The Tampa Bay Lightning unveiled new third jerseys on Thursday night and not everyone was crazy about them.
The new black thirds were introduced to fans just mere minutes before the Lightning were set to take the ice against the St. Louis Blues in Tampa on Thursday. The uniforms bring a black alternate look back to the club, but this set is a lot more minimalistic than the black jerseys that the Lightning have worn in the past.
The all-black set features a slight fade to grey on the sleeves (via a pattern that is supposed to resemble raindrops) but there aren't too many noteworthy design elements beyond that. The reaction was pretty split, with many calling them sleek and many others declaring them boring. A common criticism likened them to practice jerseys.
Have a look for yourself:
Immediately after the official reveal, Lightning players skated out of the tunnel wearing the jerseys, giving fans a first look at the uniforms in action.
It seems that teams usually love to make a big deal of their jersey announcements these days -- drawing them out and relentlessly teasing them for as long as they can -- so Tampa just dropping a new uniform out of no where and then wearing it in a game minutes later is kind of a cool move.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, those jerseys had a pretty miserable debut. The Blues shut out the Bolts with a 1-0 overtime win to spoil the fun.
