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Penguins Fans Split on New Reverse Retro Jersey

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Pittsburgh Penguins reverse retro jerseys

In the year 2020, it should come as no surprise that the vote was close and nearly split down the middle. There was very little in the middle, but instead, Pittsburgh Penguins fans loved the reverse retro block lettered sweaters, or they were on Team “Hard Pass”.

Fortunately, for the Penguins marketing department, the Yays did outweigh the Nays.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now conducted a pair of highly unscientific but public polls, on our website and on Twitter after the jerseys debuted on Monday. There isn’t an official margin of error, and we promise there was no thought given to Republican, Democrat, or Independent sample sizes.

[poll id=”11″]

Almost 500 fans registered their vote on the website, including me. Without social media pressure to be negative or complain, the jerseys got a favorable reception. It’s not bad to get 57%. But, a different ratio emerged when we added the “Meh” option:

The white sweaters with the yellow block letters which spell “Pittsburgh” are the reverse of the Penguins home sweaters from 1992-93 to 1997-98.

The overwhelming comment from those in the Nah or Meh category was, “We wanted the original black with gold-lettered jerseys!”

Of course, those original black with golden letters was immortalized by Snoop Dogg in his 1996 video “Gin and Juice.” While the Penguins haven’t yet delivered on the retro jersey, but the reverse was part of the NHL-wide release on Monday morning.

One jersey, which has been ridiculously popular, is the return of the Quebec Nordiques via the Colorado Avalanche reverse retro. According to our colleague Adrian Dater of Colorado Hockey Now, who spoke with team folks, the jerseys have been brisk sellers. 

Using web traffic as a gauge, Colorado is easily the undisputed winner among the National Hockey Now group.

Teams expect to wear the jerseys four to five times in the upcoming season, assuming there is indeed a 2020-21 season. So, the Arizona Coyotes and Phil Kessel will don the purple aardvarks, the Anaheim Ducks and Ryan Getzlaf will sport a cartoon duck that looks like a failed Robert Crumb napkin sketch, and the Detroit Red Wings will attempt to gain a competitive advantage by camouflaging themselves with the ice.

Side, by side, the Detroit jersey looks pretty good against that competition.

The NHL could use a few million jersey sales as owners have stirred a hornet’s nest in the first week of negotiations for the 2020-21 NHL return to play. Owners not only asked the players to defer 13% of this year’s salaries (after the players already agreed to a 20% escrow), but the NHL also wants to renegotiate the backend of the current CBA in which the escrow shrinks to 6%.

So, will you be buying the Pittsburgh Penguins retro reverse jersey? By the way, Fanatics team store is having a 65% off sale this weekend on the primary Penguins and alternate jerseys. Click here to get some shopping done!