The New York Islanders will be going “reverse retro†soon.
Reported a few days ago by the jersey database website icethetics.com after the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers uniforms leaked, all 31 teams are set to participate in the program which will have the teams sport a special jersey for one or two games in the near future.
The news of the league installing this program has picked up a ton of steam on social media. The Islanders being one of those clubs, there’s been a lot of speculation about what their threads may look like. And based on some of the reports that have come out the last 48 hours about what other teams may be doing, they have a number of ways they can go.
Now something to remember here, under the Lou Lamoriello regime, the Islanders have only came out with one new uniform — their current third jersey they introduced before the start of the 2018-19 season. The overall look was solid yet unspectacular, which is the way Lamoriello wants his teams to be. The last time the Isles went full retro was over a decade ago when they brought back their original duds from their inaugural season as a third jersey. That look became the franchise’s home getups full time in 2013.
But back to present.
If the are looking to go full retro “but with a twistâ€, the simplest route they could go is orange. The franchise has only had one orange jersey since it’s inception from 2002 to 2007.
I reached out to icethetics to see if he’d heard the Isles would be going orange as their primary color. He said he hasn’t heard any details on what the organization’s plans are but that he could see them going with that color based on the theme of the program.
So let’s say the team does go orange, they could go with a version of it with the aesthetics of the early-‘80s dynasty teams. Or, they could sport the fantastic look the franchise wore from the late ‘80s into the early ‘90s.
The team can also reached down even deeper into the roots of hockey on Long Island. The San Jose Sharks seemed to have trended that direction after it came out this morning that they could be going with the California Golden Seals jerseys for their fourth jersey.
The WHA was set to have a team — the New York Raiders — based in Long Island before the NHL put the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. With the Raiders having the same color scheme as the Isles, there could be an inspiration there for a Isles/Raiders combination. A tribute to the Long Island Ducks is another option. The Ducks were a part of the Eastern Hockey League from 1959-1973 and played all their home games at the fabled Commack Arena. Despite the red and black colors, the Islanders could transform that into blue and orange.
Then there’s always doing something with the Fisherman uniforms from the late 1990s.
It wouldn’t be a conversation about retro jerseys without mentioning those horrendous  duds (my opinion). But seriously, as much as the fans have clamored for its return, the Islanders making that their fourth ensemble — for two games at best — would be quite interesting. A lot of the fan base hold a lot of ill will for those jerseys and that era.
And as much as this program is basically a money grab by the league, the backlash the organization might face might play a significant role in their decision.
We’ll probably hear more about the league’s program in the coming months. And though we won’t see the Islanders rocking their fourth jersey until a few months from now or even next season, they have several options to look at for what they will want to be wearing. Hopefully the look they decide on will be one fans and players will love.
Until then, let the speculation commence.