2020-2021 NHL Changes

[monkeypower]

 

These colours are still so good.

[SFGiants58]

Good colors, but eggplant jerseys would look better.

[joekono]

On 3/17/2021 at 2:03 AM, FinsUp1214 said:

I’m gonna say it...in my opinion, thier reverse retro is the best uniform in franchise history. So much better than the current and throwback “capiLals” sets, is a best of both worlds solution between the great 90’s look and those who prefer RWB, and it just looks right for them. 

Totally agree. That was the issue I had with the 90s uniforms, the colors. The Reverse Retros are better. These 90s colors made no sense!!!

These do!!!

[CaliforniaGlowin]

Still no AHL team announced for the Kraken. 

[MDGP]

2 hours ago, joekono said:

Totally agree. That was the issue I had with the 90s uniforms, the colors. The Reverse Retros are better. These 90s colors made no sense!!!

 

Blue and Bronze make plenty of sense for a DC team

 

 

 

 

[NYRFan]

This look is great. It is a breath of fresh air from the usual drab colors at home. Why not usher in the rebuild and all the fresh faces with this look full time? Doughty and Quick made memories in black and silver. Maybe it's time to associate Byfield and company with purple...

[O.C.D]

5 minutes ago, NYRFan said:

This look is great. It is a breath of fresh air from the usual drab colors at home. Why not usher in the rebuild and all the fresh faces with this look full time? Doughty and Quick made memories in black and silver. Maybe it's time to associate Byfield and company in purple...

Totally in favor of this. It's a unique color combination in the NHL and it has local crossover appeal (cementing purple and gold as LA's colors). It's historically relevant as well. If they changed the logo background from white to gold these uniforms would look even better.

[andrewharrington]

17 hours ago, Morgan33 said:

The biggest problem with the Stars reverse retro is the logo.  You could get away with having gold directly touching white but not silver.  You can barely see it most of it at a distance...

Maybe they figured the star on the chest already did the job.

[Mingjai]

7 hours ago, joekono said:

Totally agree. That was the issue I had with the 90s uniforms, the colors. The Reverse Retros are better. These 90s colors made no sense!!!

 

5 hours ago, MDGP said:

 

Blue and Bronze make plenty of sense for a DC team

 

 

 

 

 

Also this:

[spartacat_12]

17 hours ago, WSU151 said:

That's not a bad argument - the third jersey is pretty nice. I just miss the originality of the old palette, especially for a "newer" hockey market like Anaheim. Black and orange have been around the block in the sports world (though the gold is a decent touch but somewhat underused, other than the logo). 

 

Plus the eggplant and jade would provide more distinction from the Kings (and a bit more distance from the Sharks and home-Kachina Coyotes)...but LA might go back to purple anyway lol

 

The Mighty Ducks set was one of my favourites, but I'd hardly call the palette original. Around that time period the Hornets, Raptors, Grizzlies, Pistons, Jazz, Sharks, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Marlins, Jaguars, and Ravens all debuted sets using purple and/or teal as a primary colour. Whether or not it looked good, it was incredibly trendy.

 

An orange primary would be distinct enough from their division rivals, and the gold helps them from looking too much like the Flyers.

 

As for the Kings, I can't see them ever going back to the purple full time. The two most successful eras in franchise history were in black & silver, and with guys like Kopitar & Doughty around for the foreseeable future I don't see a 'rebrand for a new era' happening. Much like the Canucks' spaghetti skate & the Devils' green, I could see the purple sticking around as a regular throwback, but that's it.

[CreamSoda]

13 hours ago, joekono said:

Totally agree. That was the issue I had with the 90s uniforms, the colors. The Reverse Retros are better. These 90s colors made no sense!!!

These do!!!

 

 

Remove the "Capitals" script from the striping and it's perfect.  

[jdavidev]

21 minutes ago, CreamSoda said:

 

 

Remove the "Capitals" script from the striping and it's perfect.  

I don't like how the bottom sleeves and hem are also navy blue.  The originals had the steel blue continue under the stripe.  I don't like how the hem and the pants are the same color.  Makes them look like little jerseys, not as comical as how bad the Blues look, but still not the best.  

 

I loved the bronze and steel blue era.  Best they ever looked.  Unique colors.  They started mucking it quickly with the poorly designed and bland black jersey though.  Similar to how the Jags slowly destroyed their iconic and beautiful look by oversaturating it with black pants, black numbers...

[jdavidev]

7 hours ago, O.C.D said:

Totally in favor of this. It's a unique color combination in the NHL and it has local crossover appeal (cementing purple and gold as LA's colors). It's historically relevant as well. If they changed the logo background from white to gold these uniforms would look even better.

Changing the logo to be yellow-gold based OR switching the numbers to white would balance out the jersey.  Though, I am in favor of purple and black for the Kings.

[AFirestormToPurify]

6 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

The Mighty Ducks set was one of my favourites, but I'd hardly call the palette original. Around that time period the Hornets, Raptors, Grizzlies, Pistons, Jazz, Sharks, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Marlins, Jaguars, and Ravens all debuted sets using purple and/or teal as a primary colour. Whether or not it looked good, it was incredibly trendy.

 

My turn to be pedantic lol. Eggplant isn't the same as purple and jade isn't teal either. It definitely IS a unique color scheme. The Hornets, Jazz and Diamonbacks were purple and teal and they looked nothing like the Mighty Ducks. It may have been a twist on trendy colors of the early 90s but they made those colors iconic

[Ridleylash]

7 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:

The Mighty Ducks set was one of my favourites, but I'd hardly call the palette original. Around that time period the Hornets, Raptors, Grizzlies, Pistons, Jazz, Sharks, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Marlins, Jaguars, and Ravens all debuted sets using purple and/or teal as a primary colour. Whether or not it looked good, it was incredibly trendy.

An orange primary would be distinct enough from their division rivals, and the gold helps them from looking too much like the Flyers.

The Ducks at this point are dominantly black/orange/white with gold accents. Gold's basically restricted to the logos and like a stripe at this point, it's hardly a key component of the look. Besides, it's been 15 years since the Ducks ditched that look and people still remember the eggplant jerseys and that logo better than anything the Ducks have ever worn since.

 

I think that speaks volumes as to how the team's identity has fared since the move away from those colors. The eggplant and jade just is the Ducks, like royal blue and orange is the Islanders.

 

Quote

As for the Kings, I can't see them ever going back to the purple full time. The two most successful eras in franchise history were in black & silver, and with guys like Kopitar & Doughty around for the foreseeable future I don't see a 'rebrand for a new era' happening.

Counterpoint: the Reverse Retros are incredibly popular and sports teams that aren't older than dirt have never shied away from rebranding from a look that was previously successful if they can use a new design to drum up merchandise sales. Hell, the Kings have a thing for changing their look every so often; from purple and gold in 1980/81 to black and silver in 89/90, then to black, purple and silver in 98/99, then back to black and silver in 2011/12. Going by that, this should be right about the time they change their look again.

 

The Kings coming out of a rebuild makes this a prime point to potentially look into a rebrand, and I wouldn't be surprised if they used the Reverse Retro program as a chance to buoy an idea out to the masses and see the reaction. Especially since, like Ottawa before this season, their current look is a Reebok holdover that's really approaching the end of its lifespan; you'd make big money on refreshing the team's entire identity and going hard on letting the black and silver represent the Kopi-Doughty glory days while letting a purple and gold rebrand represent the time of Byfield, JAD and the rest of the team's youth.

[mcj882000]

I know we've passed this argument already and I don't intend to drag us back to it, I've already made my thoughts clear on it the first time we went through it; but I just wanted to comment on one reply before moving on:

On 3/16/2021 at 10:42 AM, throwuascenario said:

Professional sports wouldn't even exist without it. Nor would basically any of the things that make life not a daily struggle for survival.

Yeah, professional sports never existed in other economic systems, right? oh wait, right, oops

[PlayGloria]

On the Kings, i get the argument about keeping uniforms from a successful era. That being said, I would say the black/silver Gretzky era and todays set really don't look alike other than color scheme. I don't think anyone would throw a fit if the kings just went back to the Gretzky era set and kept the black/silver scheme. The issue is that this new set is brutal with the piping and the awful home plate logo. So when you see this RR in purple and yellow compared to the terrible current set, you realize how good they could look. 

Think of it this way... if the Rams won three Super Bowls in a row in bone/gradient trash, should they be married to those design items forever? The Capitals won the cup in their piping mess of a jersey, yet we are all ready for a change. Dallas won the Cup in the star-hemmed green/black set, but I would say their current home away set is head over heals better. Just because you looked bad winning a championship, doesn't mean you need to always look bad. 

[WSU151]

7 minutes ago, PlayGloria said:

The issue is that this new set is brutal with the piping and the awful home plate logo.

 

The new set is also 95% black and white with a little bit of silver. I remember admiral complaining about how the silver outlines on the black jersey pretty much just wash out at a distance. 

 

The Gretzky unis really used silver/gray (silver logo and silver numbers on the black jerseys), and were better looking aesthetically. 

 

[CreamSoda]

Looks so much cleaner without the text.  Just needs a matching away sweater and this set is complete.  

 

[spartacat_12]

16 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

My turn to be pedantic lol. Eggplant isn't the same as purple and jade isn't teal either. It definitely IS a unique color scheme. The Hornets, Jazz and Diamonbacks were purple and teal and they looked nothing like the Mighty Ducks. It may have been a twist on trendy colors of the early 90s but they made those colors iconic

 

This is just nitpicking. They're slightly different shades of purple & teal that would seem the same to a casual observer.

 

15 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

The Ducks at this point are dominantly black/orange/white with gold accents. Gold's basically restricted to the logos and like a stripe at this point, it's hardly a key component of the look. Besides, it's been 15 years since the Ducks ditched that look and people still remember the eggplant jerseys and that logo better than anything the Ducks have ever worn since.

 

I think that speaks volumes as to how the team's identity has fared since the move away from those colors. The eggplant and jade just is the Ducks, like royal blue and orange is the Islanders.

 

Counterpoint: the Reverse Retros are incredibly popular and sports teams that aren't older than dirt have never shied away from rebranding from a look that was previously successful if they can use a new design to drum up merchandise sales. Hell, the Kings have a thing for changing their look every so often; from purple and gold in 1980/81 to black and silver in 89/90, then to black, purple and silver in 98/99, then back to black and silver in 2011/12. Going by that, this should be right about the time they change their look again.

 

The Kings coming out of a rebuild makes this a prime point to potentially look into a rebrand, and I wouldn't be surprised if they used the Reverse Retro program as a chance to buoy an idea out to the masses and see the reaction. Especially since, like Ottawa before this season, their current look is a Reebok holdover that's really approaching the end of its lifespan; you'd make big money on refreshing the team's entire identity and going hard on letting the black and silver represent the Kopi-Doughty glory days while letting a purple and gold rebrand represent the time of Byfield, JAD and the rest of the team's youth.

 

My whole point with the Ducks was that people are more nostalgic for the old logo than they are for the old colours. Heck, the original logo barely used the team colours. On the white jersey it was black, jade, and yellow, and on the eggplant jersey they replaced the jade with silver. I'm not opposed to them going back to the '90s look full time, but I don't think the webbed D in the old colours would be as popular as the orange Mighty Ducks jersey.

 

As for the Kings, much like the Canucks & Padres they've gone through too many rebuilds and made the wise choice to settle on an old scheme instead of continuing to try to reinvent the wheel. A rebuild just to bump up merchandise sales is an easy way to dilute your brand. 

 

59 minutes ago, PlayGloria said:

On the Kings, i get the argument about keeping uniforms from a successful era. That being said, I would say the black/silver Gretzky era and todays set really don't look alike other than color scheme. I don't think anyone would throw a fit if the kings just went back to the Gretzky era set and kept the black/silver scheme. The issue is that this new set is brutal with the piping and the awful home plate logo. So when you see this RR in purple and yellow compared to the terrible current set, you realize how good they could look. 

Think of it this way... if the Rams won three Super Bowls in a row in bone/gradient trash, should they be married to those design items forever? The Capitals won the cup in their piping mess of a jersey, yet we are all ready for a change. Dallas won the Cup in the star-hemmed green/black set, but I would say their current home away set is head over heals better. Just because you looked bad winning a championship, doesn't mean you need to always look bad. 

 

Much like Firestorm, you seem to be overestimating casual fans' attention to detail. Yes, they don't look identical to the Gretzky era, but most fans simply see a black jersey with basic white & silver stripes and a crest with a crown in it. I'm not saying the current set couldn't use some updates (a hem stripe on the home jersey is much needed), but it isn't a complete mess. The Patriots made some improvements to their championship look without completely burning it to the ground & starting from scratch.

 

And unlike the other examples you mentioned, black & silver is tied to two separate eras, which just happen to be the high points for a franchise that has struggled to remain relevant in a crowded market.