The Monsters Look Good

Back in October, it was announced that the AHL's Cleveland Monsters would take their March 4, 2023 game outdoors to FirstEnergy Stadium where they'd host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. There's a rich history of hockey in Cleveland, so there were all sorts of options for the Monsters to use if they were looking to go historical with their uniforms. The Monsters, meanwhile, have called Cleveland home since 2007 when they were the Lake Erie Monsters, so they also could have some leeway if they had another Lake Erie design they wanted to use. Instead, the Monsters stuck to their current look, and they'll wear the jerseys you see above on March 4 in their outdoor game!

As seen to the left, the uniforms are fairly simply with good striping, a great logo, and a unique base colour. The black-and-champagne stripes work well in breaking up all that blue colour while keeping the traditional hockey sweater look, and the black pants and gloves provide additional contrast. The new logo being used for this game shifts the angled view of the Cleveland Monsters logo to a head-on view, and it works extremely well. Might I even say that I like it more than their normal logo? Because I do. If they put out ballcaps and t-shirts with this logo on it, I'd be mistaken for a Cleveland Monsters fan. That's how much I like the logo. On the shoulders are the Columbus Blue Jackets logo - their NHL affiliate - and the Outdoor Classic logo made for this event. Overall, a very solid uniform for the game!

I assume the Monsters will use their normal fonts for names and numbers on the back with the switch being black numbers outlined by the champagne colour similar to the stripes on these outdoor jerseys, and the names being plated in the champagne colour. If that's the case, the Monsters don't lose any marks for this choice as the font is easy to read and it stays within their font scheme. Let's hope they're going with that because it works.

Nothing has been revealed for the Penguins yet, so we'll await to see what they'll wear on March 4. I know they wore this jersey as a warmup jersey back in 2015-16, but how great would that look across from the blue Monsters jerseys? It's light enough that it doesn't have to be white so we'd get a colour-on-colour game outdoors, and the alternate Penguins logo just looks so good. Maybe we'll see something similar to this by the Penguins? One can hope.

If there's one guarantee, the Cleveland Monsters will look good. Yes, the jerseys could use a shoulder yoke as a touch of colour up top, but these jerseys take the elements of all good jerseys - simple design, clean look, contrasting colours, and a great logo - and put them together. If the Monsters use these as their alternate jerseys moving forward, you won't hear me complain either.

Monsters are normally thought of as scary, unfriendly entities that scare the heck out of anyone they cross. The Cleveland Monsters are going more for a Cookie Monster or Sully from Monsters Inc. with these jerseys in that you wouldn't mind hanging out at a hockey game with them. The Monsters are hoping they'll get to hang out with 67,895 fans on March 4, and I have a feeling many of the fans in the stands at FirstEnergy Stadium will be decked out in blue as well!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!