NHL should go back to white jerseys for the home team

[RollTribe19]

That's always been an unpopular sports uniform opinion I've always had and glad somebody brought it up. I think the NHL would be smart to introduce color vs color matchups. As stated above, with HD TVs now being the norm, a team in red playing a team in orange is easily distiguishable.

Personally, Id like to see Red Vs Blue, Orange Vs Blue, Black vs light shades of red/blue, White vs dark shades of red/blue.

Red vs. orange will never be okay. Or orange vs, gold.

In your opinion....

Most teams have clashing pants, helmets, and gloves compared to the jerseys and socks. Philly in Orange and Nashville in Yellow would work. Wings in Red and Philly in Orange would work. I think Chicago in Red and Philly in Orange would work with the contrast in striping patterns.

[hockey week]

That's always been an unpopular sports uniform opinion I've always had and glad somebody brought it up. I think the NHL would be smart to introduce color vs color matchups. As stated above, with HD TVs now being the norm, a team in red playing a team in orange is easily distiguishable.

Personally, Id like to see Red Vs Blue, Orange Vs Blue, Black vs light shades of red/blue, White vs dark shades of red/blue.

Red vs. orange will never be okay. Or orange vs, gold.

In your opinion....

Most teams have clashing pants, helmets, and gloves compared to the jerseys and socks. Philly in Orange and Nashville in Yellow would work. Wings in Red and Philly in Orange would work. I think Chicago in Red and Philly in Orange would work with the contrast in striping patterns.

Not different enough. It needs to be easily differentiated from across a bar on a small tv. That's the level it's at now, and that's the level it needs to stay at. Red vs blue works for that. Red vs orange is too similar. I hate when Philly and Nashville play now. Heck, I hate when Toronto and Tampa Bay play because they look similar, and they're in blue vs white!

The NHL needs a full list of "This jersey can play these jerseys", and then let the teams work within those rules. You want some cool matchups, do it.

[RollTribe19]

Orange and red can work, and since we are referring to the NHL, the Flyers orange jerseys, especially with the white shoulders could be worn against almost every team in the league's dark jersey. The only "exceptions" would be the Hawks, Devils, and the Senators, only because all three wear black gloves, pants, and helmets. However, with the shade of orange and the amount of white in the jersey and socks it would still work. That orange and those reds are no where near the same color in comparison. The fact that Tampa and Toronto look like an unwatchable inter-team scrimmage is because they have basically the same color scheme with simplistic striping patterns and bland single tone logos. The franchise whose fault that is is Tampa, and the fact that you don't like that matchup does nothing for the color v color topic. Obviously two teams with the same colored home jersey could not play each other in those jerseys. That's saying New Jersey v Ottawa is unwatchable because they have essentially the same color palette, even when one is in white. A team like Dallas could wear green every game and never have a problem as long as the wild wore their reds against them.

[RollTribe19]

[Nats95]

I like white uniforms a lot, they allow the team's logos and other graphics to be shown without the need to deal with clashing backgrounds. Of course color unis have their place too, especially when a team has a distinctive primary color to show off.

However does anyone really want to see Montreal's bland white uniforms at home again, instead of the classic reds with the chest stripe? It's hard to imagine for the 33 years it wasn't worn at home.

[TheOldRoman]

I preferred white jerseys at home because, like others said, every home game for the Hawks is now almost identical. However, the NHL went back to dark at home, and I think it's entrenched at this point. It shouldn't change.

Either way, I think all leagues (yes, NFL and NBA) need to decide if the home team wears white or color, and make a hard rule about it. The NFL has been bad with that for a long time, so it's entrenched there. But the NBA has gotten ridiculous in the last ten years or so. Previously, there was a "home" jersey and a "road". Now it's "home, but sometimes we wear red at home and the Heat like to wear dark at home a lot so we wear it on the road, too." The "you can tell who is playing by the scorebug" and "you can tell where they are by looking at the court" arguments are dumb and wrong. These are professional leagues. Either white or color at home, it should be the same across the board. No more teams just wearing what they feel like any given game because YOLO.

Also, color vs. color is fine for a rec league with beer-bellied thirty-somethings who used to play in high school, NOT for a professional sports league that has the means to produce and pay for more than one set of jerseys per team.

[BBTV]

The thing is that some teams' best look (at least IMO) isn't their dark set. Mostly the monochrome teams - LA Kings, Red Wings, Maple Leafs. Something about the monochrome just doesn't look good (in hockey) to me, and I think that a team should look their best at home. The Red Wings white is far superior IMO due to the red sleeves and the contrast with the pants, also I feel that the Leafs look far better in white.

It really frustrated me when the Flyers had the all-black look. All-black looks horrible in hockey (again, just to me.) It was worse because they had white sleeves, so they were just black and white. Maybe orange sleeves would have added enough color to make it tolerable, but their switch to an orange primary made for a dramatic improvement.

[OnWis97]

That's always been an unpopular sports uniform opinion I've always had and glad somebody brought it up. I think the NHL would be smart to introduce color vs color matchups. As stated above, with HD TVs now being the norm, a team in red playing a team in orange is easily distiguishable.

Personally, Id like to see Red Vs Blue, Orange Vs Blue, Black vs light shades of red/blue, White vs dark shades of red/blue.

Red vs. orange will never be okay. Or orange vs, gold.

In your opinion....

Most teams have clashing pants, helmets, and gloves compared to the jerseys and socks. Philly in Orange and Nashville in Yellow would work. Wings in Red and Philly in Orange would work. I think Chicago in Red and Philly in Orange would work with the contrast in striping patterns.

I have sat through an entire red vs. orange game on TV...

It was awful.

While I admittedly prefer "white vs. color", I am flexible on having some "color vs. color" but it is a must to error on the cautious side. The above was unwatchable and bush-league in appearance. I have also been to "blue vs. blue" baseball games and that was a pain in the ass too. Yeah, we know the difference between who is on base and who is on defense, but there is no reason not to distinguish.

As for the original point, I prefer white at home because 1) (And I admit this is a bad reason) because it's what I grew up with and 2) the "all home games look the same" thing. But I do not feel incredibly strongly about it. I suppose this way makes sense if wearing alts at home is key.

[oldschoolvikings]

Orange vs red is a terrible idea.

I know there's a huge contingency on this board of people whose pants get tighter at the very thought of color vs color matchups, but IMO it would be a bad idea at least 75 to 80 percent of the time. USC vs UCLA football works for a number of reasons... not just the obvious color contrast of dark red vs light blue, but the fact that they're huge rivals and can both logically claim to be home teams. If you can find another situation that's equal in all those areas, great, but otherwise forget it.

For color vs color to make sense you need a significant contrast of colors... opposite sides of the color wheel AND contrast of value... like gold vs navy, or orange vs dark green. Also, it really only makes sense on a neutral field. One example that gets brought up here a lot is how great it would look to have the OSU/Michigan football in color vs color. But WHY would either of those teams allow their biggest rival to come into their stadium in home colors. Just so it would look cool to us? I'm a grad of tOSU and I'd be pissed if OSU agreed to let U of M wear navy on our field... and I would expect a Wolverine to feel the same.

As for the original question...

I prefer dark at home for the NHL.

[BrianLion]

I always preferred the white home jerseys. You got more interesting color variation in the games as a home fan.

[CS85]

IMHO teams should have the option to wear white at home primarily ala the Cowboys or select games like many NFL teams do. It's 2014. Let's cut the crap and travel with both uniform sets and have a uniform schedule. This promotes alternate sweaters out the ass and would only benefit merch sales across the board.

But something-something tradition, yarr.

[uniformity]

colour on colour under this system:

The visiting team always wears colour.

The home team wears colour whenever it doesn't clash or white whenever they want to.

couldnt be more simple.

[Chromatic]

Most people aren't there for every game and television technology has come pretty far, so the whole "every home game looks the same" argument never made any sense to me.

Besides, the home. Its your house. You should be wearing YOUR colours. Not your blank ones to prevent clashing with the opposition.

[wildwing64]

It really frustrated me when the Flyers had the all-black look. All-black looks horrible in hockey (again, just to me.)

More and more I'm beginning to agree with this sentiment.

If I were actually able to attend any games in Anaheim, I'm more likely to go to one where the Ducks are wearing their thirds. I agree that teams should be wearing their colours at home, but the all black home vs white all the time is incredibly boring to watch, especially on TV as the other colours are so minimal that they bleed into the black and white.

With teams like the Canadiens, Blackhawks, Flyers, Stars, or even the Bruins; you want to see those vibrant, colourful uniforms at home. You want to wear your team's colours to the game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the dark jerseys generally sell more than the whites?

If anything, each team should have a homestand where they wear the white jerseys instead, have some colourful visiting teams come into town for a change of pace. But there's no need to go white at home all the time, especially with third jerseys being as popular as they are.

Also in terms of the NHL, colour-on-colour only really works for special events as in this past Winter Classic. Not for every other regular season game.

[CDixonDesign]

While I prefer color at home, it would be nice to see teams introduce both a home and away alternate, but that just opens the door for more Sabres fans to be horribly disappointed.

[BrianLion]

IMHO teams should have the option to wear white at home primarily ala the Cowboys or select games like many NFL teams do. It's 2014. Let's cut the crap and travel with both uniform sets and have a uniform schedule. This promotes alternate sweaters out the ass and would only benefit merch sales across the board.

But something-something tradition, yarr.

The difference in hockey from say football in this example, is that when you go on a road trip (NHL trips are usually multiple cities over multiple days unlike the NFL) you'd have to take two sets of jerseys, socks, and the big one, helmets with you. That's cumbersome and probably more expensive. That was the impetus to the switch to the white road uni's in the first place once 3rd jerseys became a thing.

[oldschoolvikings]

IMHO teams should have the option to wear white at home primarily ala the Cowboys or select games like many NFL teams do. It's 2014. Let's cut the crap and travel with both uniform sets and have a uniform schedule. This promotes alternate sweaters out the ass and would only benefit merch sales across the board.

But something-something tradition, yarr.

The difference in hockey from say football in this example, is that when you go on a road trip (NHL trips are usually multiple cities over multiple days unlike the NFL) you'd have to take two sets of jerseys, socks, and the big one, helmets with you. That's cumbersome and probably more expensive. That was the impetus to the switch to the white road uni's in the first place once 3rd jerseys became a thing.

Oh, yeah, helmets. Great point.

[The_Admiral]

White at home. Thirds all blow anyway.

[SteveR]

I like the idea of wearing whites at home for half the season, then switching at, say, the All-Star (or Olympic) break to colors for the rest of the season and playoffs.

To my eye, your colors pop more against a white background -- Minnesota, Boston, Buffalo, Rangers are some top examples of that.

Here in Washington, they only alt they have is the Winter Classic jersey from 3 years ago. it's white and they've only worn it on the ROAD!

Also, what about allowing teams to travel WITHOUT the second set of helmets for a given trip if one home team wants to do something a little different? "Mis-matching" helmets is done all the time in international play. (FYI, when USA wears white helmets with blue jerseys, it looks really dorky)

[waltere]

Orange vs red is a terrible idea.

I know there's a huge contingency on this board of people whose pants get tighter at the very thought of color vs color matchups, but IMO it would be a bad idea at least 75 to 80 percent of the time. USC vs UCLA football works for a number of reasons... not just the obvious color contrast of dark red vs light blue, but the fact that they're huge rivals and can both logically claim to be home teams. If you can find another situation that's equal in all those areas, great, but otherwise forget it.

Florida v Georgia in Jacksonville