It’s tough being the Ottawa Senators. Your team has been successful for the last ten-plus seasons, aside from a couple of recent headache years. You’ve had tremendously talented players there as well (Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, uh... Alexei Yashin) as a Stanley Cup finals appearance yet no one seems to respect you. Don’t suppose that’s got anything to do with how you look on the ice now does it?
Best: When the Senators came to be out of expansion in 1992 they showed up with a unique logo and typical early 90s color scheme of red, black, and white. What they did with their sweater was something classical, however. With the large logo emblazoning the front and with simple stripes on the sleeves and waist as well as a curious shoulder logo that made you wonder if the team was sponsored by Sheraton, it was a good looking sweater.
When they added white stripes to the sleeves in 1995, the sweater really popped and became one of the better looking ones in the league. It’s a classy look that I’m disappointed they went away from to look more modern.
Worst: Yet again, a terrible third sweater gets the call as the worst one. This time around, it’s their most recent black third sweater that indescribably decided a diagonal word mark was the way to go. Instead of it saying “OTTAWA” or “SENATORS” they decided to shorten things up to be edgy going with “SENS.” Instead of being edgy it was just stupid and on top of it all, it just looks bad.
Old-Timey Goodness: These modern-day Senators have absolutely nothing at all to do with the team that existed in the early days of the NHL in the 20s and 30s, but that won’t stop us from digging out my favorite barber pole sweater from the days of the original Senators. It’s all the same colors the modern Senators use but with a large “O” on the front and everything in striped glory. This is as old-timey as old-timey gets and I can’t get enough of it. Here’s to hoping the Senators 20th anniversary vintage-inspired sweaters that are on the way this year will indeed take enough of a nod from these beauties.
Assessment: The Senators’ current array of sweaters is not inspiring in the least. Switching from their Roman era logo that they started with to the cartoony Senator to a similar-looking style they have now doesn’t do much for me at all. Going to a red sweater was a nice move, but the color swirls and dumb logo are disheartening. It’s not a bad sweater, it just… Is. If that doesn’t sum up the Senators’ run in the NHL, I don’t know what does.