Ranking the NHL Winter Classic Uni Matchups

How did this year’s game stack up against previous editions?

The NHL held its 2024 Winter Classic game on New Year’s Day, with the Kraken hosting the Golden Knights at the Seattle Mariners’ ballpark. The annual outdoor game debuted in 2008, but the 2013 edition was cancelled due to the owners’ lockout and 2021’s game was scrapped due to the pandemic, which means this year’s installment was the 15th Winter Classic — a milestone number that feels ripe for a Uni Watch Power Rankings treatment.

In assessing each of the 15 games, I used two primary criteria:

1. Was it a good-looking game?

2. Was it a good-looking Winter Classic game? From my perspective, the Winter Classic should always look retro or even old-timey, the better to capture the sense of nostalgia that so many of us attach to outdoor hockey. If your primary uniforms look sharp, that’s fine for normal games, but not for the Classic. There should be a sense of occasion, and also a sense of history.

The reality, of course, is that almost all the Winter Classics have been good-looking games. So if I say one uni was a “dud” or another “left me cold,” I don’t mean those to be devastating critiques; I’m just talking about the larger context of Winter Classic aesthetics — a context that has generally set a high bar.

One other caveat: As most of you know, I’ve long been opposed to the use of Native American iconography on sports uniforms, so the four Winter Classics involving Chicago — tied for the most of any team! — ended up at the bottom of my rankings (although, as you’ll see, those assessments weren’t based solely on the Native factor). I’m aware of the counter-arguments regarding this issue, but I respectfully disagree with them and would prefer not to relitigate this issue here. If you feel differently, I understand, but I hope we can agree to disagree instead of arguing. Thanks.

Aside from the Native issue, however, I welcome any and all debate about my choices. That’s the whole point of rankings like these — to argue about them! — so feel free to voice your opinions in the comments.

One other note: Remember our recent exploration of teams wearing colored helmets with their white uniforms? As you’ll see in the photos accompanying this article, a surprising number of teams did that in the Winter Classic!

Okay, enough preliminaries. Here we go with the rankings, counting down from worst to first, beginning with…

15) 2019: Bruins vs. Chicago

I’m not a fan of Chicago’s Native American-themed uniforms to begin with, but this was a particularly odd-looking game, because it seemed like one team was playing in color while the other was stuck in black-and-white. A visual dud, at least by Winter Classic standards.