Pastrnak pays homage to Notre Dame football with Winter Classic sticks

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- David Pastrnak is bringing his own unique style to the 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.

The Boston Bruins forward teamed up with Bauer to create custom stick varieties that will pay homage to Notre Dame football for the game against the Chicago Blackhawks at Notre Dame Stadium on Tuesday (1 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVAS).
"[Bauer] gave me the opportunity to custom my sticks, so it was a lot of fun and I'm thankful I could do that," Pastrnak said. "It's a special opportunity to have it for a game like the Winter Classic."

Pastrnak, who said he has at least 10 sticks because he breaks them often, will have a multitude of details unique to this Winter Classic on his equipment, including yard markers like those found on a football field on each side.
"That was the one thing we were going to put on there," Pastrnak said. "It's Notre Dame and at the football stadium at Notre Dame, where football is pretty big. That was pretty much the No. 1 thing I said I wanted on my stick. It looks pretty cool."
He also included outlines of the buildings on Notre Dame's campus and the Boston skyline, each painted gold with Irish shamrocks under them, and the Winter Classic cursive logo with the date, teams and venue. The quote "What we do in life echoes in eternity" with attribution to Maximus, Russell Crowe's character from "Gladiator," is on the opposite side.
Pastrnak put some personal touches on his sticks too, including the lion from the Czech Republic flag and an emoji of a dish of pasta with red sauce he included because of his nickname, "Pasta."
"Obviously, if I am customizing my own sticks the pasta emoji can't be missing there," Pastrnak said. "It's fun to have it there.
"Hopefully we win and maybe I'll have to put it on all of my sticks."