We’re just under two months away from the 2025 NHL Stadium Series between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Detroit Red Wings. It will be the Blue Jacket’s first outdoor game and they will be playing host at the Ohio State University stadium (colloquially known as “The Horseshoe”). The suddenly surging Blue Jackets currently hold the Eastern Conference’s second wild card just like absolutely nobody expected.
Thursday morning also gave us our first look at the Stadium Series jerseys Columbus and Detroit will wear on the Fanatics Twitter account. The NHL and Fanatics absolutely hit it out of the park with this one. Both jerseys are a significant step up from the rather bland sweaters the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues wore for the Winter Classic a few weeks back.
Detroit’s may look basic, but in reality it gives off a clean “less is more” look. According to NHL.com, the script “Detroit” across the jersey is reminiscent of automotive insignias as a tribute to Detroit’s designation as motor capital of the world. Racing stripes on the sleeves, socks and helmet add to the car aesthetics. Detroit’s famous nickname of “hockey town” makes an appearance on the uniform pants.
Meanwhile the Columbus Blue Jackets jerseys are nothing short of a work of art. The captain and alternate captain patches will be in the shape of the host state of Ohio. The Blue Jackets navy blue color is inspired by the Union Army Civil War uniforms and the Stadium Series continues those tributes with sleeve strips and shoulder patches based off designs from Union uniforms that would denote a soldiers rank. The “star” from the Blue Jackets main logo is on the uniform pants.
Let’s get to the real star of the show with this cannon logo. The team has long had an alternate uniform that paid tribute to its infamous cannon, but this steps it up a notch. The canon is removed from the bordering of its alternate logo and now has metallic silver and red accents. The Blue Jackets alternate logo always looked like something more from a Civil War museum (that is the look they were going for, for the record) instead of a hockey jersey, but this reimagining works perfectly. It brings the late 1990’s-early 2000’s energy of the Blue Jackets main logo and combines it with their most unique feature.
Kids might say Ohio is “mid”, or whatever popular internet jargon they’re using these days, but these jerseys are anything but. Fans can preorder today at their respective teams store and also online for lucky Blue Jackets fans. Last year’s Stadium Series jerseys were a mixed bag of good (like the New Jersey Devils) and bad (here’s looking at you, New York Islanders) but both teams this year lucked out with great designs.