Why Bruins wore white jerseys at home for Saturday’s game vs. Rangers

While NHL teams have largely worn dark colors for their home uniforms since the 2003-04 season, that color scheme was flipped in earlier decades — with Boston primarily wearing white home jerseys between 1970-71 and the 2002-03 seasons. 

With Boston overhauling their jerseys ahead of the 2025-26 season, Bruins vice president of marketing Andrea Mazzarelli said that this current campaign offered the ideal opportunity to switch things up — and pay tribute to the past. 

“When we launched these jerseys this season, a lot of the feedback from fans was that they love the whites and want to see it at home,” Mazzarelli said. “We haven’t had them at home, certainly since the early 2000s on any sort of regular basis. We obviously wore a light alternate jersey during our centennial [season] for Original Six matchups, our Era Nights. 

“And our fans are traditionalists, right? … Doing a common practice at the old [Boston] Garden, the white jersey, and we don’t have a third jersey this year. So an opportunity to show our fans something new at home and can just create a little bit of excitement midseason.” 

Unlike teams such as the Red Sox — who routinely cycle between several jerseys like their red alternates, Fenway Green City Connects, and yellow Boston-Marathon-inspired garb at Fenway Park — the process is a bit more complicated for NHL clubs, especially without a third sweater in the rotation. 

Beyond getting the timing right with a team on a short road trip, the Bruins also need to seek approval from both the NHL and the opposing team to coordinate the jersey reshuffle. 

“We check with our equipment team. We look at our schedule. Okay, we’re not on any sort of a quick turnaround where we’re traveling tonight and have to have the whites ready for travel. And then once we internally decide what we want to do, we then work with the league and say, Hey, let’s look at the schedule together,” Mazzarelli said. “Let’s find a date that works for a traveling team.

“Typically, they’ll want the traveling team to be coming in on a one-game road trip, so they don’t have to travel with two sets of jerseys. So we happened to get lucky. It’s an Original Six Saturday matchup with the Rangers here. So that’s kind of how it worked out. There’s a lot of coordination. The GMs communicate with one another — they sign off on it, certify it with the league, and then it gets into the schedule.”

The Bruins might have to wear their white sweaters on Causeway Street more often, as Boston trounced the Rangers, 10-2, on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden. 

Pavel Zacha and Marat Khusnutdinov became the first Bruins players to both score hat tricks in a single game since 1964.

“Those two guys too, having that experience, first-timers. … It’s great,” Marco Sturm said postgame. “Couldn’t pick a better day. “I love afternoon games. Playing against the Rangers, packed house, excitement. So when you add in a couple hattys, that’s great.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.