NHL looking to go back to white jersey at home and darks away

[Arthur Fonzarelli]

Ryan Kennedy from The Hockey News .

So all the internet buzz is from this tweet? I haven't found the Hockey News relevant for years. I subscribed as a kid & like many considered it the Bible of hockey. These days its' surface level reporting & a shell of it's former self.

I don't know much about Ryan Kennedy, so I looked up his bio. It reads:

"Ryan Kennedy is the associate senior writer and draft/prospect expert at The Hockey News. He has been with the publication since 2005 and in that span, Don Cherry, Lil Jon and The Rock have all called his house. He lives in Toronto with his wife and kids where he listens to loud music and collects NCAA pennants."

 

[buggs]

So all the internet buzz is from this tweet? I haven't found the Hockey News relevant for years. I subscribed as a kid & like many considered it the Bible of hockey. These days its' surface level reporting & a shell of it's former self.

View attachment 979443

I don't know much about Ryan Kennedy, so I looked up his bio. It reads:

"Ryan Kennedy is the associate senior writer and draft/prospect expert at The Hockey News. He has been with the publication since 2005 and in that span, Don Cherry, Lil Jon and The Rock have all called his house. He lives in Toronto with his wife and kids where he listens to loud music and collects NCAA pennants."

So the Hockey News is at the level of Rolling Stone?

 

[WaveRaven]

By the way the reason for home whites and coloured away way back in the day was because when out on the road trips by train they couldn't wash the sweaters and with road colours the stains are less visible.

 

[Jets 31]

So all the internet buzz is from this tweet? I haven't found the Hockey News relevant for years. I subscribed as a kid & like many considered it the Bible of hockey. These days its' surface level reporting & a shell of it's former self.

View attachment 979443

I don't know much about Ryan Kennedy, so I looked up his bio. It reads:

"Ryan Kennedy is the associate senior writer and draft/prospect expert at The Hockey News. He has been with the publication since 2005 and in that span, Don Cherry, Lil Jon and The Rock have all called his house. He lives in Toronto with his wife and kids where he listens to loud music and collects NCAA pennants."

Don't know how reputable he is but at least it wasn't something i pulled out of no where. And listening to loud music is a very good trait .

 

[SCP Guy]

Dark vs dark would look fantastic during the regular season IMO!

But yes Jets wearing white at home in the playoffs is a big win!

 

[Edgar Halliwax]

The NHL would never do this because less potential jerseys means less sales...

But one suggestion if seen, and I kind of agree with is... Each team has a specific jersey that is theirs, most likely the coloured one, and they have a secondary jersey for when they play a game where the jerseys are too close and conflict.

As an example: The Jet's jersey would be blue and they would wear it at home and away, except when they play another team that is also blue, so then they would wear their whites or the other team wears something else ( teams can talk and work this out ). This would also give teams like the Jets the option of wearing their whites at home in the playoffs, because the road team would always be a coloured jersey.

Basically , every team wears their coloured jerseys unless they conflict.

Could also mean more sales - other versions of the "whites" for folks who collect. I stopped collecting a while ago - I have enough...

 

[Jets 31]

Could also mean more sales - other versions of the "whites" for folks who collect. I stopped collecting a while ago - I have enough...

The white Heritage classic would be my choice, i love that jersey.

 

[cheswick]

So all the internet buzz is from this tweet? I haven't found the Hockey News relevant for years. I subscribed as a kid & like many considered it the Bible of hockey. These days its' surface level reporting & a shell of it's former self.

View attachment 979443

What jersey is worn has nothing to do with the CBA. So not sure what he's talking about there. They ofcourse used to do dark and dark in the original 6 days. And the kings of the 80s wore yellow jerseys as their whites. Football (soccer) teams wear a regular jersey and only wear the alternates when there is a clash of colours.

 

[Razzle71]

Easy solution. Just let the home team pick.

Or let the home team fans vote? I don't know if that would work though...

 

[WPGChief]

Doesn't surprise me that the league/Fanatics is examining ways of increasing jersey sales, especially following the generational trend where it's becoming more acceptable to wear jerseys outside of sports venues and events as everyday clothing. When Nike took over from Adidas in the NBA and started releasing all their variations, they saw a double-digit increase in sales in most years from 2016-2022 (likely following what they were seeing/doing in the sneaker industry).

That being said, I hope they don't go "full NBA" where it feels like they release a new variation on a jersey every year, which may or may not follow a specific theme, as IMO it dilutes the identity of the team and pride in wearing a jersey. I believe there has been some recent blowback in basketball circles, but I would bet that the league/supplier still comes out on the winning side because fans are going to buy the newest jersey of their favourite player/all-star (i.e. Stephen Curry and LeBron James will always be top sales in NBA, Ohtani/Judge in the MLB, Messi in soccer, etc.).

If the NHL did something like the AHL where they could swap midway through the season (I think it's darks until Christmas, and then whites after), and then home team preference for the playoffs (so you get the pure Jets whiteouts, "C of Red" in Calgary, etc.), that could be appealing. But they shouldn't have more than 4-5 jerseys in rotation for a season - teams should stick to a primary home and away, then an alternative home (and maybe away), and then have a "heritage/historical" home variation (and again, maybe an away); and maybe allowed to change or make adjustments that coincides with a five-year cycle to give some consistency year-to-year.

 

[jetsforever]

Hope they don't do that but if they do I wonder if any other teams will copy the whiteout

 

[Buffdog]

By the way the reason for home whites and coloured away way back in the day was because when out on the road trips by train they couldn't wash the sweaters and with road colours the stains are less visible.

Just to build on your somewhat useless fact lol...

Train berths were assigned by jersey numbers, so goalies always got #1 so that they would get a good berth and therefore good sleep (and when backups became the norm, they'd wear the highest number like 30, 31 or 35 - that's how those numbers became "goalie numbers")

Also, the reason the red line is checkered instead of solid is so that you could differentiate it from the blue lines on black and white television