Best: The Penguins have a long history of different looks to their sweaters, but they became legendary when Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and Ron Francis led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in the early 90s. The black and gold look that’s synonymous with Pittsburgh sports teams was it for the Penguins and that coupled with the skating penguin logo gave the Pens an unrivaled look. Having a team loaded with talent helped make it look even better, but their road sweaters were a great look made even better that they looked like the classic movie villains rolling into town in all black to beat your home-standing favorites.
Worst: It started out as a third jersey (shocking!) for two seasons and ended up being their road sweater for another five. With the newer Pens logo it had some sort of color band effect on it that perhaps was meant to make it look like the logo was in motion. Instead it looked like the logo was leaving behind skid marks. What helped make the sweater look even dumber was that the design on each sleeve. If you can’t even get the sleeves to match and it looks like someone dragged the sweater through a litter box, perhaps it’s not such a great design.
Old-timey favorite: While the Pens have one old fashioned design that they wore in the 2008 Winter Classic and it became their third sweater, I’m more of a fan of their original look. Those sweaters they broke out with during the inaugural 1967 season were sky blue, black, and white and had “PITTSBURGH” in script going down diagonally on the front of the sweater. The lettering and numbers were like that you see on Rangers sweaters and that style looked damn fine. The lace-up collars are a great touch as well. Sure there’s no penguin to be seen on the sweater at all, but for an old time hockey sweater it was a beauty.
Assessment: The Penguins’ current sweater arrangement is a new twist on an old favorite. The skating penguin on the front with a black and gold color scheme on a simple looking sweater is fantastic. Bringing the skating penguin back was such a smart move because it got new fans to identify better with the teams from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. After all, if you’re going to have a lot of new fans getting them to appreciate the team’s history can be difficult.
Adding in the old timey sky blue third and you’ve got a great collection of team sweaters for fans to choose from. Having Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jordan Staal to choose from, the Penguins have plenty of jersey sales to back up their look. Of the modern batch of sweaters, the Penguins are amongst the best in the league.
