2020-2021 NHL Changes

[WSU151 9,765]

16 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

Just noticed that the Coyotes have gotten rid of the numeral outlines on the Kachina jerseys and made the numerals thicker, for whatever reason. Now it looks like they're wearing knockoffs.

 

The outlines are silver for their “25th” anniversary. Been wearing silver outlines in the Kachinas all season. Looks better with regular burgandy outlines.

[PlayGloria 269]

9 hours ago, Kramerica Industries said:

Given that yellow has always been a secondary for the Blues, and red was only used in a marginal capacity for about 15 years, I'm left to wonder why the Blues decided to make their RR sweater red instead of yellow. I mean, yeah, I guess what they did was flip the red and blue portions of the original sweater template they took them from, but, in the inverse manner with the Habs, red just doesn't work as a dominant sweater color for the Blues and, unlike the Habs, the sweaters aren't all that aesthetically pleasing either when you strip them of their surrounding context.

 

I dunno, I'm not a skilled artist by any means...if you wanted to go with a '90s inspired look, I can't help but feel like a yellow-for-blue swapped out version of this wouldn't have worked:

 

 

 

 

For me, the Blues RR is a sweater that i would love to own and wear, but don't like seeing on the ice. Personally, i thought they missed the boat by not taking that same 90s look, but recoloring it with the navy, royal, and yellow that the wear today. Or better yet, flipping the yellow and blue on this era:

 

[Prince Harry 246]

That Canucks RR getup might be their best ever Orca jersey.

 

The updated colours are better than the original Orca colours. I also appreciate the use of the Orca on jersey design that was meant for that logo. 
 

The current home and aways look fine but Vancouver script or not they just feel like they’re trying to be two different things at once. 
 

If I could make a lazy comparison it would be like if the Rangers started using lady Liberty on their regular jerseys. Or the Isles slapping the fisherman the on their royal blue and orange kits. The Canucks look better than that but they still look weird. 

[NYRFan 95]

15 hours ago, Raptorman415 said:

Personally, I like the Devils jerseys better without the waist stripe...

What? How? Why?

When you make a jersey update, you're usually trying to relive a golden era, usher in a new one, or make a change that modernizes your brand or attracts a new demographic. 

Seriously, what benefit is derived from removing the waist stripes? They don't look visually better, non-fans won't notice the change, it goes against the idea of not touching a classic, and it looks like an unfinished practice sweater. 

How in the world, seriously, does it look better?

[monkeypower 3,017]

Once Uncle Lou left, the Devils decided to get wild but then... just didn't really?

[Kramerica Industries 1,988]

Sweaters without waist stripes - or some kind of horizontal striping on the torso - will never look as good as sweaters with them, everything else being equal. Hockey sweaters are meant to have horizontal striping and look incomplete without it. And, for the purposes of discussion, I'm going to include teams who have a single stripe at the hem that is the same color as the breezers, because the two just end up blending in together. 

 

I'm painting with something of a broad brush - the Las Vegas RR isn't "horizontally striped" and the mid-'00s Penguins weren't either, for example - but even if it's not horizontal striping, at least *something* needs to be there. Until all 31 NHL teams have uniforms with that basic requirement, the league will always have room for aesthetic improvement on that basis alone. 

[Raptorman415 276]

1 hour ago, NYRFan said:

What? How? Why?

When you make a jersey update, you're usually trying to relive a golden era, usher in a new one, or make a change that modernizes your brand or attracts a new demographic. 

Seriously, what benefit is derived from removing the waist stripes? They don't look visually better, non-fans won't notice the change, it goes against the idea of not touching a classic, and it looks like an unfinished practice sweater. 

How in the world, seriously, does it look better?

I started to watch more Devils hockey after the Adidas change. It's been the look I resonate with since I started watching more. If they re-added the waist stripe, I wouldn't mind. As long as they never touch the logo, I'll be okay.

[NYRFan 95]

11 minutes ago, Raptorman415 said:

I started to watch more Devils hockey after the Adidas change. It's been the look I resonate with since I started watching more. If they re-added the waist stripe, I wouldn't mind. As long as they never touch the logo, I'll be okay.

So, you have a personal attachment of sorts to it. I get that. But saying it looks better this way is... yeah.

 

 

[NYRFan 95]

2 hours ago, Kramerica Industries said:

Sweaters without waist stripes - or some kind of horizontal striping on the torso - will never look as good as sweaters with them, everything else being equal. Hockey sweaters are meant to have horizontal striping and look incomplete without it. And, for the purposes of discussion, I'm going to include teams who have a single stripe at the hem that is the same color as the breezers, because the two just end up blending in together. 

 

I'm painting with something of a broad brush - the Las Vegas RR isn't "horizontally striped" and the mid-'00s Penguins weren't either, for example - but even if it's not horizontal striping, at least *something* needs to be there. Until all 31 NHL teams have uniforms with that basic requirement, the league will always have room for aesthetic improvement on that basis alone. 

I'm in total agreement, @Kramerica Industries.

 

This is why I wonder when teams spend all this time and effort trying something that will never catch on. 

 

Sometimes, things are just rules of thumb. A sport played in a mostly horizontal frame with constant movement will always look better when, presuming the sweater is not tucked in, there is some sort of demarcation of where the sweater ends and the breezers begin. Otherwise, to me, the eye views the uniform as incomplete. 

 

And circling back to what I said about things not catching on, what I mean is that when a team like the Sharks or Panthers introduces their now-current primary home and away unis, you are wasting your time trying to outdo the original. Cartoony logos aside, the thing you see mostly with hockey action is the profile of the sweater and the striping (another reason I didn't care about the helmet ads and got blasted for my stance, ha, but I think my indifference was proven to be the right response, given how often you see the ad.).

 

There are some decent individual elements to both the Florida and SJ jerseys, but without the bold striping, when the action is occurring, there really isn't any strong sentiment conveyed by the sweaters. And they will never beat the originals, even though the older jerseys have logos that some would find fault with today. 

 

I'm with you, bro. I think without proper striping, a jersey looks like a pajama top, and that's what you see with a good half-dozen teams still.

[spartacat_12 1,355]

7 minutes ago, NYRFan said:

I'm in total agreement, @Kramerica Industries.

 

This is why I wonder when teams spend all this time and effort trying something that will never catch on. 

 

Sometimes, things are just rules of thumb. A sport played in a mostly horizontal frame with constant movement will always look better when, presuming the sweater is not tucked in, there is some sort of demarcation of where the sweater ends and the breezers begin. Otherwise, to me, the eye views the uniform as incomplete. 

 

The removal of hem stripes was part of the Reebok Edge takeover. The original idea was that all jerseys would be tucked in, and the pant striping would be more incorporated into the design, similar to NFL uniforms. The introduction of the new template at the '07 All Star Game shows what they were going for:

 

 

It was clearly a failed experiment, but it's sadly taken some teams longer than others to realize this.

[Prince Harry 246]

I remember commenting on here back in 2017 that the Devils should go full retro if they wanted to make a uniform change. I still think that would have been a good choice, provided they used a dark enough shade of green, and especially on their pants.

 

If there was a desire to move past the Lou era I think the red and green set would have been a good departure. Not this halfway compromise that just ruined a classic set.
 

Normally, there’s an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t ever change a championship-winning jersey especially if it’s a nice one. But I think the Devils were far enough removed from that era and far enough away from winning another that it wouldn’t be such a harsh change. If it looked too weird they could have just changed back after a few years. Instead we got these lame imitations of a great set. 

[NYRFan 95]

39 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

The removal of hem stripes was part of the Reebok Edge takeover. The original idea was that all jerseys would be tucked in, and the pant striping would be more incorporated into the design, similar to NFL uniforms. The introduction of the new template at the '07 All Star Game shows what they were going for:

 

 

It was clearly a failed experiment, but it's sadly taken some teams longer than others to realize this.

Next year is 15 years. Holy cripes. Talk about incompetence or lack of interest in hockey aesthetics. If you can't realize, in a decade and a half, that you should move away from a failed template, I don't even know what to tell ya.

 

Children who were in second grade when the RBK program began are now starting their first jobs out of college. What is the excuse for LA to have a mismatched home and road still, as example? 

[AFirestormToPurify 313]

2 minutes ago, NYRFan said:

Next year is 15 years. Holy cripes. Talk about incompetence or lack of interest in hockey aesthetics. If you can't realize, in a decade and a half, that you should move away from a failed template, I don't even know what to tell ya.

 

Children who were in second grade when the RBK program began are now starting their first jobs out of college. What is the excuse for LA to have a mismatched home and road still, as example? 

To be fair, the Rangers in the mid 90s and Sharks in the early 2000s introduced third jerseys with no waist stripes that have been well received. You could add the Flyers original black jerseys and Anaheim's white alternate from the late 90s as well, not sure how well those were received though, though. So it's not exactly a Reebok thing, it's been around for much longer than that

 

I do agree that the Kings would look much better with waist stripes on their home jerseys. I could live without the piping but personally don't mind it that much

[Bill81361 368]

 

[Ridleylash 4,039]

6 minutes ago, Bill81361 said:

 

God, that logo is gorgeous in the red, white and blue. Wouldn't mind it replacing the word logo as the primary full-time.

[Ridleylash 4,039]

 This logo looks so :censored:ing good on broadcast graphics!

[AFirestormToPurify 313]

@Ridleylash Yeah the logo looks surprisingly good in those colors. Almost as if it was always meant to be in those colors and that the bronze and black version is the one that was color swapped lol

[AFirestormToPurify 313]

Not a fan of having the captain letters on the right but this looks very solid. I'm sure a white version would look great and a blue version would look even better

[WSU151 9,765]

I do hope the Caps’ RR is the jersey that leads to a home/road change in a couple years. 

[Kramerica Industries 1,988]

I wish I could find a picture, but there's something wild to think about that Zdeno Chara played against the original Screaming Eagle Capitals wearing the Fishsticks-striped Islanders uniforms - he narrowly missed out on the chance of having played the Penguins in the original diagonal Pittsburgh sweater, last used in '96-'97 - and now, here in 2021, he's wearing the RR Screaming Eagle uniform himself.

 

So much about NHL uniform design trends can be told just using pictures of Chara.