Gently Used Clothing

Remember these jerseys? If you don't, that ok because they were worn a total of one time. Those would the uniforms that the Flyers wore in the 2017 Stadium Series game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. It would be the only Stadium Series game in 2016-17, and the Penguins won the game 4-2 that night. Why is this relevant today? Well, the Philadelphia Flyers have been hiding their new alternate jerseys in plain sight all this time. There was no major unveiling and no major announcement. All it took was a simple slide show on social media, and the Flyers announced their somewhat-new clothes.

On Friday with little fanfare, the Philadelphia Flyers logged into its Instagram account and uploaded a slideshow. It wasn't anything remarkable until everyone on that social media platform realized that slide #4 was the reveal. However, it would be Thursday where they posted their schedule info on NHL.com, and they technically knock the Hurricanes off as the first team to reveal their new alternate jerseys!

While the Flyers might have one game's worth of history with this jersey, but let's go back to Saturday, December 10, 2016 when I took them to task over this uniform. It's still bad, and I'm still not a fan.

As I wrote then,

"... the reason they went with a black jersey is because it's a 'contemporary homage' to the past? Those two ideas normally don't go together. By definition, contemporary means 'belonging to or occurring in the present' while homage is defined as 'special honor or respect shown publicly'. When referring to the last 50 years, they decided to wear black - a color they wore for 13 of those 50 years? Wow. Whatever PR firm spun that yarn deserves a medal."

I still don't get the buzz over a black jersey, so wearing these again makes little sense. Give me more orange than black, and I'd be happier. There are all sorts of things they could do to improve these jerseys, but I guess it's convenient to pull these out of storage and wear them again.

One of the schedule announcements is another Stadium Series game as the Flyers will play in the 2019 Coors Light Stadium Series game at Lincoln Financial Field against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, February 23 at 8 PM. You're thinking "ok, so they brought them back for that," right? Well, actually, "a new jersey is on tap for the 2019 outdoor contest," meaning they will not be wearing their Stadium Series jerseys for a second Stadium Series game. Makes sense, right?

While the Flyers don't actually tell anyone when the alternate jerseys will be worn aside from "select games this season," the Flyers do state that they'll release additional uniform details "closer to the start of the regular season." As long as the moths haven't chewed holes in them while in storage, we'll get another team wearing black on days where they've chosen to wear their alternate uniforms.

Black. Because it's the only colour alternate jerseys can be.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!