Fantastic Fashions – The New York Islanders… On Cardboard

I know I’ve picked on the aesthetics of the New York Islanders before, but I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m going to do it again – this time, with cardboard visual evidence.  I would say this will be the last time, but I refuse to make promises that I know I can’t keep.

In the beginning, they were blue, and they were orange.  They looked good, they had great players, they won Stanley Cups, and people cared.  They could even pull off some pretty bad helmet styles and get away with it.

1984-85 O-Pee-Chee - Pat LaFontaine

1989-90 O-Pee-Chee - Bryan Trottier

In 1995, it all fell apart for the Islanders.  They decided that Captain Highliner and teal were the future, so they changed their look.  It was not good.  It didn’t really even make sense.

1997-98 Donruss - Zigmund Palffy

1997-98 Donruss - Todd Bertuzzi

Everyone said they looked stupid, so they put the original logo back on.

1998-99 UD Choice - Trevor Linden

1998-99 UD Choice - Zdeno Chara

But everyone still said they looked stupid.

So, they went back to the original, only dark blue.  They promised no more goofy logos.  Things were good again – the terrible team and crumbling arena notwithstanding.

1999-00 Upper Deck - Olli Jokinen

1998-99 UD Gold Reserve - Mike Watt

Then, they decided that they needed to throw orange vomit at their fans, and that Alexei Yashin needed something flashier to wear – he was, after all, about to be paid by the organization for a full generation.

2007-08 UD Victory - Alexei Yashin

Everyone said they looked stupid.

When the NHL went to the Reebok Edge design, they decided that instead of fixing the orange problem, they should make it worse, so they went to this disaster of a colour-by-number children’s drawing.  They even made Doug Weight look like a dick, which is by all accounts, a difficult feat.

2008-09 Upper Deck - Doug Weight

2009-10 O-Pee-Chee - Trevor Smith

Everyone said they looked stupid.

When they were allowed to bring back a third jersey, they brought back the original blue uniform.  People liked it, it looked good, so they scrapped the colour-by-number and went back to the original blues and whites full time.  And they looked good.  They looked classic, they didn’t look embarrassing.  And there were rumours they might actually have a future with some kid named Tavares.

2011-12 Score - John Tavares

2011-12 O-Pee-Chee - Trent Hunter

And then they introduced us to this.

And, once again, everyone says they look stupid.

SIDE NOTE: Make sure you check out the Islanders section at www.nhluniforms.com for a season-by-season account of the Islanders looking terrible.