Growlers fans, here’s what your team’s arch-rivals will be wearing

ECHL expansion club in Trois-rivières unveils name and logo

If you plan on attending Newfoundland Growlers games, you will probably be seeing a lot of the logo that tops this story.

It’s that of the Troisrivières Lions, one of two expansion teams set to begin play in the ECHL this fall. The team’s name, colours and logo were introduced thgis week,

The Lions, along with the Iowa Heartlanders, the other 2021-22 ECHL expansion club, are owned by St. John’s-based Deacon Sports & Entertainment, the Dean Macdonald-chaired company whose ECHL portfolio also includes the Growlers.

Trois-rivières will join Newfoundland in the ECHL’S North Division and the league’s only two Canadian teams will be each other’s most frequent opponent; they’ll meet 16 times, which represents well more than 22 per cent of their schedules.

The Growlers and Lions are set to play their season-opener on Oct. 21 in Trois-rivières.

The Lions will be the affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens and American Hockey League’s Laval Rockets, but unlike those two teams, won’t be garbed in the famed red, white and blue tri-colour of the Canadiens’ organization, Instead, the uniforms will be blue and grey, a decision that mirrors that made with the Growlers, whose gold and black jerseys are entirely different from the blue and white of their NHL parent, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

However, unlike the Growlers, seen as possessors of a unique nickname in the realm of North American sports, “Lions” is anything but, what with the NFL’S Detroit Lions and CFL’S B.C. Lions and more than 30 U.S. college varsity entries named Lions or having Lions as part of their team moniker.

In this case, however there is a historical factor. The very first professional hockey teams in Trois-rivières, which played in the Quebec Hockey League and Eastern Professional Hockey League in the late 1950s, was also called Lions. Among the Trois-rivières players of the day was Don Cherry.

By the way, one of the archrivals of those original Lions were the Shawinigan Falls Cataracts, whose star players from 1954 to 1958 included Newfoundlander George Faulkner.

“We truly listened to the passionate fans who put forth thousands of suggestions over the past seven months, the fans not only named our team, but motivated us to create the unique details found throughout our logo,” said Macdonald Thursday.

Two details are obvious — the face and mane of a lion framed in the outline of the fleur-de-lys, Quebec’s iconic symbol.

Identifying others takes requires more study and background information.

The metal-plated look of the lion is said to represent the importance of the steel industry to the Trois-rivières region; the top of the lion’s head is the outline of a torch, a symbol of the Canadiens; and the lion’s moustached look is a tribute to Sieur Laviolette, who founded Trois-rivières nearly 400 years ago.

Win X Two Branding Agency and the Idea Factory, two Newfoundland firms which also were involved in the development of the Growlers’ and Heartlanders’ brands, partnered with a pair of Quebec agencies in coming up with the Lions’ design.