2020-2021 NHL Changes

[Sport]

Agreed. They always looked their worst when they played at Detroit or at Carolina. Blue pants against Carolina provides ample contrast. I also always felt a little sheepish that they were essentially using the Rangers uni structure, but with navy blue. If they go to blue pants on the road full time the only team they'll really need to worry about stepping on the toes of is Washington and I think their jerseys and socks are striped differently enough to avoid confusion. 

 

The original uniforms had larger red stripes on the hem and socks so the pants didn't feel so out of place. When they went to their current uniforms in 2007 the shoulder patches were a red backgrounded oval and they had a thicker red stripe on the socks so the pants still worked. But when they redesigned the socks to match the sleeves a couple years ago when Adidas took over is when the red pants started to feel incongruent with the rest of the uniform. I like this development, but that was their last road game of the season so we won't know if this is a permanent change until next fall. Remains to be seen if they'll try the blue pants at home with the blue jerseys.

 

If you want an aid in imagining what that might look like you can kind of see with the Tri City Americans who use their jersey templates with blue pants. 

[spartacat_12]

On 5/1/2021 at 10:41 PM, Mr. Krabs said:

Is there any word yet on which teams are going alternate or reverse retro for the playoffs?

 

Nothing has been announced, and I'd guess that teams stick with their primaries. The only teams I could picture mixing it up would be Florida, Minnesota, or Vegas with the gold jerseys. I'm just hoping Vegas locks away the chrome helmets for the playoffs.

[AFirestormToPurify]

On 5/3/2021 at 1:56 AM, chcarlson23 said:

You do realize that the current alternate is just a corny, loud, and will-be-soon outdated 20’s design right? The whole “stealth mode” no white on the jersey thing?

Sure it's trendy but it's dark navy and has no white on it, it's literally the opposite of loud. Still has the outdated logo. If it was up to me, the Oilers would start from scratch. Logo, colors, everything. Maybe even the name. I said hot take, remember? You don't have to agree

 

On 5/3/2021 at 1:56 AM, chcarlson23 said:

The last thing, is that the Gretzky-era jerseys aren’t just 70’s designs, they’re quintessential hockey jerseys. Striping on the sleeves, hem, socks, breezers, (all which are full colors and blocked, rather than anything crazy, like a gradient or an oil splatter pattern.) and a shoulder yoke. That’s just what a good hockey jersey looks like.

I think the stripes are too thin and there are too many of them, but yeah, I guess I agree that the jersey itself isn't necessarily bad, I just mostly hate the combination of too many stripes and colors that are too bright. The logo is also ugly imo. The font looks awful. I kinda like the current white jersey. If they just made a navy version at home (without an orange yoke though), I'd be fine with their uniforms. Could be better but could be worse, at least it's not royal blue. You're right about the Leafs too, I guess technically the Oilers jersey is more of a late 60s carryover

 

On 5/3/2021 at 2:04 AM, Ridleylash said:

What jersey did the greatest Oilers teams ever to take the ice wear, again? Certainly not the neon orange stuff they're wearing now, that's for sure.

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. If the 80s Oilers had sucked and Gretzky had played on a different team, I genuinely don't think many people would remember those jerseys fondly. Anyway, you and I have argued about the Oilers before and we're never gonna agree on that particular subject. No point in repeating the same things again. And I especially disagree with the comparison to the Habs and Red Wings and even the Islanders lol. The Islanders pull off those colors so much better because of the thick stripes, no yokes and white numbers on the home jersey. The colors are balanced expertly imo

 

On 5/3/2021 at 9:53 AM, CreamSoda said:

They look really good against a team in red pants. 

Yup. Let's hope more teams follow their lead and start to experiment a bit with their RR, 3rd or Winter Classic gear. Another idea could be wearing tan gloves once in a while for an O6 team like the Habs, especially if the goalie also participates

[AFirestormToPurify]

3 hours ago, Sport said:

Agreed. They always looked their worst when they played at Detroit or at Carolina. Blue pants against Carolina provides ample contrast. I also always felt a little sheepish that they were essentially using the Rangers uni structure, but with navy blue. If they go to blue pants on the road full time the only team they'll really need to worry about stepping on the toes of is Washington and I think their jerseys and socks are striped differently enough to avoid confusion. 

 

The original uniforms had larger red stripes on the hem and socks so the pants didn't feel so out of place. When they went to their current uniforms in 2007 the shoulder patches were a red backgrounded oval and they had a thicker red stripe on the socks so the pants still worked. But when they redesigned the socks to match the sleeves a couple years ago when Adidas took over is when the red pants started to feel incongruent with the rest of the uniform. I like this development, but that was their last road game of the season so we won't know if this is a permanent change until next fall. Remains to be seen if they'll try the blue pants at home with the blue jerseys.

 

If you want an aid in imagining what that might look like you can kind of see with the Tri City Americans who use their jersey templates with blue pants. 

 

I always thought changing the sock striping was a big mistake when the league switched over to adidas. Sure, the new sock striping looks more cohesive now but it messes with the color balance so it's a lateral move at best. The red pants looked less out of place with the thick red stripe. I'm not a fan at all of the all navy look, reminds me of my minor hockey years when our jerseys were modeled on the original CBJ third jerseys but no one bothered to buy the optional red pant shells with a thick vertical navy stripe and white stars on top, kinda like the 70s-80s Capitals, so most players just had black or navy pants. We also had the same number font as the Thrashers. So basically our uniforms were based on three of the worse franchises ever lol. No offense

[chcarlson23]

2 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Sure it's trendy but it's dark navy and has no white on it, it's literally the opposite of loud. Still has the outdated logo. If it was up to me, the Oilers would start from scratch. Logo, colors, everything. Maybe even the name. I said hot take, remember? You don't have to agree

Well I mean I was expressing what I thought was wrong with your hot take. That was my disagreement haha. 
 

But I just thought it was ironic that you criticized the Gretzky-era sweaters for being just a gaudy trend, when that’s exactly what the current alternate is for the Oilers. 

[monkeypower]

6 hours ago, Sport said:

 

I just saw this. They do have hem stripes on the blue jerseys. Am I misunderstanding? 

 

 

No, I wasn't entirely clear. I wasn't counting the trim at the bottom because it's so small and just a trim, I was more referring to an "actual" hem stripe.

 

6 hours ago, Sport said:

If you want an aid in imagining what that might look like you can kind of see with the Tri City Americans who use their jersey templates with blue pants. 

 

Yeah, I completely forgot about Tri-City (mostly because they don't play the Hitmen often due to the WHL's scheduling system). Scratch what I said before, I don't think the blue pants with the blue jerseys is a terrible look at all.

 

I agree with you that the red pants look out of place now and while I like the change to having the sock stripes match the sleeve stripes, I find the stripes pretty thin and I think I almost like the Ams thicker jersey stripes better.

[Nordiks_19]

On 5/3/2021 at 4:31 PM, monkeypower said:

 

No, I wasn't entirely clear. I wasn't counting the trim at the bottom because it's so small and just a trim, I was more referring to an "actual" hem stripe.

 

 

Yeah, I completely forgot about Tri-City (mostly because they don't play the Hitmen often due to the WHL's scheduling system). Scratch what I said before, I don't think the blue pants with the blue jerseys is a terrible look at all.

 

I agree with you that the red pants look out of place now and while I like the change to having the sock stripes match the sleeve stripes, I find the stripes pretty thin and I think I almost like the Ams thicker jersey stripes better.

I never knew the red pants bothered me that much now that i saw that look, and with what they did last week

[AFirestormToPurify]

On 5/3/2021 at 4:08 PM, chcarlson23 said:

Well I mean I was expressing what I thought was wrong with your hot take. That was my disagreement haha. 
 

But I just thought it was ironic that you criticized the Gretzky-era sweaters for being just a gaudy trend, when that’s exactly what the current alternate is for the Oilers. 

Gotcha. The irony is not completely lost on me lol. Like I said, I usually hate those type of jerseys. San Jose, Dallas, Philly, TB, all garbage imo. This one feels different for some reason, maybe it's simply because it doesn't have hollow numbers? That's what I hate the most about this trend

[Morgan33]

It's been 14 years and the Blue Jackets main jerseys still feel like a downgrade from the alternate they were inspired from...  If they kept black away but returned to this more substantial template, I don't think they'd have to worry about blue pants at home...  The thicker striping makes a huge difference and I'll never understand why they minimized the stars on the sleeves.  It was unique how they ran all the way up to the numbers...

 

...and bring back the hat.

[CreamSoda]

NBC is losing their NHL rights so of course now they finally unveiled their new score bug...

[The_Admiral]

The Blue Jackets in all blue makes them look a lot like the Jets, but fixing that problem should be the responsibility of the Jets.

[nash61]

18 hours ago, Morgan33 said:

It's been 14 years and the Blue Jackets main jerseys still feel like a downgrade from the alternate they were inspired from...  If they kept black away but returned to this more substantial template, I don't think they'd have to worry about blue pants at home...  The thicker striping makes a huge difference and I'll never understand why they minimized the stars on the sleeves.  It was unique how they ran all the way up to the numbers...

 

...and bring back the hat.

I love everything about this jersey. The contrasting shoulder patches are a nice touch, the extra stars are nice, and I even like the black.

 

 

To me, it doesn't come off as black, but rather a very dark navy, and I feel it adds a nice contrast with the body of the jersey.

[WSU151]

49 minutes ago, nash61 said:

I love everything about this jersey. The contrasting shoulder patches are a nice touch, the extra stars are nice, and I even like the black.

 

 

To me, it doesn't come off as black, but rather a very dark navy, and I feel it adds a nice contrast with the body of the jersey.

The “very dark navy” adds a nice contrast to the regular navy?

[Delicate Genius]

The Oilers are wearing the navy thirds for playoffs.

 

 

Not a fan of the stripes or huge arm numbers, but it's still a nicer look than the orange homes. The Oilers should be a blue and orange team, not orange and blue, if that makes sense.

[Crabcake]

1 hour ago, nash61 said:

I love everything about this jersey. The contrasting shoulder patches are a nice touch, the extra stars are nice, and I even like the black.

 

 

To me, it doesn't come off as black, but rather a very dark navy, and I feel it adds a nice contrast with the body of the jersey.

There is no way that navy/black combo should work and yet I’m finding myself not hating it. 

[Nordiks_19]

1 hour ago, Delicate Genius said:

The Oilers are wearing the navy thirds for playoffs.

 

Not a good sign, when teams start putting their alternate as their home jerseys for playoffs, it always means a future "promotion" for that jersey... Wich, in the Oilers case, is terrible news

[Kevin W.]

On 5/4/2021 at 10:37 PM, Morgan33 said:

It's been 14 years and the Blue Jackets main jerseys still feel like a downgrade from the alternate they were inspired from...  If they kept black away but returned to this more substantial template, I don't think they'd have to worry about blue pants at home...  The thicker striping makes a huge difference and I'll never understand why they minimized the stars on the sleeves.  It was unique how they ran all the way up to the numbers...

...and bring back the hat.

Without a doubt one of the best alternates the league has ever had.

[Sport]

On 5/5/2021 at 1:37 AM, Morgan33 said:

It's been 14 years and the Blue Jackets main jerseys still feel like a downgrade from the alternate they were inspired from...  If they kept black away but returned to this more substantial template, I don't think they'd have to worry about blue pants at home...  The thicker striping makes a huge difference and I'll never understand why they minimized the stars on the sleeves.  It was unique how they ran all the way up to the numbers...

 

...and bring back the hat.

 

It's my favorite jersey they've ever worn which is why when they played their first home game ever in the second round of the playoffs I elected to wear that jersey.

 

I disagree about losing black. That gave it some extra bite that the jersey just lacks without it. 

[CS85]

11 hours ago, Delicate Genius said:

The Oilers are wearing the navy thirds for playoffs.

 

 

Not a fan of the stripes or huge arm numbers, but it's still a nicer look than the orange homes. The Oilers should be a blue and orange team, not orange and blue, if that makes sense.

 

The navy alts are objectively one of the worst jerseys in hockey.  The orange homes are in a different tier of quality altogether.  I don't understand why Edmonton keeps trying so hard to not be the Oilers.  They should be one of those franchises that stubbornly stood by a great look instead of doing this dipsy-doo oopsy-daisy uniform gaffe time after time after time.

 

[joekono]

11 hours ago, Crabcake said:

There is no way that navy/black combo should work and yet I’m finding myself not hating it. 

The Oilers should have never deviated from the 2015-2017 uniforms. The royal and shade of orange looked waaaay better.