NHL makes a change to its jersey policy and fans are loving it

This weekend's Heritage Game between the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings made waves across the hockey world for several reasons.

First off... the game was great. I mean, it was a one goal game and there was a literal bench clearing brawl to conclude the game. Old time hockey.

Secondly though, fans seemed to be enamored with the uniforms of both teams. Each team donned their usual home colors, with neither team wearing the traditional road white uniform. So we had a red vs blue battle... sounds kinda like the state of US politics, but I digress.

No matter your leanings, you have to admit that this game just looked beautiful.

I mean... feast your eyes.

Today there's a report from Peter Baugh of The Athletic stating that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is encouraging teams to play more "color on color" games.

From Baugh:

The night was a rarity from an equipment perspective. Normally, away teams wear white jerseys while the home club dresses in its primary color. The visiting Red Wings taking the ice in red was a surprise, but according to an NHL spokesperson, the league’s marketing department has actively encouraged teams to explore color-on-color jersey matchups. The idea has been brought up at general manager and board meetings, the spokesperson said. After all, hockey is played on a white surface, so the primary-color jersey combinations pop nicely, as they did Sunday.

The Rangers and Red Wings had to get permission from the NHL to both wear non-white jerseys, just as teams sometimes have done in the past for outdoor games. Detroit and the Toronto Maple Leafs wore their primary colors at the 2014 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers did the same at the 2021 game at Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nev.

Now, as you can imagine, this wouldn't work in every instance. Imagine the Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs facing off both wearing blue. Or the Red Wings and the New Jersey Devils both wearing red.

But in cases where you have two bright colored teams facing off, the NHL says have at it.

Imagine the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks facing off in orange and teal, respectively. Imagine the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild facing off in yellow and green, respectively.

I'm an old school hockey traditionalist, so I'm not sure how I feel about this... but I will admit that the Rangers and the Red Wings looked incredible. So, I say let's give it a shot.