NHL 2011-2012: Possible Uniform Changes

[IceCap]

But it is not as if the Bolts have had one design and one set of logos for all 20 years. The number of different sweaters is close to double-digits. They underwent a major branding change only 5 years ago. They have a very bright future with a brilliant GM ( ), why not change your look now so when you do win, you create your own legacy? It's not like we will be seeing the other blue and white team in the Stanley Cup finals any time soon.

Hardy-har-har. Make all the "Leafs sucks" jokes all you want, but that team's worn blue and white for 86 of its 94 year history, and has worn blue and white continuously for 84 years. For the exception of the 8 year St. Pats period the Maple Leafs owned blue and white in the NHL. That colour scheme is associated with the first team to win the Cup in the NHL era, the first team to win three Cups in a row, and 12 out of 13 Cups in total.

There is a lot of history behind blue and white in the NHL, but it's not in Tampa.

[Brian E]

This really just established in my mind a new uniform pet peeve:

Recently established teams who start out with modern uniforms and logos going to a "classic" look that has no roots in any tradition whatsoever. Had Tampa Bay started out with this look, then went to what they originally had, then decided to go back, I'd be more ok with it. But I kinda see this on the same level as a team using black for black's sake.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it overall, feel free to disagree with me. But it's just something that bothers me.

tradition for tradition's sake. i like it.

it's a fair point. i never really thought of it like that, but that's very true. i don't know. the old school thing is becoming SO formulaic. throw in some stripes with a circular logo somewhere, preferably with the team name wrapping around it and BOOM. instant tradition. i'm usually a sucker for what the lightning did here, but this comment really put it into context for me in a whole new way.

[Puckguy14]

Plus I just really friggin' love 1-colour + White uniforms. (Wings, Leafs, Jets, Colts, Celtics come to mind.)

Really? They're my worst nightmare.

How come?

[pittfan11]

But it is not as if the Bolts have had one design and one set of logos for all 20 years. The number of different sweaters is close to double-digits. They underwent a major branding change only 5 years ago. They have a very bright future with a brilliant GM ( ), why not change your look now so when you do win, you create your own legacy? It's not like we will be seeing the other blue and white team in the Stanley Cup finals any time soon.

Hardy-har-har. Make all the "Leafs sucks" jokes all you want, but that team's worn blue and white for 86 of its 94 year history, and has worn blue and white continuously for 84 years. For the exception of the 8 year St. Pats period the Maple Leafs owned blue and white in the NHL. That colour scheme is associated with the first team to win the Cup in the NHL era, the first team to win three Cups in a row, and 12 out of 13 Cups in total.

There is a lot of history behind blue and white in the NHL, but it's not in Tampa.

Someone better tell the Indians, Twins, Nationals, Red Sox, Cardinals and Rangers that you aren't allowed to use the same colors in a league.

[Puckguy14]

Meh. I agree in that it's the Tampa Bay Maple Wings, and the classic look could been made without literally having mashed up the Leafs and Wings jerseys. Could've gone for a better design but oh well. Sad to see outside the original bolt on as the shoulder patch and the updated to the updated logo, that none of what Tampa's uniform "tradition" is now gone as if it had never existed. Victory stripes and the bolt on the pant, while unique and semi criticized are "iconic" to Tampa's history, something I thought the management was going for. Connect the past with the present. There should've been some black on those jerseys and would make the uniform and logo pop out a bit more. This? It's a Maple Wings jersey with a modernized one color logo with no detail that has no link to their first 19 seasons of the Lightning.

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

I agree with most here that these uniforms are very (to put in laymen's terms) BORING!

Sometimes simplicity works and sometimes it doesn't. In this case it doesn't.

The uniforms just look too generic. A simple dull lightning bolt as a logo? Come on. Is this the best they can do?

Logos on the home and away jersey that don't match? This doesn't give the team a coherent identity. Is the main primary logo the simple lightning bolt or the word mark version of said lightning bolt?

Generic deep blue colors? Why not go with an nice electric blue shade?

Generic pants? The best part of the Lightning uniforms in the past was the lightning bolt pants.

Generic secondary logo? Putting the bolt in a ring with "Tamps Bay Lightning Hockey Club" around it is so generic. The old "lightning bolt going through the state of Florida" logo was much nicer.

And keeping those lame "Bolts" uniforms as a third. Those should have been ditched BEFORE they were worn.

Overall I'm disappointed.

[The_Admiral]

lol at the Yzerman buttmonkeys like GFB not only praising the great Blue Wings but saying that average schmucks like us couldn't do better than this paint-bucket slopjob. These blow hard.

[Davey]

Yzerman must really miss the Red Wings.

[JackFr]

What happens if they win a Stanley Cup this season? Will it be a 93 Pens deal?

[GFB]

But it is not as if the Bolts have had one design and one set of logos for all 20 years. The number of different sweaters is close to double-digits. They underwent a major branding change only 5 years ago. They have a very bright future with a brilliant GM ( ), why not change your look now so when you do win, you create your own legacy? It's not like we will be seeing the other blue and white team in the Stanley Cup finals any time soon.

Hardy-har-har. Make all the "Leafs sucks" jokes all you want, but that team's worn blue and white for 86 of its 94 year history, and has worn blue and white continuously for 84 years. For the exception of the 8 year St. Pats period the Maple Leafs owned blue and white in the NHL. That colour scheme is associated with the first team to win the Cup in the NHL era, the first team to win three Cups in a row, and 12 out of 13 Cups in total.

There is a lot of history behind blue and white in the NHL, but it's not in Tampa.

I guess I come from the "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" viewpoint.

Take the NFL for example. The Lions were the first team to use the blue/silver color scheme. That look is then copied by the Cowboys. When the Raiders came into the league, the liked the Cowboy's silver and paired it with black. The Oilers then came into the with their own blue/silver combo. Then it was the Seahawks. And 20 years later, the Panthers came into the league and did the exact same thing. Even the Patriots jumped on the silver helmet/blue jersey bandwagon. Should we penalize these teams for drawing from the same inspiration 50 years later?

As a Wings fan, I am taking this as a compliment to the Wings history and success. Yzerman obviously wanted to transfer the same sense of tradition and pride to an organization that arguably lacks it. Kind of a "dress to be the organization you want to be, not the organization you are."

[GFB]

lol at the Yzerman buttmonkeys like GFB not only praising the great Blue Wings but saying that average schmucks like us couldn't do better than this paint-bucket slopjob. These blow hard.

Yeah, as one of the few "designers" on these boards to actually brand a professional hockey team, I'm sure I have no clue what I am talking about.

[IceCap]

But it is not as if the Bolts have had one design and one set of logos for all 20 years. The number of different sweaters is close to double-digits. They underwent a major branding change only 5 years ago. They have a very bright future with a brilliant GM ( ), why not change your look now so when you do win, you create your own legacy? It's not like we will be seeing the other blue and white team in the Stanley Cup finals any time soon.

Hardy-har-har. Make all the "Leafs sucks" jokes all you want, but that team's worn blue and white for 86 of its 94 year history, and has worn blue and white continuously for 84 years. For the exception of the 8 year St. Pats period the Maple Leafs owned blue and white in the NHL. That colour scheme is associated with the first team to win the Cup in the NHL era, the first team to win three Cups in a row, and 12 out of 13 Cups in total.

There is a lot of history behind blue and white in the NHL, but it's not in Tampa.

Someone better tell the Indians, Twins, Nationals, Red Sox, Cardinals and Rangers that you aren't allowed to use the same colors in a league.

Red, white, and blue is a fairly common colour scheme.

Blue and white, within the confines of the NHL, has been the exclusive domain of the Toronto Maple Leafs for eighty six years. Now, all of a sudden, a 90s expansion team just decided to ditch their own unique colour scheme (one they won a Cup in) and go with something the Leafs have had a monopoly on for close to a century.

But it is not as if the Bolts have had one design and one set of logos for all 20 years. The number of different sweaters is close to double-digits. They underwent a major branding change only 5 years ago. They have a very bright future with a brilliant GM ( ), why not change your look now so when you do win, you create your own legacy? It's not like we will be seeing the other blue and white team in the Stanley Cup finals any time soon.

Hardy-har-har. Make all the "Leafs sucks" jokes all you want, but that team's worn blue and white for 86 of its 94 year history, and has worn blue and white continuously for 84 years. For the exception of the 8 year St. Pats period the Maple Leafs owned blue and white in the NHL. That colour scheme is associated with the first team to win the Cup in the NHL era, the first team to win three Cups in a row, and 12 out of 13 Cups in total.

There is a lot of history behind blue and white in the NHL, but it's not in Tampa.

I guess I come from the "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" viewpoint.

Take the NFL for example. The Lions were the first team to use the blue/silver color scheme. That look is then copied by the Cowboys. When the Raiders came into the league, the liked the Cowboy's silver and paired it with black. The Oilers then came into the with their own blue/silver combo. Then it was the Seahawks. And 20 years later, the Panthers came into the league and did the exact same thing. Even the Patriots jumped on the silver helmet/blue jersey bandwagon. Should we penalize these teams for drawing from the same inspiration 50 years later?

As a Wings fan, I am taking this as a compliment to the Wings history and success. Yzerman obviously wanted to transfer the same sense of tradition and pride to an organization that arguably lacks it. Kind of a "dress to be the organization you want to be, not the organization you are."

In those examples you listed, however, the teams doing the copying added their own twist to things. The Cowboys used their own shade of blue and silver. The Raiders traded blue for black, etc... No one outright stole the Lions' colour scheme, they took it and did their own thing with it.

This? This is a blatant rip-off of a colour scheme that's been the exclusive domain of a team for near a hundred years.

[The_Admiral]

Using the Detroit Lions as an antecedent for like 20% of the league is quite a leap, and your hypothesis fails to mention the one team that did gank the Lions wholesale, that being native Detroiter Ralph Wilson's Buffalo Bills.

lol at the Yzerman buttmonkeys like GFB not only praising the great Blue Wings but saying that average schmucks like us couldn't do better than this paint-bucket slopjob. These blow hard.

Yeah, as one of the few "designers" on these boards to actually brand a professional hockey team, I'm sure I have no clue what I am talking about.

By your own admission, your assessment of the rebrand is informed more by your Red Wing fanboyism than it is any sort of design sense, so put your dick away.

[Morgan33]

Anybody else starting to miss these?

[IceCap]

Anybody else starting to miss these?

Replace those terrible logos with the current (and soon to be former) marks and you have a winner.

[O.C.D]

I agree with Billy B in that they are too new to try and go for the simple iconic look.

Right now they look like the Tampa Bay Maple Bolts. Atomospheric electrical discharge never tasted so sweet.

I love this look. This is how they should have looked from the start. The removal of the grey simplifies a needlessly over complicated design, and the bolt logo already looks iconic. This looks like clip art, super crappy. And while this was a major upgrade, a tri colored lightning bolt just doesn't do it for me (Since when does lightning need an inner shadow?)

A simple clean white bolt os just what the doctor ordered.

[epper]

Anybody else starting to miss these?

Hell no. Thats one of the most poorly designed logos in pro sports history.

I like the new set more in every conceivable way. Tha

[CrookedThumb]

Anybody else starting to miss these?

Kinda makes me wish that the went with being just a black and white team. For 20 years, black was the main color and blue was just the accent. You can't have a more boring color combo than just black and white, but I believe this new look would've been 100x better, that was the case.

[Still MIGHTY]

- Make the circle the same width all the way around

- Add the bolt pant stripe

But as it stands, bleh.

I'm not gonna repeat all the things everyone else has said. (Traditional unis/Maple Wings/blah blah).

I can live without the silver and black. It probably looks better with it, but I guess I'm indifferent on it.

[epper]

Kinda makes me wish that the went with being just a black and white team. For 20 year, black was the main color and blue was just the accent. You can't have a more boring color combo than just black and white, but I believe this new look would've been 100x better, that was the case.

A little off topic, but I totally disagree. These unis are badass: