Paul Lukas’ Uni Watch confirms with the NHL that the silver armbands worn by the refs at the NHL All-Star festivities will be the normal refs’ uniform next year.
Did you know orange was out for the fall? Did you know the referee was supposed to be a skating billboard for the league, not a game official? Did you know it doesn’t really matter if you can tell the ref’s arm from the linesman’s arm at a glance?
Sigh. Welcome to the New NHL.
(A little credit, though, if that whistle system actually works.)
Light reading: Cleveland gets a “huge, hideous creature” instead of an AHL team (oh, wait, the team’s gonna be the Lake Erie Monsters? Never mind, then); Caldwell’s a sniper in Syracuse; more (fake, this time) fun from Dallas (and I wish I’d heard Marty Turco’s star turn); Adam Rubin offers up the quotable Cliff Floyd; Mark Pukalo features Josh Zlatkus of Glastonbury; Darius Kasparaitis is indeed in Hartford, and Mark Lee got sent to Charlotte.