Red Wings Open Thread Game 4

Submitted by HelloHeisman91 on

The Wings have a 2-1 series lead and look to go up 3-1 at The Joe tonight at 7pm after Mrazek recorded a shutout in game 3.  Let's Go Red Wings!!

Wolverine Devotee

April 23rd, 2015 at 7:30 PM ^

Am I the only one who is bothered that NHL teams don't wear their whites at home like it should be?

As someone who doesn't watch much pro sports, seeing Tampa in whites is really throwing me off. 

 

HelloHeisman91

April 23rd, 2015 at 7:47 PM ^

 Best Answer:  The change was made due to constant requests from the fans to have the coloured uniforms at home. Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek, Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch, and then Lightning owner Bill Davidson presented a request to the NHL rules committee in February 2003 to "return to the historical norm of wearing the colours at home". The rules committee accepted the recommendation on March 6, 2003. The owners passed the recommendation by conference call on March 11, 2003 (by a vote of 30-0) and the NHLPA accepted without a vote. 



Prior to the early 1950s, teams only wore 1 uniform (all teams wore coloured except Boston wore white). With the advent of television, and TV being black and white, it was very difficult to tell a red team from a blue team, or two red teams (Montreal/Detroit) or two blue teams (Toronto/New York) apart...so at the request of television, white uniforms made their way into the NHL. 



In 1970, Charles Finlay (owner of the California Golden Seals) wanted the league to become like baseball and wear their white uniforms at home (he claimed at the time that fans were walking into his building and cheering for the white team because that was the norm (forgetting for a second that the NFL wore their colours at home)). The NHL saw no reason to vote against it, and 'whites at home' was born. 



Based on NHL merchandise reports, coloured jerseys have always made up 65-75% of sales. In a 2007 report issued by the Sports Collectibles Association of America, Toronto is the only NHL team which over the years has sold more white jerseys than coloured, and Detroit and the Rangers are close to 50/50 with colours slightly ahead. 



In a 2008 interview, Mike Ilitch claims that he received thousands of requests for the Wings to wear red at home, and in the 4 years since, he had received only a few requests to wear white. 



It has been rumoured that the reason for the change was to accomodate the 3rd jersey, but both the NHL and NHLPA have denied this and pointed out the fact that teams wore their 3rd jersey both home and away as a rule and last summer the NHLPA agreed that teams would wear their new Rbk 3rd jerseys a set number of games each year with 50% being at home, and 50% being on the road. 



As part of the league's agreement with Adidas-Salomon AG (owner of Rbk), the teams will wear their white jerseys at home at least once per season against divisional opponents allowing their fans to see their rival's colours
 
Source(s):NHLPA 

NHL/NHLPA/Adidas agreement

west2

April 23rd, 2015 at 7:44 PM ^

are struggling with TB's speed.  They have to continue to out hit them and wear them down with physical play.  They are giving up too many slot shots and living on hot goaltending.  Hate to say it guys they are not the better team here right now but their goalie is keeping them in it.

west2

April 23rd, 2015 at 8:15 PM ^

remind me of the NJ devils in the 90s. They live on great goaltending then muck and muck and make the other team cough it up and capitalize on the mistake.  The Devils using that formula won that year too.