War on Logos #9: World Domination
Ah, the Montreal Canadiens, the oldest and most successful franchise in the history of the NHL, and they know it. And they want you to know it too. This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Le Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge, and in their century long existence, they have won 24 Stanley Cups, the most by any NHL club, a fact that they will even rub in the face of anyone who visits their official website. Heck, even back in 1924 when they won their second Stanley Cup against the WCHL’s Calgary Tigers, they chose to change their primary jersey crest to celebrate the occasion…
But really though, is it fair of me to pick on a logo from what was essentially the Dinosaur Era of Hockey? The answer to that question would be “Yes”. Why? Because this is perhaps the most arrogant sports team’s logo to have ever been designed. They presumably came under the assumption that they won the Cup; therefore making them the World Champions of Hockey, so changed their primary crest to a globe… and a poorly drawn one at that. But we’ll come back to that in a bit.
It’s fair enough that a championship is worth celebrating, but to replace the primary crest for the whole next season is excessive, and at the same time arrogant and stupid, hence why the Canadiens are probably the only team in any sport ever to do something like that. And also, why did they wait until their second championship to do this? Was it really that much more special than the first?
What exactly does a globe have to do with the name Canadiens? Sure, Canada is on there, but then so are several other countries. Also as I mentioned earlier, the globe is quite badly drawn. Although I’ll let them off for the inaccuracies of the countries, aside from the fact that some like the United Kingdom *ahem* are missing altogether. I think my main problem with the globe’s design is the grid… I mean, if you’re looking at one, you’d see that the grid shrinks as it goes outward, rather than grow, because everyone knows that the further away something is, the smaller it’s going to look. It’s because of this that just looking at this logo gives me a headache.
So what was the ultimate fate of this globe? Well, with this logo, and perhaps some bad karma too, the Canadiens went to the 1925 Stanley Cup Finals, and lost in four games to the WCHL’s Victoria Cougars. Afterwards, the Habs brought back their familiar CH logo, and the globe was never to be seen or mentioned ever again. Hmm.
I’m Wildwing64, and I declare War On Logos.