RBK NHL Jerseys: New Coke Redux

It's got to be a well choreographed set-up by Bettman and his thugs at NHL head office. The whole jersey re-design campaign launched this season is nothing but a ploy to enrage fans beyond all comprehension, stoke the anger of players and sell a whole boatload of the bland, poorly designed (with exceptions of course) sweaters to the die-hards who would gladly shell out for burlap sacks with collars and arm-holes if that was the official offering.

And then.. there will be a huge mid-season mea-culpa (made by one of Bettman's flunkies.) There will be admissions of guilt (in the passive voice of course -- "mistakes were made," "certain issues were not considered," -- no need to make themselves look too much like buffoons while executing the final stage of their plan) and a commitment to return to a more "classic" look the following season.

The RBK jerseys from this coming season will become collectors items, hundreds of thousands of new classics will be churned out and NHL fans will be hailed in the sports world as really being able to make a difference. The NHL will be praised for truly caring about their fans and Bettman will congratulate himself for such forward thinking by unilaterally instituting a 2 point line.

At least one team, let's say the Bruins, will hold themselves out as mavericks and refuse to go back to the classics...wait a minute...

Hey, it's fun to rip new designs and developments. Not for the sake of it as many boosters of the new duds (appropriate word here considering its alternate meaning) characterize any such criticism, but simply because so many teams have aesthetically lacking final results.

If this report from the New Jersey Devils blog, Fire and Ice, is an indication of things to come, the design of the jerseys is not all that may be sub-par about them:

"Enforcer Cam Janssen might have injured his shoulder tonight because of the league’s new Reebok Edge sweaters. His sweater ripped during his two first period fights with Philadelphia’s Jesse Boulerice. That might have helped Boulerice pull Janssen’s jersey over his head in both altercations and win both decisively. Arron Asham also had his sweater tear during his fight with Riley Cote. "These new jerseys are supposed to make you faster, but what good are they if they tear that easily,” Mike Rupp said. "

Read the rest here.