An Incomplete Look

I came home on Thursday night after doing The Hockey Show and did what I normally do: turned on a hockey game. There were a number of games going on that I could have chosen as the game to focus on, but I went with Florida Panthers visiting the New York Islanders because they're two teams I hardly ever see broadcast in my part of the Great White North. The Panthers were wearing their normal road uniforms, but the Islanders went with their 2022 Reverse Retro jerseys as seen to the left, and I have to say that their look left me feeling disappointed once again. I already made it clear in my review of the Islanders Reverse Retro jerseys that this was a fail, but seeing them in action only disappointed me further.

Let's start with the obvious comparison of new versus old.

The new uniforms almost have a monochromatic feel to them with everything being navy blue. Yes, the stripes do break it up slightly, but there's not enough contrast to really eliminate the overall dark colour of the uniform. As you can see on Mathieu Schneider on the right, the wave stripe that extends up on the hip combined with the added teal colour really provide the contrast needed on a dark jersey like this one, but the wave stripe may not have been necessary if the Islanders simply went teal at the bottom of the jersey.

The other thing that bothered me were the names and numbers.

As you can see on the left, they tried. Not very hard, mind you, but they tried. The bottom of the five slightly follows the same distorted number alignment as the original jersey on the right, but not very well. Sebastian Aho has all that space below the number where the Islanders could have distorted the numbers a little more, yet they opted to keep them almost square on the backs of players. Is it close? Sure. Is it close enough for me to appreciate it? No. Not close.

The second thing is the font used by the Islanders which doesn't resemble anything close to the original font used and, in some cases, makes the names harder to read if you're further away than rinkside glass. I will say that the 1995-97 font could be a little thicker or bolder in its typeface, but it's simply easier to read thanks to the spacing of the letters. The new jerseys need a better font.

I can tell you that, as a fan of the Fisherman jerseys, the new Reverse Retro jersey is not on my Christmas list. I didn't like them when they were introduced, and I like them less now that I've seen them in action. I take nothing away from the results the Islanders got last night as they defeated the Panthers 5-1 in their game, but I'm glad they'll only wear these uniforms for twelve games.

You don't need to remind me that these aren't exact replicas. I understand that fact clearly, but the Islanders and Adidas could have gotten a wee bit closer with the features they opted to use. If the Islanders are going to go Fisherman with their look, they should get closer than something that looks like a cheap knock-off one would find on a beer league team.

I don't gamble on hockey, but it's a safe bet there won't be any Fishermen merchandise under my tree this Christmas.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!