Isles in Black and Other Rumors
Saturday · May 7 · 2011 | 4:10 PM PDTI've never been a fan of writing blog posts based on pure speculation with no independent confirmation. Unfortunately, it's May and that's all I have for you at the moment. (The summer should be more fruitful.) So let's dive into the latest rumors.
The most ridiculous thing I've heard yet is that the New York Islanders could launch — are you sitting down? — a black third jersey next fall. Right.
Icethetics readers Jeremy and Marco have linked us to a thread at HFBoards.com in which a user claimed to have a friend at a sporting apparel store with inside information. Honestly, don't we all?
To properly dissect his assertion, let's have a look at the original post.
I stopped into my friend's store ... he sells NHL jerseys, other sports too, but has alot more NHL then anything else. ... Anyway, I was discussing with him about jersey changes for next season, he showed me the reebok catalog ordering book he gets and the Kings, Predators, Panthers and Lightning (already unveiled) are all getting new home and aways, while the Sens, Thrashers, Penguins are all getting new alternates.
...the Islanders are getting a third jersey and he said the jersey will be Black. Apparently they made up 5 different proto-types and all 5 were black jerseys. I was kind of suprised because the Islanders dont have any black in their team colors, so I am kind of afraid that it could be awful.
The mind-numbingly awful grammar aside, there are a few things wrong with this. First, I'm suspicious about Reebok already sending out unreleased uniform designs to retailers. Not impossible, but unlikely. But more importantly, under no circumstances would Reebok include team prototypes in retail planning information.
So it seems as if someone's trying to take us for a ride. I can certainly see the Islanders doing something as silly as creating a black third jersey. But where this "friend" is getting his information is suspect. Either he's making things up to appear to be "in the know" or the person who posted this is.
Guess we won't know for sure, though, until the Isles show it to us.
It's looking more and more like the Nashville Predators will be sporting gold next season. (According to unnamed sources, of course.)
Back in February, a team ticket rep apparently told a reader that a yellow sweater design was being tested. A week later, the club sent out season ticket renewal forms — which were primarily yellow — confirming a new jersey was in the works.
More recently, the unveiling of Pekka Rinne's new mask showed us a logo we've never seen before. Now, we supposedly have new rumors to support these things.
An Icethetics reader — not wanting to be named — again cites a "friend" who works for the team as indicating the following:
- New home and road jerseys are slated for 2011
- Home jersey will be unveiled at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft (June 24 in Minnesota)
- Road jersey will be unveiled in July
- Home jersey will be "yellow/gold"
Again, all speculation at this point. And more rumors doesn't make it more true. But now you know what I know when it comes to unconfirmable information.
Kings redesign website without purple / LAKings.com
Last item of the day relates to the Los Angeles Kings, who have almost completely rid their website of the color purple. This fuels the belief that the Kings will swap their home and alternate jersey and add new threads for the road.
Again, not new information but just one more thing that points in the same direction. In March, Kings official blogger Rich Hammond did confirm that a white version of the black alternate would be employed for road games beginning in 2011-12.
If anything, the one new element included in this new look for the Kings is the crown logo sans purple. It's been previously seen only inside the third jersey crest, not standing alone as it now is on the website banner.
Hat tip to Eric P. for bringing the Kings' web redesign to my attention.
Reader Comments (28)
Wow, can't wait to see a yellow jersey in the NHL! I mean, team Sweden has one of the best looking jerseys in the entire world.
As for the Kings droping the purble - Booooring! They should've gone with their purble and gold alternate,
I sincerely hope the Isles do not go black! Bad enough the other blue-and-orange team in the area has felt the need to have black in their scheme the last decade or so. The Isles don't need black. Period.
Anything new on the Oilers front? How awsome would it be if they gave the first overall pick the new road jersey. As an Oilers fan it makes me smile thinking about a new (orange white and blue) jersey.
Nashville in yellow full time is a good idea, it's about time yellow returns. I still think the Canucks need a yellow throwback alt. Nothing wrong with the current set, except the home and road look exactly the same.
Black for the Kings works, for the Islanders, I'm not sure. They must be trying to look like the Mets or something.
PS: I am rooting for former Oiler Roli and the Bolts to win the cup.
I have heard the isles will be doing something with a black third jersey, I do want to make a point that the NY Mets have the same colors as the Islanders plus black. They make it work and have made it work for years, maybe the Islanders will go with something that takes hints from a Mets jersey. Actually imagine this, take the Islanders road white jersey, now make white black. and take the Islanders original helmet decal from when they introduced the now home jerseys (Islanders in script) across the front with the Islanders crest on the shoulders. I can't imagine that looking terrible.
Plus, the predators did a sort of "yellow-out" thing with their fans in the playoffs, so i wouldn't be surprised if they introduced a yellow jersey.
I have a friend who works at a store selling NHL jerseys and me and him looked at the NHL and NFL catalogs one day way back at the start of this season and for the ones they knew were changing they had a blank space for the Sweater, so it appears as this guy on that other board is simply blowing smoke
The Preds don't have a pick in the first round...so how will it be unveiled? I'm just curious.
I am also very disappointed to see the kings drop the purple. However, I cannot wait to see the preds in yellow, hopeffuly it will look better than the last time they tried it but I am sure reebok will do a good job. As for the Isle's, I don't even know what to say, they could have gone with something orange and actually look good, their two other jersey's look amazing but once again this is only speculation.
@Max, draft party is my guess
hey chris thanks for throwing me up on the site for the cred to the hfboards link it means alot!
The guy is blowing smoke. Atlanta is getting a new third? That's news to the team. They didn't dodge the question about it, they straight up said they wouldn't have an alternate in 11-12
Ha, good point Geoff. I totally blew over that one. My guess is that was a misinterpretation. Those Reebok planning documents don't specifically state whether a new jersey is coming but rather say TBA. So next to Thrashers' alternate, it reads TBA. It was probably misread as "new" instead of "none" as it turns out is the case. Simple mistake — that's how I initially read and reported it in the previous JerseyWatch updates this year. Oops.
Yellow for the Preds? Well, at least it'll bring more colour into the NHL. Let's just hope it doesn't look horrible.
A Preds yellow jersey would be awesome. With so many teams in the NHL now trying to incorporate blue or black in their jerseys, it's good to have someone that is introducing a jersey with a primary color that hasn't been in the NHL for a while.
I don't get the Kings motivation... why go with black and white when the throwback purple sweaters were so well received? The only I can think of is trying to bring back the Gretzky-era spirit to the team.
Isles in black, I don't believe, but if it happens, then my thoughts are that it might have been a good thing to try if black weren't so ubiquitous right now.
And Chris, it's great to get any type of info in what is normally a drought in that regard, even if it is just pure speculation.
I'm with Kent Clark on cheering for Roli, and Brewer... and MAB (hopefully he doesn't run over Roli). I think it would be really nice to see the number one pick in the new Oilers silks as well (White Retro).
I'm a little disappointed in the Kings direction, I was getting really excited last draft when they put this on their selection...
http://www.icethetics.info/storage/blog/KingsThrowbackDraft.jpg
I was hoping the kings were going back to retro as well but I'm not sure how much the fans would have appreciated that. The new Black/White looks pretty sharp but the lack of colour isn't too appealing in my opinion. Looks like they are going back to the ol' 90's style.
I'm interested in the new Preds jersey too, I think I'm starting to see a theme and an NHL selling marketing idea here with all the teams having designated colours, usually matching the home jersey. Ex. Rock the Red - WSH, TB new blue, Gold Rush (or whatever they called it) - Preds
I actually really like the Kings' current purple and black look, and find the alternates kind of boring. There's not enough silver to contrast the stark black and white, like there was on the Gretzky jerseys.
Islanders in black would be effing hilarious and stupid, especially so soon after they finally got it right again. So about right for such a minor-league operation.
Nashville, I'd rather see the dark blues get a white version, but that's already been nixed, so whatever. I still wish I'd bought the old mustard third when I had the chance.
Yuck, what is wrong with the Kings? Purple and gold look great for them. They should stay away from the plain and boring black and white.
Copy the Lakers, not the Raiders, guys.
well some teams do have strange ideas about what might look good & sell lots of jerseys.....
isles using black might look really good or it might end up looking like a bad philly jersey.
preds in yellow might look really good (needs plenty of navy on there) or they might look like custard on skates.
kings really wont look good without the purple, just black & white is way too simple / dull / boring. tho if they insist on doing this, they really need to keep the retro purple / gold alternate jerseys, just so the fans have SOME color to look at once in a while!!!
Black is always a color that is one of those kind of things that can one of two ways: it can look terrible or fantastic.
That being said, the Islanders adding black is not as shocking as I would have originally thought- the Knicks and Mets rock those colors and they look decent.
Nashville going gold as a home jersey might be an interesting thing to see happen...but I just don't know how well that will look. I mean, it's good to see color, but I feel like with the proper redesign, there could be a good looking gold third. I'm just a stickler for wanting the home colors and road whites, but that'll be a wait and see.
LA missed a huge opportunity to have a fairly decent set of unis. Granted, we all saw the white version of their current alt and I like the way it looks. But they should have kept the purple and gold jersey as their third. It's a solid look.
Why are so many teams going go black? The LA alt jerseys are way too dark for my tastes. Even the gretzky era jerseys had more silver. The islanders in black would look stupid. Even San Jose using their black jerseys in the playoffs is dumb to me, your teal, you have a great color, embrace it! I wasn't a fan of the mustard jerseys, but I'm actually excited for a yellow Nash jersey, at least one team isn't afraid of some color.
There's a pretty vocal group of Mets fans, though, who absolutely hate the use of black in the team's colors, and it's only been for just over a decade. (Probably most vocal against black as a Mets color would be Paul Lukas over at Uni Watch.)
Personally, while I'm not a Mets fan, I do tend to prefer their more classic, non-black look over what they've been doing. Even their black hat would've been better if they'd kept the interlocked NY orange, outlined in blue, so that it actually stands out better compared to the blue-outlined-in-orange that they've been using.
Then again, the Isles did give us those sea-sickness, Gorton's Fisherman-logo jerseys back in the nineties... they'd have to work pretty hard to make a worse jersey than those.
First of all, I'm not happy learning that the Predators are going to yellow as their home jersey. Yellow on white from a presentation standpoint is an aesthetic nightmare. There's no contrast. It's light v. light. Now, if they went to that for their away jerseys, and opted for something a little darker on home ice, I wouldn't have a problem with it.
As for the Islanders in black. I believe that someone should show the unveil of the classic jerseys back in 1998, and the promise that was made to the fans. "No more ugly jerseys" I'm sure that pledge is somewhere on YouTube.
@JRZMAN
The Preds yellow isn't a bright yellow, it's a goldish, mustard-yellow. If you can differentiate between the Canucks players' jerseys and the shirts on the fans in the stands in the Playoff games in Nashville, you won't have a problem doing so next season.
I had heard the rumor about gold Preds sweaters for a while, but I had hoped they would do like the 70s Kings and have a gold road/navy home combo.
Also, it wouldn't surprise me if the old Nashville Dixie Flyers might be used for inspiration on these gold jerseys:
http://theehl.com/ (Scroll down)
Boo on the Kings' black. Sounds like everyone here has better aesthetic sense than whoever is making the call for that organization.
Yellow on the Predators sounds good -give that team some identity.
The playoff t-shirts the Preds gave away this season are gold and so are the playoff banner things hanging on the light poles in downtown Nashville. I don't know if this is a sign of things to come or just a new marketing idea but it certainly looks more and more like the blue jerseys are gone.
I'm sure a lot of people felt the Bruins' gold Winter Classic jersey should have been made the team's alternate jersey. It was absolutely gorgeous. Hopefully, the Preds can pull off the look.
Kings management may wish they would have reconsidered switching to those black jerseys. For two years they've used those black alt sweaters for the first round of the playoffs and have lost both times. Perhaps it's an omen . . . (besides the fact they look nowhere as good as the purple and gold throwbacks or even the black and purple sweaters).