I'm curious about the Edmonton Oilers.

[Morgan33]

I've said it before, but I'll use this opportunity to say it again.

The Oilers and the Islanders have now both ruined their identity by doing the exact same things.

Bright orange and bright blue look terrible together. I really do cringe when I see their uniforms. Even if they had to keep those shades, they could be better utilized. You won't find a bigger fan of orange than myself, but it needs to be used in smaller doses by both teams (assuming a bright blue background).

Additionally, both teams retro uniforms have small inconsistencies with the striping that are bothersome.

If only they could clean up the stripes and use colors more pleasing to the eyes, they might have great looks... So yeah. Bring back the mid 90s to mid 2000s uniforms and they'd be perfect.

Retro can be nice when a team has completely abandoned a certain look. The Canucks are a decent example. But in the case of the Islanders and Oilers and also the Flyers, they too uniforms* that were still based on the originals and just undid all the really good design modifications made to them over 20 years. It's just stupid.

(*-The Islanders a little and the Oilers a lot came out with terrible uniforms when EDGE was introduced, so there was already a departure from good. But they took too many steps backward trying to correct it.)

I beg to differ...

The Oilers and Islanders are simply correcting past mistakes they've made with their colour schemes. A terrible trend existed in the mid 90's that saw a significant number of hockey teams darkening their colour schemes for merchandise sales and both teams are guilty of this.

The Oilers Midnight Blue, Red and Copper colour scheme was beginning to look dated before the lockout started, now it looks embarassing. That shade of Copper looks great on the logos because its embroidered with metallic thread. On the Jerseys it looks awful, almost like a washed out brown. I would be happy if we never saw it again. The Islanders old scheme actually originated in the Fishsticks era. They just eliminated silver and teal and adapted the colours to their old jerseys which was nice but it too was beginning to look extremely dated.

I for one am glad they're returning to their old colours. Seeing those bright jerseys on the ice is a much needed breath of fresh air after enduring those dull jerseys for so long.

[STL FANATIC]

As I said, if one is so attached to those color schemes, fine, but to simply go back to the exact same designs uses is sad. Fix the errors on the old uniforms at least. The ungodly large stripes on the Islanders jerseys are a mess. Fix it. Make it more bearable to look at. For the Oilers, lose the shoulder yokes. That's too much orange. I'd probably prefer white numbers too, but don't hate the orange.

Their pants are awful as well.

I get it. They now look like their dynasty era teams. But guess what? Those teams didn't look that good. Not great anyways. Fix the mistakes, that's all I'm saying.

As for navy not working because the colors were originally based on the city colors... every design starts somewhere. Decades later, usually other factors come into play. I don't think wearing navy in any way loses that touch. The colors would still be based on the city's colors. For a team not owned by the city, that's enough.

[OnWis97]

The Oilers bug me more than any team. Their Gretzky look was fine but the update in the 1990s was fantastic. They made the scheme bolder without going too crazy or too dark. Then for the edge, they toss their top-5 look and slap together some practice jerseys. And now, they have, for primaries, a different color scheme at home vs. on the road.

If they want to go bright blue / bright orange, fine. But pick a look, please. And, either way, dump the practice uniforms.

[The_Admiral]

As for navy not working because the colors were originally based on the city colors... every design starts somewhere. Decades later, usually other factors come into play. I don't think wearing navy in any way loses that touch.

But it does. The Penguins are slammed here all the time for changing Pittsburgh gold to beige, and for good reason. It gets away from what makes it a good design. The Islanders are the same way.

[STL FANATIC]

As for navy not working because the colors were originally based on the city colors... every design starts somewhere. Decades later, usually other factors come into play. I don't think wearing navy in any way loses that touch.

But it does. The Penguins are slammed here all the time for changing Pittsburgh gold to beige, and for good reason. It gets away from what makes it a good design. The Islanders are the same way.

I personally see it as different. The Mets, Islanders, and Knicks are 3 of many teams in New York, and they've all switched up the colors (yeah, Mets and Knocks kept the lighter blue, but let it get knocked around by black). The Penguins were part of the Pittsburgh-3 that all used the same shades. The Penguins now stand alone.

If the Penguins were the only team in Pittsburgh, and they started with Black and Yellow to honor the city's colors and then modified it to Black and Gold, would you hear complaints? Probably, but that would be because they went from a color scheme that pops to one that fades back, not because they messed with the cities colors.

For that reason, I'm willing to listen to the idea that too many teams switched to navy and it got dull, but at least utilize the brighter colors in a better manner.

[TFoA]

^ I agree with the teams takin too many steps back

Agreed 800% when it comes to the Islanders. IMO, those were one of the top uniforms in the league before they went crazy with the Edge & then decided to go all the way back to the beginning. Had they just gone back to this uniform, they'd have what I consider the holy grail of sports design: A look that seamlessly weaves modern design with traditional looks. This was perfect for the Isles, & I wish they'd go back to it.

As for the Oilers...if they went back to the navy/copper look with the white jersey having the shoulder yoke, that would be an improvement. What they have now isn't bad (especially for a club that's trying to rekindle the magic of the 80s), but what they had in the 90s was so much better, IMO.

[BBTV]

I really hate monochrome in hockey. Not sure why, because I don't mind it in football, but maybe it's due to the contrast of the uniform against the ice that is the problem - regardless of the colors, it creates a subconscious black/white effect. I like it when teams have different color jerseys and pants, so I was really happy that the Flyers went back to orange (even if I don't like the particular design.) I don't think the monochrome would bother me so much if it was just a road uniform, but since dark is home, it'd really annoy me to see the same drab mono outfit every home game. At least if dark was road, you'd get an influx of different colors all the time. One or two black or navy teams is fine, but there's just too many right now. Navy just isn't a "strong" color IMO. It's fine as a base for a bold color, but many of the designs that feature navy now are really drab and uninspiring. That doesn't apply to football though, when a team has only a navy jersey and then different color helmet or pants. The navy stands out more to me in that case. Mono navy sucks.

Also interesting (well, sort of) Peter Lukko (Comcast Spectacor president or VP or something) said that he has no idea how the Flyers went from being orange to being black. His quote was something like "we had the black third jersey, and it just kind of became the main jersey, and next thing you know, we were all black. It just kind of happened, I have no idea how. We just woke up and realized that we didn't look like the Flyers anymore."

[Jhero34]

i propose the oilers use their new colors on the template of their old jerseys! however this might look too much like buffalo's new set....