A Good Look That's Looking Really Good

Rick Tocchet says the young kids love 'em.
Jakob Chychrun likes the purple, one of his favorite colors.
Conor Garland: "They're beautiful."
Indeed, it's not just the rest of the hockey universe that's taken a liking to the Coyotes' purple Reverse Retro jerseys, which debuted last Saturday and will be worn for the second time tonight when the Coyotes host the Los Angeles Kings, 5 p.m., at Gila River Arena.

Look good, feel good.
"If you like the jersey you're wearing, you probably feel good wearing it," Chychrun said. "So, for sure that plays a part. When you feel good, when you look good, and you feel like you look good, you usually have a little more confidence."
Chychrun broke the news that the team will be switching to its Kachina-style gloves with the Reverse Retro jerseys. This style features a green cuff and red thumb. The top-hand display is prominently black, different from the primary gloves worn last week, which feature a full-width red wrist roll.

"I think it's cool that they put a twist on our uniforms," he said. "I think we're switching our gloves. We wore our red and black ones the first time, and I think now we're going with the Kachina gloves, which I think will be better. So, it'll be nice to switch gloves. I like them a lot, it's obviously different, and I think it's cool. It's good for growing the game and gets those discussions going."
Fischer, too, likes how the NHL is expanding its style boundaries.
"I think it's great for the NHL to kind of brand out," Fischer said. "I'm sure the players around the league -- we're in full support of kind of branching out and it's fun. It would be fun to see something like this maybe every year. Kind of come out with a type of third alternate or whatever you want to call it just to spice things up. You see it around in every other league -- the NBA, just other teams doing special stuff like that. I think it's pretty cool. We enjoy it, and I'd say ours are probably one of the best."

The iconic purple crescent moon at center ice, returned to celebrate the milestone 25th Anniversary season, makes for a pretty sweet look, Fischer said. The crescent moon was the center ice logo at America West Arena when the Coyotes relocated to the Valley in 1996.
"We all see it on social media and everyone kind of getting behind it," Fischer said. "I think the center ice, that purple moon there, I think when you put that with those jerseys it's probably some of the coolest pictures we've seen. I love them. I think they're great. We have fun wearing them."
Conor Garland, who scored the first Coyotes goal in the Reverse Retro jerseys last week, is another fan of the base color purple. "I like them," he said. "I like the color. The purple looks nice."
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He's just as big a fan of the Kachina, and he's glad the Coyotes are wearing it more often.
"I love the Kachina set-up," he said. "I used to have a Nikolai Khabibulin one as a kid. I used to have a Coyotes mini Mylec (goalie) helmet, I used to wear that all the time. So, that was a good jersey, I'm glad we wear it a lot more this year."
He's a bit picky, however, about fit.
"(The jersey is) a little longer," he said. "That's the only problem I have. Every time I have a different jersey, especially in the (AHL), we used to wear different jerseys all the time and they'd never sent me the right size. These ones are a little longer, that's my only problem with them."
Head coach Rick Tocchet played three seasons for the Coyotes (1997-2000) and wore the team's original Kachina uniforms.

"Those Kachinas, I love the Kachinas," Tocchet said. "They're fun. The only thing was, (the originals) were too heavy back in the day. Now they make them nice and thin. I remember Big Walt (Keith Tkachuk) and JR (Jeremy Roenick) -- we'd used to say, 'These things are like sweaters, they're so heavy.' (Head equipment manager) Stan Wilson will get mad at me, but I think nowadays they're lighter. Everything's lighter nowadays, the equipment, the players. Everything's light, which is great. Back then, those Kachinas were heavy. You sweat in those things, and man, I used to give my jersey to Stan and he'd dry them in between periods because I sweat a lot and it was heavy."
As for the new-look retros? Tocchet says they're certainly visible.
"Well, I'll tell ya, you know who's open," he said. "You just look for that jersey. You can see it. It's good, I love all the retros. I think around the league they've done a nice job. It's fun. I think the young kids love it and I'm all for it."

Lead Photo Credit: Norm Hall - NHLI via Getty Images // Second Photo Credit: Norm Hall - NHLI via Getty Images // Third Photo Credit: Norm Hall - NHLI via Getty Images // Fourth Photo Credit: Robert Laberge - Allsport via Getty Images // Footer Photo Credit: Norm Hall - NHLI via Getty Images