Light It Up!

I believe it was this past March that I saw the Fat Pack guys highlighting an unannounced insert from the 2017-18 Upper Deck Synergy Hockey release called Color Shift. The cards change to a green-blue hue when under sunlight, otherwise the background and border are an off-white. Now I have only seen two cards change color and they were both the green-blue hue but I am not sure if all of the cards are the same color. It would be neat if they change to team colors.

I was excited to see the Islanders’ captain, John Tavares (Who is now dead to me after spurning the Islanders for Toronto), was included on the list and I was able to find one at a little over $12 shipped.

A Pair Of Islanders Manufactured Patches

Prior to the 1995-96 NHL season the New York Islanders unveiled a logo and uniform change from the original Islanders logo that was so successful from the team’s origination in 1972, which also happens to be my origination date. Being born on Long Island in 1972 and spending the better part of my first decade there I was brought up an Islander fan going to games at the Nassau Coliseum and coming home with inflated hockey sticks with the Islander’s logo so I was at best tepid when the announcement was made and the images released.

To be blunt fans did not take the change well, the Fisherman logo was blasted from the get go being likened to the Gorton’s fish sticks guy with a bit of an Aquafresh tooth paste squirt at the bottom and to be fair people were right. In fact, the team returned to the original logo two years later, which was the earliest the NHL would allow another uniform change. 

The alternate logo was changed to a lighthouse based on the Montauk Point Lighthouse which used the same teal and orange color scheme. This alternate logo lasted only one year longer than the Fisherman logo. In my eyes this one wasn’t as bad and I would have been fine with it remaining an alternate or third jersey logo.

A couple of years ago Upper Deck released manufactured logo patches through the O-Pee-Chee line. In 2012-13 they released the original/current Islander’s logo, in 2013-14 they released the Lighthouse alternate logo and in 2014-15 they released the dreaded Fisherman logo. I think Upper Deck was working up to the ugly Fisherman logo over the years to warm people up to it.

I will admit that at first I didn’t like the logo but now that it has been 20 years I kind of look back at it with fondness. It sure was different but nowhere near the goofiness of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks logo at the time so now I am happy about having these cards in my collection.