Morning Skate: Stripes

Welcome to a new week, folks!

This is, for the most part, the last hockey-free week on your calendars for a while, as the preseason will start a week from yesterday.

Hang in there — we almost made it through the offseason without hating each other (or at least without hating each other too much).

The big news from Bruins Land over the weekend was the unveiling of this centennial season’s home, away, and alternate jerseys.

The jerseys were released in a very understated way: a fashion show, jet and all, at Logan Airport.

(It feels like “big event” and “over-the-top” are going to be common themes with this coming season, though to be fair, you only turn 100 once.)

Overall, I think the jerseys are fine. The alternate is the clear winner, and I share most peoples’ confusion with the inclusion of the metallic/shiny gold.

However, I’ve also read in several places that the metallic effect looks a lot better in person than it did in photos, so I’ll reserve full judgment for now.

My biggest issue with the home and away jerseys is the stripes — why are there so many stripes? You could have cut your stripe allocation in half and been fine.

Elsewhere in the hockey world, Mike Babcock’s redemption tour didn’t even make it to the preseason and Connor Bedard got a hat trick in his prospects camp debut.

Maybe sometimes you can, in fact, judge a book by its cover.

What’s on tap for today?