Review: NHL Heritage Classic Jerseys

In the 2014 NHL Heritage Classic, the Vancouver Canucks and the Ottawa Senators will go head to head while wearing classic jerseys that their franchises have worn in the past.  In this article we are going to evaluate each teams jersey and, at the end, decide who has the better one.

 Vancouver Canucks

Unfortunately, the Canucks have had some very ugly jerseys in their past (http://www.nhluniforms.com/Canucks/Canucks04.html), so its not a surprise that their throwbacks are ugly as well.  They did an excellent job sticking to their roots and I commend them for taking a risk by using such an unappealing design.  However, to start, the maroon primary color of the sweaters is a mucky muddy color and such a dark color would probably have issues standing out on TV, especially while outdoors.  Secondly, the pants!  There are certain unwritten rules in hockey and white pants are something that you just don't wear as they are ugly and flat out weird (they also stain).  On a more positive note, the striping pattern on the sleeves of the jersey, although not great, is pretty cool as it brings back memories of old time hockey when the players actually wore real wool sweaters.  The Canucks, obviously did not have many attractive historic jersey designs to work with, but I still have to give these a failing grade.   

Ottawa Senators

Just as many hockey fans suspected, the Senators are going with the old style "O" logo that their original franchise (1917-1934) wore.  The Sens current third jersey features the same "O" but the base color for that jersey is black.  In the Heritage Classic, however, the Senators have made a white version of their alternate jersey with a few modifications.  These jerseys are not great, but they are certainly better than Vancouver's puke color ones.  To start, it is very cool that the Senators are trying to bring their fans and their players all the way back to when hockey first started in Ottawa.  Also, just like Vancouver, it was a great move by the Ottawa management to try and make these jerseys resemble that of an old time wool hockey sweater.  The red and black striping that goes across the chest really brings out that "old time" look.  The only thing that I don't like about the jerseys is that they have a very close resemblance to the Sens third jerseys and I feel, when designing jerseys for these once in a lifetime outdoor games, the jerseys should be very unique.  This lack of innovation and uniqueness has earned the Senators a "B" on the grading scale. 

Final Rankings:

1. Ottawa Senators
2. Vancouver Canucks

Let us know which jersey you feel is better by commenting below!  As always, tweet us (@JerseyCloset) if you have any suggestions for our articles in the future!

Thanks for reading!