Tag: Winter Classic

ICYMI the Bruins Are Playing Outdoors at Lake Tahoe This Weekend

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NBC Sports – We’re just a few days away from the Boston Bruins’ most aesthetically-pleasing game of the season. The Bruins will travel to Lake Tahoe on Sunday to take on the Philadelphia Flyers as part of the NHL Outdoors series. Bruins-Flyers will follow Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, which means outdoor hockey is right around the corner.

The rink is being constructed a stone’s throw from Lake Tahoe on the 18th green of the Edgewood Tahoe Resort golf course, and it’s a sight to behold.

The NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe is going to be a spectacular made-for-TV event. I’ve been to a Winter Classic and no matter where they play the sight lines as a fan in attendance are anywhere from awful to mediocre. The TV experience is usually pretty cool with some highlights being the Penguins playing under the snow in the first WC

The Bruins playing at Fenway was an awesome TV experience as well. I’ve been to Frozen Fenway where I saw some college hockey games there so I know the sight lines are terrible, but I remember the whole neighborhood was bumping for the Winter Classic as I walked around hung over as all hell on New Years Day.

But after a while the outdoor games at football and baseball stadiums became kind of overdone. I completely blame the NHL for this because they took something they created out of thin air that became hockey royalty in the Winter Classic and bastardized it by then playing like 5 outdoor games every season. The Stadium Series? FOH.

So the pandemic presented an opportunity for the NHL as teams playing in front of empty football stadiums didn’t seem like a prime aesthetic. The solution?

Lake Tahoe.

A legitimately awesome idea from a league that isn’t exactly known for marketing their sport all that well. With little to no fans allowed in the stands, why not just double down on the TV experience and put a rink in front of the picture perfect pond hockey back drop?

AND the Bruins will finally be breaking out their brand new reverse retro yellow jerseys, which are going to look absolutely money outdoors.

This must be a logistical nightmare because it’s not like they’re just pulling a couple nets out onto the lake and playing some puck. The NHL is constructing a full fledged hockey rink in the middle of nowhere and as Billy Jaffe pointed out on Toucher and Rich this AM, most Winter Classics are hosted at massive professional sports arenas that are in major cities with ya know, electrical power grids.

So major props to the NHL for thinking outside of the box because I can’t wait to watch this on Sunday and that’s something hockey needs people to be saying more of these days.

The Bruins Just Dropped Their Winter Classic Jerseys

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Love the subtle nod to the Bear working tirelessly on these new digs. If we’re being completely honest here, I have to say these 2019 Winter Classic jerseys are solid if not spectacular. The Bruins are clearly looking to evoke memories of their jerseys from the 1930s when they rocked the brown and gold stripes with the large block B on the chest.

They tweaked the sleeves and the stripes above the logo slightly to give it a more modern look, but overall if you’re a history buff you should appreciate the throwback.

I do love the attention to detail on the collar though with the Bruins Stanley Cup winning seasons marked by shamrocks as they’ll be playing at the home of the Fighting Irish in South Bend.

LOVE the new patch though. That is an excellent patch. It’s unique, the green pops against the Brown, and it’s subtle yet instantly recognizable because of its relevance to Chicago and Notre Dame where the game will be played.

I think the matching winter hat is a no questions asked must buy item though.

Overall its a pretty solid sweater, I think I’m out on dropping $100 for one, but that also might be because of my PTSD from the last Winter Classic. I froze my balls off at Gillette as the Bruins got stomped out 5-1 by Montreal while I sat there in my brand new and immediately tainted Winter Classic jersey.

This is the face of a man completely unprepared for the thrashing he is about to see.

Thank christ someone in the marketing department said hey guys we have to work these jerseys into the normal rotation as a third alternate otherwise we will never sell a single one of these, even at Marshalls. So after a couple of seasons of seeing the sleek jersey mixed in, the sting has come off enough to regularly rock these again.

I think they should have owned it and gone with the old school yellow pooh bear jerseys, but what do I know.