Rumor: NHL might go back to white jersey at home, dark on the road in next CBA.

[StreetHawk]

Then there's a league database that determines when a secondary has to be worn (i.e. Rangers and Blues can't both wear their blue jerseys).

We'd get a lot more blue vs red, red vs yellow, etc in this scenario.

NHL doesn't allow teams to wear the same color helmets. I recall a while ago Mon and NYR played and both wore their dark jerseys. Montreal, either after warm up or 1st period then wore their white helmets.

3rd jerseys are typically dark colors, thus the main reason for the change was to sell that to the home team so that they can wear them to match the team.

I don't really care that much of which ones they do opt to wear. I personally preferred white at home since you get the variety of the opposition but no big issue wearing the dark at home.

As for dark on dark, like at this 4 Nations, you do need enough color contrast for the 2 clubs to wear. NFL has done this with their color rush and the 1 game that was terrible was the Jets/Bills pre Josh Allen. As there is roughly 9% or something of people whose eyes can't distinguish between green and red. Thus, it was a whole blurr for them. So, Minny/Det couldn't both wear their darks.

Sometimes watching the NBA some of the dark jerseys are too dark to go up against a black jersey.

 

[robertmac43]

Brings me back to my child hood. I like the idea of seeing away teams in their main colour jersey when they come to town.

 

[mondo3]

What if they alternated each year? Even years, white at home, odd years, white on the road.

 

[93LEAFS]

Just allow home teams to pick their jersey, and the other team can wear whatever they want as long as it doesn't conflict. There is no reason the Leafs can't wear Blue when they play the Red Wings, Blackhawks or Canadiens, but obviously, Tampa or Rangers would have to wear white. The games aren't airing in greyscale anymore where viewers can't tell the difference between two teams wearing primary colours.

 

[Foots]

Not a fan of this.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

I'm shocked to hear they're considering this, but i'm strongly in favor it. It would be nice to see the visitors in their colored jerseys again.

 

[NyQuil]

I'm shocked to hear they're considering this, but i'm strongly in favor it. It would be nice to see the visitors in their colored jerseys again.

I'm with you on this one.

But I think they switch back and forth just to get people to buy jerseys again.

 

[pvr]

Have always preferred white at home. Allows away color jerseys to be seen by the home crowd.

NHL will sell more jerseys, and that’s the ultimate reason for a switch. They’ve switched for that reason before, and this wouldn’t be the last time.

Also, I’ve always preferred the white Hawks jersey over the red. (Blasphemy to some.)

 

[tarheelhockey]

IMO the worst trend in pro sports uniforms is when teams wear black jerseys when there’s no black in their color scheme.

Reminds me of those off brand fake jerseys you’d see someone selling on the sidewalk where it has the team’s name on the back instead of a player's

Funny enough, I remember when the black fake jerseys were the absolute hottest thing on the market.

Something like this would have people fighting in the street to get their hands on it:

Problem is the NHL (and to be fair, every other league) misread the trend. They decided it meant they needed to change the actual official jerseys to black, like the Flyers and Flames. In reality it meant they needed to keep the official jerseys the same, and have a black alternate for people to drool over a couple times a year and then spend their money on.

The problem is that black jerseys generally look like shit on TV, which is where 99% of the viewers are. If you’re on ice it’s an eyesore, if you’re on grass it doesn’t contrast enough. Flashes of color are far more appealing. Black is for streetwear.

Edit: case in point, this looks like crap because there’s way too much black going on:

Same matchup looks a hundred times better with some color

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

I am old old where i remember the oiginal change from this to whites at home and darks on the road.

White's on road was only in place for like 15 years 1955-70, it wasn't the original scheme. At least at some point prior that they played white's at home. In the pre-war I'm not sure what they did, but I would guess it was a bit of cluster.

 

[Tawnos]

NHL doesn't allow teams to wear the same color helmets. I recall a while ago Mon and NYR played and both wore their dark jerseys. Montreal, either after warm up or 1st period then wore their white helmets.

3rd jerseys are typically dark colors, thus the main reason for the change was to sell that to the home team so that they can wear them to match the team.

I don't really care that much of which ones they do opt to wear. I personally preferred white at home since you get the variety of the opposition but no big issue wearing the dark at home.

As for dark on dark, like at this 4 Nations, you do need enough color contrast for the 2 clubs to wear. NFL has done this with their color rush and the 1 game that was terrible was the Jets/Bills pre Josh Allen. As there is roughly 9% or something of people whose eyes can't distinguish between green and red. Thus, it was a whole blurr for them. So, Minny/Det couldn't both wear their darks.

Sometimes watching the NBA some of the dark jerseys are too dark to go up against a black jersey.

For sure they'd need to be judicious about it. And the helmet variation could be kind of fun too. US is wearing white helmets with their dark blue uniforms in the 4N and it looks cool, IMO.

 

[StreetHawk]

For sure they'd need to be judicious about it. And the helmet variation could be kind of fun too. US is wearing white helmets with their dark blue uniforms in the 4N and it looks cool, IMO.

Leafs wings at the Big House looked great as they were brighter shades of blue and red.

 

[tarheelhockey]

White's on road was only in place for like 15 years 1955-70, it wasn't the original scheme. At least at some point prior that they played white's at home. In the pre-war I'm not sure what they did, but I would guess it was a bit of cluster.

True OGs remember when there were no white jerseys and every team played with a single uniform set. Every game was color vs color.

Then came 1920 Finals when the Seattle Metropolitans

Played the Sens

And the everyone was like, one of y’all is gonna have to wear white before we all go blind.

Toronto ran into the same issue years later playing “striped” teams, and then Detroit vs Montreal when both went with red.

(to answer your question, prior to 1951 home teams wore white but there were tons of irregularities as not all teams had both options available. The Rangers white jersey didn’t exist until the league required them to wear one starting in ‘51, and the Bruins only wore white till a couple of years before that)

 

[DougBodger]

Just allow home teams to pick their jersey, and the other team can wear whatever they want as long as it doesn't conflict. There is no reason the Leafs can't wear Blue when they play the Red Wings, Blackhawks or Canadiens, but obviously, Tampa or Rangers would have to wear white. The games aren't airing in greyscale anymore where viewers can't tell the difference between two teams wearing primary colours.

Agree - should be choice of home team

 

[bossram]

Whites at home is so boring. Almost every team's white kit is aesthetically worse than its dark kit.

I don't get the argument that you want to "see" the away teams different colours. Like...you are aware you can see them on TV? What is the population of people that exclusively watch hockey via their team's home games in person and never on TV?

 

[No Fun Shogun]

My attitude is that the jersey rule should be this:

A) Color sweaters are the defaults for all teams,
B) If two teams have the same, or similar enough, colored sweaters, including common color blindness clashes, then the home team should wear their whites or their thirds,
C) Teams would be required to have a third jersey that’s a different color from their primary sweaters.

Bam, we get maximum color variance, we see way more examples of color on color games, teams still only need to travel with one jersey set so as to not increase travel costs, and it’d be basically a simple matter of setting up a matrix to determine if opposing sweaters are too similar and the home team can change accordingly, all the while encouraging all teams to have a secondary color, too.

 

[NyQuil]

Whites at home is so boring. Almost every team's white kit is aesthetically worse than its dark kit.

I don't get the argument that you want to "see" the away teams different colours. Like...you are aware you can see them on TV? What is the population of people that exclusively watch hockey via their team's home games in person and never on TV?

Why go to the games at all if you can watch them on TV?

Agree - should be choice of home team

My understanding is that, at least at one time, it's a lot easier for the equipment manager to bring one complete set of jerseys (+ spares etc.) as opposed to two when they go on the road.

So that's why they don't leave it up to the home team to choose and instead they have a league-wide standard.

However, I've seen games where the colours are reversed for special occasions etc. so I don't know if it still applies or not. That was the logic at one time though.

 

[hangman005]

Why go to the games at all if you can watch them on TV?



My understanding is that, at least at one time, it's a lot easier for the equipment manager to bring one complete set of jerseys (+ spares etc.) as opposed to two when they go on the road.

So that's why they don't leave it up to the home team to choose and instead they have a league-wide standard.

However, I've seen games where the colours are reversed for special occasions etc. so I don't know if it still applies or not. That was the logic at one time though.

I know we wear the whites for Nevada Day Home Games. So there's that.

 

[seanlinden]

I feel like this "discussion" will end up in "allowing" the dark on dark colour matchups that we see in 4nations.

I recall hating the decision way back in the day to go to darks at home (largely because the Leafs 3rd jersey at the time was white); but it does / did make sense.

While yes, if you're a season-ticket holder, every game looked the same from inside the arena (blue vs white), the fact that pretty much every other 3rd jersey in the league was dark outweighs that.

Perhaps what they'll do is switch to "road team elects" jersey...so when for example the Leafs go to Florida, they'll wear their Blues. Panthers will wear their reds, and Lightning will wear their whites. When Dallas or whomever comes in to Tampa, it'll be green vs blue.

 

[Dallas Winston]

In this day n age that would cause a shit storm lol

 

[ES]

It's a problem on road trips where you have to pack like 2x the gear for every team then.

Wasn't this pretty much the reason why it was changed in early 2000s?

After 3rd jerseys were introduced, teams sometimes wore those (and they were usually coloured) which forced visiting team to wear white.

 

[bossram]

Why go to the games at all if you can watch them on TV?

This is a different discussion, but in a Canadian city with very high ticket prices, the value proposition of going to a game really isn't worth it.

Re the jerseys: Like, again, can you answer what the population of people is that exclusively watch hockey via their team's home games in person and never on TV, and thus never actually see other teams' away colours. Can you answer that? If this is a very large number of people, I would concede it makes sense to swap home/away kits.

 

[NyQuil]

Re the jerseys: Like, again, can you answer what the population of people is that exclusively watch hockey via their team's home games in person and never on TV, and thus never actually see other teams' away colours. Can you answer that? If this is a very large number of people, I would concede it makes sense to swap home/away kits.

There are a number of assumptions you are making here.

1. That the coloured jersey is superior to the white jersey in all cases for all people. Some people might prefer the white jersey. In some cities, the "white out" was the ultimate expression of fandom (e.g. Winnipeg during the playoffs) and it's pretty hilarious since then to occasionally see everyone in white when the opposition is wearing that colour.

2. By the same token, how many people haven't seen the coloured jersey on TV because its used exclusively at home in your scenario? Aren't they already familiar with it as well? If we assume that most fans in attendance have seen their team play both at home or away, it stands to reason that they are familiar with both the white and the coloured iteration.

I'm a season ticket holder (since 2003) who goes to a lot of games and I actually like seeing different colours on the ice. I said as much when they originally switched from white to coloured at home, and I'm of the same opinion now. Yes, I'm familiar with all of the jerseys in the NHL. It breaks up the monotony a bit.

We don't live in a monochrome society for a reason.

 

[bossram]

There are a number of assumptions you are making here.

1. That the coloured jersey is superior to the white jersey in all cases for all people. Some people might prefer the white jersey. In some cities, the "white out" was the ultimate expression of fandom (e.g. Winnipeg during the playoffs) and it's pretty hilarious since then to occasionally see everyone in white when the opposition is wearing that colour.

2. By the same token, how many people haven't seen the coloured jersey on TV because its used exclusively at home in your scenario? Aren't they already familiar with it as well? If we assume that most fans in attendance have seen their team play both at home or away, it stands to reason that they are familiar with both the white and the coloured iteration.

I'm a season ticket holder (since 2003) who goes to a lot of games and I actually like seeing different colours on the ice. I said as much when they originally switched from white to coloured at home, and I'm of the same opinion now. Yes, I'm familiar with all of the jerseys in the NHL. It breaks up the monotony a bit.

We don't live in a monochrome society for a reason.

So you can't answer the question, is what you're saying.

You're also a STH. That's your tell. You'd personally rather see the visitor colours in person. That's all there is to it. Fair enough.

 

[winnipegger]

If it ain't broke......

Seriously though find a real problem and solve it what are we doing here.