For reasons that have almost nothing to do with the team itself, the name "Arizona Sundogs" amuses the hell out of me. Before I explain, let me warn you that it has to do with the geekiness that is fantasy hockey.

I ran a fantasy hockey league for several years, and like many it got a bit silly around the edges. At one point we decided we all needed to decide who our farm teams were. Mind you, there was no real farm system in the league (by which I mean you couldn't actually send players down to an affiliate, and if you needed to sign someone you just picked an unclaimed player), but that didn't stop us. We even had leagues for these affiliates (the Eastern Hockey Association and the Southwest Hockey League...for some reason everyone had picked as their affiliate city a place that was either on the East Coast or in the Southwest, so those were the league names we went with).

The major league (i.e., the "real" fantasy league where we were actually running teams and simulating games) was the Transamerican Hockey League. It was only a twelve-team league, so the affiliates were often in pretty big cities. My wife's team put its affiliate in Phoenix, and called the team the Phoenix Sun Dogs. Mind you, this was around the year 2002, several years before the Arizona Sundogs came about. So when my wife and I found out about a real-life team with such a similar name, we both found it more amusing than it really ought to be. There was also a team in the THL itself whose name wound up being used by a real life team (the Calgary Vipers), but that one doesn't have quite the same punch, partly because the real life team isn't a hockey team (they play baseball, and next spring will move from the Northern League to the Golden Baseball League), and partly because "Vipers" isn't as odd a name as "Sun Dogs".

As to whether calling a team "Sun Dogs" (or "Sundogs", as the real life life team incorrectly spells it) is a good idea, that's one my wife and I have disagreed on for years. Obviously, she thinks it is. I'm not so sure. First off, the name sounds like a made-up word. I know that it in fact isn't, but it still looks like one. Second, sun dogs are a type of mirage. That doesn't sound like a great thing to name your team after.

Finally, while I do get tired of so many teams feeling the need to throw "ice" into their names, throwing something as antithetical to ice as the sun doesn't strike me as an improvement. It's as if the team is trying to advertise the fact that they're in a part of the country where you couldn't possibly play hockey without artificial ice.

As for the logo, it's hideous. I'm sorry, but it just is. Red, orange, and grey is one of the most obnoxious color schemes I've ever seen. The design itself is kind of neat (and I'm highly relieved that they didn't put an actual dog in there), but the color scheme just kills it.

Here's my suggestion: replace the red with a slightly orangish yellow, make the orange a little more reddish, and lose the grey. Wow, the logo is instantly ten times better! And I think it would look pretty nifty on the black jerseys they use, too. It would certainly look better than the current logo does.

It makes me wonder, though: Did my wife design a logo for the Phoenix Sun Dogs? And if so, did it look any better? I don't think I'll ask, because I'd like to believe that no one in the league was so geeky as to create a logo for a nonexistent farm team.

I know for a fact that someone was that geeky, because I did it, but I'd still like to believe that no one was. We all have our delusions, right?

Final Score: 34 points.
Penalties: Region (egregious), 5 pts; Misspell, 11 pts, Colorful, 13 pts; Yucky-Logo, 5 pts.
Bonuses: None.