Article: 3 Key Takeaways From Wild's Disheartening Overtime Game 4 Loss

[M_Nels]

15 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Everything should be fresh, and that doesn't take a $700 million renovation. Like it or not, this product presents itself as stale, and it must be fixed. The '78s & '80s scream flash. and will do the same. Don't like copying the North Stars? Fine. Go with a purple and turquoise in the '78s or '80's style. The man-bear-pig logo needs updates too! This is all stuff Guerin now is in charge of. But, he's not a multi-tasker so he'll need some help.

Disagree with this wholeheartedly. If you make it to the Stanley Cup finals nobody is going to care about how flashy your jerseys are. Don't need to rely on gimmicks to get people to notice your team. Hell the TNT broadcast has been showing the Wild a ton of love to a national audience, people have noticed. 

You sign Kap, bring in a big-ish name FA and make it out of the 1st round then you don't need any of that other stuff. Personally, I would like to see the script jersey come back, hell make that the North Stars color if you want.

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, M_Nels said:

Disagree with this wholeheartedly. If you make it to the Stanley Cup finals nobody is going to care about how flashy your jerseys are. Don't need to rely on gimmicks to get people to notice your team. Hell the TNT broadcast has been showing the Wild a ton of love to a national audience, people have noticed. 

You sign Kap, bring in a big-ish name FA and make it out of the 1st round then you don't need any of that other stuff. Personally, I would like to see the script jersey come back, hell make that the North Stars color if you want.

There is a big difference between winning a Cup and having a desirable jersey or gear. Some teams just have great jerseys, while other's become stale. Yes, winning helps a lot, but the marketing is done over a 6 month regular season, not just the playoffs. 

The playoff winning part isn't the thing that will grab a national audience to suddenly invest in a ton of Wild gear, and consistently root for the team. That comes from marketing. VGK gear has been on the commercials since their entrance into the league. It's different, and looks good. 

What the winning part will do is build upon a fanbase that is already there, not a national fanbase but very regional with an outreach to people who have a Wild connection already nationwide. This is where the flash comes in. Highlight goals will show the flash where the goal counts as 1, but the chance for a viral highlight seen by many counts a lot. 

I want playoff wins and Cups just as much as anyone, and while to some extent these issues are connected, to a greater extent they are not. You need to build a winning reputation, but you also have to build a style reputation, and as we become more skilled, we have to look flashy too. 

In other team's buildings, it is not easy to identify Wild fans in the seats with the current dark green jerseys, or the white with the dark green and red. Yet, it is very easy for cameras to identify the '78s. They stick out. National broadcasters often comment on the beauty of the '78s when we wear them. If people like the look, and don't have any affinity for the team, they may buy the look. Suddenly, whether perceived or real, it appears that Wild popularity is increasing and with that the NHL takes note. Our reverse retros, IIRC, were one of the top sellers when they came out. 

Winning enhances this, I agree, but the flash is what gets shown on SportsCenter, and for that, you need both skill and looking good.

[M_Nels]

9 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I want playoff wins and Cups just as much as anyone, and while to some extent these issues are connected, to a greater extent they are not. You need to build a winning reputation, but you also have to build a style reputation, and as we become more skilled, we have to look flashy too. 

In other team's buildings, it is not easy to identify Wild fans in the seats with the current dark green jerseys, or the white with the dark green and red. Yet, it is very easy for cameras to identify the '78s. They stick out. National broadcasters often comment on the beauty of the '78s when we wear them. If people like the look, and don't have any affinity for the team, they may buy the look. Suddenly, whether perceived or real, it appears that Wild popularity is increasing and with that the NHL takes note. Our reverse retros, IIRC, were one of the top sellers when they came out. 

Winning enhances this, I agree, but the flash is what gets shown on SportsCenter, and for that, you need both skill and looking good.

IMO none of that matters. Dallas has the monster energy alternates but outside of being a lighter shade of green their jerseys don't scream pizazz or have glitter accents. The 78's are a fine alternate but I don't want them as full time jerseys, if you want to make the script jersey in 78 colors then do it. There is nothing wrong with the logo but if you want a different look then do the script again, that's one of my favorite jerseys they've ever had.

Nobody cared what color the jersey was on the beautiful Kap to Boldy goal and it made many a highlights. Fact of the matter is the Wild aren't a giant market team. The Wild, CBJ and Nashville could switch to neon pink but people aren't going to flock to them and start buying jerseys en masse. 

[raithis]

Yeah, I liked the script jersey a lot.  I wish I would have gotten one when they had them.

I agree the jerseys need an update, but I'm totally against going to the North Stars jerseys full time.  It's a cool homage, but the team isn't the North Stars.  That, and it's mostly got appeal only to people who remember the North Stars.  Younger people seem to ridicule it as the Eat Fresh jersey because they liken it to Subway branding colors.

I don't see that kind of a change bringing in new fans as much as mnfaninnc does.  I also don't see it as changing our place in the pecking order when it comes to the national stage.

[mnfaninnc]

5 hours ago, raithis said:

I agree the jerseys need an update, but I'm totally against going to the North Stars jerseys full time.  It's a cool homage, but the team isn't the North Stars.  That, and it's mostly got appeal only to people who remember the North Stars.  Younger people seem to ridicule it as the Eat Fresh jersey because they liken it to Subway branding colors.

I don't see that kind of a change bringing in new fans as much as mnfaninnc does.  I also don't see it as changing our place in the pecking order when it comes to the national stage.

I've never heard of "Eat Fresh." That's an interesting take. While I am a former North Stars fan, this is not the reason for the change. That particular jersey was a great looking jersey. The brighter colors add to the flash, and it's not my favorite combo, but one that can easily work and is already being made. 

Many other teams have copied that jersey, maybe most famously the London Knights who are kings of Jr. hockey. The jersey, itself with other color combinations would also work, it's just a top 5 designed jersey. So, what do we have here? Christmas jerseys or Eat Fresh? 

Companies re-brand stuff all the time. This is what is needed. The current jersey is stale, it needs to be changed. It needs to be flashier with the skill coming in. I don't think the dark green and red, or reverse gets that done. Dallas' jerseys have missed also. They are not well designed. The energy one is quite unique, but I think it's mostly a miss. 

I'm not sure how to do it, but if you could watch the Boldy/Kaprizov goal in the dark greens and then see it in the '78s, I think you'd notice it very differently. Would we get sick of the '78s if that were the primary jersey? I don't think so, it's just a really well designed jersey, as is the '80s one. It's an easy sell to OCL, because new jerseys mean more $. And, I believe that jersey money isn't necessarily shared with other teams. 

To me, other great jerseys have also been retired. The Kings' '70s jersey was killer, the Blues and Sabres jerseys when they used the more royal blue was really well designed. When Pittsburgh switched to Black and Gold, they embraced the colors of their city, and it was well designed. If you wanted an energy jersey, the lightning are a perfect candidate for that. Colorado's maroon and sky blue were really good too. It's not just us, but other teams have made mistakes too.