That's the mantra on the front page of nhl.com's online store. And for this, the NHL's 87th season, that's more true than ever before.

For the first time since the 1969-70 season, the dark jerseys will serve as the home jerseys, while the white jerseys will be the away jerseys. To reflect the change, the dark jerseys will appear at the top of each team's uniform set this season.

That is in no way the only change to NHLUniforms.com "version 3.0" for this season.

For starters, as I'm sure you've already noticed, the website looks slightly different. The main body of the website now appears in a virtual "picture window." This will make for easier readability and easier navigation throughout the site. The "picture window" is a fixed width and is compatible for all monitors with a screen resolution of at least 800x600. Those users viewing the site at 800x600 resolution, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page for some very important tips.

Also new this season is new, improved uniform illustrations. Whereas the previous editions focused on yours truly's artistic abilities (or the complete lack thereof), the new one focuses more on the accuracy of each detail of the uniform. You can see some "before and after" examples to the left. The hand-drawn logos have been replaced by logos used with permission and great appreciation of the late, great Sports Logo Encyclopedia. Ryan has, unfortunately, shut down theSLE.com, but it's important that I mention it since it has allowed me to vastly improve the quality of the images. Dropthepucks.com, Chris Creamer's Sports Logo Page and Logoserver have also proven to be quite beneficial in completing this task.

The numerals and nameplates have also been redrawn in order to smooth out the rough edges and to make them more proportional to their actual dimensions. Whereas 3" letters were long the standard for nameplates, many teams are now using 3-1/2" nameplates, and that has also been reflected.

The 2003-04 season also brings a new logo to NHLUniforms.com. The three jerseys depicted are, from left to right, the new Calgary Flames home jersey, the 1968-69 Oakland Seals home jersey and the 1931-32 Montreal Maroons jersey. Besides spelling out "dot-com" with the NHL puck logo to the left of the three jerseys serving as the "dot," the jerseys represent the present, past and the distant past of NHL uniforms.

Special notes for users viewing this site on an 800x600 resolution monitor: although this site will look best at a resolution of at least 1024x768, it will work for all monitors with at least an 800x600 resolution. If you have an 800x600 monitor, you should see everything on the site. If on a decade page you do not see all ten years (with the obvious exceptions of the 1910's and 2000's), take the following steps:

1. Be sure to hide any extraneous toolbars from the top (or bottom) of the browser window, such as the Yahoo! toolbar.

2. If your browser will let you, choose the small icons at the top.

3. Reduce the text size -- go to View at the top menu, choose Text Size and change the setting.

4. If you're on AOL, be sure to have the web browser window maximized.

Taking these steps will ensure you get the most out of this site -- or for that matter, any site.

A word about the guestbook: After viewing this site, be sure to sign the guestbook. However (and I almost hate to have to mention this), please keep your comments clean. This website has been identified as a kid-friendly website, and I intend to keep it that way. Now, I can take a good ribbing here and there. If you absolutely must use vulgar or obscene language, please refrain from signing the guestbook and send me an e-mail instead.

Speaking of e-mailing me, effective immediately, please be sure the subject line reads, "Your NHL uniforms website." Due to an incredible amount of spam I receive every day, I have been forced to use that subject line as a filter to weed out the annoying spam. Any e-mail not containing that exact phrase will be automatically deleted.

Thank you for visiting NHLUniforms.com. I hope you like what you see.