2011-2012 NHL Color Scales: Green, Purple (sort of), & Natural Tones

Back in December of 2010 I sequestered myself in my apartment for an entire weekend working on a single, time consuming project. Granted the only difference between that weekend and my typical weekend is that I spent less time sprawled on my office floor mumbling the lyrics to Off With Their Heads songs. Still, it was an incredible fulfilling project that several people got very excited about but was ultimately ignored until someone did the same thing only with a pretty but useless presentation that got linked on Puck Daddy. Ultimately I found myself undaunted and moved ahead with updating my color scales for the 2011-2012 season. Now that all of my somewhat pretentious angst is out of the way I can go ahead and start breaking out the scales.

If at any point some color seems off or flat out wrong, then please email me at puckandpunk [at] gmail [dot] com. My goal is make this as accurate as possible and I'm always happy to accept input. Thanks

We're going to go ahead and introduce the smallest scales that also happen to be the least interesting. Fortunately for all of us I will be posting the next three scales in Wednesday and then I'll be concluding the update next Friday. I want to make sure everyone has something look forward to.

Green Scale:

                                                        

There isn't much to say about the green scale. There were no additions or subtractions from the previous season. My hopes of seeing green becoming a more predominant color were smashed when it was revealed that the Dallas Stars would not be introducing a third jersey. Now there was no guarantee that it would have green much less a different shade of green but it was a nice thought. I will continue to be unsurprised if and when Sharks fans complain that their teal color should be on the blue scale. I've gone back and forth myself, but I feel like there are some strong green dones in San Jose's shade of teal. It is very oceany.

Purple Scale:

None of that is as tragic as the poor, insignifcant purple scale. With the Kings' throwback from the 10-11 disappearing for the time being the only true purple in the league is found on the Kings third jersey, or what was previously their home jersey. And burgundy is a purplish red and there is no way that I'm going to have a single lonely shade on the purple scale. If LA ever totally drops purple from their official colors I'll have a tiny riot and then half-heartedly fling Colorado's primary color onto the red scale

Natural Scale:

Who knows how much longer natural colors will appear on primary jerseys. They are used almost exclusively as accent tones, which is probably for the best, but it still nice to see them used. The problem with several of the shades on this list is that they are supposed to be antique looking versions of white, and, as Peter from Up The Pucks pointed out one night, that is the color of sweat stains and filth. Ick. The only odd ball is still the Edmonton copper tone. It is all but gone, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the third jersey on which it appears eliminated in the next few years.