Blackhawks debut new green Hometown Remix jerseys to tepid fan reaction

The Blackhawks debuted their new green jerseys — a not-so-well-kept secret for the last several weeks — on Monday against the Avalanche.

They’re quite similar to the jerseys the Hawks used to wear for St. Patrick’s Day before the NHL banned specialty warmup jerseys in 2023. The color theme is built out from the green second feather in the primary logo, and the shoulders are adorned with the alternate ‘‘crossed C’’ logo.

Those green St. Patrick’s jerseys long have been popular, and you typically will see a few fans donning them at the United Center at any given game. In the past, not many NHL teams had been able to pull off a color outside their usual scheme so well.

But that changed Monday with the official release of the Hometown Remix, Fanatics’ new set of alternate jerseys for all 32 teams.

There are some striking looks in the collection. The Panthers nailed their pink ‘‘Miami Vice’’ sweater, as did the Ducks with their green, purple and yellow ‘‘Mighty Ducks’’ sweater. The Kings now have a new purple throwback jersey, the Bruins now have a brown jersey and a bunch of teams now have black jerseys with vivid accents.

The originality and creativity of many of those jerseys likely contributed to a lackluster fan reaction toward the Hawks’ new green sweaters, considering those already have been done before in almost identical form. They’re also quite similar to the Stars’ regular home jerseys, which many people pointed out.

It’s worth noting there are a few differences from the old St. Patrick’s jerseys. The secondary color is tan, not white, and the collar is now black (with tan laces below it). Four stars — like those in the Chicago flag — are embossed into the sleeve stripes. I personally liked the brownish-tan gloves the Hawks wore Monday.

But Hawks fans have been inundated with jersey releases lately, considering the team wore special red centennial jerseys last season and debuted new black jerseys — a nostalgic throwback to the 1990s — last November that remain in the rotation this season.

And given the Hawks’ on-ice struggles, it simply might be impossible for the fan base to get too excited about anything right now.

The Hawks will wear these new green jerseys again Dec. 29 against the Golden Knights, plus four times between March 8 and March 16 leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. They typically wear their black alternate jerseys on Fridays.

Internal data

Hawks coach Jeff Blashill's morning news conference Monday contained a couple interesting tidbits.

The first pertained to the team's games last week against the Kings and Bruins, which Blashill said were "two of the top five games we've had in the last four years" based on a stat they track internally called "on-puck action...which basically measures execution offensively."

The Hawks haven't played many great games over the last four years, which sets a low bar. And they did play very well in those two games last week, despite losing to the Bruins. In between, their "on-puck action" in the Red Wings game was surely much worse.

Three centers

The second interesting tidbit pertained to Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar and Anton Frondell all playing center, with Blashill squashing any hopes of Frondell moving up to Bedard's wing anytime soon.

"[I'm] not in a hurry to move any of those guys out of their natural positions," he said. "Ultimately, you have to have three dangerous lines...or at least three lines with big roles in this league to be a really good team."