Another year and it’s time for another Winter Classic. Once again, two teams will face off with specially designed uniforms for the NHL’s annual outdoor extravaganza.
This year (well 2023 if we’re being technical) will see the all too usual suspects of the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins facing off in Fenway Park.
The 2023 Winter Classic logos for the Bruins and Penguins are out: pic.twitter.com/8yIeEjHFaZ
— Matt Porter (@mattyports) November 1, 2022
Let’s start off with the host Boston Bruins. Boston decides to go full Pooh bear with their logo. The Bruins used a bear head as an alternate logo from 1995-2006 before switching over to a full-body bear.
The “pooh bear” was brought back for this year’s second edition of the Reverse Retro jerseys, although this Winter Classic bear is more vintage cartoony than other versions.
The NHL went way back to retro looks for the Winter Classic.
The Bruins teased the logo reveal, minus the Pooh bear, via Twitter showing sweatshirts the team wore before Tuesday night’s game.
According to the NHL.com article, the arched wordmark of “Boston” is supposed to pay tribute to the tradition of amateur and college hockey in the area.
While at first it seemed like an idea that might get lost in translation, take a second look at it. It does look more comparable to college hockey jerseys than a normal NHL jersey, don’t you think?
If they really wanted to pay tribute to New England, they could have always written “Boston” in Dunkin’ Donuts colors (actually, let’s just stick to jersey ads instead).
Speaking of which, we do not know if jersey ads will appear. The NHL press release made no specific mention. The Bruins jersey ad partner is cyber security company Rapid7. The Penguins jersey ad is for the healthcare company Highmark.
This is the first Winter Classic since the NHL implemented the jersey ads for the 2022-2023 season.
As for the Penguins, they’re going full retro, back to the days before the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fun fact, Pittsburgh had an NHL team before the Penguins back from 1925-1930 called the Pittsburgh Pirates, sharing their name with the city’s Major League Baseball franchise.
The “P” logo is taken directly from those uniforms.
For those unaware of the history of the NHL’s first attempt in Pittsburgh, fans might think it’s a reference to the baseball team and the baseball team only.
The baseball team’s current “P” logo is in a font more reminiscent of the Boston Red Sox logo. And even though the font is different and there is the notable absence of the spoked wheel, it is still somewhat familiar to the Providence Bruins AHL logo.
We’ve also yet to see if the iconic Penguin will be anywhere on the jerseys. The only uniform in Penguins history not to feature a version of the cartoon Penguin anywhere was the inaugural season 1967-1968 version.
Even in years where the penguin hasn’t been featured prominently, such as the 2020-2021 first version Reverse Retro and the 2021-2022 alternate jersey, the penguin was still featured on the shoulder patch.
Full uniforms have yet to be revealed. That means there is still time for the beloved spoked “B’ wheel and skating penguin to make an appearance. Of course, that also gives the NHL a chance to add those big-money jersey ads as well.