many rinks involved. The remainder of the rinks around the site will be popping up pretty quickly over the coming month or so. Soon we will have the entire center ice archive upgraded with these rinks. Then it will be time to add a couple more leagues, but more on that later.

Beginning December 25, 2021, STAPLES Center will become Crypto.com Arena as part of a new 20 year, 700 million dollar naming rights package. The downtown arena has had only one name in its history, and it was supposed to remain that way as STAPLES had previously renewed their naming rights with a "Lifetime" agreement. We first wondered if something was going with the arena name back in August when the Kings painted their ice. Soon after that photo was taken, the STAPLES Center text was added, meaning they painted the rest of the ice on one layer, and then the text on a higher layer. This would allow for a much easier change later on. So now its time to see what the new arena name could look like on ice. Here is our prediction along with an alternate. For a full resolution rink, head over to the concepts page. Here is one alternative that we tried, but we honestly could not find any other placement that looked decent. What do you think of the name, and its placement on the ice? Let us know in the comments.

A quick roundup of rink related news to catch you up to speed on the developments of Rinks Around the League. This update includes news about Climate Pledge Arena, UBS Arena, FLA Live Arena and more!

On January 1, 2022, the Minnesota Wild will host the St. Louis Blues in an outdoor setting for the Winter Classic. The game will be played at Target Field in Minneapolis. Both teams have unveiled their uniforms for the game and we have gotten a look at the 2022 Winter Classic logo. Here is our concept of what the ice might look like for that event. Minnesota will bring back multiple elements to remember their history with a new and unique jersey. St. Louis will throw things back to their very first season with a cream version of their original white jerseys. What do you think of this season's upcoming match up? Which team has the better jersey? Should the NHL start changing up the cookie cutter template for ice designs for the Winter Classic? Let us know in the comments below.

For many, this will feel like a minor detail of little importance. However, for a site that focuses so much on the center ice designs, it is a big day. NHL 22 gameplay has been revealed and the center ice circle is finally regulation size. It is hard to believe that for a decade of EA Sports NHL video games, we have had a smaller center ice than is regulated on the actual rinks. And before you say, "Why would you care about this and not the actual gameplay issues?" let me just say I do. You can go anywhere and find all the info you want about gameplay issues though, so why add to that list when that is not our specialty. And we do feel it is important to have a regulation ice surface. Can you imagine if football games messed up the field dimensions? Well now we finally have proof that the center circle issue has been fixed. Use the fader below to see the same view of the ice from NHL 21 and NHL 22. Is it a huge difference? No, but when you see the players all facing off at that circle in NHL 21, it sure does look weird. We are glad to see this issue finally resolved and we are also excited to see more subtle ice details that have been improved. Once we see all of the center ice designs for this year's game, we will be sure to take a look at their accuracy.

Update: 9/1/21 New Photo from @Heather.Dixon.1466 TD Garden hosted a graduation ceremony recently and we can see the new scoreboard hanging in the rafters. This is the first time seeing it from below and now we know that it will have 4 under-belly screens. Aside from that, we do not have a lot of specific details about this board yet. It appears to be a conservative board compared to some in the league. We do not see many bells or whistles with this thing, and it certainly doesn't look like it will be among the largest in the league. One thing is certain though, it is a solid design and it will be a nice upgrade from the old, tiny scoreboard the Bruins fans have watched for the past decade.

Back to our "What If?" Series, looking at what the 2020-2021 season ice rinks would have looked like if the NHL had placed the traditional Stanley Cup Playoffs graphics in the ice. Update: Here are the Stanley Cup Final logos on ice.

Update: We received a photo of the construction progress as of 8/3 at TD Garden. There appears to be some sort of upper ring going in but we don't know if that will be for LED screens or arena signage. Right now my bets are on arena signage. Original Post: We have a sneak peek at how big the Boston Bruins scoreboard is going to be thanks to a photo by @heather.dixon.1466). It looks to be about 40 feet wide on each of the four sides, and will have flat screens. It also appears to have 16:9 main video screens which leads us to believe it will have some sort of LED above or below the main screens which will show scores. This won't be the largest in the league, but it will still be an excellent size for viewing from anywhere in the arena. We will keep watching for more updates!

A quick roundup of rink related news to catch you up to speed on the developments of Rinks Around the League. The final stages of construction of the Isles and Kraken arenas, a new arena in Calgary, and a renewal for PNC Arena. Be sure to subscribe to his channel for some excellent behind-the-scenes NHL content.

The center ice archive has gone through many changes over the last year, and we have one more big announcement regarding the site. We are bringing one of the most requested features to the archive. Authentic rink advertisements will now appear on ice. I have fought it for years, but since so many visitors ask for this, we have decided it is worth the extra effort. This will take a while to implement. We will add a section on our homepage letting you know what teams have authentic advertisements. Now on to how we will handle this in a way that is authentic but also keeps the center ice archive organized and focused on the center ice design above all else. Authentic Ads will only be placed on NHL rinks. There are just too many ad placements in other leagues, and not nearly enough reference photos/videos to accurately recreate them. Some teams have been known to change out their in-ice ads in the middle of the season, and this is now commonly done for the playoffs when the league puts in their league wide ads. We will only cover one set of advertisements per season and they will be based on regular season action. With some older ices, the advertisements sometimes got pretty close to the center ice circle. This means that some ads might fall within our square thumbnail images that focus solely on the center ice area. To keep browsing the archive clean and efficient, we do not plan to include those ads in our thumbnails. They will only show up on the full rink images. We have already begun working on this project. You can find advertisements on the NHL All Star ice rinks. For an updates on what teams we are upgraded to the new authentic rinks, please follow this thread in the community. Also here is a quick preview of some other rinks.

It's a bit unusual to see the arena name signage go up on a scoreboard before the LEDs are even close to finished, but that is what is happening right now at UBS Arena. Check out their live camera to see how it is going! Also take a look at this photo from a few weeks ago to see just how big this board is going to be. Once complete, this board will look very similar to the PNC Arena scoreboard for the Carolina Hurricanes. The main difference will be that this board has equal sides.

We hope NHL 22 will be released on next gen consoles this fall, and we hope arenas and ice surfaces get updated with the upgrade. Here are some things that we would like to see fixed for each NHL rink. If a team/rink is not listed, we feel it is as accurate as possible. Anaheim Ducks - Honda Center This arena is pretty accurate. Just update the seat color to black. Boston Bruins - TD Garden The seat colors should be changed to black, and the paint colors of the press level and canopy should be updated. There will also be a new scoreboard this fall, so hopefully this can be updated in one of the first few patches. Carolina Hurricanes - PNC Arena The rafters of PNC Arena should be a much lighter gray. Columbus Blue Jackets - Nationwide Arena The lower rings of the scoreboard should be taller, making the entire scoreboard taller. Detroit Red Wings - Little Caesars Arena The seat color should be changed to black. Otherwise, this arena is spot on! Florida Panthers - BB&T Center The scoreboard should be a bit larger. New York Islanders - UBS Arena Hopefully this new arena can be added to the game at launch, or perhaps in a patch. Philadelphia Flyers - Wells Fargo Center The seats should now be all black. Pittsburgh Penguins - PPG Paints Arena The scoreboard shape is a bit off. Also the arena name at the top of the board was based on a temporary nameplate they used right after they changed names. It is larger now. San Jose Sharks - SAP Center The rafters should be much brighter. This is one of the things that makes this arena unique. Seattle Kraken - Climate Pledge Arena Hoping this new arena will also be added to the game this fall. St. Louis Blues - Enterprise Center The seats should be changed to black, and all of the blue walls should be light gray. The Canopy at press level should also be gray. The scoreboard is a bit small and not quite the right proportion. Washington Capitals - Capital One Arena The seats should be black, and the scoreboard is very outdated now. Also should have LED Rings all over the arena. Winnipeg Jets - Canada Life Centre With a new name, the scoreboard will need a new sign on top.

Following up on the rollout of our brand new website, we have now completed our first site update. Don't worry, we won't bore you with all of the fine details, but we will try to point out some of the larger fixes, changes, and additions. Sports Organist section added to the site. This section covers current organists from around the NHL, MLB, and NBA. We hope to add past organists in the future. Arena names have been added to the thumbnail pages of the center ice archive. History of the Rink has been moved under "The Rink" in the navigation menu. This is to accommodate some new features we have coming soon. Center Ice pages now open in a new window when you click on a center ice thumbnail so you won't lose your previous place while browsing the archive. Members of TheFaceoff.net Community now have early access to our latest feature, Building the Rink. If you see any errors, or would like to make suggestions, please email us at admin@thefaceoff.net. If you would like to request an ice or submit your own logo/ice concepts, please check out the Community page.