Does the logo on the new Canada team hockey jersey look less like a maple leaf and more like a … London Plane Tree leaf? Fans are reacting to the new look

On Tuesday, fans got their first glimpse of the official Canada team hockey jerseys that will be worn by Olympic and Paralympic athletes for the upcoming Winter Games in Beijing.

Hockey Canada shared three versions of the new Nike jerseys: in red, white and black, with a maple leaf crest.

But … is that a maple leaf?

“It looks more like a London banana (Platanus x acerifolia) than any Canadian maple (genus Acer) that I know of.” tweeted Marc Johnson, botanist and professor of biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

the London Plane Tree – a hybrid that originates from a cross between the American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and the oriental plantain (Platanus orientalis) – it is “a huge deciduous tree adorned with a massive trunk and a rounded crown of enormous horizontal branches and crooked “, according to plant finder at Gardenia.net. The tree is commonly planted in urban areas because it tolerates pollution and water stress well.

“It looks like Hockey Canada has created a new species for science, somewhere between a London Plane Tree and one of Canada’s many maple species,” Johnson told the Star. “If you were trying to represent a maple leaf, I think they had to look no further than the Canadian flag for inspiration, or even a sugar maple leaf (the species depicted on our flag) from a nearby lumber lot. “

And while the London Plane Tree, which originated in the British Isles, grows in Canada, it doesn’t quite carry the patriotic value of the maple leaf.

“I will cheer on Canada’s men’s and women’s hockey teams in their quest for gold, regardless of their jerseys,” says Johnson, “but I think the artist could have taken too much artistic license or maybe looked to the wrong tree for inspiration. “

Overall, the reaction to the new jersey among hockey fans was decidedly mixed.

The newly designed “maple leaf” crest reminded some fans of other corporate logos.

Others longed for the t-shirts of yesteryear.

On Wednesday, USA Hockey unveiled its new jerseys for Beijing 2022.