With the Bruins celebrating their centennial this season, they had a nice ceremony prior to last night’s home opener. Uni Watch reader Jeff Israel attended the game and sent in these observations:
To kick things off, they had several members of the 1970, 1972, and 2011 Stanley Cup championship teams honored on the ice. This was followed by honoring “living legends” and descendants of every Bruin whose number has been retired honored, both on the ice and in the stands (and, in Willie O’Ree’s case, remotely).
The uni-related element was that each person wore an era-approrpiate jersey with the Bruins’ centennial patch added. There were some fun inconsistencies — the 2011 Bruins, for example, wore a mix of Adidas and Reebok jerseys, even though the league was obviously wearing Reebok in 2011.
Video of the full ceremony is embedded at the top of this page. In addition, here are some photos:
Definitely a cool way to kick off the centennial season!
I dig how the era-appropriate jerseys illustrate the Bruins’ visual continuity, as well as their evolution. Very nicely done!
I’m thinking the Reebok/Adidas split with the 2011 guys was based on when they last played with the Bruins and not the uniform provider at the time of the championship. Here is their time with Boston listed with which template they wore:
Shawn Thornton – 2007-2014 – Reebok
Tim Thomas – 2003-2012 – Reebok
Tuukka Rask – 2007-2022 – Adidas
David Krejci – 2006-2023 – Adidas
Patrice Bergeron – 2003-2023 – Adidas
Zdeno Chara – 2006-2020 – Adidas
Adidas replaced Reebok for the 2017-2018 season, so even if the design was essentially the same, their jerseys were era-appropriate for when they last suited up with the team.
also explains why Krejci and Bergy have the ad patches in addition to the centennial, they played last year with the patch
The Bruins are a rare bird : An Original Six team that changes its uniforms often, yet always manages to imbue them with a sense of tradition. Proving the adage that everyone likes a new spin on an old favorite.
I watched the game last night. Maybe it was my TV, but the “white” sweaters looked… dishwater color (think; those “bone” jerseys the Rams wear). Are they an off-white color?
It’s a special cream colored jersey that’s only worn against Original 6 teams. It’s meant to look vintage, kinda like the Blues uniforms from the 2022 Winter Classic.
link
They are off-white… it is very tough to see in pictures and didn’t really come across until i got my hands on one personally.
It is quite noticeable on the ice, IMO
Thanks all. When I saw photos of the sweater it looked white (or so close that I didn’t notice it was cream colored). On TV it really looked off white.
I mentioned to my wife last night, “why do the bruins look dirty it’s game one of the season” Didn’t know they had pre-dirty spec uniforms for games.
They’re supposed to be “cream” but they definitely looked more grey to me with the lighting.
Not a fan of black buckets with the light-colored sweaters. I wish the helmets matched the jerseys or were Bruins Gold.
They weren’t black. Dark brown to complement the original 6 sweaters.
It looks like Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito went sans-laces on their jerseys. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of Phil with the laces removed with the Bruins, but I have seen photos of Bobby laceless from the early 70s. Just a nice little touch.
Wish the Bruins would go back full time to brown. I know the Penguins est after but the Brown is a great look and not enough brown in the uni verse.
That 1920’s Bruins sweater with the brown and gold stripes is still my favorite of all time.
Here’s the poster documenting the Centennial team. It appears that they present each player with what would have been the home sweater during their era
link