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Originally Posted by Dion
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In the 1940s, some teams had begun voluntarily to wear contrasting colours (including Montreal’s now odd-looking original white uniform), but at the NHL meetings in 1950 the use of contrasting uniforms became mandatory. The reason was due to the increasing number of motion picture newsreels being made of the action (which would soon become black and white television), that the NHL required each team should wear contrasting colours to make it easier for viewers to distinguish the teams during the black and white broadcasts.'
The home team would wear dark, the visitor white. It was Hockey Night In Canada that suggested that the NHL switch in 1970 to the home team wearing white jerseys in order to show off visiting team’s away jerseys (which were deemed more interesting) for colour broadcasts. Which team wears the dark jerseys has changed back and forth in the forty years since, with currently the home team now wearing the dark.
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https://thehockeywriters.com/a-brief...-nhl-uniforms/
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Your source is wrong about the rules. Or at least not entirely right, not telling the full story.
Prior to '51 there were no rules, other than that the two competing teams couldn't wear the same colour. As such the Leafs had white sweaters to wear when playing the Rangers when they switched to blue uniforms in 1927 (from the St. Pats' green ones). The Red Wings originally wore white with red trim when they were still the Cougars and Falcons, but after they changed name to Red Wings in '32 they went to red. In '34 they added a white sweater to use in games against the Habs. In '35 likewise the Habs and the Americans added white sweaters to their get-up, and in 1940 the Black Hawks started wearing a white alternate too. The Bruins wore predominantly white to begin with, and so by the time the Original Six era began in '42 the only holdouts without white sweaters were the Rangers. (The Bruins added a yellow alternate in 1940, and a black one in 1948.)
The rule as instituted in '51 was whites at home, darks on the road, and the Rangers finally had to capitulate and added their white sweater design that's mostly unchanged today. But rest assured that was the rule—whites at home.
This famous photo of a bloodied Rocket Richard shaking a bruised Sugar Jim Henry's hand after game 7 of their series in '52:
The Canadiens were the higher seed; that game was played at the Forum in Montreal, and Richard & Co. wore WHITE!
The rule changed in 1955 to darks at home, and back to whites at home in 1970, and then back to darks at home in 2003.
(Trivia: the Bruins added a yellow jersey as their primary home one in 1955. Until the rules flip-flopped again in 2003 the Bruins only (predominantly) wore black sweaters at home from 1967 to 1970!)