The Central Hockey League was formed in 1992 with the idea that all teams would be owned by the league. In other words the "Central" in "Central Hockey League" refers not to physical location (it's not in the center anyway; it's in the south), but rather to the centralized economy of Soviet Russia, which is what the CHL used as its economic model.

Of course, all good Americans know that the problem with centralized economies is that the workers (who are mostly government employees, since the government owns everything) don't really care about doing a good job. This was apparently the case with the guy who designed the logos for the CHL teams. They all feature the same basic riff: the name of the team written in reasonably clear type, with some simple icon to represent the team name. Wichita gets a lightning bolt. Fort Worth gets a flame. Dallas gets...um...something.

In short, most of these logos don't look like hockey team logos. They look like corporate logos. Now, this isn't entirely bad. There are no goofy cartoon characters, for which we can all be thankful. And when a logo doesn't look like other hockey logos, it means it's distinct and will stand out.

At least, it will if it doesn't debut along with five other logos which all have an eerie similarity to it. That tends to dampen the originality a bit.

Over the years, most of these logos have gone away for one reason or another. The Dallas Freeze and Fort Worth Fire no longer exist. The Memphis Riverkings and Tulsa Oilers have switched to new logos (Tulsa has done this twice). Only Oklahoma City and Wichita remain.

This is a bit of a shame, because Wichita's is one that really needs to go away. If nothing else, they could at least put "Wichita" above "Thunder" where it belongs. I mean, what does "Thunder Wichita" mean, anyway? It sounds like something Dr. Cyclone, the mad scientist, would yell as he aims his Weather Gun at Kansas. "And now, America will feel my wrath as I thunder Wichita! Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!

As you can see from the logos above, incidentally, this was the second phase of Dr. Cyclone's revenge on all those who said he was mad, mad I tell you. In his first attack, he decided to Freeze Dallas.

Speaking as a resident of North Carolina, I hope he sticks to the southcentral part of the country. Carolina gets hurricaned enough as it is.

Final Score: 12 points.
Penalties: Name-logo (quadruply-egregious), 7 pts; Yucky-Logo, 5 pts.
Bonuses: None.