The Best Winter Classic Jerseys

By JVDW
In John van der Woude
Jan 1st, 2012
12 Comments

As a special post to commemorate the best hockey game, aesthetically speaking, during the regular season, regardless of whose playing, here’s a post counting down the best Winter Classic jerseys. As Jan 2012 marks the 5th anniversary of the Classic, here they are, from #10 to #1.

10. 2012 Philadelphia Flyers

I commented on these jerseys in an earlier post, particularly about how little the Flyers’ look has actually changed over their existence, and since they’ve already been to the Winter Classic dance (in 2010 against the Bruins) they had limited options to work with. But, what they essentially did was create a jersey extremely similar to what they already wear, with some slight changes to the piping in a not-so-great way. It’s money in the bank for them, with fans most likely clamouring to buy them up, but it feels like a disingenuous cash grab. A better option? Maybe a play on the old Philadelphia Quakers from the ’30s.

9. 2011 Washington Capitals

To be fair, I’ve never been crazy about this original logo in the first place, with a strange, modified Helvetica-esque font. The jerseys weren’t that much better, and it’s apparent when they brought them back for last year’s Classic. They’re not the retro-chic that these jerseys usually go for, instead looking gaudy and dated.

8. 2010 Boston Bruins

It’s not a bad jersey, but it’s a curious choice to use a logo that was only in existence for only one of the 80+ seasons (1948-49), and the piping along the shoulder is awkward and doesn’t work that well. And there were a few other vintage options available to them, even possibly the other jersey they wore during that same 1948-49 season.

7. 2009 Detroit Red Wings

Again, like the Bruins, not a bad jersey considering how little their jersey has changed over the years, but it’s a bit bland and doesn’t fully take advantage of the retro-chic they could have gone for with the opportunity of participating in the Classic. There’s some other possibilities they could have gone for. I would have loved to have seen a Red Winged variation of this 1928 classic, when they were the Cougars.

6. 2011 Pittsburgh Penguins

The cummerbund jersey! Of the two Penguins jerseys in the Winter Classics, this one is definitely the weaker cousin. That waist piping is crazy large and while it has a certain retro thing going for it, it’s a bit bunch. It could have been a reduced to maybe three baby blue stripes, allowing the logo to get a little bit larger and not compete as much with the cummerbund.

5. 2009 Chicago Blackhawks

It’s hard to improve on the Blackhawks jerseys in general, and these are certainly great looking vintage jerseys. But I’m also a fan of updating vintage looks to fix design issues that don’t make much sense. In this case, there’s no reason why the logo needs to be that small. It would have been a better jersey if the logo had overlapped the wide white band, and gone into the black. Still vintage-looking, but makes a bit more sense.

4. 2008 Buffalo Sabres

This is very close to the jersey they currently wear, but this is the game that reminded people how nice of a jersey it was, especially when compared to their recent redesigns, including the buffalo zombie and the golden slug. It may not be considered classic now, but it certainly was in 2008. Any time a one-off jersey can influence a change of their current logo/jersey, you know you have a pretty good thing happening.

3. 2012 New York Rangers

The upcoming Rangers’ jerseys (which I also talked about in a previous post) is a great look for a team that also hasn’t changed their look much over their existence. The piping is great, the off-white base is perfect, and while it certainly draws from their current jersey and look, it’s enough of a variation to give it a vintage look. Essentially, it’s not an exact replica of any of their past jerseys, but it looks like it could be.

2. 2009 Philadelphia Flyers

Another jersey that spawned a redesign of the permanent jersey design for the Flyers. Like the Sabres, it doesn’t look classic now, but it was a bold choice in 2009, simplifying the overall design and piping of the jersey and letting the loud orange colour do its job of demanding attention. The box surrounding the nameplate on the back of the jerseys works really well when the jersey is simplified in this way. In short, it worked so well, it became their new permanent look.

1. 2008 Pittsburgh Penguins

When these jerseys first stepped onto to the ice in Buffalo in 2008, they looked damn good. They were a complete departure from anything the Penguins had word in the previous 25 years, but were almost a complete replica from their 1970-71 jersey. The baby blue was a bold and daring colour choice, and pretty much unused in the the NHL since the Penguins themselves abandoned it in the late ’70s. The piping, simple and strong. Outside, against the white sheet of ice and the dark blue sky, they looked great and still set the bar for Winter Classic jerseys.

Think I’m nuts? Put them in your own order in the comments below.

12 Responses to “The Best Winter Classic Jerseys”

  1. Chris says:

    I really do not understand these rankings.

    First, this years Winter classic jerseys are so similar in that both are teams that have changed their looks very little, both use off-white, both have uneven striping in the hem compared to the arms. I do think the Flyers shoulders are kind of awful and the Rangers jerseys are better, but I don’t see how they can be as far apart as #10 and #3.

    And then at #2 you have the white Flyers jersey, and your description omits the fact that the white jersey is an exact inversion of the new orange home jerseys that had premiered as a third jersey the year before and become their everyday jersey that year. Not to mention the fact that the current designs are based very, very closely on the general design of their jerseys from 1967-1981.

    The only truly original element is the orange nameplate, which was adopted to make it more of an inversion of the home jersey with its white nameplates. As I have been told the story, the white nameplate was because the Flyers got good before they got wealthy. Back in the day only road jerseys had names on them while home jerseys had only numbers (I believe that the Yankees and Red Sox are still this way) because at home your announcers, commentators, and fans knew the players by numbers. As the Flyers became successful and began to appear on more national telecasts, broadcasters asked them to wear nameplate at home as well. But the team had no orange nameplates to go with their orange home jerseys, so to save a buck they slapped white road nameplates on the orange home jerseys instead of ordering orange nameplates.

    I don’t have as much knowledge about the other teams and mostly I think the WC jerseys are all take-em-or-leave-em, though I might switch Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

    And yeah, I know, if I feel so strongly I should start my own blog. 🙂

    • Chris says:

      Erm, black nameplate, not orange.

    • Admin says:

      Thanks for your comments, and maybe I should have explained myself more. I didn’t want to go on too long about each one, and I have a whole blog entry from a few weeks ago specifically about the Rangers’ and Flyers’ jerseys when they were first released.

      I mentioned that both the Rangers and Flyers had very little direction to go in with their jersey for Winter Classic because, for both of them, their jerseys had changed very little over their whole existence. But I think the Rangers did something way more successful.

      The difference with the off-white is that, for the Rangers, it’s the dominant colour on the jersey. For the Flyer (by necessity of being the home team), it’s relegated to the sleeves. That’s a huge difference right there and so not really comparable to each other.

      The hemming/striping is easily better on the Rangers jerseys in that it’s more of a classic look. You’ll notice that the blue and red stripes on the jersey are all of equal width (aside from the thicker red stripe on the sleeve), and the subsequent white stripes between are of the same width as well. That creates a very solid and consistent look for the whole jersey, and with the off-white, gives it a very classic look. All the other Winter Classic jerseys have stripings that are consistent throughout the jersey (if not always perfectly the same width). The Flyers’ stripings are too irregular (thicker white stripes with very narrow orange stripes in-between and not completely mirrored anywhere, along the top of the jersey (no stripes) or the sleeves (an extra stripe).

      But, that’s great info about the nameplates on the back of jerseys! Thanks for sharing. And if you want, I’m always open to guest posts. Feel free to contact me.

  2. Richard Mitchell says:

    How are you getting these random ideas for the logos and the rankings editor? First off as usual ill touch on buffalo….. ive heard about the black/red buffalo logo from early 2000’s era called a friggin flaming goat./goathead/ and now a zombie? HOW EXACTLY DO U GET A ZOMBIE…… Yeah its gonna eat your heart… thats why the logo is placed on the chest…. and also the designers were screwy and stupid when these teams first ever formed… so of course some are stupid and retarded…. But its fun to make Fun isnt it? like the bruins one? Why not… the winter classic is for fun…. its not the stanly cup 🙂

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  4. […] to join Bonhomme at Quebec’s Winter Carnaval. But the Pens do get points for a fantastic Winter Classic jersey (but also get points taken away for a not-so-fantastic […]

  5. […] to join Bonhomme at Quebec’s Winter Carnaval. But the Pens do get points for a fantastic Winter Classic jersey (but also get points taken away for a not-so-fantastic […]

  6. […] in 1926), the Madhouse on Madison, a passionate fanbase, overall high-quality design and a good Winter Classic jersey addition. Overall, from a branding perspective, they’re a beast. Overall, there […]

  7. […] to join Bonhomme at Quebec’s Winter Carnaval. But the Pens do get points for a fantastic Winter Classic jersey (but also get points taken away for a not-so-fantastic one). They’ve also been very […]

  8. […] to join Bonhomme at Quebec’s Winter Carnaval. But the Pens do get points for a fantastic Winter Classic jersey (but also get points taken away for a not-so-fantastic one). They’ve also been very […]

  9. […] to take away from the brand overall, and their recent jersey for the Winter Classic more than compensates. Although the Rangers haven’t enjoyed the most on-ice success of the Original Six teams, the […]

  10. […] to join Bonhomme at Quebec’s Winter Carnaval. But the Pens do get points for a fantastic Winter Classic jersey (but also get points taken away for a not-so-fantastic one). It’s a bit of mixed bag with […]

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