Penguins surprise with new gold third jerseys during home-opener

The Pittsburgh Penguins decided to go all-in on the mantra "look good, feel good, play good" for their home-opener on Thursday.

When the Penguins took the ice at the PPG Paints Arena to host the New York Islanders, they surprised everyone by revealing new third jerseys after warming up in their usual black home uniforms.

The new sweater is "Penguins Gold" with three black stripes on each sleeve to represent the three rivers of Pittsburgh, while prominently featuring a standalone skating penguin as the crest. It'll also include a triangle shoulder patch with three river waves, a checker pattern and an igloo, which symbolizes Point State Park, the team's original home.

Meanwhile, the font used for lettering and numbers was inspired by the city's historic trolley car system. The final detail on the inside collar is a blue and white checker pattern from the City flag and seal flanking each side of the word "Pittsburgh."

The Penguins shared detailed looks of the new uniforms on social media with the caption "the colour that connects us."

The new jerseys took inspiration from previous iterations when "Penguins Gold" was the primary colour, most recently seen with Pittsburgh's alternate sweaters in 2018-19, but go as far back as the 1980s when Mario Lemieux was sporting the look.

Pittsburgh is the second team this season to surprise-drop new threads after the Los Angeles Kings did the same thing ahead of their season-opening win on Wednesday.

The Penguins will wear their new third jerseys 11 times this season — all nine Thursday home games, as well as when they visit the Seattle Kraken in November and defending champion Florida Panthers in April.

The full schedule is below: