With the New Year’s Eve NHL’s annual Winter Classic, this year played at Wrigley Field, now in the books, it’s time for college hockey to begin their “Big Ten Hockey Series.” Four games will be played at the Friendly Confines tomorrow and Saturday. Friday’s games feature Ohio State vs. Michigan, at 5:00 pm (ET), followed at 8:30 pm by Penn State vs. Notre Dame. Saturday’s games will feature both the Wisconsin Men’s and Women’s hockey teams, with UW’s Women’s Team taking on Ohio State at 5:30 pm (ET), and the UW Men’s Team playing Michigan State at 9:00 pm (ET).
ICYMI, here are the special game uniforms for Notre Dame, Penn State, and Ohio State.
The Wisconsin Women’s team unveiled a hype video showing off their special uniforms for the game:
New year, new threads
We will be wearing these on Saturday during The Frozen Confines: Big Ten Hockey Series at Wrigley Field!
These are a part of our alternate jersey series by @UnderArmour #Badgers || #OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/VAxYNJbztz
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerWHockey) January 1, 2025
Here’s a photo:
The team also produced a couple “storytelling” graphics.
As with Penn State and Ohio State, the special uniforms for the outdoor games include nods to the Badgers’ and Chicago’s baseball and hockey traditions. The Badger women’s jerseys feature a cursive script “Wisconsin” across the chest, which “is a vintage look and a nod to historic Wisconsin jerseys.” Wisconsin hasn’t fielded a baseball team in decades, but when it did, their uniforms were similar to those being used in the outdoor game.
There was no hype video for the men’s special uniforms, but like the ladies’ are baseball-themed.
And also like the Women’s team, the uniforms for the Men’s team have their own bit of storytelling.
While I’ll still need to see them on ice to render a full opinion, in general I like the special uniforms. As I’ve noted before, I generally prefer hockey teams to have a crest/logo as opposed to a script wordmark, but since the Badgers are going for a “baseball inspired” look, I’m ok with it for these games. Also, the Wisconsin men traditionally wear red breezers, but for this game they’ll be black — producing a look that is quite similar to Chicago’s hockey team. Hopefully they’ll have more success on the ice than the Blackhawks did on New Year’s Eve.
All four of the Big Ten Hockey Series games can be seen on the B1G Network.
Your thoughts?
Not bad.
Meh.
That patch is brutal. Hideously oversized and chromatically outlandish. It ruins a good uniform.
Solid red gloves without black and black pants are visually jarring. For a hockey uniform to have a more balanced feel, the gloves should be at least some of the same colour as the pants.
Funny – University of Wisconsin playing in a baseball stadium. They’re the only B1G school that does not play baseball. They cut the team in the early 90s. Communists.
Ironic that Wisconsin is the only school in the Big10 without a men’s baseball program.