spartacat_12

I mean there's also clearly a difference between these two helmets (one obviously looks better than the other): Would a team like the 49ers look better with a red facemask instead of grey? Sure, but when I'm watching a football game the facemask colour isn't as noticeable as the helmets/pants are in a hockey game. If it helps, I was glad to see the Giants ditch the grey pants a couple years ago.

A facemask in football is like the chin strap of a hockey helmet. Do you ever hear people complaining about teams like the Habs or Rangers having black chin straps on their helmets?

Icethetics has just posted a preview of the Fanatics changes for next year & beyond: Not a whole lot of breaking revelations, but here are some highlights: The practice jersey template is changing. Obviously the 3 stripes along the sides have been removed, and the Fanatics logo is replacing the Adidas one on the chest. The dimples on the shoulders may be gone (this is based on a digital rendering), and the pentagon shaped panel on the collar is gone as well. The standard roundel on the front of the practice jerseys is being tweaked, and will now be stitched instead of heat-pressed. Contrary to what's been said, teams will still have third jerseys next season, there just won't be any new ones. They mention teams like San Jose and Tampa keeping their black thirds around. Aside from Boston returning to their pre-centennial uniforms, there's no mention of any other teams changing their primary look

Probably the best St. Pats look the Leafs have ever worn. The standard numbers look a lot better than the bizarre square patches they used before.

"Rebuild" has just become a buzzword organizations use to buy themselves time. Executives don't have to face any consequences for their team's poor play because they're "rebuilding" which means we can't judge them for at least 3-5 years. It feels like a symptom of the ring chasing culture that's taken over pro sports, mainly due to social media. Obviously a championship is the ultimate goal for every sports fan, but we've gotten to a point where we can't celebrate any other accomplishments. Fans demand their favourite team rebuild at the first sign of trouble, without realizing that it means being terrible for a while without any guarantee of success. You're just as likely to end up being the next Detroit Pistons as you are the OKC Thunder. And even if you do execute a successful rebuild, you might just be a perennial playoff team that still can't win it all (i.e. the 76ers).

Yikes. I get that no one likes ads on uniforms, but do we need to be this cynical? For a startup league like the PWHL, jersey ads are a necessary evil. Molson could've easily just purchased the real estate below the number and slapped their logo there, but they found a much more creative way to activate the sponsorship. Yes, this helps them gain some positive PR, but we should appreciate that they put some effort into making the campaign about more than just their company.

Where do you see any black on this jersey? The black names & numbers never made sense on the white jersey, and were basically thrown on there to justify the black equipment. And about a third of the teams in the league have a colour in their logo that doesn't appear anywhere else in their uniforms, so wearing black pants because of a tiny black puck covered in snow seems like a stretch. You yourself said that black is neutral, and that black equipment shouldn't factor into a team's colour hierarchy.

Wearing black equipment with a uniform that doesn't have any black in it looks amateur. It's like seeing a minor hockey team where every kid just has basic black pants regardless of what colour their jersey is. If the Red Wings or Canadiens started wearing black pants would that not clash with their uniforms? If they were going to keep the black equipment, it would have worked better if they eliminated silver altogether, like they did with this alternate.

They really aren't using black anymore. Yes it's used sparingly in the logos, but it's no different than how Chicago uses green & yellow. With the pre-Edge set, the colour balances were different between the two main jerseys. The dark jersey was burgundy/blue/black/white, while the light jersey was white/burgundy/silver/blue. The black equipment made some sense with the burgundy jersey, but looked out of place with the white jersey (especially if you saw one without numbers). It's similar to how the Golden Knights improved their road uniform by switching the black pants to grey.

Not surprising, but Fanatics is taking no accountability for this mess, and is doubling down on the fact that them & Nike think the uniforms are an improvement over what came before them.

Blue might've been the secondary colour on the burgundy jerseys, but not the white jerseys. They had burgundy sleeves, black numbers/names, and black pants. Blue was basically used equally with silver on the white uniform, while the burgundy used hardly any silver altogether. It was clear that they were using one too many colours, and needed to decide between silver & black. The current set could use some tweaks, but I wouldn't say it looks awful. As mentioned above, adding a blue stripe along the sleeves of the road jersey would go a long way, as would more consistency with the numbers. Currently they use white numbers outlined in silver on the back of the burgundy jersey, but use white numbers outlined in blue on the burgundy sleeves.

That's true. Although I don't mind them sticking with navy as it helps differentiate them from Montreal a bit more.

CFL tickets being significantly cheaper than NHL tickets is pretty standard up here, and the Jets have the 2nd lowest ticket prices in the country. Their arena is the smallest in the league, so they do have to charge a little more to make up for the lower overall attendance. As a small market team, Winnipeg has relied heavily on their season ticket base to keep the building full. It sounds like a lot of their previous season ticket sales were to groups of people who shared them for the year, but when one person in that group suddenly can't afford their portion you lose the entire group. It also feels like the organization took the fans for granted, and weren't providing any sort of proper service to retain clients (as others have mentioned). I'm not sure if you've been seeing the standings this year, but the Jets are first in their division and top 5 in the league overall. No front office is perfect, but Cheveldayoff managed to get long term commitments from key pieces. He also managed to effectively navigate having 2 elite young players who had no interest in playing there.

It looks good, but feels a bit too OKCish. But most of the teams who switched to navy in the 90s/00s have since gone back to their royal roots. The Brewers, Patriots, and Seahawks are pretty much the only team who have stuck with it.

Ah ok. Yes, I'd love to see the 2nd generation purple brought back. It's probably my favourite of any uniform they've worn. The earned jersey from a couple of years ago definitely took some inspiration from it, but came across as a bland mashup of the purple era & the current chevron era.

I'm not expecting any serious changes. The team seems pretty committed to red/white/black as the primary colour scheme, while keeping the purple and black/gold in the mix via the city/earned/throwback jerseys. As for Vince's number, I feel like fans have mostly moved on after his messy exit and his number will likely be in the rafters at some point, but they want Kyle Lowry to be the first guy. Once 7 has been retired we'll see who else gets the honour.

I'm guessing they go with some sort of oversized cannon logo, and maybe silver helmets to tie in the Buckeyes connection. Would be great to see Detroit wear a red & white version of the classic Michigan helmet. There really is no pleasing hockey fans. When Chicago got announced as the Winter Classic host everyone complained about them being in an outdoor game again. When a team that's never played in an outdoor game gets to host, people find a way to complain about that too. Columbus has managed pretty consistent attendance & fan support during their history, which is impressive considering how terrible they've been for almost their entire existence. It's a somewhat traditional hockey market, and the horseshoe is one of the most iconic stadiums in college football.

That was a recent change though. They previously used a generic font for all the retired numbers.

That feels like a bit of a blanket statement. Between all the outdoor games, we've seen fauxbacks/throwbacks to non-connected franchises from Seattle, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Dallas, Nashville, and Minnesota. Sure, they might not all be your cup of tea, but to say they've all been underwhelming or worse seems like a pretty big exaggeration.

Chicago beat Pittsburgh in the second last game of the season last year, and those 2 points moved them from 1st to 3rd in the lottery odds. Since 2010 the last place team has only won the lottery 4 times, and they've spread out the odds even more in recent years. As a fan who's been watching 5+ years of rebuilding hockey, I advise you to enjoy the wins whenever they happen. Celebrini will likely be a good player, but he isn't going to change a franchise singlehandedly (although the Sharks/Bay Area connection would make for a cool story).

Aside from all that, the Eagles never even had memorable jerseys. Their uniforms were basically identical to Tampa's current away set, which is already derivative of the Leafs.

I guess the hem stripe is just meant to tie in their current primary jersey design. The logo treatment is great, and bringing back the inaugural font is a nice tough (although I'd personally have preferred the paintbrush numbers). It isn't perfect, but it's the best black jersey they've had since the switch to Reebok Edge in '07. Also, we don't have a thread for next season up yet, but it sounds like the 2025 Stadium Series will be Columbus vs. Detroit at the horseshoe. I'm not sure how much they'll lean into the Michigan-Ohio State elements when it comes to the uniforms, but it would be cool to see the Red Wings use a red & white version of the Wolverines' classic helmet.

They have a couple of years before Fanatics makes any drastic changes to the uniforms. Hopefully with enough negative feedback to the MLB updates they learn their lesson and don't do anything stupid.

They hadn't previously celebrated their Whalers history because they didn't have the trademarks, and because the previous owner was the one who actually moved the team out of CT. Tom Dundon had nothing to do with the relocation, and seems earnest about wanting to honour the Whaler legacy. Obviously it doesn't hurt that their logo & uniforms are probably the most beloved of any former franchise, but any throwback/alternate jersey is a money grab. At this point I'd say Hartford has the longest odds to get another team of any former Big 4 city. I'll take the Canes playing Whaler dress up a couple times a year over never seeing the uniforms on the ice again.

So does rebranding after a relocation suddenly make you ineligible for throwback jerseys? People don't seem to take issue with the Lakers wearing Minneapolis throwbacks, or Memphis breaking out the Vancouver Grizzlies uniforms, but suddenly it's a problem when the Canes & Titans decide to dip into their history. I grew up as an Expos fan, and I didn't have any issue with the Nationals dressing in the old powder blue Montreal uniforms a few years ago.