Florida Panthers: Third Jersey FAIL
The Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL) recently unveiled their new third jerseys. Aaaaand… they suck:
What’s ironic is that the Panthers unveiled these sweaters in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins (the team in which the Panthers stole the concept for their new unis):
Notice the Similarities?
Florida (much like Tampa Bay [BOLTS], Ottawa [SENS], Colorado [Rangers-esqe wordmark], Nashville [ANOTHER blue alt] and Atlanta [the maroon monstrosity]) FAILED epically at a chance to really please their fans.
So where did they go wrong? Well, for starters they should have gone RED. Even though the “glory days” are far behind them, it would have been a nice nod to the loyal fans of this terrible franchise to pay tribute to the “Beezer” and the Panthers club of the mid-90′s that advanced to (before losing to Colorado) the Stanley Cup Finals:
The Panthers Glory Days
Here’s a look at what they’re wearing down in South Florida currently:
Home (Blue) & Road (White)
And here’s what they should have done:
Switched out the powder blue for red
OR (and I like this even better):
Sigh.
Oh well, this IS the NHL afterall. And if we’ve learned anything from third jerseys (besides the fact that black alts are PLAYED OUT) – it’s that the Southeastern Conference (and Nashville) continually struggle with introducing aesthetically-acceptable thirds.
At least Calgary got it right:
You should put a link to the SI article about hockey jerseys and how the original six teams don’t chang except for stuff like the winter classic where they just go with the throwback. Sorry I forgot what issue it was in.
Actually, every Original Six team has now released a third jersey.
Toronto: A “Throwback” leaf (pre-1967.)
Chicago: An updated version of last year’s Winter Classic sweater.
Montreal: They’re wearing something like 9 different uniforms to celebrate their 100th anniversary. Some are pretty awesome and some are pretty bizarre (like the barbershop uni.)
Detroit: The Detroit Cougars throwback they wore in the Winter Classic.
Boston: Released a brown and gold throwback with a cartoonish “B” on the sweater for this year’s Winter Classic against Philadelphia.
New York: They have the most modern alternates – The “Liberty Head” jersey.