Rumors persist about the Islanders' upcoming new third jersey for 2011-12. The hardly official buzz even points toward them inserting black into the jersey. You know, the color that got overused by just about every new and third jersey that came out during the '90s and early '00s? This is going to be the third time that the Islanders attempt a third jersey:
- 1996-97: Realizing the hatred of the fishstick jerseys, the Islanders attempt to replace the fisherman crest with the original Islanders crest for this season. Unfortunately they were too late announcing the change and the league only allowed them to use the Islanders crest jersey as a 3rd. They used the 3rd jersey for the maximum amount of games allowed, fifteen.
- 2002-07: The Islanders use the orange star-like jersey, which proved it is possible to make an orange jersey look worse then the Islanders Halloween warmup jerseys. Also I once got bored and combined the fishsticks jersey with this one to create the worst of two worlds.
- 2008-10: The Islanders current home blues were first used as a third jersey, along with moving the stripes representing the four Stanley Cups to the stick in the logo.
Most attempts at changing or updating the Islanders jersey have been met rightfully with scorn among fans -- particularly after last season's transition back to their original look got it so right. Not many teams in the league have the history of the Islanders. There are very few franchises whose fans are in agreement that the team got it right with the jersey and logo from pretty much day one.
Not to be totally against the new jersey though, as it does appear that they have learned a lesson. At least they have if all they attempt to do is change the color.
Since there's no going back, what would you want to see in an Islanders third jersey?
I'm sort of awful when it comes to designing uniforms. Last year when I mentioned the possibility of using the old New York/Brooklyn Americans uniforms as a 3rd it wasn't well received around here. I still enjoy historic uniforms more then recent ones, and still wouldn't mind a re-worked Americans as an Islanders 3rd. Replace the Red with Orange, use Islander Blue, replace Americans with Islanders and use 12 stars on each jersey, 8 for the Hall of Famers and 4 for the Stanley Cup wins.
That's just my dream, and who knows what type of insanity would be going on in the NHL if you left me in charge. So my question to you is what would you do as an Islanders 3rd jersey if there was no other choice?