The Winter Classic jerseys are beautiful and deserve a longer stay in the locker room wardrobe.
During this 2017-2018 season, all NHL teams wore 2 jerseys: home and away. No team wore third/alternate jerseys during the season, due to Adidas taking over the uniforms from Reebok.
For the Blues, this meant that the team wore either the home blues or the road whites, for all 82 games. And both are very sharp uniforms; one of the sharpest in all of professional sports actually.
But I loved the Winter Classic, semi-retro uniforms that the team wore during the outdoor game. They’re just so different from their regular looks, but in a good way. And we fans were thrilled with them and glad the team didn’t botch the opportunity to introduce a fresh but classic look for a classic game. They were much better than the previous alternate jersey, the navy ones with the arch in the roundel. I liked those jerseys as well, but in my mind they were too dark a blue. The WC unis are much more in line with the spirit of the team.
It’s thought that many NHL teams will re-introduce third jerseys for the upcoming season. I hope the Blues seize on the opportunity to bring back the Winter Classic jerseys for the 18-19 season. They could wear them on Saturday home games, as they did for the roundel jerseys. And as the team will, doubtless, have a much altered look up and down the lineup, the alternate jerseys will reinforce that this is a different team, with a different destiny.
Bring them back, Mr. Armstrong. I’ll buy one this time, I promise.
Open Ice Notes 