It's Official

The Caps are going back to their past.

As Tarik El-Bashir reports in this morning's Washington Post, the Capitals will unveil a red-white-and-blue color scheme in their new jersey at this evening's draft party at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex.

The Peerless is sure the fans will be seeing red, as it were, and there will be a lot of marketing crap spewed in support of the new duds.

Frankly, The Peerless sees all that as just so much piffle. It's a shirt. A very expensive shirt, no doubt, but a shirt nonetheless. There are a couple of points in the story worthy of comment though . . .

The Capitals' new look, which has been under development in conjunction with athletic apparel company Reebok for nearly three years, puts a modern touch on the star-laden, red, white and blue uniform the team wore from 1974 until 1995.

Three years? Three years?

"It's important to have equity in a color scheme," [Capitals' chief marketing officer Tim] McDermott said. "Look at the Green Bay Packers -- they own green and yellow. We want fans walking around wearing our stuff. It raises our brand awareness and that helps us create more fans."

What Green Bay owns is three Super Bowl trophies among their 12 NFL championships (including being the only NFL team to win three consecutively) and the legend of Vince Lombardi.

Until The Peerless sees the new sweater in 3-D, he'll reserve judgment. But really, is it that important (as in, is it worth getting one's blue shorts in a twist over?)? It won't be a sweater with nearly the attention-grabbing character of a Montreal or a Detroit jersey, but then again, those jerseys are long associated with winning traditions.

Clothes don't make the man in this instance. The men who wear the sweater -- and the degree to which they succeed on the ice -- make the clothes.