Rocket de Laval Drop Skyline Numbers
When Montréal's top minor league affiliate, Rocket de Laval unveiled their primary logo and jerseys back in late January of this year, the skyline numbers exclusively found in baseball were being brought to hockey for the first time. The AHL preseason earlier this month saw the Rocket take to the ice in their logo heavy jerseys, wearing the skyline numbers many fans of the team and of unique hockey designs had been hoping for. This was a departure from the Canadiens clone jerseys worn by the St. John's Ice Caps and Reebok Edge Cookie Cutter designs of the Hamilton Bulldogs, Montréal's two previous AHL affiliate organizations.
Then something changed come the regular season.
The top image comes from an October 1st pre season game. The numbers have the thin white line separating the number into two layers, matching the primary logo. The photo below is from the October 14th regular season loss to the Binghamton Devils, with the white line removed. The white line was seen in the October 6th season opener against Belleville and the following game against the, but dropped for both games against Binghamton. It's worth noting the TV numbers never had the skyline effect, matching the Maurice Richard memorial patch under the rocket exhaust patch on the arms.
This would be the inverse of the current standard, removing detail as the regular starts. The Detroit Red Wings are notorious for using straight namers during the preseason to save time and money, only giving players the standard classic Detroit arched name bar once the final regular season roster is announced.
There are several reasons why the team could have decided to do this. While skyline numbers are a unique design choice, it is possible AHL broadcasters found them too difficult to read from the press box. It is also possible to save money, the team chose to scrap them since the team already is one of the few teams to use rounded numbers. A third possibility is uniform malfunctions being common, where the skyline was becoming detached through play and became a burden for the equipment managers having to keep reattaching them.
The team has yet to wear their red jerseys this year, the first time doing so being October 20th when the Rocket visit the WBS Penguins. That will confirm whether this was an experiment, or a full time decision on the part of the team.
Then something changed come the regular season.
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| Photos from Rocket de Laval Official Facebook |
This would be the inverse of the current standard, removing detail as the regular starts. The Detroit Red Wings are notorious for using straight namers during the preseason to save time and money, only giving players the standard classic Detroit arched name bar once the final regular season roster is announced.
There are several reasons why the team could have decided to do this. While skyline numbers are a unique design choice, it is possible AHL broadcasters found them too difficult to read from the press box. It is also possible to save money, the team chose to scrap them since the team already is one of the few teams to use rounded numbers. A third possibility is uniform malfunctions being common, where the skyline was becoming detached through play and became a burden for the equipment managers having to keep reattaching them.
The team has yet to wear their red jerseys this year, the first time doing so being October 20th when the Rocket visit the WBS Penguins. That will confirm whether this was an experiment, or a full time decision on the part of the team.
Rocket de Laval Drop Skyline Numbers
Reviewed by winnipegjets96
on
October 16, 2017
Rating:
Reviewed by winnipegjets96
on
October 16, 2017
Rating:
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