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The Red Wings and Rangers played Sunday while wearing their centennial jerseys, New York in blue and Detroit in red. John Jones / Imagn Images
The scuffle at the end of Sunday’s New York Rangers-Detroit Red Wings game wasn’t notable only because both teams’ benches cleared in their entirety. It was also visually striking: New York and Detroit wore blue and red jerseys, respectively, to celebrate their centennials, so there was a flood of color on the ice at Madison Square Garden.
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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.
The NHL, its teams and its broadcast partners have a few factors to consider when it comes to jersey matchups. Some games don’t have the option of both teams wearing primary colors because they’d look too similar — think Carolina Hurricanes-New Jersey Devils or Tampa Bay Lightning-Toronto. Watching could be confusing for fans watching on TV or in the stands, and perhaps even the players, too.
And some jersey matchups might not work because of fans who experience color blindness. In 2015, the NFL heard enough complaints after a New York Jets (green jerseys) and Buffalo Bills (red jerseys) Color Rush game that it put out a statement acknowledging it failed to account for color blindness. So, a Dallas Stars-Calgary Flames matchup in primary jersey colors might not work because of red-green color blindness.
But after the reception to the Rangers-Red Wings jerseys in Sunday’s game — the aesthetically pleasing red-blue matchup drew positive reviews on social media — and the league’s marketing department’s encouragement, perhaps other colorful matchups will follow.
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Peter Baugh is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in New York. He has previously been published in the Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Politico and the Washington Post. A St. Louis native, Peter graduated from the University of Missouri and previously covered the Missouri Tigers and the Colorado Avalanche for The Athletic. Follow Peter on Twitter @Peter_Baugh
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