1992 Unified Team Andrei Kovalenko Jersey

The world outside of hockey was in a time of upheaval as the 1992 Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France were approaching.

Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev had ushered in a new era of reforms. The Central Committee of the Communist Party agreed to give up it's monopoly of power in February of 1990 and several Soviet Republics had declared their independence, with Lithuania and Estonia doing so in March of 1990 and Latvia following in May.

In March of 1991 a referendum vote was held and 76.4% was cast in favor of retaining the Soviet Union, but with a level of reforms. Seven republics boycotted the vote however, so the results were far from being as decisive as they sounded. In June of 1991, Boris Yeltsin won the post of President of Russia and took office on July 10, while Gorbachev still led the Soviet Union.

Yeltsin and Gorbachev

Yeltsin's policies favored the the dissolution of the Soviet Union, while Gorbachev attempted to restructure the Soviet Union as still a single entity. The New Union Treaty was set to be signed on August 20, 1991 which would convert the Soviet Union to a federation of independent republics with a common president and military force.

On August 19, 1991, hardliners looking to preserve the Soviet Union, and their own personal power in the process, put Gorbachev under house arrest and attempted to revoke his reforms which had granted unprecedented freedoms. They issued an emergency decree, suspended political activity and shut down most of the newspapers. Yeltsin quickly condemned their actions and the coup organizers attempted to have him arrested but failed.

Three days later the coup failed, it's organizers were arrested and Gorbachev returned to power as president of the Soviet Union, but with his powers now compromised.

On December 1, 1991, 90% of the voters in Ukraine voted for independence from the Soviet Union. Then a week later the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus met to discuss how to proceed and signed an agreement to dissolve the Soviet Union and replace it with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which Gorbachev described as an unconstitutional coup.

On December 12th, Russia ratified the Belavezha Accords and on December 21, 1991 representatives of all the member republics of the Soviet Union signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, confirming the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The same day, all of the former Soviet republics agreed to join the CIS with the exception of Georgia and the three Baltic States, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

Gorbachev resigned on December 25th and transferred any remaining powers of his office to Yeltsin and the Soviet hammer and sickle flag was lowered for the final time over the Kremlin on December 26th. By December 31, 1991, all official Soviet government operations had ceased and the individual republics assumed governmental control.

This greatly affected their World Junior Hockey Team, as they had left for Germany as the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist midway through the tournament. They eventually won the gold medal only to return home to find their country no longer existed!

The Olympics began on February 8, 1992 in Albertville, France with a joint team consisting of players from six of the former 15 Soviet republics, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Armenia competing as The Unified Team.

The Unified Team was placed in Group B and completed their schedule with a 4-1 record with dominant wins over Switzerland, Norway, France and a one goal victory over Canada and their only loss coming to Czechoslovakia, who would also cease to exist as a nation at the end of the year when it divided into the Czech Republic an Slovakia.

The Unified Team's second place finish in Group B saw them matched up against Finland, who finished third in Group A, on February 18th. The Unified Team won easily by a score of 6-1 to advance to the semifinals against the United States, who they easily dispatched 5-2 to earn a place in the gold medal game on this date in 1992.

There was no score after the first period of play, despite the first power play for Canada and three subsequent ones for the Unified Team, including a brief 5-on-3 for 12 seconds. The shots on goal were tied at 10-10 after one.

The game continued on and the tension grew as the second period also passed with no scoring. The Unified Team had the only power play of the period, but failed to convert. The Unified Team clearly carried the play in the second period, outshooting the Canadians 15-6.

Finally one minute and one second into the third period, Vyacheslav Butsayev solved Canadian goaltender Sean Burke with an assist from Evgeny Davidov. The game remained close for the next 14 minutes until Igor Boldin added to the Unified Team's lead when he scored from Nikolai Borschevsky and Vitali Prokhorov at 15:54, leaving the Canadians just four minutes to do what they had failed to do in the previous 56, score on goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov.

1:26 later they did just that, giving them hope that a comeback was in progress when Chris Lindberg scored with assists from Joe Juneau and Jason Woolley to reduce the Unified Team's lead back to one.

Vyacheslav Bykov sealed the gold for the Unified Team with their third goal of the period with just 1:09 remaining from Andrei Khomutov.

Surprisingly, none of the four goals in the period came on the power play despite two penalties for Canada and four for the Unified Team, which included 25 seconds of 5-on-3 midway through the period and 59 seconds more beginning at the 13:06 mark which Canada failed to convert. Despite the edge in powerplay time, the Canadians were outshot 12-6 in the third period for a final edge of 37-22 for the Unified Team, which consisted of 19 Russians, 2 Ukrainians, a Belorussian and a Lithuanian.

By the time the next Winter Olympics game just two years later, in an effort to separate them from the Summer Olympics, the political situation in the former Soviet Union had a chance to stabilize, as did the world of hockey, which saw the creation of many new national teams, including those of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan which were all former republics of the Soviet Union, but now had their own national teams competing in international hockey, as well as the additions of Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia, which were created as a result of the divisions of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

Russia, now fielding it's own team in 1994, placed fourth and out of the medals for the first time since they joined the Olympics as the Soviet Union in 1956.

Today's featured jersey is a 1992 Unified Team Andrei Kovalenko jersey as used in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. With the upheaval of the political situation in the Soviet Union in 1991, there was little time to sort out what kind of identity the brand new team made up of six of the 15 former Soviet republics would compete with. Mind you, the Unified Team was not the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Team, which was comprised 12 of the 15 Soviet republics and acted more like an association comparable to the European Union, rather than a country, such as the Soviet Union had been.

The Unified Team competed under the Olympic flag, and with just five weeks before the games were to commence, the jersey supplier to all the Olympic teams, Tackla of Finland, made up a set of the usual Soviet Union jerseys, only without the "CCCP" lettering across the chest. Note that they did not even continue across the chest or even alter the remaining stripes, which were still notched on the left hand side for the curvature of the "P"!

This was the one and only appearance for these stop-gap jerseys, as Russia competed in a new set of jerseys at the 1992 World Championships held just two months later in April as an independent nation, separate from the other five countries of the Unified Team.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Today's video selection is the gold medal game from the 1992 Olympics, as the Unified Team, wearing their jerseys without any national identity, captures the gold medal against Canada.

This next clip begins with the Unified Team's Group B game against Czechoslovakia and is of superior video quality compared to the previous clip of the gold medal game. It turned out to be their only loss of the tournament. The video continues with the Czechs playing against Sweden, Canada and finally the United States in the bronze medal game.

For those with the time, here is the complete game between the Unified Team and the United States from the 1992 Olympics.

1980-81 Quebec Nordiques Peter Stastny Jersey

Perhaps one of the mot unique back-to-back hat trick scenarios happened in a span of 48 hours, from February 20th to February 22nd in 1981.

Brothers Anton Stastny and Peter Stastny were quickly establishing themselves as dangerous offensive threats in the NHL despite the fact they were both NHL rookies, having defected from Czechoslovakia just prior to the opening of NHL training camps in the fall of 1980.

Peter and Anton Stastny

The previous season the Nordiques had failed to qualify for the NHL playoffs, finishing 19th out of 21 teams with a record of 25-44-11. It was their first season after moving over to the NHL from the now defunct WHA, where for the last previous five seasons they had been highly competitive, including two trips to the WHA Finals and a championship in 1977.

Their 1980-81 season started badly, winning their second game of the season while going 1-9-5 in their first 15 games. From that point through the end of January, the Nordiques went 10-15-8, but flipping the calendar to February also flipped a switch, as the Nordiques  went on an 8-2 tear leading up to their game on February 20th against the Vancouver Canucks, their seventh consecutive road game as they toured the western half of North America.

Their road trip started on the 8th in Boston. Four days later they played in Calgary, followed by Edmonton the next night on the 13th followed by Winnipeg on the 15th, Colorado on the 17th and Los Angeles the very next day before making the trip up to Vancouver for their game two days later on the 20th.

Peter Stastny with unique Czech diacritical marks over letters of his name

Peter Stastny opened the scoring at 5:54 with an assist from defenseman Kim Clackson. He quickly scored his second goal of the night at 6:25 from Clackson and his brother Anton. The Canucks got one back at 8:56 on a power play.

Anton Stastny extended the Nordiques lead just 1:07 into the second period on a power play from Marc Tardif and Jacques Richard. Anton then got his second goal of the period at 5:11 from brother Peter and Clackson, his third assist of the game - during a season he would play 61 games and record just five total assists!

The Canucks scored their second at 6:59 only to have Michel Goulet get one past Gary Bromley in the Vancouver goal at 9:51 at even strength from Peter and Anton Stastny. Richard closed out the second period scoring with a goal assisted by Robbie Ftorek to make it 6-2 for the Nordiques at 13:38.

Goulet continued the scoring parade for the resurgent road warriors at 7:39, unassisted. Peter Stastny completed his hat trick on the power play at 14:40 from defenseman Dale Hoganson and slightly over a minute later Anton Stastny finished his hat trick at 15:56 from the rugged John Wensink and brother Peter. The Canucks added a late goal to finish off the scoring, as the Nordiques romped to a 9-3 win as Dan Bouchard got the win for Quebec, who were actually outshot by Vancouver 27-26.

Anton Stastny ended the night with 3 goals and 2 assists while Peter had 3 goals and 3 assists for six points, giving the brothers a combined 6 goals and 11 points.

With their west coast swing to completed, the schedule makers rewarded the Nordiques with a game two nights later in...

Washington D. C. - as far from Vancouver on the 1981 NHL map as possible!

Bouchard once again got the start in goal for the streaking Nordiques while the Capitals countered with Mike Palmateer in an effort to derail the Stastny express. That effort lasted just 5:45 before Peter Stastny scored from Anton Stastny and Goulet to open the scoring. Anton got his 27th goal of the year to take the family lead from Peter at 9:46 from Peter and Goulet to make it 2-1 Quebec at 9:46.

Anton's 28th of the season and second of the game came at 2:37 of the second period from Peter to give Quebec back the lead at 3-2 even strength at 2:37. After Washington tied the game for the third time, it was Peter's turn to score, his second of the game from Anton and Hoganson a mere 19 seconds after Washington's equalizer.

Richard extended the Nordiques lead to 2 for the first time from Dale Hunter and Tardif at 13:27. Washington got one back only to have Peter complete his second consecutive hat trick from Anton and Pierre Lacroix at 18:51 on the power play as a result of a huge brawl at 18:26, the third outbreak of fisticuffs of the period. Lacroix extended the Nordiques lead to 7-4 after two periods from Richard and Peter Stastny at 19:41.

It was Anton's turn to complete the brother/brother hat tricks in back-to-back games (and take the lead in the Stastny family goal scoring race) with his third goal of the game and 29th of the season from Peter and Lacroix on the power play at just 34 seconds to ignite the fuse on a scoring explosion.

Richard scored at 1:07 (from Goulet and Anton Stastny), which chased Palmateer from the Capitals goal in favor of Wayne Stephenson, who gave up Richard's third goal of the game just 33 seconds later from Tardif and Hoganson. Washington responded 18 seconds later for the fourth goal of the period before it was even two minutes old. Less than two minutes later Washington scored again to make it 10-6.

Washington scored once more at 7:21 and Peter Stastny then got his fourth goal of the game to tie Anton at 29 goals for the season from Gary Lariviere and his brother Anton on the power play at 19:05 to make the final score 11-7.

Anton concluded the game with 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points, while Peter finished with 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points of his own. Their matching 8 point nights set several records, including Most Points in a Game by a Rookie, Most Points in a Road Game and Most Points by a Pair of Siblings in an NHL Game. They also became just the 6th and 7th players to record eight points in an NHL game, to date an accomplishment only achieved by 13 men, and they were the only two to do so in the same game.

Over the course of the two games on February 20th and 22nd, Anton totaled 6 goals and 7 assists for 13 points while Peter amassed 7 goals and 7 assists for 14 points, a combined 27 points in two games!

The Nordiques hot streak would continue through March, as they went 19-4-5 over the course of two months to reach the .500 mark on March 31st, only to drop two and tie one during their final three games in April to finish below .500 at 30-32-18. However, their strong run through February and March elevated them into the playoffs as the 11th seeded team out of 16, only to lose in five games to the 6th seeded Philadelphia Flyers. During their five playoff games, Peter (2 goals, 10 assists) and Anton (4G, 3A) would lead the club with a combined 17 points.

Still, the future looked bright for the Nordiques with the arrival of their Czech defectors, as Peter led the Nordiques in scoring with 39 goals and a record 70 assists as a rookie for 109 points, good for 6th in the NHL scoring race which earned him the 1981 Calder Trophy. While Anton finished third on the club with 85 points behind Richard's 103, he tied Peter's 39 goals for the season.

The brothers were joined the following season by a third brother Marian Stastny, and the Nordiques would go on to make the playoffs for the next six seasons, including two runs to the semifinals.

Peter's career would conclude with his being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998 and the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2000.

Today's featured jersey is a 1980-81 Quebec Nordiques Peter Stastny jersey as worn duiring his rookie season in the NHL when he set records for most assists by a rookie and joined the exclusive club of players with eight or more points in an NHL game on his way to winning the rookie of the year award.

The Nordiques adopted this style jersey during their fourth WHA season of 1975-76 and it remained in use through their final NHL season of 1994-95. As seen in today's featured jersey, the Nordiques used a lower quality heat sealed material for their names and numbers which does not age very well, leaving some game worn jerseys completely missing names and with numbers that are in danger of coming off. They were the final team to switch to sewn on tackle twill numbers and letters, which they did in 1991-92 when they finally changed to numbers trimmed in red.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1980-81 Quebec Nordiques Anton Stastny jersey as worn during his rookie season in the NHL when he also joined the exclusive club of players with eight or more points in an NHL game, amazingly on the same date as his brother.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Today's first video selection is the Legends of Hockey profile of Peter Stastny.

Here is Anton Stastny doing his part to contribute to the bad blood between the Canadiens and Nordiques, as he holds his own in a fight against Craig Ludwig.

1993-94 New York Islanders Keith Acton Jersey

15 year veteran Keith Acton played his junior hockey with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League. The center eased his way into the lineup his first season, but led the team in scoring in both 1976-77 and 1977-78, the latter season by 57 points! He also placed 4th in league scoring with his 128 points scored in 68 games. Peterborough later advanced to the Memorial Cup Final that season.

Acton was then drafted by the Montreal Canadiens who assigned him to the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American Hockey League for the 1978-79 season. He returned to Nova Scotia for the 1979-80 season, during which he also made his NHL debut with a pair of games for Montreal, scoring his first NHL point with an assist.

Having served his apprenticeship in the AHL, the hard working Acton made the jump to the NHL for his first full-time season in 1980-81, during which he scored 15 goals and 39 points. He really found his comfort level in 1981-82 when he scored 36 goals and 88 points in 78 games playing between Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur.

Acton's 1980-81 Montreal Canadiens jersey

Nine games into the 1983-84 season Acton was dealt to the Minnesota North Stars as part of a huge trade which sent Bobby Smith to Montreal. While he would never again approach his 88 point season again, Acton was a vital part of the Minnesota linueup with his tenacity, faceoff skills and strong two way play. He was a model of consistency with Minnesota for the next four and a half seasons, never playing less than 71 games and scoring between 55 and 58 points.

Acton's 1986-87 Minnesota North Stars jersey

Halfway through the 1987-88 season, Acton was acquired by the Edmonton Oilers and went on to win a Stanley Cup later that season.

Acton's 1987-88 Edmonton Oilers jersey

He started the 1988-89 season with the Oilers, but after 46 games was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers. There he played more of a defensive checking role, which limited his offensive numbers, but earned him a fan following with his continued hard work.

Acton's 1991-92 Philadelphia Flyers jersey with the NHL 75th Anniversary and 1992 NHL All-Star Game patches

Oddly, Acton was traded to the Winnipeg Jets prior to the 1989-90 season on September 28, 1989, but sent back to Philadelphia in a separate trade just one week later! Acton would remain a Flyer for four and a half seasons, but the Flyers entered a down period and failed to qualify for the playoffs after Acton's first season in Philadelphia.

Acton as a Flyers assistant captain in 1992-93

Following the 1992-93 season, Acton signed with the Washington Capitals but played just six games with Washington before being claimed off waivers by the New York Islanders, with whom he played 71 games that season, including his 1,000th NHL game on this date in 1994 in a gratifying 4-0 shutout of the Capitals.

Acton continued to play the next season with the Hershey Bears of the AHL, but retired after 12 games in which he scored 12 points.

Acton's 1994-95 Hershey Bears jersey

Acton's final NHL totals are 1,023 games played with 226 goals and 358 assists for 584 points. He also amassed 1,172 penalty minutes and scored 33 points in 66 playoff games and got his name engraved on the Stanley Cup in 1988 while with Edmonton.

Due to the fact Acton played on some non-playoff teams, he was able to participate in the World Championships for Canada on three occasions, 1986, 1990 and 1992.

Acton's style appears unchanged as he remains active in hockey as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs!

Today's featured jersey is a 1993-94 New York Islanders Keith Acton jersey as worn during his only season with the Islanders during which he competed in his 1,000th NHL game.

The Islanders original 1972-73 jerseys had a laceup collar and orange numbers. They quickly changed to white numbers for their second season and changed to a v-neck collar in 1977. Their jerseys underwent a minor striping tweak one year later, as a white stripe was added to the orange sleeve stripes and the blue in between the white and orange waist stripes went away, creating the jersey they would wear throughout their Stanley Cup dynasty of the 1980's.

The font for the numbers underwent some changes through time, including a switch to the same font used by the Pittsburgh Penguins for the 1991-92 season which featured squarish sleeve numbers and beveled angles the occasional odd serif, as shown on the "4" on today's featured jersey.

Hockey Day in America and the Heritage Classic

Today is the final day of Hockey Weekend Across America, a three day celebration of hockey in the United States.

As part of the fourth annual Hockey Weekend Across America, Friday was "Wear Your Jersey Day", which we were more than happy to participate in, choosing this fine example of the red, white and blue's finest moment, a 1980 United States Olympic Team Mike Eruzione jersey from "The Miracle On Ice", the number one moment in the IIHF countdown of the 100 Top Stories of the Century.

Saturday was "Bring a Friend to the Rink" day, and we obliged by bringing our mite and his friend to the first ever Minnesota Wild outdoor hockey practice today at the John Rose Oval.

We could not participate in the open skate which followed afterwards, as we were on our way to our mite's Minneapolis Storm youth hockey practice at Minneapolis' Parade Ice Garden.

Which bring us to today, which as been declared Hockey Day in America, during which NBC will have six hours of coverage beginning with a pregame show from Chicago at noon Eastern time (11AM Central), followed by three regional games: the Washington Capitals vs. the Buffalo Sabres, the Philadelphia Flyers vs. the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings vs. the Minnesota Wild.

When the early games are completed, NBC will then show the entire nation the Pittsburgh Penguins visiting the Chicago Blackhawks at 3:30. There will also be feature stories throughout the day on other grassroots level hockey stories.

After the conclusion of the Penguins and Blackhawks game, attention shifts north of the border to Canada, where the Montreal Canadiens will face off against the host Calgary Flames in the Heritage Classic outdoors at McMahon Stadium, home to the Calgary Stampede of the Canadian Football League at 6PM eastern, 4PM in Calgary.

As is the case with the previous four NHL outdoor games, both teams will wear special jerseys for the event. While Montreal's jersey is the familiar white jersey worn since 1947, the numbers on the jersey will be in the color combination worn during 1986 and 1989 (two color numbers, blue outlined in red) when the Canadiens faced off against the Flames in the Stanley Cup Finals. It will also have the Heritage Classic event patch on the right chest.

The Flames however, went "off the board" and created a very unusual and unexpected design, done in the striping pattern of the 1924 Calgary Tigers of the Western Canada Hockey League, the first team from Calgary to ever play for the Stanley Cup. The sweaters have the obvious addition of the Flames "flaming C" logo and the Heritage Classic patch on the right chest.

The Calgary Tigers, then and now

Here is video of the official unveiling of the Heritage Classic jerseys.

The game should avoid the weather issues that plagued this year's Winter Classic, with the forecast calling for temperatures reaching a high of -9ºC/16ºF and partly cloudy skies with the temperatures dropping through the game and the skies clearing to close out a great day of hockey on both sides of the border.

1976-77 New York Rangers Rod Gilbert Jersey

Rod Gilbert's career almost never happened, as during the 1959-60 season in junior hockey, with one game left in the season, he slipped on some trash thrown on the ice and fell backwards into the boards, fracturing his back and was paralyzed for two months and underwent spinal fusion surgery. He also got an infection in his tibia, raising talk of an amputation, and a staph infection in his back. In total Gilbert required eight months of recovery time.

Fully recovered, he began his career with the Rangers in 1960-61, getting into one game following the conclusion of his junior hockey season. His first NHL goal came in the playoffs following the 1961-62 season when he scored 5 points in 4 games before cracking the Rangers lineup the following season and getting into 70 games in 1962-63, scoring 11 goals and 31 points.

He really made strides in 1963-64, more than doubling his point total from the year prior, with 24 goals and 64 points and playing in the first of eight NHL All-Star Games, followed by another 25 goals and 61 points the next season and another All-Star Game appearance, all while playing with a back brace.

Another back surgery, and an incident while recovering in the hospital when he choked as a result of acute indigestion and was clinically dead for four minutes before being revived, caused him to miss more than half the season in 1965-66, but for the next 11 seasons Gilbert would play in a minimum of 64 games, with 9 of those seasons being 70 games or more.

Gilbert, teamed with center Jean Ratelle, whom Gilbert had played with as early as age 10, and team captain Vic Hadfield on left wing, would form the GAG Line, which stood for "Goal A Game" and would play together in the late 1960's and early 1970's, averaging over a goal a game.

The GAG Line waiting for another opportunity to score

In 1971-72 Ratelle, Hadfield and Gilbert would finish third, fourth and fifth in the NHL scoring race, which included Ratelle missing a month with a broken ankle! The trio was broken up in 1974 when Hadfield was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Gilbert's best seasons were 1971-72, with 43 goals, his career high, and 54 assists for 97 points and his only trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, and 1974-75 with 36 goals and 61 assists for a matching 97 points.

The 1975 trade of lifelong friend and linemate Ratelle took away some of Gilbert's spirit and likely hastened the end of his career, as Gilbert only played two more seasons following the trade.

Gilbert in 1975-76 with the Rangers 50th anniversary patch on his jersey

He would maintain his high level of play though, with 86 points in 70 games in 1975-76 and 75 points in 77 games in 1976-77 which included his 1,000th game on December 12, 1976 and his 1,000th point on this date in 1977 during a game in which he scored a goal and an assist against the New York Islanders in his 1,027th game.

As was the case with many players who began playing in the early 60's, his hair grew noticeably longer throughout his career!

He retire after playing 19 games of the 1977-78 season after 19 seasons with 1065 games played, 406 goals and 615 assists for 1,021 points.

Gilbert had his #7 retired by the Rangers in 1979, astonishingly the first Ranger to ever have his number retired in the then 53 years of Rangers history! He was later inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1982.

Internationally, Gilbert played for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, scoring 1 goal and 3 assists in 6 games, and again for Canada in the 1977 World Championships with 4 points in 9 games.

Gilbert posing while wearing the 1972 Summit Series Canada jersey

Today's featured jersey is a 1976-77 New York Rangers Rod Gilbert jersey from his final season in the NHL. This jersey style was first introduced by General Manager John Ferguson Sr. in the 1976-77 season and was the first departure in club history from the iconic diagonal "RANGERS" cresting.

After proving unpopular with the tradition bound Rangers fans, this style was only used for two seasons, the first without names on the back of the road jerseys as featured today, and, thanks to a new NHL rule requiring them, with names on the back for the 1977-78 season. Names were always worn on the home white jerseys of this style.

After being let go by the Rangers in 1978, Ferguson became the general manager of the Winnipeg Jets and reprised the exact same jersey template for the Jets beginning with their inaugural NHL season in 1979, with the only differences being the font for the name and numbers and, naturally, the team logo. The Jets would use this style all throughout the 1980's.

Today's video shows the hight of Gilbert's fame and popularity, as he is featured in a commercial for Mercury cars in 1970.

Next, we are pleased to present the excellent "Legends of Hockey" profile of

Rod Gilbert.

1991-92 Boston Bruins Andy Moog Jersey

While playing for the Wichita Wind of the Central Hockey League, injuries to goaltenders Ron Low and Eddie Mio forced the Edmonton Oilers to call up Andy Moog, who was born on this date in 1960. Moog would play in seven games late in the season and then nine playoff games, which included an opening round sweep of the Montreal Canadiens.

With the emergence of Grant Fuhr, Moog spent the majority of the 1981-82 season back in Wichita, but did see action in eight NHL games with the Oilers. Moog established himself as a full time Oiler the following season, playing in 50 regular season games and was the Oilers goalie of choice during their first deep playoff run to the 1983 Stanley Cup Finals. He posted a postseason record of 11-5, but the Oilers fell to the New York Islanders dynasty.

He continued to split time with Fuhr for the next four seasons, playing in 38, 39, 47 and 46 games during that time period as the Oilers won Stanley Cups in 1984, 1985 and 1987. While Fuhr played the majority of the games in the 1984 playoffs, he was injured in Game 3 of the Finals and Moog stepped in and won games 4 and 5 to bring Edmonton their first Stanley Cup championship.

After three more seasons of playing behind Fuhr in the playoffs in particular, Moog asked to be traded and left the Oilers to join the Canadian National Team in 1987-88. After playing 27 games of their pre-Olympic schedule, Moog competed in the 1988 Olympics hosted by Calgary. Although Moog went 4-0, Canada finished 5-2-1 and finished out of the medals in forth.

Following the Olympics, Moog was sent to the Boston Bruins at the trade deadline. Moog went 4-2 during the final games of the regular season and the Bruins advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, but were defeated by Edmonton.

The Bruins reliance on Moog grew each season as his games played increased from 41 in 1988-89, to 46, 51 and then a carer high of 62 in 1991-92. The Bruins again made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1989-90 as Moog went 13-7 in 20 games. They also had deep playoff runs with appearances in the conference finals in both 1991 and 1992 with Moog handling the bulk of the work with 19 and then 15 postseason games.

Still the Bruins number one goalie, he played 55 games in 1992-93, winning a career high 37 games, but following a first round playoff exit after three straight overtime losses, Moog was dealt to the Dallas Stars in time for their first season in Texas.

For four seasons Moog was the Stars number one netminder, with a high of 28 wins in 1996-97. His final NHL season was with the Montreal Canadiens, a team he had eliminated from the playoffs four times, after signing as a free agent. There he split time with Jocelyn Thibault and made 42 appearances before retiring.

His final NHL totals are 713 games over 18 seasons, 372 wins, 209 losses and 88 ties. He registered 28 shutouts and a career 3.13 goals against average. In the playoffs he saw action in 132 games, a testament to the strong clubs he played for throughout his career, going 66-57 and had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup three times.

He as also known for his goalie mask, which was once named the scariest in NHL history by The Hockey News in 2008.

Today's featured jersey is a 1991-92 Boston Bruins Andy Moog jersey. The 1991-92 season was the NHL's 75th Anniversary season, and as part of the celebrations, the Original 6 clubs all wore Turn Back the Clock jerseys throughout the season, particularly when they played against other Original 6 teams.

The Bruins jersey was based on their 1934-35 jerseys, the first year the Bruins were black and gold after wearing brown and gold since 1924.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers Andy Moog jersey as worn when Moog was in goal for the clinching Game 5 of the Oilers first Stanley Cup victory to begin their dynasty.

This jersey has been altered for Moog, specifically having the waist and sleeves shortened, which hides the Nike logo at the bottom of the jersey.

This style of Oilers jersey dates back to their entry into the NHL in 1979-80. Two seasons later this particular style arrived with a slightly lighter shade of blue and a new customization package which included three color numbers. This style would become an icon following the success of the Oilers and Wayne Gretzky in particular as it would remain unchanged through 1995-96 until being replaced by a new, darker color scheme. The blue road version would return in 2008-09 as a throwback alternate and was subsequently promoted to the club's primary jersey once again, only this time as the home jersey with the change from wearing light to dark jerseys as home in 2003-04.

Today's video is a highlight package of Moog highlights set to "music". It's up to you to decide if this is clever or cheesy. Or Both.