Reviewing the leaked Avalanche and Kings Stadium Series jerseys

The Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings Stadium Series jerseys have seemingly been leaked. The internet, of course, has opinions.

The addition of Stadium Series has allowed nontraditional hockey markets to receive their own outdoor game, although that looks like it might change since the “nontraditional” teams of the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators will face off in this year’s Winter Classic. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche are facing off in this year’s Stadium Series. Colorado will be the home team, as they skate at the United States Air Force Academy.

With the opportunity to play outside comes the opportunity to wear special jerseys for the occasion. The Avalanche and Kings were expected to roll out their new digs, but haven’t officially done so yet.

Still, pictures of the supposed jerseys were leaked out to the internet, and the internet isn’t necessarily thrilled. Greg Wyshynski summed up the expected jerseys best:

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Right off the bat, both teams decided to use their traditional color scheme. When given the chance at these outdoor games, teams sometimes revert to classic sweater designs and color schemes. The Chicago Blackhawks famously used their red and black design in the 2009 Winter Classic.

The Montreal Canadiens went with an entirely different design and logo scheme in the 2016 Winter Classic that came all the way from the 1920’s. Even if this year’s Nashville Predator’s Winter Classic Jersey hasn’t drawn rave reviews, it pays tribute to the hockey teams of Nashville past.

The Colorado jersey isn’t as much a departure from the Avalanche normal jersey.  As Wyshnski pointed out, the Stadium Series jersey is supposed to be a more cubist, modernistic and abstract addition of the same logo the Avalanche have used since moving to Denver. It reminds me of the Kachina style of the Arizona Coyotes original jerseys they’ve started to come back to. Don’t hate on the Peyote Coyote, though.

The Kings decided to stay with their same silver/white and black color scheme they’ve had since the Wayne Gretzky days. Now would have been an interesting time for the Kings to maybe throw in some of their original colors of gold and purple, but that idea didn’t pan out. A bit of metallic purple accents on the crown were mixed into the Kings jersey in their first Stadium Series appearance back in 2014.

This is also the first time the main logo for the Kings is only “L.A.” instead of the traditional crown emblem. As far as I can tell, the crown is nowhere to be seen. We can safely assume the white powder the “L.A.” is skating across is snow, and not a banned substance that Evgeny Kuznetsov is too familiar with, as Wyshynski joked.

It seems the NHL completely missed the mark with these jerseys. While at least the Avalanche jersey looks like an interesting take on their classic look, the Kings jersey looks cheap and rushed through. Basically half the jersey is a bland and blank white.

These jerseys may serve their purpose when the teams take the ice in Colorado Springs, but it’s hard to imagine fans rushing to the gift shop to buy them.