Newsday, June 23rd 1995

 The way club officials look at it, they didn't turn their backs on tradition as much as they discovered their roots. Finally, after all these years, they took the New York out of the Islanders.

Not officially. They haven't changed the name of the team, only their symbols and their focus. At a news conference yesterday, they unveiled new uniforms that have more color and more Long Island in them.

The jerseys have ripples of Atlantic green (a dark teal) and silver to go with blue and orange. They have the word "Islanders" in big bold letters, below a drawing of a grizzled, bearded seafarer. Shoulder patches bear likenesses of lighthouses. What you won't find is an "NY" insignia.

"This is Long Island," said team co-chairman Stephen Walsh, "and this is a new team."

Management doesn't feel the need to identify with New York to ensure television coverage, as the team's first owner, Roy Boe, did. Walsh, Robert Rosenthal and their partners want to drop anchor on their home turf.

It is a big plunge for a franchise that has little to offer fans, other than a heritage of four Stanley Cups. Walsh said that he and his partners "revere" the Islanders name and realize how much fans identified with the logos and jerseys the team has worn since 1972.

"We also are attuned to the winds of change," he said. "And quite frankly, we believe the time for a new uniform has come."

It came yesterday with nautical trappings, celebrating an Island seaside legacy that goes back way before 1972. Authenticity - right down to the grimace on the face of the cartoon Mariner standing in front of a net - was affirmed by no less an authority than Arnold Leo, one of three East Hampton Baymen's Association officers who attended the news conference. "I like the fighting spirit," he said.

The new jerseys have a deeper blue, a brighter orange than the old ones had. Home (white) and road (blue) shirts each have a distinctive wave pattern across the shoulders and near the waist and hands. Numbers and names on the backs are printed on a slant. Gloves and pants are solid blue. Socks on the home uniform are white and blue with teal, orange and silver stripes. Road socks are blue and teal with orange and white stripes.

"I think it looks awesome," said Kirk Muller, who until recently wore the most traditional uniform in hockey, the bleu, blanc et rouge of the Canadiens. "This is a lively, colorful uniform. I think it goes with the times."

"I like it," said John Alogna, the retired advertising agency owner who designed the logo that was put to rest yesterday. "I'm a traditionalist, but this is `Now.' I have grandchildren who are teenagers and I know they are going to love this."

Not everyone shares the sentiment.

"We get threatened every day," said co-chairman Robert Rosenthal, only half-kidding.

"I've gotten 500 negative letters already," Walsh said. "But you're going to get that. People are resistant to change until they see it."

People associate the old uniforms with Denis Potvin, Mike Bossy, Bill Smith and the success that made many Long Islanders fans for life.

Club officials said they labored over the decision. "Steve, Ralph {Palleschi, the chief operating officer} and I are traditionalists by nature," Rosenthal said. "It's great to have tradition. We revel in that tradition. But we could no longer live in the past with this franchise."

Said former Islander Garry Howatt: "Every time we go to a golf tournament or something, somebody brings up the old teams, the Stanley Cup winners. All the young guys are there, too, and I'm sure they're thinking `Enough already.' I know I would. I think this is just great."

Frankly, team officials were worried that young fans were starting to associate the old uniforms with the past seven years of futility, not four years of dominance.

Officials point out there's a lot of uniform changing in sports these days (the Capitals announced their new wardrobe yesterday, the NBA champion Rockets will wear new colors next year). People in Islanders management are adamant about a few other points, as well:

1) They're not doing this just to sell shirts. Revenues from all NHL merchandising are split evenly 26 ways, they point out (although they wouldn't mind a little extra money in their 1/26th).

2) He's not a fisherman. The figure on the logo is a generic mariner. It's enough to evoke poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge: It is an ancient Mariner and he stoppeth one in three. Thus, appropriate for Islander goalies. Which leads to:

3) This is not an attempt to mask a lousy team. The Islanders started working with designer Ed O'Hara of Sean Michael Edwards Design 18 months ago - when the Islanders were coming off a rousing trip to the Stanley Cup semifinals.

Can clothes make the man in hockey? As defenseman Rich Pilon said after he praised the eye-catching color scheme of the new uniforms: "They do make us look bigger."

General manager Don Maloney knows better. "New fans will love it, casual fans will love it and, for the traditional fans, we'll have to teach them how to love it," he said.

That is, the new uniforms will look a lot better when an Islander can no longer accurately say (again quoting Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"): We were a ghastly crew.

In the meantime, Walsh offered promise to anyone who just can't live without the blue, white and orange jerseys with that familiar circular crest. "When Bryan Trottier's number is retired, when Al Arbour is honored, it will be in their uniforms," Walsh said. "There will be special occasions, whether it be Christmas Day or a big Ranger game, where you'll see those old uniforms on the ice."