History Repeats Itself?

At the risk of inciting some angry Minnesotans that read this blog, the Dallas Stars went and pulled a "North Stars" on Wednesday when they unveiled their new alternate jersey, affectionately dubbed the "Skyline Jersey", to the entire world. It always shocks me when a team who has a uniform set that is generally favourable in the public's eye determines that they need an alternate jersey that is black, and I generally dislike the idea of black jerseys wholeheartedly for the game of hockey unless it's a primary colour of one's team - think Boston or Pittsburgh as an example. Seeing this new alternate jersey that Dallas has come up with feels like this is the late days of the Minnesota North Stars and/or early days of the Dallas Stars once more. And that's not a compliment.

If you were around at the time, the summer of 1991 saw the North Stars coming off a Stanley Cup Final appearance against the Pittsburgh Penguins where they fell to the Penguins, but had played some inspired hockey as an unlikely finalist all spring to reach the final series. Norm Green, the former Flames owner who had been recruited by the NHL to save the North Stars franchise in Minnesota in 1990, decided that a rebranding was in order for the Stars - an idea that had been speculated since Green's purchase of the franchise from George and Gordon Gund.

The start of the 1991-92 season saw the Minnesota North Stars go from their iconic green-and-yellow colour scheme to the black-and-metallic-gold colour scheme in what had to be one of the worst rebrands in the history of the NHL in this writer's opinion. According to Lou Nanne in the book Minnesota North Stars by Bob Showers, he told Showers that the rebranding would it make the team easier to relocate if Green desired.

Honestly, in looking at those two uniforms above, the original North Stars jersey is far superior to anything that the rebranded North Stars could have ever brought to the table. The colours are bold, the logo is iconic, and the choice of green as a primary colour in hockey, as said many times on this blog before, is extremely underutilized. While Nanne was eventually right in that it was easier to move the team without "North" emblazoned across the chests of players, the rebranding to black was ultimately, in my opinion, a colossal error.

Which brings us to today.

How the crap do you go for a sleek, nuanced jersey on the left like the Victory Green jerseys rolled out in 2014 to what seems to be a Chinese knockoff fan jersey on the right?

Look at the depth on the Stars logo on the left with the colouring and shadowing giving the Stars logo some life in comparison to the monochrome, pock-marked Stars logo on the right. There's simply no comparison between the two because the logo on the left is so good and the logo on the right is so bad! "But the 'D' has shadowing!" I hear you exclaim. Sure, except you can't see that shadowing unless you're up close. It's monochromatic garbage in terms of wrecking a respectable logo.

And the colour? Well, let's do a little history lesson here as well.

Back when the NHL All-Star Game meant the two sides would feature the games biggest stars squaring off against one another in an actual hockey game, the NHL All-Stars wore jerseys as seen above on the left. The "star" pattern was a major break from the NHL's signature white-black-and-orange jerseys that the league had outfitted the All-Star teams in for two decades in keeping with the NHL shield's colouration. When the 1994 All-Star Game in New York City happened, these new jerseys were eye-catching and colourful - a clear break from the old NHL's standard.

When the league decided to go in a different direction in 1997 for the 1998 NHL All-Star Game, the Stars simply grabbed the star-patterned jerseys for themselves and introduced them as alternate jerseys in the 1997-98 season before adopting a home and road version of the jerseys as their primary wear for the next eight seasons. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? The Stars wearing star-patterned jerseys simply fit perfectly for a Star rebrand, but they didn't do something new or innovative to improve their brand. They just followed a trend that had already been done.

In saying that, consider the following.

In each of these examples, the team wearing the jerseys had an iconic colour scheme reduced to virtually nothing on these alternate jerseys. Tampa Bay went from their classy blue-and-white to a sublimated gray-to-black. The Islanders ditched their iconic navy-blue-and-orange colur scheme and their iconic logo for their black monstrosity that was nearly universally hated. The Sharks abandoned the teal for a ridiculous black jersey. And now the Stars are doing the same in ditching their iconic Victory Green colour for black and a newly-designated "Skyline Green" colour that would be better found in highlighter markers than on hockey jerseys.

The Stars aren't doing something different or innovative with their new alternate jersey here. They're simply following another trend that has already become passé. More and more teams are opting for colour in their alternate jerseys, and it makes the game far more watchable as people want to see these colourful uniforms in person. We don't watch black-and-white TVs, so why would NHL teams opt to make black alternate jerseys part of their wardrobe when the colour palatte is available to them?

Oh, and in case you were asking what the All-Star Game tie-in was, Exhibit A to the right in 2019 is the Dallas Stars taking something seen at an NHL All-Star Game and making it their own. Again. The NHL used simplistic versions of each team's logo on their eco-friendly, recycled-plastic jerseys seen at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game, and Dallas' logo is exactly identical to what you see on the Skyline Jerseys. If you didn't like this simplistic NHL All-Star jersey, I have to know the rational behind why would you be a fan of this new Dallas Stars alternate jersey. If you don't like Exhibit A and Exhibit B follows the identical design, how can you like Exhibit B?

I'm sure you know where this jersey lands on the "Good Or Dumb" rating system I use if you've read this far. There is nothing new, innovative, different, or alternate about this jersey outside of the introduction of a new colour of green that the Stars can absorb into their colour scheme. Marketing buzzwords and the appeal to civic pride are tossed around in this unveiling, but the Dallas Stars missed a key component of introducing an alternate jersey: making a good alternate jersey.

I can't fathom going through the jersey design process to come up with a final product that I could print with a black-and-white printer and colour with a standard-issued highlighter from my desk drawer. If the Dallas Stars want to dump money on my doorstep for an alternate jersey design where it requires me to literally work for five minutes - three of those ensuring that I have enough black toner in my printer for the job - I'd be happy to collect any monies they're willing to throw my way.

This is the DUMBEST alternate jersey unveiling I've ever been witness to, and I lived through the Mooterus era. Just like the North Stars change from green to black, this alternate needs to be scrapped sooner rather than later. Like now.

Until next time, Happy Halloween everyone!