Wednesday night's game may not have gone in the New York Rangers' favor, but that didn't take away from the matchup's aesthetics. The Rangers skated into Chicago wearing their blue Centennial jerseys, and it meshed better than anyone could have expected.
And those were some high standards, as the Rangers and Detroit Red Wings went color-on-color earlier in the season to the delight of hockey fans. Now that the latest color-on-color matchups involving the Rangers have drawn praise, the message is simple: Prioritizing color-on-color matchups, especially with teams whose uniforms are instant classics.
Even if the Rangers and Blackhawks wore their standard home uniforms instead of their Centennials, it still would have looked good. New York's and Chicago's usual sweaters strongly resemble what they wore on Wednesday, and there's enough color contrast that fans and viewers can easily tell the two teams apart.
The NHL needs to start normalizing color-on-color matchups
This should be a no-brainer following two successful color-on-color matchups, and it looks as though it's trending toward the norm, with the NHL also approving the Colorado Avalanche to wear their Nordiques uniforms against the Canadiens in Montreal. And when you look down the Metropolitan Division, the Rangers can go color-on-color against most of their rivals.
That would include the New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes in their red alternates, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins in their gold alternates, and Philadelphia Flyers. The Blueshirts would only have to negate color-on-color against their crosstown rivals, the New York Islanders and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Shift gears to the Atlantic Division, and the Rangers would also have some good-looking matchups against the Red Wings, Canadiens, Florida Panthers, and Ottawa Senators if the Sens wore their red alternates.
That leaves the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, and Tampa Bay Lightning as the only three in the Atlantic color-on-color wouldn't work. Buffalo and Tampa both have black alternates, but there likely isn't enough color contrast between them and the Rangers' blue jerseys. It also wouldn't work against the Boston Bruins, a fellow Original Six team whose primary home jersey is black.
Excellent color-on-color matchups would also come against the Western Conference
Besides the Chicago Blackhawks, the Nashville Predators would give the Rangers another visually striking matchup with those gold jerseys. The Preds may be the only other team in the Central Division that has dark jerseys and carries enough color contrast to the Rangers' blue sweaters, but that's not the case for the Pacific Division.
The Calgary Flames (red), Anaheim Ducks (orange), and Vegas Golden Knights (gold) also have enough contrast in their home uniforms to go color-on-color against the Rangers. Should the NHL start normalizing color-on-color, the Rangers' standard, Centennial, or alternate navy blue jerseys would work well against nearly half the league.
As for those classic matchups against the Original Six, the Red Wings, Blackhawks, and Canadiens would make for arguably some of the most memorable games out there year after year, regardless of the final score.