MONTREAL — On Friday, The Montreal Canadiens unveiled the jersey they’ll be wearing January 1 when they visit the Boston Bruins at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Mass., for the 2016 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.
It pays homage to three previous editions of Canadiens jerseys worn throughout their 106-year history.
The chest stripe in the middle features a shade of blue inspired by the first-ever Canadiens jersey from their inception, in 1909.
The fabled ‘CH’ crest will have the colours inverted from how they’ve been featured over the last 90 years, with the ‘C’ in white and the ‘H’ in red—as they were on the jersey Montreal wore in its first Stanley Cup championship season (1923-24).
The image of a globe on the sleeve is a tribute to the 1924-25 Canadiens, who wore the globe as their crest. That season was also the very first of Montreal’s historic rivalry with the Bruins.
Finally, the Winter Classic jersey honours the 1945-46 edition of the Canadiens with a red collar. Montreal, led by Hector “Toe” Blake, Maurice “Rocket” Richard and Elmer Lach, beat Boston that season to capture their sixth Cup.
The Canadiens intend to wear these sweaters for at least one home game after the Winter Classic.
“[We held] a lot of internal meetings because we wanted to understand the story we wanted to tell,” said Canadiens executive vice president and chief operating officer Kevin Gilmore. “We don’t just do a jersey or do something without a reason behind it. We spent a lot of time looking at the history of the team, the history of the jerseys, when we wore certain jerseys, who we were playing against and when they came in the league. And it’s great because all the pieces kind of fit in well and allowed us to create what I think is a beautiful jersey.”
Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty and assistants Brendan Gallagher and P.K. Subban were on hand to model the new threads.
Subban, who committed to raising $10 million over the next seven years to donate to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, has special plans to bring this unique jersey to the people in order to bolster his campaign.
“I’ll be doing a signing at the [P.K. Subban] Atrium (a wing at the Children’s Hospital) on November 29 at 2:00pm [ET],” said Subban. “Fans can come and purchase one of my jerseys signed, autographed, and all proceeds go to the Children’s Foundation.”
Gallagher felt putting on the new jersey is a first taste of the Classic experience, which he believes will be extra special because it will involve Montreal’s biggest rival. Memories of another big game in Boston came flooding back to him Friday.
“When you can play a team in the playoffs like we did (in 2014), go seven games and win Game 7 on the road, it’s a pretty special feeling,” said Gallagher. “It definitely builds that rivalry, and the hatred and the respect level between the two teams is pretty high as well. So, it’s always fun when you play them, and I’m sure [the Winter Classic] will be no different.”
The Canadiens are in the midst of exploring options to try and host their own Winter Classic in the near future. Gilmore would not specify where such a game could take place.
“Parc Jean Drapeau (a few kilometres south of downtown Montreal) is one of many sites we can look at,” said Gilmore. “Nothing’s set in stone in terms of where we could do this because, really, the challenge is in identifying how we can do it from a technology standpoint, from a buildup standpoint talking with structural engineers.”
Gilmore also mentioned the possibility of constructing a temporary outdoor stadium to host such an event.
