Photos: New Jersey Devils new uniform makes on-ice debut

The New Jersey Devils new third uniforms finally made their on-ice debut last night giving us all a chance to see what this oft-criticized design looks like in action.

First some close-ups from the New Jersey Devils official Twitter account:

They’re not a bad design, you just don’t get a real “New Jersey Devils” vibe from them – a combination of a striping pattern never before used by the team in any capacity, with a colour combination almost entirely black and white (for a team which has only ever worn a dark jersey that was red or green).

Pulling back to truly see them as a fan would either in the stands or on television it just further enforces this feeling:

I mean, it just looks like the Chicago Blackhawks are wearing their throwbacks out there. And I hate playing Monday Morning Uniform Designer, but I’m thinking this set would’ve been saved by the simple addition of red to the striping, just to differentiate it enough from Chicago… adding the Devils usual primary crest to the chest wouldn’t have hurt either.

One bit of fun the fans had with the new Devils look was that it was a jersey that read “Jersey” across the chest. “Would they wear pants that say ‘Pants’?!” was one I heard more than once. Well kudos to Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood for playing with that idea by adding this to the back of his goalie mask last night:

Well done.

New Jersey unveiled their new third uniform, the first in team history, two weeks ago via a series of social media posts. The design featured an all-black jersey with 21 white stripes (one for each county in New Jersey) and a scripted “Jersey” wordmark across the chest in white with a black and red block shadow.

The overall look of the jersey was designed to pay tribute to historical New Jersey professional hockey teams such as the 1929 Newark Bulldogs. Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur was heavily involved in its design.

The Devils will wear their new third jersey thirteen times in total during the 2021-22 season, the next will be a road game on December 18th in Detroit. The full schedule below:

December 8 vs Philadelphia
December 18 at Detroit
December 23 vs Montreal
January 6 vs Columbus
January 10 vs Tampa Bay
January 19 vs Arizona
January 25 vs Dallas
February 24 vs Pittsburgh
March 12 vs Anaheim
March 22 vs NY Rangers
April 3 vs NY Islanders
April 5 vs NY Rangers
April 29 vs Detroit