The State Of Which Hockey?

There's no denying that Minnesota is the self-appointed "State of Hockey" based on the number of players that state produces at various levels of hockey. From the minor-hockey leagues right up to the NCAA, NWHL, and NHL, there are a vast number of teams with thousands of players who call the state home. One of the best parts of the hockey community is visiting the Xcel Energy Center and seeing all the jerseys of Minnesota minor hockey around the building as the Wild have really done their part in fostering relationships with hockey programs across the state. Today, though, it might be time to tap the brakes a little.

Minnesota, if you hadn't heard, is the site of the 2022 Winter Classic, the annual January 1 game that the NHL moves from city to city. The Wild will be hosting the St. Louis Blues on the day new calendars are posted, so that means special jerseys will be unveiled for both teams during the course of the season. The Wild, though, decided to unveil their Winter Classic jersey today.

Jared Spurgeon, captain of the Minnesota Wild, got the task of being the model for Minnesota's January 1 jersey, and there's a lot to unpack on this jersey as some things are obvious, others are not, and there are handful of stretches that make yoga look easy. While the elements on their own would work, mashing them together on a jersey often results in something too busy and not focused enough. Will the Wild's 2022 Winter Classic jersey get a passing grade on this blog or are we venturing down another avenue of Keep It Simple, Stupid? Let's find out as we break down the jersey using the Wild's own press release.

We'll start with the first point they make.

"Elements from famed Minneapolis and St. Paul hockey squads were combined into one uniform. The base jersey design unites the St. Paul Saints look from the 1930s with the traditional Minnesota Wild color palette. The lettering, numbers, and other design elements on the jersey all come from those early hockey clubs that helped make Minnesota the 'State of Hockey.'"

What elements from which teams, exactly? Again, you can't just start mixing and matching parts to Frankenstein a tribute to a team that spanned a decade. As Vintage Minnesota Hockey points out, the Saints played in the American Hockey Association from 1930 until 1942, so there likely were a few sweaters those teams wore, but it would be helpful to know what elements came from which team. This vagueness isn't good when trying to gain an appreciation for hockey history in the state, so I view this as a negative.

Moving on...

"The two stars in the crest are a reference to Gemini, the twins constellation. They represent the two cities - St. Paul and Minneapolis. The state shape between them symbolizes how the cities come together to represent the capital of Minnesota. Both city's names are arched around these symbolic marks further emphasizing how they unite to rally around the sport of hockey and their team."

The image to the left is the constellation Gemini. The two main stars, Castor and Pollux, are the two stars that the Wild have chosen to use in this jersey, but the constellation Gemini is made up of more stars than just the "two heads" of the "twin constellation". It is fairly easy to spot in the northern hemisphere skies, but it is most prominent to the north of Orion in February, not January. Astromony Blog in Canada feels that this was a significant miss by the Wild, especially when you find out that Pollux is a dwarf red star, meaning that one of the stars could have been red while the other remained white.

Pulling the celestial info off that point that the Wild made, the state shape makes sense for Minnesota, but do you need the names of the cities if you're already representing them as stars on either side of the state? This decision made by the Redundancy Department of Redundancy seems a little unnecessary by Minnesota's own explanation. Having the names of the cities arch around the state for "further emphasis" just seems entirely unnecessary considering they're the Minnesota Wild. There are just too many little quibbles here, so it's death by a thousand cuts in making this up as a negative.

Continuing...

"Hockey's origins on ponds are reflected in the vintage white in the jersey, the canvas breezers inspiration in the pants and in the leather gloves. Canvas brown colored elbow patches represent long hours of wear and tear on beloved hockey gear."

I can accept that we're using faux throwbacks to the brown leather era of hockey, but the jersey isn't a tweed jacket. Why does it have elbow pads like one would see a university professor wearing? Hockey teams actually had tailors darn new wool into the sweaters to close holes. This seems beyond superfluous for a hockey jersey. I will, however, give the Wild some credit for the patch worn on the breezers seen to the right. That's a classy patch that reflects a ton of hockey heritage in Minnesota, and that's what this uniform should be doing in honouring all of Minnesota's hockey history.

Last point...

"Heritage embellishments like felt are used on the cresting, name and numbers. A special narrowed and shaped yoke was developed to nail a 1930s and 1940s hockey aesthetic."

Zero complaints with this. This is precisely how a throwback to previous eras should be - gather and use the same materials and aesthetics to represent those eras. I'm all for this, and I'm glad the Wild are following that path.

As I said at the beginning, there's a lot to unpack here. While the Wild have done some good things, there are questionable additionals and flimsy explanations for some of the other stuff. Do I hate the uniforms? No, I think that sentiment is incorrect, but I also wouldn't say I like them. They just feel too busy for the era they're supposed to represent, and that was the goal here, right?

If I was grading them, they get a very solid "meh". They aren't the worst by any means, but they could be made better with some very easy fixes. That's the catch with these 2022 Winter Classic Wild jerseys - they try to do way too much to bring forth the history of hockey in Minnesota when they could do so by simply being true to a specific era or sweater worn by a historical team.

The the history of hockey undoubtedly runs deep in Minnesota, but the uniforms still need to follow the "KISS" adage in being clear and concise as to which era or team they represent when worn on the ice. Keep it simple, Minnesota. You don't need to justify being the State of Hockey.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!