HC SLOVAN Bratislava will embark on the 2013/2014 season with a new mascot! Needless to say, its look and feel will be based on an eagle, specifically the so-called white-tailed eagle, which has been the predominant image of the Bratislava club’s logo since the year 2000.
Slovan have entrusted the creation of the new mascot’s costume to a Canadian firm, Création Animation Mascottes of Québec, who specialize exclusively in the design, production, animation and training of mascots. They employ over 80 professional animators.
They are by no means unknown to hockey fans. Indeed, it was Création Animation Mascottes who brought into being Goooly the wolf – the popular mascot for the 2011 World Championship which took place in Bratislava and Košice. This partnership between the IIHF and the Canadian animators continues today – at the current World Championship in Finland and Sweden, Icy the lynx took over from last year’s Hockey Bird.
Performance Director Christian Lanouette, who is personally supervising “his” mascots in Stockholm, still found the time to sign a contract to work with Slovan to create and animate our eagle mascot.
“I am very much looking to working with Slovan,” said Christian Lanouette. “In Québec we know that Bratislava is a hockey town. I found that out for myself two years ago at the World Championship. I am quite sure we’ll come up with a superb mascot for Slovan.”
Naturally, it is not realistic to expect the Canadian animators to perform as the mascot at matches throughout a six-month-long season, rather than a two-week tournament. Slovan is therefore seeking to recruit animators to the new roles. Anybody can apply for the first round of selection; the criteria and conditions will be published next week. All being well, C. Lanouette has pledged his consulting expertise in selecting the animators. And that’s not all.
“If everything works out time-wise, I’m not ruling out the possibility that we could come to ‘train’ the new animators during the opening game of the season in September.”
The new mascot – the eagle – will wear the dark blue Slovan home jersey, complete with logo and name. Slovan fans themselves will decide on the new mascot’s name – there will be a public vote during the summer months. Details on how to vote, and the prize for the winning entry, will be published in due course.
Note: The visualization used here is a sketch for illustration purposes only. We reserve the right to make minor changes and/or updates.
| P | Tím | Z | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | CSKA Moscow | 38 | 81 |
| 2. | Jokerit Helsinki | 38 | 68 |
| 3. | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl | 40 | 77 |
| 4. | Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod | 39 | 67 |
| 5. | HC Sochi | 39 | 65 |
| 6. | Dynamo Moscow | 39 | 65 |
| 7. | SKA St. Peterburg | 38 | 62 |
| 8. | Dinamo Minsk | 38 | 56 |
| 9. | Medvescak Zagreb | 40 | 56 |
| 10. | HC SLOVAN Bratislava | 40 | 55 |
| 11. | Spartak Moscow | 39 | 50 |
| 12. | Vityaz Podolsk | 39 | 46 |
| 13. | Dinamo Riga | 37 | 46 |
| 14. | Severstal Cherepovets | 38 | 40 |
