All 32 jerseys that are part of the NHL’s Hometown Remix (HTR) series were released on Monday last week. By now, a majority of those clubs have given the new threads their first game action. This includes the Edmonton Oilers who, two days before owning Vancouver sports, donned their HTRs for a high-octane game against the Anaheim Ducks.
Online, the reaction has been mixed. Some, like the YouTube channel Post2Post, scored it as a 7.5 out of 10. Others, such as “The Hockey Gu,”, put it in the bottom tier of their rankings. And still some others just simply found it to be completely mid.
Much like the Oilers’ previous two-toney jersey with neon orange accents, this HTR was bound to be divisive. This is where all of you Oil Rig followers come in. We turned it over to you, to see what the true (allegedly) opinion of Oil Country is on these threads.
Want to take part in Sunday Census polls? We send them out every week on our Twitter at @oilrigEDM. Follow along or send in ideas for the next poll!
Asking followers of The Oil Rig is a perfect barometer for the fanbase
Consider the two differing YouTube opinions this observer presented you with. Sounds familiar, no? That’s likely what you have seen by browsing (more accurately, doomscrolling) social media platforms. Every tweet or post in favour of the new HTR jersey, is almost always followed by one opposed.
Turns out, 5,000 Oil Rig followers can’t be wrong. There is no clear winner in this week’s Sunday Census, as we have a deadlock between gushing about the jersey, or reacting to it like Tino Tonitini looking at whatever his mother has cooked for dinner. It’s not often we get ties in these polls, but it’s fitting this subject garners one.
The best term we can use for these jerseys, as a result, is “polarizing.” That will be discussed again, a little further on in this story. But over 60% of respondents had a perfectly split view of the jerseys, so polarizing it is.
Oilers were at least on the right track, but just missed the mark
There’s one other path to a majority that doesn’t involve dueling stances. An option was included in this poll, to say that if the Oilers had just made some tweaks to the jersey, you’d love it. And that ended up finishing third in this poll.
Combine the 26.3% of respondents who chose this option with the ones who already love the jersey, and you have nearly 58% of answers stating favourability. Perhaps the Oilers could have filled in the orange outlines, or enhanced the steel grey secondary accents. Or go for a midnight-blue base, echoing the 2000’s era of Oilers hockey. Those count as improvements.
The Oilers didn’t completely miss on this HTR jersey, it would seem; they were thinking the right thing. Sometimes, the little details can make the biggest differences, as evidenced by the Oilers’ 2022 Reverse Retro jersey, a.k.a. “Gear 2.0.” This HTR jersey just didn’t execute on those details well enough. If they had, this jersey could have become quite popular.
The unmoved, number fewer than previously thought
The polarizing opinions on the HTR jersey indicated one thing in particular: almost everyone either loves or hates the jersey. The polls back that up, as only a handful of partisans chose the “Meh” option. Despite being a black-base jersey among roughly a quarter of the league’s teams going with a black base, the Oilers one does not simply draw standard reactions.
It’s understandable, though, to not be unflinching about the HTR. Seldom have the Oilers done third jerseys that aren’t decidedly retro. The original “gear” jersey designed by Todd McFarlane (no relation to this observer, who does wish otherwise), the navy two-tone jersey, and more recently the cream wordmark jerseys, are as far as that list went until now.
With that in mind, maybe it’s a good thing to have a full-on Oil Country council debate about these jerseys. It shows that fans are still heavily invested, still care about franchise traditions, and still vary in opinions. All of the above are indicators of a healthy fanbase, even one that has been aggravated and priced out at times.
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