An Avalanche Against Common Sense

I have been extremely harsh in regards to the Northwest Division so far. The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames ranked low on my list of favorite new jerseys due to their complete stupidity when it came to obvious things: the city's name, and the provincial and national flags. However, the Northwest Division made strides at becoming more respectable when the Minnesota Wild showed off their new jerseys. They're simple and elegant - what a hockey jersey should be. Today, another Northwest Division team showed off their new jerseys. The Colorado Avalanche had a quick fashion show this morning. Let's check out what they looked like.

The Avalanche's new home jersey was modelled by John-Michael Liles. They look somewhat like last season's jerseys, although the hem striping is gone and the piping now follows the seams on the jerseys. The problem is that the road jersey looks like the players are wearing aprons again, only they have a burgandy one AND a white one. Perhaps the NHL is leaving the Versus channel for FoodTV?

The side panels on the side are little distracting, but overall don't really detract from the jersey. I still don't understand why they have to be the contrasting colours of the team's colour scheme, but at least there aren't any ridiculous designs... unlike the panelling on some teams. Even the road jersey's side panels look ok.

The font on the back is still the same, but I have a problem with the broken shoulder yoke again. Does Reebok have to do this? They did it to the Florida Panthers as well, and I am still not a fan of that idea. However, the Avalanche kept their font, and that's good as I was a fan of it as well.

All in all, not the best jersey produced by the Colorado Avalanche. They didn't do too much in terms of improvements, but their recognizable logo didn't change at all. They'll fall somewhere in the middle-to-the-bottom of the new jerseys. I really wish they had kept their bottom stripes, but that's asking for too much, I suppose. Enjoy your aprons, Avalanche fans.

Also being unveiled today are the new jerseys for the Toronto Maple Leafs. As soon as I have some photos, I'll post them in a new article.

Until then, keep your sticks on the ice!