NHL Uniforms, White at Home?

by Jes

Over at The FanHouse, G.W. muses about how he thinks home teams ought to go back to wearing WHITE uniforms at home, rather than the darker versions they do now.

I know that the League had worn dark uniforms at home in the past, but that doesn't mean it's the right look. In fact, it flies in the face of the most basic tenets of classic drama: The good guys wear white, the villains wear the dark colors. Well, that was until "Return of the Jedi," when Luke's black outfit was outwardly symbolic of his internal conflict between destiny and duty and ... I'll stop

As you'll recall, the NHL decided to buck recent standards and made teams wear their 'road' uniforms at home, and then wear white on the road. This was all designed to sell more darker uniforms, and the GM's don't seem to be in a hurry to switch.

I have to say that I've grown on having the darker uniforms at home, as it gives the team more colour and distinction. Look at the Calgary Flames when they play a home game. Almost the entire crowd seems to be wearing red, and it gives their stadium an unique look. The Canucks have their sea blue and green, while the Oilers have their dark blue look. Each of the Canadian teams has a very distinctive colour scheme which really shows when they are in their home barns.

If every team wears white at home, then each arena and crowd becomes that much more generic, right?

Since every team has a white version of their uniforms, it would make sense, to me, to have them wear that version on the road. The enemy, as Greg would say, can be the generic white-washed unit while the home team is the one with colour and personality.

Let the darker uniforms continue to be used at home. It's one decision that the NHL made right, so why go back on it?

Thoughts on the New Canucks Uniforms

by Jes



I've always been critical of the newer Canucks sweaters and logo. Very corporate, very blah. Apart from the brief period of time where either Jan Bulis or Jiri Slegr donned a Canucks sweater, the Canucks duds have never appealed to me.

So, it was my surprise that I saw the new uniforms, and my first thought was, "Wow, they don't suck!"

Sure, we're still stuck with the corporate logo, but the colour scheme is nice, the VANCOUVER on the front is the nice touch, and the overall look is an improvement on the old design. It's a very nice combination of the old and the new looks into something that really catches the eye, yet isn't too busy and garish.

Honestly, I was just hoping that the Canucks wouldn't screw up like many other teams appear to be doing. I'm certainly not going to go out and buy one of these sweaters (unless Pavol Demitra miraculously ends up as a Canuck), nor would I put this in my Top 10.

Opinion in Vancouver and around the Canucks blogosphere seems rather mixed. Some really like it, and some really hate it.

Alanah at Canucksandbeyond.com:

I was going to add some thoughts about what I think of these, but what the hell does one say? My favorite has always been the stick-in-rink vintage. I’ve never been a big fan of the orca, simply because I saw it more closely associated with the Orca Bay company rather than with my team, but I realize a lot of other people are fans. However, wouldn’t it have benefited from some minor color changes to the logo, to adapt to the new jersey colors?

Anyway, I’ll be sticking with my own vintage Luongo jersey—I hope others are happy with their new-look jerseys.

The Canucks Genome Project is much more vicious:

I don't mind the blue jerseys but the white jersey is "SUPERLAME". A friend of mine commented to me that it looks like we gave a smurf a rectal exam. It's true, we look like we enjoy violating smurfs by becoming smurf proctologists. Here are the photos below.

"Will Dr. Willie Mitchell come to exam room 2!"

JJ at Canucks Hockey Blog really digs the new/old look.

Well, this is something I've said in the past but I do like the simplicity of it. I'm a big fan of the vintage colors and I don't have the same animosity towards the Orca logo as some fans. Save for going back to the vintage stick and rink jersey, this look is probably the next best thing.

Zanstorm, who will be Waiting for Stanley until 2098, has mixed feelings.

But I get this feeling that these new duds may grow on me after a while. Let's face it, they do look sharp. And I can respect that they are trying to tie in history with it. But honestly, I think they should have held a fan competition or even a fan vote on what it should look like. After all, we are the ones putting out our hard-earned money to buy one of these things. (I still won't get it)
In my opinion, the members at the Canucks.com forum with their speculative Photoshop images for the most part made better-looking duds than the actual new ones.

And, to finish us off, Yankee Canuck reveals the 'secret' to the new design.

So, as you can see, the big difference is...it now says Vancouver. Scoff all you want, I see the genius of this: it's a gentle reminder to the opposition of who is about to kick their stupid asses from one end of the rink to the other. Sheer brilliance.

Of course, fans will grow to love the new design if the Canucks do well this season, and will learn to hate it if the Canucks start 12-37-3.

Must All New Uniforms Suck and Blow?

by Jes


OK, here are the new eyesores from the Ottawa Senabores.

Dreck. It reminds me of the old 'practice' uniforms the Canucks wore as a 3rd uni for a season.

Islanders Commit Crimes Against Fashion

by Jes

I'm not much of an Isles fan, but I always appreciated the classic, clean uniform style, colouring, and font of their recent uniforms. Most people wouldn't put the Isles fashion at the top of their NHL list, but I think that their design was underrated and underappreciated.

Now? They've joined the 'more crap is better' category with these ...






Over at The FanHouse, Greg W's got the scoop on how the Project Runway crew thinks these new designs suck more than Eddie Murphy's latest movie.

Let's not mince words, here. These things look like shit, and are almost as awful at the Captain Highliner sweaters the Isles once wore. If I were American, I'd sue the Islanders for eye trauma and mental anguish.

Unfortunately, this is just the pinnacle of a disturbing trend towards busier and gaudy looking NHL uniform designs. From the Buffaslug, to this... designers seem to think that 'more is better'.


The real reason why Briere and Drury left Buffalo

WRONG!!

The best uniforms are always clean, classy, and uncluttered. The Habs, Wings, Blackhawks, Bruins, and Blues always got top marks (apart from some variant exceptions) for their designs.

Remember the horrid 3rd uniform designs a decade or so ago? The Canucks red pylon sweaters, the Duck flying out of the ice? The king head? Yeah, those were scrapped quite early. Once the Powers That Be caught on to the fact that people want their uniforms to look GOOD, and not edgy, we saw a nice retro-renaissance.

Now, as long as people keep buying this new crap (like the Buffaslug), we'll continue to be inundated with more crap like this. All they need to do is put ads on the things, and we'll have European style uniforms.