Paul, Thanks for the great site. Concerning the new NHL Uniforms, I saw nothing ok about them at All! The lame coller, the curved hemline, the side mesh like panels(I hate these more than any other aspect). The tight fit or actual cut is horrible. They could of used this High Tech Material and kept the old cut. I know that you have pointed these problems out already, but my question is How can these jerseys then be ok?? Yah they could of been worse , but to me it doesn’t matter because they are unacceptable either way.I was almost hoping that they would be as bad as they were rumored to be, so I wouldn’t have to hear that they were not as bad as they could of been The bottom line is that these things are still hideous! I will no longer be purchasing Center Ice next season to subject myself to Gary’s NHL with futuristic players/robots skating around the rink. Watching the Sabres this season is bad enough. I also love that 19 year old Sidney Crosby is telling us all that it was time for change, and that this is a new era. What the hell does he know about NHL Tradition? He is a punk! After this season I have had it with the NHL!! Unfortunately I hear that the AHL is also going with these uniforms next year. Hopefully some of the minor leagues and College teams will not be making this move…Thanks!

Is that a 2007-08 Kings Edge jersey in the background? Last week’s Sports Illustrated has a less cropped version of this photo that you can see both armpit-to-collar panels (unfortunately colored in this case).

The story at SI.com

Sorry, it dumped my image source. The whole article is here.

The story at SI.com

Here’s a quick look at our sweaters:

Paul Lukas said:

Just checked in at the NHL Officials Association discussion board to see what they thought of the silver armbands. Not much chatter about it yet, but someone mentioned that there was a new, higher-pitched whistle being used in last night’s game. The idea, apparently, was that the pitch of this particular whistle would automatically stop the clock (instead of a human clock operator hearing the whistle and flicking a switch).

If those whistles work that would be a great thing not just for hockey but sports in general. I’m not sure how they would work in loud venues like autzen though.

They have been using that in the NBA and NCAA basketball for a few years now. The volue in the arena really shouldn’t matter since the official wears a small microphone that picks up the sound and kills the clock.

Why is hockey 4th? Compared to the NBA it seems more exciting. What does the NHL need to do? I’m from West Texas so I don’t have it in my blood like a lot of people on here do. My first thought is make it a TV friendly product, isn’t TV revenue the big dog here?

Hockey has regional appeal, and doesn’t really work on a national level. The NHL will never get NFL-like money, but live sports has an advantage as its the few television events which lose appeal when not watched live. To really enjoy a game, you can’t TiVo it or watch it on iTunes.

The best thing that the NHL can do is make the game more accessible to fans. If I was Versus, I would move the national games to Thursday and Friday, and get Hockey Night in Canada on the NHL Network when it finally launches in the US.

I know everyone is saying the NHL needs to return to ESPN, but they’re not going to pay the money that Comcast did. What could be done is to give ESPN or ESPN2 one game a week, with Versus continuing its 2 nights a week, the All Star Game and playoffs. Then they get the best of both worlds: Comcast’s money and ESPN’s exposure.

Anyone else think Zdeno Chara shoulda had an extra star or two along the side panel of his uni?

i didn’t see the game, but one distracting element in the still photos, which you see in that pic on rafalski, is the way the snug jersey overemphasizes the hip pad or whatever it is (asspad?) in the back, making it look like someone pulled a thread and made the shirt pucker.