For anyone that isn’t a hardcore NHL fan, this post isn’t going to make any sense. For those of you that are, this is something that probably drives you nuts to no end. I understand that the League (read: Gary Bettman) thinks there is nothing more important that trying to make money in every area of the game. I get it, that’s what he does—and its only 1 reason out of a million why he doesn’t “get” what makes hockey special and why he’s a horrible commissioner. But this isn’t a bash Gary Bettman post—no, this is more of an open ended question to him: When are the NHL teams going to go back to wearing their WHITE jerseys at home?
It shouldn't be that difficult: these should be HOME jerseys!
I got to thinking about this because of the Philadelphia/Toronto home-and-home series on Thursday and Friday. It just looked RIGHT. Flyers playing the rival Maple Leafs, goals being scored, fights aplenty, it was like 1980s hockey. And I could TELL the Flyers were at home in the 2nd game because they were wearing WHITE!
Like I said, I get why the league decided to do this in the first place. You see, the NHL started doing this so they could be promoting 3rd jerseys at home. The teams wanted to use more and more alternate jerseys, which are always of differing colors. If the home team were to wear DARK, then their team could market their new jerseys to their home fan base a few times per year.
In this day and age, would it be too hard to have the capabilities to wear either jersey on the road? Be like football and let the home team choose or something? If the Kings want to wear their 3rd jerseys at home to sell a few more pieces of swag, then let them. Otherwise, the default is white jerseys at home.
I know this is a bigger deal with hockey fans than anyone talks about. Everyone I talk to has been annoyed about it since the lockout; and I know most of us STILL can’t get used to it. When I’m watching a Wings/Oilers game and the Red Wings are wearing white, they SHOULD BE IN DETROIT! It usually takes me a few minutes to figure out why the game started so late. It’s not because I’m slow, it’s not because I’m usually drinking if I’m forcing myself to watch a Red Wings game, it’s because the teams are wearing the wrong jerseys!
Baseball does it, basketball does it, hockey used to do it—and football is king and can do whatever they damn well please. It’s one of those things that really shouldn’t be much of a big deal to anyone that cares. The only people that care want the white. So what the hell is the problem? The alternate jersey thing has served its purpose for the home fans; so why not wear the dark jerseys on the road for the rest of the league to see them? Who knows, they might even be able to SPREAD and promote apparel outside their isolated markets! That’s not nearly shortsighted enough for this commissioner though.
When it comes down to it, the only people that care about this are the longtime fans of the NHL. Newcomers or fringe fans probably don’t even notice which teams wear what—but for us longtime fans, it’s a big deal. It’s simple and it’s obvious! Fix it so I can go back to knowing who’s at home without listening for the crowd! It would be a small token to the fans from the league that says, “Hey, we know this is something you wanted fixed, so here ya go.” A small token like that can go a long way! Until then, we’ll just have to sit back and watch as they slow remove fighting and checking from the Greatest Game on Earth.
