NHL 2011-2012: Possible Uniform Changes

[BigBubba]

Wasn't this thread over 400 pages? What happened???

I remember looking at specific threads to have seen them double in pages (Pop Culture Game, NHL Uniform Changes), I'd assume because of the formatting. Maybe they "reverted/fixed" it?

[cmm]

That's one classy centre ice design.

And it won't see action until 2 weeks from today for the Rangers home opener vs. Toronto. It'll be like that for the next 2 seasons as well, w/ the Rangers opening in Europe followed by a west coast swing, and no preseason games at home.

The lower bowl was completely re-done this year, concourses are being completely re-done, the upper levels get done next offseason, and those pedestrian bridges follow the season after that.

This year though the lower levels will be all new seats, with the upper levels still being the old teal ones. Yuck.

It could have been worse for Ranger fans. I heard from a couple of different people last month that construction was behind schedule and they were considering moving some of the first few home games to the Meadowlands. Looks like that won't be the case.

[evanmaldonado]

The Sens used their heritage jerseys for the first time today. Got absolutely beaten down by the Avs. At least they looked nice getting destroyed

[jiaqilo]

mod redacted

[JQK]

As a Devils fan... Wow, that's a beautiful looking center ice design.

The Rags are gonna look great losing at home all season long...

[NYYNYR]

Talking about jerseys that don't suck, here are a few CLEAR improvements from seasons past:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/photos?gameId=400046963&photoId=1617603

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/photos?gameId=400046967&photoId=1617195

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/photos?gameId=400046985&photoId=1617340

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/photos?gameId=400046988&photoId=1617460#photo_1617513

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/photos?gameId=400046992&photoId=1617684

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/photos?gameId=400046977&photoId=1617572

These all look terrific in action and represent huge improvements. The league is really starting to look sharp. I'd say 80 / 85 percent of the league looks great. The rest are starting to stick out, quite glaringly so, for their suckiness.

To stop being so vague, I think the league needs a revamped Avalanche and Stars design. Those are 2 signature Western clubs who can really be trend-setters with their use of interesting colors and their ties to 2 "classic" franchises of yesteryear (for providing third-jersey inspirations).

Question for the Stars: If new ownership isn't coming in till around Christmas (and man, they are struggling -- crowds of 7500 or so the last few home games, with closer to 1/2 that actually in their seats), does the new guy have time to submit jersey changes to the league? We keep hoping that Dallas gets its act together and at least looks as good as its AHL affiliate (shameful!), but it always seems that the club's ownership hasn't been solvent enough to get a firm "yes" on specific changes to this franchise. Does anyone know the deadline to submit jersey changes (I'm assuming it's before the New Year), and are we stuck with another 1-2 years of these Stars monstrosities????

See, to me, the Avs have no excuse. There's no excuse for that mess on the Island. There's no reason LA can't have hem stripes on their home. Ditto for the Panthers. At this point, if you look bad on the ice, and you have intact ownership, the onus is on you. It's no longer RBK's fault for your ugliness. Maybe it was in 2007 but not anymore.

[CC97]

Wasn't this thread over 400 pages? What happened???

I remember looking at specific threads to have seen them double in pages (Pop Culture Game, NHL Uniform Changes), I'd assume because of the formatting. Maybe they "reverted/fixed" it?

This is true, I was experimenting with different default posts/page numbers and ultimately decided the old format was better

[Morgan33]

See, to me, the Avs have no excuse. There's no excuse for that mess on the Island. There's no reason LA can't have hem stripes on their home. Ditto for the Panthers. At this point, if you look bad on the ice, and you have intact ownership, the onus is on you. It's no longer RBK's fault for your ugliness. Maybe it was in 2007 but not anymore.

Agree with everything in this quote.

The Avalanche' decision to continue using those bib-template jerseys is perplexing. I remember reading somewhere that management was misled by Reebok and they initially planned keep the mountain range striping. Why will they not correct their mistake? I don't buy for one second that it couldn't be adapted to the Edge format.

The Kings will eventually add hem stripes to their Home, I have no doubt about it. What would really improve it however is a logo with the colours reversed so the sheild is primarily white. There is simply not enough contrast between the logo and jersey.

As for the Panthers... they simply dropped the ball. They had a golden opportuinity to adapt the inaugural jerseys to the Edge format and instead they retained an awful template with zero redeeming qualities. It looks like a cheap knockoff you'd find on a Wal-Mart rack.

[IceCap]

The story I heard was that Reebok told the Avs they could keep their mountain design or go with a new Edge template. They chose the latter. Probably due to the promise of increased merchandise sales.

[Gothamite]

That's what I heard as well; the Avs could have kept their mountain-range pattern but chose not to.

[Chawls]

Wasn't this thread over 400 pages? What happened???

I remember looking at specific threads to have seen them double in pages (Pop Culture Game, NHL Uniform Changes), I'd assume because of the formatting. Maybe they "reverted/fixed" it?

This is true, I was experimenting with different default posts/page numbers and ultimately decided the old format was better

Thank you for fixing that. It was especially annoying on the mobile version.

[habsfan1]

That's what I heard as well; the Avs could have kept their mountain-range pattern but chose not to.

I don't know if sales are up or down when it comes to Avalanche jerseys. But if they do intend on making something new in the (hopefully) near future, they should bring back their traditional mountain range pattern with maybe just a couple of small tweeks.

[_RH_]

I have no facts to back this up, but whenever I watch Avs games it seems like I see WAY more older style jerseys than the new ones.

[Morgan33]

I have no facts to back this up, but whenever I watch Avs games it seems like I see WAY more older style jerseys than the new ones.

Makes sense

One is a classic, yet original design with 2 Stanley Cups behind it. The other is a posterchild for RBK's disasterous "vision" for hockey.

[charger77]

Pittsburgh and Washington wore a locomotive patch last night:

[wildwing64]

Yet another sign that the Ducks may be moving forward with their brand in the future. Well, 2012-13 at the earliest.

They're continuing with their "De(duckfoot)ication" marketing campaign and have made minor changes to their website background. Throughout last season and up until recently the wordmark logo was stuck in the background somewhere but is now gone, and all player photos in the rotating background images are of players in the third jersey.

Hmm.

[ninersdd]

Ducks are going with their alts for their home opener.

[Still MIGHTY]

Ducks also debuting their patch for Ruslan Salei tonight. It's a black patch with "24" in their current white numbers with the gold outline. Not only does it kinda look weird because it's a black patch on a black jersey (You really just see the "24"), but also, Ruslan Salei never wore Black/Gold/Orange. Salei only wore the eggplant/jade. The patch would've been miles better with the era appropriate colors. They should also be wearing it longer than a month before auctioning them off, but whatever.

Ah well, at least it's something.

[RedSox44]

Pittsburgh and Washington wore a locomotive patch last night:

I wish the NHL had all of the teams do this, at least for one game, just to express solidarity with the KHL and to express remembrance for the former NHLers who died in the crash.

[jkrdevil]

The whole Reebok forced us to dress like this back in '07 is BS. The Red Wings, Habs, Blackhawks, Rangers, and Devils all kept their uniforms basically in tact. The Hurricanes also kept their look intact with only a slight change on the shoulders. The Sharks, Bruins, and Vancouver had their uniforms redesigned to a traditional hockey design. The Capitals took a new "modern" design that came out looking unique and ok. Fact is the teams that cared about their look came out ok. The teams that just signed up for a change for the extra dollars, but didn't care for the redesign ended up with the crap.