Regarding 3rd Jerseys Part 2

Part 1 can be found here.

Intro
To continue the saga of third jerseys and if, when, and how they will return to the NHL - the rest of this series will focus on the jerseys we have seen in the past, as well some speculation and critique as to what we may see in the future.

All images are linked to the originals from Webshots.com, the majority of these are game worn and are part of individual's collections.

From Part One
In part one of this series I mentioned the desire to see more vintage jerseys used as team's official third jerseys. It would be wise to point out that the NHL had a Heritage Jersey Program (all of the jerseys you see with the V patch on them) and that until this season were used by teams outside of their regular uniform set. The Kings for instance wore both their vintage black and silver, as well as their purple and yellow uniforms in various games between 2000-2007. They never officially had either as a third jersey.

I also touched on the issues regarding whether or not these jerseys would actually be incorporated into the Edge template or whether they would continue to use the CCM model. If the Winter Classic is anything to go on these would be Reebok branded jerseys using the old template and not the Edge one. (The vintage jerseys Buffalo and Pittsburgh are going to wear are being sold on NHL.com if you want to have a look.) Despite the strangeness of having two different jersey styles this is the only logical solution and I applaud them for it....I only wish they were CCM.

Now...looking back at the past.


The Atlantic Division

New Jersey Devils

As mentioned in part one the Devils are one of three teams never to have worn a third jersey of any sort. Conceivably they could wear their old red and green jerseys as a vintage set, although one would have to weigh this against creating a new jersey entirely to add to the team's identity. I was one of those people that made a sort of small squeak of disappointment when the team abandoned green for black since it was all too typical at the time. On the other hand I've always been relatively pleased with the fact that the team has since resisted the temptation to put out a black version of their current jerseys and call that a third.

So, what do you do if you are New Jersey? Well, hopefully you don't create some sort of alternate logo to serve the purpose. The team has been around for 25 years and has survived well enough on one main logo. Bringing in something new at this point would seem extremely forced and unnecessary. I'd personally vouch for using the jerseys they wore for the first 10 years of their existence. Or, if it comes to it, creating a new one that doesn't stray too far from what they currently have.

By the way that is a Brodeur rookie jersey, he did in fact where the number 29 in the 4 games he played with the Devils in 1991-92.

New York Islanders

If we hop over the whole debacle regarding the you-know-what-uniforms involving a particular type of crispy fish snack then the Islanders only had one third jersey. It was introduced in 2002-03 and for the life of me I have never understood it. I don't know what it does to add to the team's appearance or what the pattern is supposed to symbolize. Granted it's original in that no other team has ever had anything similar to it, but what were they going for here?

I can hope that if and when the league introduces third jerseys again that the Islanders don't bring this back. Now that they've strayed away from the iconic look they had during the 80's when they were winning Stanley Cups every other week, they could bring back that look as a third jersey. Think about it, all the people who don't like what they are wearing Edge style can pick up a player's jersey in the version that everyone relates to when they think of Long Island.

New York Rangers

The Rangers first brought out the Statue of Liberty jerseys in 1996, and there is a rather interesting article from The New York Times talking about them before they were ever used. It includes the great quote from Luc Robitalle, 'It's a really cool jersey. They didn't overdo it. Some teams did. I'm not going to name any names.'' Take your pick of who he was referring to...my money would be one his former team the Los Angeles Kings. So, you see, the players do in fact care about what they have to wear on the ice.

The Rangers wore these as a third jersey up until last year, with the exception of the 1998-99 season when they wore the seldom seen white versions. At the time Gretzky was on the team and to seemingly capitalize on the massive sales that surrounded Wayne wherever he played the team wanted to use both the blue and the white. However, and this goes back to what I said in part one about allowing a team a "second set" with both a home and an away version, the NHL had a strict rule about having only one official third jersey. The Rangers opted to use the whites. The following season the blues were back, the whites disappeared and have since become a sought after collectors item.

To be honest I never really had a problem with these. They worked the best when Richter was in goal with the matching helmet but all in all the team succeeded where other's had failed. They were simple, evoked the spirit of the city, weren't overdone and could be seen as being on par with the team's main set. They weren't without their critics, which is understandable, but they could have been much much worse.

I would think that the Rangers could bring these back without any problems next season and a lot of people would probably be happy with that. One thing you don't really mess with are New York's jerseys, so the thought of them creating yet another design is a bit daunting. Take your pick of vintage jerseys to wear...although none of them stray too far from what they've been wearing since they came into the league...except for the brief (and disastrous) departure from the norm between 1976-1978. And even those have a bit of nostalgia now that 30 years has passed.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins were in on the third jersey game from the start when they introduced what I can only refer to as robo-Penguin in 1995. These, and I am admitting to this, may be one of the few times a team has truly gone experimental and somewhat succeeded. With that said I don't ever want to see gradients used in the NHL ever again. These were popular and they would become the team's official road jersey in the 1997-98 season and remain so until 2002 when another third jersey took their place along with a matching white version.

The jersey in question would be the style the Penguins would eventually maintain until the switch to the Edge jerseys this season. When they went, so did the more stylized version of the Penguin and the original logo became their sole emblem.

The Penguins could easily use any number of classic designs as a third jersey, perhaps the one that stands out the most would be the early 90's one they wore when they won the Stanley Cup fronted by Lemieux. That jersey just screams hockey when you see it. As mentioned all over the place they are wearing their powder blue jerseys from the 70's in the Winter Classic, and if it weren't for the major departure, these would be pretty cool as a third. (The actual style itself was used by the Penguins between 1968 and 1973.) Fan reaction could probably dictate this. My only hope is that they don't come up with anything over stylized if they go for a new look entirely, they have succeeded in creating an identity through simplicity and anything over the top would ruin it. Perhaps they could put the scarf back on the penguin, it only existed for one season and was never used on a jersey. The man who created the Penguins logo Bob Gessner put it like this, "The first penguin looked a little wimpy with the scarf, more like a figure skater than a hockey player." Ok, maybe leave the scarf off.. (More on the evolution of the Pens logo and their uniforms can be found at the excellent site PittsburghHockey.net

Philadelphia Flyers

It's probably best to admit that I grew up a Flyers fan and still am one. So if I come across as a bit over sensitive in regards to their uniforms you can understand why.

Philadelphia came out with a black version of their other jerseys in 1997, and it worked. It was, in fact, a welcome addition since it did not alter their overall look and used the same pattern. These were really popular when they were released and truly defined the meaning of having a third jersey. They were no better or worse than the regular set, and complemented their existing look. BUT, when they became the team's official jersey (in 2001) replacing the orange I think part of me (and a lot of other Flyers fans died). In fact they didn't even use the original orange jersey as a third that season, it just vanished. There were petitions, there still may be, lobbying to bring back the orange. The team had always worn orange, it was their main color and what made them stand out amongst every other team in the league. Replacing it with black, despite the third jersey's popularity, ruined their identity on the ice.

I am going to make the assumption that the powers that be heard the fans and decided to give them, in their mind, what they wanted and brought out the orange jersey that they would maintain as their official third till last year. This was in 2002, and in honor of the Flyers celebrating their 35th Anniversary in the league they used the, newly designed, beveled version of their logo. Which I'm sure looks great on paper and t-shirts, but as a crest on a jersey it fails to invoke anything other than a Flyers logo someone has tweaked in Photoshop. You don't mess with the Flyers logo after 35 years. The rest of the jersey I never quite got, it always looked like the sleeves were sewn on upside down, and the names and numbers with three colors always looked too busy. I can't help but think clown fish when I see these.

Myself, and many others, still want an orange jersey as the main home uniform. Black is so overdone and boring at this point that it needs to go, not just with Philadelphia, and not just with the NHL, but with a lot of teams who have more or less incorporated it for the sake of selling more merchandise. Yes, money matters, but don't sacrifice the team's history in the process. Which brings us to the Flyers potential third jerseys, assuming that we don't get a return to the orange jerseys of the 80's as an alternate, we will probably see the current Edge style of theirs in an orange format. Sadly. Ironically spokesmen for the team keep saying that the new jerseys are a nod to the Flyers jerseys of the past blah blah blah. Last time I checked the team didn't have a black jersey for the first 30+ years they existed...which may explain why their white jerseys look so much better.


Coming up next the Northeast Division...and what Buffalo needs to do to cure slugatis (inflamation of the slug).
Part 3 can be found here.