Sweaters and hockey have been synonymous with each other since the infancy of the sport. Teams have been identified by their iconic colors and patterns. Some of them are classic while others are classically awful. This summer our annual series focuses on the best and the worst sweaters in each team’s history. Today we have the best and the worse Boston Bruins sweaters in team history.
Boston Bruins Sweaters: The Best and Worst
How We Did It?
We at Last Word on Hockey used a variety of methods to compile this list. Polling came from social media, our writers, and fans. We wanted to get a variety of opinions when we put out our list. This compilation will likely spur debate. However, we wanted to see who had the most memorable sweaters in each team’s history.
Let’s put our best foot forward with the best sweaters
The Best of the Boston Bruins
The 1976-94 Home and Away Sweaters
Boston has a large history of sweaters to draw from, so that made our decision a difficult one. However, many remember this iconic sweater. The design actually came into being in the 1974 season, but one little tweak puts these sweaters over the top. Boston added a secondary bear logo to shoulders. (We’ll get to the bear on the bad side of things a little bit later.
Hello. The Bruins should go back to these uniforms now. Logo + meth bear included.
In fact, keep the black logo on aways and yellow on homes. Would look even more bad ass with two different versions.
But who am I? No one. pic.twitter.com/W0Kyc35PW5
— Days of Y'Orr (@DaysofYOrr) June 26, 2024
These jerseys are some of the first people think of when it comes to the Bruins. This sweater was the one that Adam Sandler wore in the movie “Happy Gilmore.” Sandler also references Terry O’Reilly in the movie as Happy’s favourite player.
Boston even did a tweak of it with the gold variation in the 2021 Reverse Retro sweaters. However, these ones the team wore through the 1980s defines them.
Winnie the Pooh
This one might stir up a hornet’s nest or a bear den, if you will. These sweaters came into being in 1995 when the B’s moved into the FleetCenter. It was part of a vast makeover the saw the return of shoulder piping to the team’s sweaters for the first time since since the end of the 1973-74 season.
The bear has caused some debate among fans with it getting raved about or panned. There was also a sequel sweater for the 2022-23 season that was white instead of gold. The original gets the nod just barely over the sequel.
Current Road Sweaters
It’s hard to get a current sweater on our list. We don’t want to be accused of recency bias, but the current white Bruins road sweaters have a nice, clean look to them.
There are elements of the old-school whites that were our top entry. The bear patch is back where it belongs on the shoulder. There are some slight differences from the 70s sweaters, but these are up there for some of the best Bruins jerseys in history.
The Worst of the Boston Bruins
The Shoulder Bear
Boston’s shoulder patch bear is popular… as a shoulder patch. However, that patch came to be front and centre of their 2023 Winter Classic sweaters. The logo does have some fierce loyalty from a segment on Bruins fans. However, this logo just has an odd look.
The Bruins have a large history to draw from and these Winter Classic sweaters do have elements of the 50s and 60s. However, the spoked B or the block B might have been a better choice.
The 1925-26 Barber Poles
We usually don’t like picking on older sweaters, but these ones have a barber pole feel to it. These jerseys had the original yellow and brown colour scheme for the franchise. The jerseys were predominantly white and the bear on all fours in between the words Boston and Bruins.
Black would replace brown as one of the team’s main colours in the 1935-36 campaign. The 2019 Winter Classic sweaters brought back parts of this sweater. However, the Block B was a much better look on the front than the originals.
1940-44 Gold Selects
These aren’t a terrible jersey. However, they seem kind of plain. According to NHL Uniform Database, the gold jersey was “to be worn for select games.”
It was the franchise’s first foray into gold sweaters. Boston would bring gold back in the 1956-57 season and those ones were a much better attempt and integrating gold into the rotation.
Gold disappeared as a jersey base in 1967 and wouldn’t return to the rotation until the Winnie the Pooh sweaters in 1995. The colour does sporadically make appearances for special events.
Other Considerations
The 2021 Reverse Retro does deserve some love and so does the 2022-23 Reverse Retros. Boston’s special event sweaters have been on point with the exception of the shoulder bear.
On the bad side, the 1936-49 white sweaters were among the first to have numbers on their back. However, the trademark “B” was relegated to the shoulder and the number was also on the front. That just seems like an odd look for a sweater.
Whatever the case, Boston has a rich history to draw from and there was some tough omissions to the list.
Main photo by: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
