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Boston Bruins: Team experimenting with new pucks at Winter Classic

By Sam Minton

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JANUARY 02: A referee places the puck on the ice during the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park on January 2, 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JANUARY 02: A referee places the puck on the ice during the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park on January 2, 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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The NHL will be breaking out some new tech when the Boston Bruins head outdoors to play the Chicago Blackhawks on New Years Day.

The NHL has tried to bring technology to the game of hockey for a while now. We all remember FoxTrax and the glowing pucks across the Television screen. The Boston Bruins will be playing with the NHL’s newest experiment in the Winter Classic this season.

Boston will be playing with color changing pucks. The technology is based on Coors color changing beer can technology. Instead of the Rocky Mountains turning blue the puck will go from a purple glow to clear.

Now this technology isn’t being used to make the puck look good and easier to see. There is some functionality behind it.

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When the officials see purple they will know that the puck is fresh and below freezing as the temperature rises the puck will become clearer indicating that it needs to be switched out.

The temperature of the puck is actually rather important to the game. When a puck is above freezing it bounces across the ice more and is harder to control. Now officials will have a visual confirmation that they need to switch out a puck.

There is already the added element of playing outdoors that makes the game harder. You don’t want the puck bouncing all over the place.

This will be the 3rd time that the Bruins play in the Winter Classic. They defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 in 2010 at Fenway Park and were blown out by the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 in 2016 at Gillette Stadium.

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The only color that Boston Bruins fans hope to see is the red of the goal light behind the Blackhawks net. Hopefully Boston will have the luck of the Irish on their side and end up with the victory on New Years Day.

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