NHL 2011-2012: Possible Uniform Changes

[TheOldRoman]

Let me add that I love the old Mighty Ducks set (the one with the striped breezers as shown above). I liked the Nike alts at the time, but in retrospect they sucked and bastardized what was a great look. The name was terrible and needed to be changed, but I liked the logo (though they should have worn the home version on the road, also) and the colors were fantastic. The jade was great in that amount, though I think a jade jersey would have been too much. I thought those were some really classy jerseys and unique colors. Everything about the current set is uninspiring at best.

[IceCap]

Take it from a Leafs fan. Enjoy the heck out of that moment and don't obsess over the uniform. And yes, I do realize what board I'm on

Winning a Stanley Cup in a uniform doesn't necessarily make it better or untouchable. The Ducks regular set is far from perfect. The thing that's been bugging me the most outside of the wordmark is how the orange stripe, for some reason, disappears into the black from a distance on TV, much like the blue on Tampa Bay's previous home uniform. That said, I'm only able to watch games on ESPN Player, maybe the orange is more noticeable on an actual TV?

90% of the time I would say "stick with the look you won a championship in" but the Duck's jerseys fall into that other 10%. They are dull, generic and lacking in creativity.

I would say it's closer to 99%. Heck, I might even say it's 100%. It's about legacy you see.

What happens if the Ducks decide to return to egg plant and jade/teal/whatever and they never win another Cup? It's certainly a possibility. Then all of these fans will look back at pictures of their team's greatest achievement and they'll be wearing completely different uniforms. Look your most successful, wear the look that's associated with your team's greatest moment.

And yes, despite my dislike of it I would be advocating for the Sabres to wear the goat head look full time had they managed to win a Cup in it

Winning doesn't make a uniform any better. If it's a bad uniform, it's a bad uniform, no matter how the players wearing them preform. I'm not saying it doesn't add value of some sort, but it doesn't flat out make it better.

Except that I don't think it's bad. It's a passable NHL look.

And you're kidding yourself if you don't believe that winning makes a uniform more meaningful. Again, I propose this possibility. Say the Ducks return to the Disney look. Sure, all the Ducks fans will rejoice over having their "unique" look back, but what if they never win another Cup? Then every photo/video from the team's best season, when they reached the very top of the hockey world, will show them wearing a completely different uniform set. Unless the look is downright, irredeemably horrible, which I contend is not the case with the Ducks' current look, a team should stick with the look that represents their best years.

I'm sorry if this means keeping a uniform/identity based on a children's movie series in the past, but this is the NHL, the big league. Look like you belong.

Lots of team identities have flaws or dumb reasons behind them. The colors were ultimate 90's, but I liked the Disney era. I think the logo could use a recolor (other than the current recolor), but it doesn't need it for me.

I challenge you to find me one identity in the NHL that has a dumber story behind it then "named after a Disney movie."

[The_Admiral]

The New York Rangers were owned by a guy whose nickname was "Tex."

[kiwi_canadian]

Atlanta is officially gone from the NHL.com website and the NHL shield is at the end of teams for Winnipeg now

[IceCap]

The New York Rangers were owned by a guy whose nickname was "Tex."

Touché.

[knnhrvy16]

I've stated countless times my disdain for the current Ducks identity. Sure, childhood nostalgia plays a part in it, but my biggest problem with the identity is just how flat-out uninspired it is. It looks as if the owner was so desperate to depart from the Disney look that he ran with the first concept he saw without considering better options. It looks rushed and dull. With the Disney identity, you had something that was unique, instantly recognizable, liked by the fans, and sold well. Last but not least, perhaps, it's the identity that gave the Ducks relevancy. Every kid in America knew who the Mighty Ducks were back then - the identity did its job. Can we really say the same about the current identity?

Call it gimmicky, call it childish, call it whatever - but it's hard to deny the fact that as far as an identity goes, the Mighty Ducks identity was one of the standouts of thier era in sports.

Now, if the Ducks were a 2006 expansion team, had no prior history whatsoever, and came into the league with thier current identity, I might've been a little more open to it. Aside from replacing such a successful brand, however, the identity itself does have its own problems. Rushed-looking, uninspired wordmark for a primary. Dull colors. Unpleasant number font. A great team name, but paired with an identity that doesn't showcase it like it could - an apparent lack of creativity and LOTS of room for improvement. There's just so much more that could've been done with that identity, in nearly every aspect. It just looks like an identity that wasn't thought through enough, as if they spent only two minutes on its development. Be honest here, if that identity were a CCSLC concept...what would be the masses of the board's overall reaction? I think "not very creative", "try different colors", "looks like you rushed things" and/or "I want to see an actual duck" would be likely responses.

Now, I'm not saying they absolutely HAVE to go back to the Disney look. But for pete's sake, Anaheim, please spend at least FIVE minutes to come up with something more visually pleasing. Maybe a double-green (pine and kelly, maybe) and powder blue color scheme? An actual Duck as a logo? Already sounds better than thier steaming pile. Now how hard was that, Anaheim?

[kw11333]

The year prior to the lockout a bunch of teams were allowed to wear a home and away retro set for certain games. The Canucks, along with the Rangers actually wore 5 different jerseys in one season. That's including their regular home and away set, their 3rd, and the two "vintage" jerseys. According to the NHL rulebook each team is allowed to have a 3rd and 4th jersey in their regular rotation. The Ducks were the only team to ever really take advantage of this. "Vintage" jerseys, and "anniversary" jerseys do not count under this rule

[wildwing64]

I think they went with the wordmark because they had a "five year plan" or something with the current identity. But what I fail to understand is why they didn't just go with the webfoot D on its own in the first place, considering it's a pretty good primary on its own.

Honestly, I don't despise the wordmark at all. It's a nice looking wordmark but it makes for a crummy primary logo that just doesn't stand out when compared to the rest of the NHL. The Ducks went from having an instantly recognisable and iconic logo to something which suggests to me that they're quite happy to hide in a corner and not be noticed. It's nice to see that they're finally phasing it out in favour of the D.

[hockey week]

How was this never done? The stripe matches the D perfectly. It just makes too much sense.

I guarantee that somewhere along the design process they had the above, and someone insisted that "you don't know it's the Anaheim Ducks, we should put the whole-word-logo on there instead" and the idiots listened, and nobody has fixed the mistake yet.

If the above jersey was used from the beginning, I guarantee we'd be a lot more in favor of their identity...maybe not loving it, but at least we'd be ok with it

[Patchey13]

On a slightly different note I think these were the best breezers the ducks had during the Disney era. I know at some point they had black pants, and at a different point they had solid eggplant pants. I like the stripe seen here.

Has there ever been another team in the NHL with a rotation of 4 jerseys, essentially a home/road, and then two other alternates that were dark/light but could function as home/road by themselves. I'm having trouble explaining this... like, the Canucks had 4 jerseys this past year, but the two alternates were retro inspired and not part of the same set. The Mighty Ducks had two alternates at some point in the late 90s, one white, the other teal, that matched striping-wise. The jerseys with the slight yellow piping. I don't really like those jerseys but it's certainly unique to have two alternates that could function as home/road themselves.

i presume these are what you are talking about?

I had the green alt. It was a thing of beauty.

[Funky Bunky]

I, like some of the Ducks' fans I've seen post, wanted to see them win the cup against New Jersey if not for the simple stick-it-to'em idea of "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" being etched on the cup forever. It was so close to happening too. ****ing Devils.

I never liked that name, I thought "Anaheim Mighty Ducks" was much better....

I'll get back on topic....

[north dakota]

Nashville's new white jerseys are now on sale and the number font looks nothing like Anaheim's

http://shop.nhl.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11806772&cp=3176439&clickid=body_bestsell_txt

[CS85]

Nashville's new white jerseys are now on sale and the number font looks nothing like Anaheim's

http://shop.nhl.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11806772&cp=3176439&clickid=body_bestsell_txt

No it doesn't. And boy does that font sure suck.

[charger77]

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They sure love them some layers in Predland.

[CS85]

That Reebok wordmark is absolutely monstrous on these...I'm hoping it's not like that on the authentic sweaters.

[steve61]

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They sure love them some layers in Predland.

I guess since they did such a nice job of simplifying the logo they felt compelled to complicate the jersey template to even things out. Not a fan of the back. The front looks nice

[ARTnSocal]

I miss the Minnesota NORTH STARS ........ Gump was a last of the old-guard look .. ... but that was a classic logo IMO

Too bad they weren't able to keep their logo, colors, and history after they left Bloomington-MN ... BROWNS fans came up with that plan years later ...

Green & Red are too Christmas-see looking .... Best move NJ made by ridding themselves of the green in favor of the black (but as their trim color)

I like the Minnesota Wild alternate uni's .... Green & Khaki ... now that's different ... the script logo makes them look a bit too NCAA-like tho', but that's a perdy uniform. Me likes.

[sketchguy2005]

The Oilers, as you know by now, have dumped the copper and red for their road whites and returned to the vintage orange with a slightly darker blue than their original. It contains a blue yoke trimmed in orange and the original logo with slightly darker letters.

My guesses/opinions:

NY Islanders - Probably orange 3rd, and if done right could be cool.

Los Angeles - Black/Silver 3rd becomes the home, Purple/Gold 3rd, possibly Silver/Black away. This is probably what would happen, although their identity just becomes a cluster of eras. I wish they'd streamline everything into one color palette/style.

Tampa Bay - Add more blue to everything, and get out of the Ottawa/Pittsburgh template. Both of which would be major upgrades. Just gotta hope the "Bolts" 3rd doesn't get a promotion.

Toronto - No idea why they'd change anything in their set, especially the 3rd. So I'm drawing a blank on this one.

Edmonton - Weird they would change just the home, considering they changed the home to the retro jersey. You would think they'd match up the road or get a new third. So again, drawing a blank here.

Florida - Wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if we see the stupid blue/light blue third become the home and then a white accompanies it. Which is beyond stupid. GO BACK TO RED.

Pittsburgh - Either their new WC jersey becomes the third, we finally see the re-emergence of the athletic gold, or its something completely different. I'd like to see one of the latter two, and probably even a completely new thing.

Nashville - Promote their 3rd to home and make a matching white away like we've been predicting for a while around here. There's too much talk about it for it to not happen.

Ottawa - So glad we're dumping the "SENS" nonsense. Hopefully an "O" jersey or the side-profile Senator.

Dallas - With the white jersey with the star logo being the current third, let's hope for the return of a green jersey. Possibly an attempt at the star template on the EDGE jersey.

Atlanta - Thank god we're getting rid of the wordmarked football jersey. I have no clue what it could possibly be, but probably red and anything that they make would be better than their current junk.

[Cosmic]

Lots of team identities have flaws or dumb reasons behind them. The colors were ultimate 90's, but I liked the Disney era. I think the logo could use a recolor (other than the current recolor), but it doesn't need it for me.

I challenge you to find me one identity in the NHL that has a dumber story behind it then "named after a Disney movie."

The New York Rangers were owned by a guy whose nickname was "Tex."

Yeah, damn. That was my best one. Tex's Rangers. My point basically was that if the "Mighty Ducks" survived 90 years, nobody would really remember/care that they were inspired by a movie... like how nobody knows/cares that the Rangers were based on a bad pun of their owner's name. The Ducks did create their own identity; it would be different if they wore the exact same sweaters that the kids in the movie wore.

[Neon_Matrix]

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They sure love them some layers in Predland.

What I'd love to know is why no one has mentioned that there is a PIANO on the inside of the collar of the Preds' new jersey?