NHL 'quacked' up with hockey jersey switch

Home and away used to be as clear to distinguish as Déj� Vu from church.

I remember watching the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs - which were almost always the home team on Saturday nights - floundering and losing to some weenie team, like the Winnipeg Jets.

The blue and white strutted around in predominantly white jerseys (like all good home teams do) and the foolish visitors wore dark jerseys.

It was easy - see 'em wearing white and I knew that it was Maple Leaf Gardens that was a-rockin'. See their dark jersey and you knew the Maple Leafs were in hostile territory.

But then something evil spawned in 1995. Naturally, this purest form of evil came from Disney. It was called the third jersey. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim decided to test the waters (ah, these guys are sitting ducks for bad puns) with a new jersey. Sure, they were only 2 years old, but Ducks management decided to ruffle fans' feathers and make some extra money in the process.

It was the first time a team in the NHL had a third jersey and then, as the very talented Kenan Thompson from "D2: The Mighty Ducks" movie and "All That" fame would say, "It's knucklepuck time."

Of course, Thompson was referring to his shot in the movie that kept gaining momentum as it soared toward the net, much like the real Ducks' actions - which would start a third jersey fad that has kept gaining momentum throughout the past eight years.

Sixteen teams now have third jerseys, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

NHL spokesman Frank Brown said all home teams will switch next year - and probably only for next year - to wearing away or third jerseys and away teams will wear their home jerseys. Twenty-two of the league's 30 teams will also have some sort of alteration or third jersey next season.

Brown said the NHL was "depriving" its fans of third jerseys and away jerseys, which teams usually only wear on the road. But the logic was apparently too crazy in having home teams wear home jerseys. Ergo, here we are.

He said by switching it up, fans can get a different look at their teams. He insists it isn't about making money, but the league has no problem if any extra merchandise sales occur as a "byproduct."

I have no problem if anything I do gets me extra money, too.

"We hope they'll be as positive and enthusiastic about it as we are," Brown said rather unenthusiastically via phone.

I'm so excited, I can't contain myself, and by "can't contain myself," I mean "I don't give a hoot."

Anyone who gives a tiddlywink about his or her team is not going to become more obsessed with it because players are wearing blue at home, as opposed to white. Or since we're in Detroit Red Wings' country (boo, hiss), red at home.

Even potential fans, I doubt, will join the legions of NHL fans all because they saw a team look more out-of-place than the Russians in Afghanistan.

I guess I'm just a traditionalist. I don't mind third jerseys, but when you start making the home team wear an away jersey, my all-too-sensitive - yet, still masculine enough to remain a man - heart falls to pieces.

To think, hockey used to have more tradition than "Fiddler on the Roof," and now the NHL is messing with a tradition that dates back to the 1940s.

Home teams first started wearing white jerseys because most arenas were not equipped with washers and dryers and players' jerseys would get dirtied if they took their home jersey on the road - especially on long road trips.

That's about 60 years of history about to be tinkered with to (apparently) please the fans, even though everything in pro sports comes down to money.

But this decision is not something new. Teams abided by the "reverse jersey" rules during the '50s, and again during the '70s. The league survived, and fans moved on.

Yet in an era when the NHL keeps losing money to other sports - and with a work stoppage being rumored for next season - is it really smart to start tampering with tradition?

I believe in the NHL, and I believe it can still make the right decision.

Quack, quack, quack.

Kristofer Karol is the State News sports administration reporter. He can be reached at karolkri@msu.edu.

Published on Monday, January 27, 2003