Worst jerseys in the NHL? Los Angeles Kings have them, according to ESPN
Last year, sports swag guru Paul Lukas of UniWatch released NHL jersey power rankings on ESPN.com in which he determined the best-looking (Montreal Canadiens, appropriately) and worst-looking (Colorado Avalanche, also appropriately) sweaters in the NHL.
The rankings have been updated for 2013, and we have a new Worst Jersey In The NHL … and it’s a team that’s rarely been accused of such blasphemy.
The Los Angeles Kings have the NHL’s worst sweaters according to Lukas, who must really, really love the color purple and mourn its removal from the jerseys.
The bottom five, according to Lukas and ESPN:
25. Nashville Predators
“The apron strings going down the length of the jersey -- front and back! -- are too much. Clean that up and then we'll talk.”
26. Ottawa Senators
“Anyone else out there think the Sens look like an AHL team that took a wrong turn on the way to the minor league arena?”
27. St. Louis Blues (Ed. Note: C’mon, no way.)
“Still an excellent jersey crest, but it almost gets lost amid all the other nonsense.”
28. Washington Capitals
“Why bother with a design based on your throwback when the throwback is clearly so much better?”
29. Colorado Avalanche
“Hard to respect a uniform that doesn't even know the difference between Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman.”
30. Los Angeles Kings
“Which Kings look worse: L.A. or Sacramento? It's a pretty close call.”
It’s also a difficult question to answer when most of the Los Angeles TV sports media believes they’re the same team.
Do the Kings have the worst jerseys in the NHL? Not at all.
Why did they drop to the bottom of the ranking after placing No. 28 in the 2012 inaugural list? Keep this in mind from Lukas:
“Sometimes this was due to a team having changed its uniform design; in other cases it was due to a reassessment of the team's aesthetic status.”
The Kings made one significant change since the last list, which was dumping their black “crown” jerseys for the “pencil point” logo. That was apparently enough to drop the Kings down past the Avalanche, whose jerseys are a hot mess of bad piping and a logo that looks like an arctic python attempting to strangle the alphabet.
Anyhoo, the Canadiens and Bruins are again Nos. 1 and 2, and Lukas finally wised up and moved the Chicago Blackhawks up three spaces to No. 8, where they’re still ranked perilously low.
Best and worst jerseys in the NHL … and go! in the comments.
