The Hockey News - Greatest Jerseys of All Time

Today we are taking the opportunity to let you know about the new collector's edition of The Hockey News titled "The Hockey News Greatest Jerseys of All Time".

It just hit the newsstands in our area and is 172 pages focused on nothing but hockey jerseys. It's like we've died and gone to heaven!

The issue starts out with a feature on the oldest jersey at the Hockey Hall of Fame, a 1908 Montreal Wanderers sweater.

There are brief features on youth sweaters of famous players, numbering conventions, Winter Classic throwbacks and then beautifully photographed two-page spreads of Original Six significant jerseys.

The issue then moves onto why hockey jerseys are the best sports uniforms, a discussion if white or colored jerseys should be worn at home (white, of course!), a debate of "jerseys" vs. "sweaters", an homage to the late, great Cooperalls (the short-lived long pants look of the 80's) and a nice history on the evolution from the original sweaters to today's current looks.

There's a tribute to the beloved children's book "The Hockey Sweater" and a look at Mike Sillinger, who we profiled here earlier this year, and other well-travelled players who have worn many different jerseys throughout their long careers.

One of our favorite pieces is a profile of friend of Third String Goalie. Anthony Ferra (who is personally responsible for several important additions to the Third String Goalie Collection) and his quest to obtain a game worn jersey from every hockey nation in the world. Countries that you would never expect to even have a hockey team - like Mongolia, New Zealand, Mexico, Hong Kong, Israel and South Africa for example.

The issue continues with a look at international jerseys and the use of the captain's "C" on jerseys.

Then things get really interesting with a profile of Hockey Hall of Fame curator Phil Pritchard, who you should recognize at "The Keeper of The Cup". It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

In addition to his travels with the Stanley Cup, Phil is also responsible for the 1,700 jerseys in the Hall of Fame's collection. It's a fascinating article that looks at various jerseys and how they came to be in the Hall's collection, along with some of Pritchard's personal favorites.

The fight strap is given a page, as well as a look at jersey shoulder patches and logos. Next up is a story about the search for the Holy Grail of hockey jerseys, a 1920's Hamilton Tigers jersey last seen in 1995 and ranked by Sports Illustrated as one of sport's 25 lost treasures.

Following the Hamilton Tigers article, we must take a moment and blow our own horn for a moment, as the next article beginning on page 58 was written by us here at Third String Goalie and is entitled "Dressed to Shrill". Yes, The Hockey News asked us to reprise our summer theme of "The Curious, Weird and Ugly Collection" in what is essentially a Top Ten Worst Jerseys list, although we are actually quite fond of a select few of them - a few. Running five pages long, with a sidebar giving some background information on the author, it's a thrill of a lifetime to have been asked to contribute to the bible of hockey and we want to take a moment to thank Brian Costello for the opportunity and his belief in us and to Monika Moravan for her time as well.

After an invitation to donate to the Hockey Hall of Fame any hockey artifacts you might possess, something I plan on doing some day, is a look at the Hockey News feature Jersey Hound, followed by a piece on celebrities spotted wearing hockey jerseys, a profile on game worn dealer MeiGray and another on former Hockey Hall of Fame curator Maurice "Lefty" Reid and his quest for a jersey from each WHA club is followed by a 34 page pictorial of sweaters of every vintage and theme imaginable.

The magazine then turns to the current NHL and does a team by team profile of each of the current clubs with an eye toward their jersey history, including the longest name ever to don a particular franchise's jersey. The fear some of those names must have put into the sewers!

The issue concludes with some of the best reader submitted beer league jerseys, a look at retired numbers in the NHL and finally a tribute to the hockey jersey by Brian Costello.

Needless to say we are very excited about this Collector's Edition of The Hockey News and consider it required reading for all followers of Third String Goalie and urge you to pick up your copy today or you can order it direct from The Hockey News online store.

Dasherboard: In other shopping news, we are pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the brand spankin' new Third String Goalie Online Store! Just click on the photo below, which is also now permanently featured in the right hand column of this page, and the featured design on our full line of products!

There's a wide variety of shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, caps, kids clothing and a few assorted items such as mugs and mousepads. It's produced by Cafe Press, whom we have dealt with for sometime now and they produce very nice, quality goods.

You may have also noticed a bit of activity over on the right hand column as we have added a few banners for products and services recently. We wanted to take a moment and let you know that these members of the "Third String Goalie Marketplace" are all chosen to be on our website by us at Third String Goalie and are almost universally companies we have dealt with directly and have had positive experiences with, unlike the previous "text ads" you may have seen here prior to September, which were chosen by Google based on key words commonly appearing in this blog, and were sometimes irrelevant to what we do here or often ads for overseas manufacturers of knockoff merchandise - hockey jerseys in particular - which we were less than comfortable having on this blog and will no longer be running on this site.