Third String Goalie

2008-09 Las Vegas Wranglers "Rod Blagojevich" Tyler Mosienko Jersey

2012-01-30T05:00:00.008-06:00

On this date in 2009, the Las Vegas Wranglers continued a minor league tradition of unusual promotions when they held Rod Blagojevich Prision Uniform Night to have some fun at the expense of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was in hot water after being accused of selling President Barack Obama's vacated state senate seat.

Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama

The promotion called for the Wranglers to wear old-time prison uniforms of black and white stripes, while their opponents, the Bakersfield Condors, would wear modern "Department of Corrections" orange jumpsuit inspired prisoner uniforms. Additionally, the referees were outfitted with prison guard uniforms, complete with neckties, while the goal judges wore a courtroom judge's powdered wig.

The stunt earned the Wranglers the anticipated publicity, as reports of the promotion were repeated all over the internet's various hockey media outlets and blogs in addition to commentary on any number of chat forums.

For the record, Bakersfield won the game by a score of 3-1 in front of 6,327 fans.

After being arrested on corruption charges, Blagojevich was indicted by a federal grand jury in April of 2008. By January of 2009 he was impeached as Governor by votes of 114-1 in the state house and 59-0 in the senate, with the only vote in his defense coming thanks to his wife's sister!

What made Blagojevich ripe for having fun poked at by the Wranglers was his slick appearance and often poor judgment when handling his legal situation, as he did not shy away from publicity, regardless of how unseemly it was for a once high ranking public official, combined with his cocky, if not arrogant, attitude during his public interviews regarding his legal troubles, which frequently resulted in controversial and regrettable statements.

Rod Blagojevich

Unable to leave the country while facing trial, his wife Patti Blagojevich appeared on "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!", during which she ate a tarantula, while Blagojevich himself appeared on "The Celebrity Apprentice", during which he was fired by Donald Trump during the season's fourth of 11 episodes due to being accused of poor quality leadership who lacked in communication and technology skills. He also made an appearance at a comic book convention, charging $50 for an autograph and $80 for a photo.

He was convicted of lying to the FBI on August 17, 2010, while the other 23 counts all resulted in a hung jury. A retrial was sought on the 23 mistrial counts, and on June 27, 2011 Blagojevich was found guilty on 17 out of the 20 charges he was retried on. He was subsequently sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on December 7, 2011, and will have to serve a minimum of 12 of those years once he reports to prison in March of 2012.

Today's featured jersey is a 2008-09 Las Vegas Wranglers "Rod Blagojevich" Tyler Mosienko jersey. Mosienko led the Wranglers in scoring that season with 18 goals and 30 assists for 48 points playing in just 50 of the Wranglers 73 games. One of his goals was the only goal the Wranglers scored on Rod Blagojevich Night. Mosienko, grandson of record holding Hall of Famer Bill Mosienko, played junior hockey for five seasons for the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL before joining the Greenville Grrrowl of the ECHL. He joined Las Vegas in 2006-07 for the first of three seasons. During his time with Las Vegas he also made appearances with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (7 games), Manchester Monarchs (9) and Rockford Ice Hogs (15) of the AHL over those two seasons.

He spent the 2009-10 season in the German DEL with the Nuremberg Ice Tigers before splitting his 2010-11 season between Las Vegas (43 games) and the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL (22 games). He is currently the all-time franchise leading scorer with 73 goals and 113 assists for 206 points in 228 games.

Today's video segment are clips from the before and then during game, including Mosienko's goal, the only one scored by the Wranglers that night.

Finally, Blagojevich appearing on Celebrity Apprentice.

1947 NHL All-Star Game Edgar Laprade Jersey

2012-01-29T05:00:00.003-06:00

With the 59th NHL All-Star Game being held today, we take to opportunity to have a look back at the origins of the all-star game.

The first of four benefit/memorial games was originally held in 1908 as a benefit for the family of drowning victim Hod Stuart, followed by three in the 1930's, with the first coming in 1934 as a benefit fundraiser for the Toronto Maple Leafs Irvine "Ace" Bailey, who had been hit from behind by Eddie Shore, which caused Bailey to violently flip over backward, hitting his head on the ice so hard it fractured his skull and ended his career.

The lasting image from the game is the cordial handshake which took place between Bailey and Shore to a resounding ovation from the crowd.

Bailey greets Shore to a rousing ovation prior to the game

The second came in 1936 as a benefit for the family of the late Howie Morenz of the Montreal Canadiens, who died in the hospital in March, 1937, five weeks after breaking his leg in four places during a game.

A ticket stub from the Howie Morenz Memorial Game

The final one came in on October 29, 1939 to benefit the family of Babe Siebert, a 14 year NHL veteran who had been named coach of the Montreal Canadiens upon his retirement as a player in March of 1939, only he drowned in Lake Huron that August before he was ever able to coach the Canadiens.

The program from the 1939 Babe Siebert benefit All-Star Game

Subsequently, there were no NHL All-Star games held until the Players Committee proposed it as an annual charity game to benefit the Players Emergency Fund as well as a players pension fund eight years later in 1947.

The first of the annual games was held in Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens,which was upgraded to have glass on the boards instead of the usual fencing that was common at the time, on October 13, 1947. When it first began, the format called for the defending Stanley Cup Champions to take on an All-Star team made up of players from the other five Original 6 clubs, with the game to be played prior to the start of the regular season.

The inaugural 1947 NHL All-Star Game program

The scheduling of the game would remain during the pre-season (or at least very early in the season) through 1965. It was then shifted to a mid-season spot on the calendar for the 1966-67 season, which meant there was no game during the 1966 calendar year.

The practice of having the defending Stanley Cup champions take on the All-Stars lasted through 1968 before a change was made to have the Eastern Conference battle the Western Conference All-Stars. The only exception to this format was in 1951 and 1952, when the end of season First Team All-Stars played against the end of season Second Team All-Stars, with both games ending in ties.

During the era when the Stanley Cup champions would face an All-Star team, the All-Stars prevailed nine times, the cup champions seven and there were three ties.

Prior to the first NHL All-Star Game, the players attended a Canadian Football League game and were treated to a fine dinner. Gifts were given to all the players, with the defending champion Maple Leafs each receiving extra gifts, such as gold cufflinks, a lifetime pass to Maple Leaf Gardens, a coat, a hat and tie, a lighter and cigarette box, golf balls, a pocket knife, a team photo, a silver tea tray and and engraved gold watch with a silver chain.

The game was played in front of 14,169 fans who saw the Maple Leafs leading at the conclusion of the first period by a score of 1-0.

They extended their lead with a second goal just 1:03 into the second period before the All-Stars got on the board at 4:39. The Maple Leafs responded just 22 seconds later to restore their two goal margin, but the All-Stars scored their second of the period just before the halfway point of the game to make it 3-2 for Toronto.

Maurice Richard tied the game with an unassisted goal just 28 seconds into the third period, followed by Doug Bentley's game winner less than a minute later as the All-Stars would come from behind to win 4-3.

The reunion of the original 1947 All-Star Game players in 2000 at

the 50th NHL All-Star Game, also held in Toronto

The Maple Leafs wore their home white sweaters for the game and the referees wore dark blue sweaters.

The NHL All-Stars wore newly designed red sweaters adorned with the NHL logo and white stars on the chest and short white and blue stripes which repeated down the length of the arms and across the shoulders.

The 1947 NHL All-Star Team, the first to wear the new All-Star design

This style of All-Star jersey would remain in use through 1954 until a change in NHL policy saw the home teams now wearing their dark jerseys, which led to a revival of the white version of this sweater for the All-Stars first used in 1951 and 1952 when the format of the game was tweaked to feature the NHL First Team All-Stars facing the Second Team All-Stars with one team wearing the red version and the other the white.

The 1951 NHL Second All-Star Team, the first to wear the white version of the All-Star sweater

The white sweaters were then used from 1955 through 1959 until a new design was finally adopted in 1960. This style jersey was revived for the 1993 NHL All-Star Game in Philadelphia during the NHL's 75th Anniversary season.

aaaa

Today's featured jersey is a 1947 NHL All-Star Edgar Laprade jersey as worn in the first of the annual NHL All-Star Games. This design was created specifically for that particular event and would remain in use through 1959, although sometimes in a white version.

1992-93 Washington Capitals Michal Pivoňka Jersey

2012-01-28T05:00:00.013-06:00

Having come up through the Dukla Jihlava junior program, Michal Pivoňka, born on this date in 1966, first caught the attention of NHL scouts at the 1983 European Junior Championships, when he scored 4 goals and 9 points in 5 games for Czechoslovakia at the age of 16. The following season he took part in both the European Juniors (7 points in 5 games) and the World Juniors (3 points in 7 games), winning a bronze medal, which led to his being drafted by the Washington Capitals 59th overall in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft later that spring despite being located behind the Iron Curtain.

The season following his being drafted, he moved up to the Dukla Jihlava senior team, where the playmaking center scored 19 points in 33 games as an 18 year old rookie. Still eligible, he again competed in the World Juniors, with a standout 9 goals and 13 points in 7 games on his way to a silver medal, as well as making his World Championship debut later that spring as the Czechs captured the gold medal.

He returned to Jihlava for one more season in 1985-86 as well as making his final World Junior appearance, scoring 10 points in 7 games, plus competing in his second World Championships.

Now eager to play in the NHL, enticed by a five-year, $1 million contract, during the summer of 1986, Pivoňka made the life-changing decision to defect to the United States at just 20 years of age. After supposedly leaving for Yugoslavia to take a vacation, he and fiancee snuck into Italy, eventually making their way to Rome where they walked into the United States Embassy, where the staff had been told to expect their arrival. There, the pair declared their intention to come to the United States, and after being granted refugee status, two days later they hurriedly arrived in New York.

"There I was," he recalled. "I showed up here, an illegal defector. For me, the biggest worry was leaving my family behind and all the questions about the future. What if I'm not good enough to make it here? What then? Am I stuck in a strange place knowing no one and knowing nothing else to do? What else can I do?"

The planning for his defection took two years of secret meetings with the Capitals Director of Player Personnel Jack Button, with clandestine meetings in Canada, Austria, the Soviet Union, West Germany, Finland and Sweden as well as two other European countries.

"Pivoňka has always indicated from our very first discussion that he would like to play in the best league in the world, and he felt that was the National Hockey League," said Button. Asked how Czechoslovakia reacted to the defection, Button said: "We haven't talked to them, and they haven't talked to us - and I don't expect them to, either."

ow a member of the Capitals, Pivoňka joined a roster completely devoid of any other Europeans whatsoever. While getting used to an entirely new culture, language, style of play, freedom and cash in pocket, he had a fine rookie season, scoring 18 goals and 43 points playing a longer season than he had ever been subjected to before. The Capitals then qualified for the playoffs, adding another 7 games to Pivoňka's tally for the season.

He regressed during his second season, with just 11 goals and 34 points, but improved on his overall game with a +1 rating, 20 points better than his -19 as a rookie. During the playoffs, Pivoňka found his game with 13 points in 14 games.

His offensive struggles returned in 1988-89, which earned him a trip down to the AHL for 31 games with the Baltimore Skipjacks, where he regained his confidence with 36 points in 31 games. Back with Washington, he finished the season with just 8 goals and 27 points in 52 games.

One aspect of the NHL style he had to become accustomed to was the fighting. "When the fight starts, you have to be there," Pivoňka said. "You don't have time to think whether this is the kind of hockey you're used to. You have to show up. But you don't have to fight. Just be there to hold your guy." Told that his wife Renata worries he'll get hurt, Pivoňka smiled. "She's my wife," he says. "I'm not a fighter, but I'm learning to play the hockey that's here. You say it's not my style? Why not? I'm here now. It should be my style. It's the hockey you play here."

Not wanting a repeat of his previous season, he established a career high with 25 goals and added 39 assists for 64 points.

It had now been four years since his defection, but the political landscape changed enough to allow Pivoňka an opportunity to return home. "Sure I'm excited," he said. "I want to see my family. I want to go and visit some friends from school, places I haven't seen in four years."

A second 20 goal season followed in 1990-91 while his assist total rose to 50 for a new career best 70 points. The change in the politics of Eastern Europe saw new teammates arrive in the form of Peter Bondra of Czechoslovakia, Dimitri Khristich and Mikhail Tatarinov of the Soviet Union, who benefitted from Pivoňka's experience in adapting to life in the United States.

For the first time since his secret departure from Czechoslovakia, he once again had the chance to don the sweater of his national team for the first time in over five years when he was chosen to play in the final Canada Cup tournament in 1991.

Pivoňka then recorded the finest season of his career to date in 1991-92 when he scored 23 goals and set up 57 more for an 80 point season to lead the Capitals in scoring for the first time.

His fourth consecutive 20 goal season followed with 21 goals and 74 points in only 69 games. While he played all 82 games in 1993-94, he was limited to 50 points, but responded with his best postseason, scoring career bests with 4 goals and 8 points in 7 games.

After playing in Austria at the beginning of the strike shortened 1994-95 season, both Pivoňka and Bondra, who shared the same agent, held out at the start of the 1995-96 season in hopes of a raise in pay. When negotiations look longer than hoped, both players signed with the Detroit Vipers of the IHL for seven games until coming to terms with the Capitals. Pivoňka justified his pay raise with a career best 81 points to lead the team in scoring for the second time while playing on a line with Bondra.

Pivonka with the Vipers during his holdout

Injuries began to take their toll on Pivoňka, as he was limited to 54 games in 1996-97 and 33 the following season due to a broken wrist, which delayed the start of his season until mid-December and then missed nearly three months will a pulled groin. Then, shortly after returning, he suffered a shoulder injury which ended his playoffs and required off-season shoulder surgery which delayed the start of his 1998-99 season again until December.

His contract had now expired and, after averaging 41 games and 14 points in his previous three seasons, he was not resigned and, in an effort to continue his career signed a free agent contract with the Kansas City Blades of the IHL, where in 52 games, he scored 50 points before retiring as a player.

At the time of his leaving the Capitals, Pivoňka was second on the Capitals all-time scoring list with 599 points, which he amassed through 181 goals and 418 assists, which is still first all-time in franchise history over a decade later.

Today's featured jersey is a 1992-93 Washington Capitals Michal Pivoňka jersey. While many may assume the Capitals jerseys remained the same during he era of their first jerseys, there were subtle detail changes, which included adding names to the back of the red road jerseys in 1977, changing to single color names beginning in 1979-80, dropping the number of stars on the arms to just four for 1983-84 and 1984-85, adding the fifth star on the arms back in 1985-86 and making the names two colors again in 1987-88 through the end of the lifespan of this classic jersey style until it was replaced with an entirely new identity package consisting of a new logo and all new team colors in 1995-96.

Patches worn on the original Capitals jerseys were the Capital Centre 10th Anniversary patch (home jerseys only) in 1983-84, the NHL 75th Anniversary patch in 1991-92, the Stanley Cup Centennial patch, as worn on today's featured jersey in 1992-93 and the Capitals 20th Anniversary patch worn in 1993-94.

In today's video section, Pivoňka discusses hockey sticks and how players personalize them. Dale Hunter and Keith Jones also share their thoughts.

Sometimes as a professional athlete you are forced to participate in things you would never, ever do willingly on your own in a million years. This is one of those times.

1996-97 Toronto Maple Leafs Larry Murphy Jersey

2012-01-27T05:00:00.004-06:00

After a successful junior hockey career, which included winning a Memorial Cup with the Peterborough Petes and being drafted fourth overall in 1980, Larry Murphy began his career with the Los Angeles Kings in 1980-81 scoring 16 goals and set NHL records with 60 assists and 76 points for a rookie defenseman.

After posting 66 and 62 point seasons in Los Angeles, Murphy would be traded early in the 1983-84 season to the Washington Capitals where he would continue to put up strong numbers, the best of which was in 1986-87 when he set a career high with 23 goals plus 58 assists for 81 points.

Murphy was dealt to the Minnesota North Stars along with Mike Gartner in a blockbuster deal for Dino Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse in March of 1989 after six seasons with the Capitals. After finishing up the 1988-89 season with Minnesota, he would play one full season with the North Stars, scoring 68 points, and then a half a season in 1990-91 before once more being traded, this time to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The move to Pittsburgh would allow Murphy to experience a deep run into the playoffs for the first time in his career, never having made it past the second round during his ten previous seasons. As the Penguins progressed through the 1991 playoffs, they first defeated the New Jersey Devils in seven games, the Capitals in five and Boston Bruins in six, giving Murphy the chance to skate for the Stanley Cup against his former club, the North Stars. The Penguins dispatched Minnesota in six games, earning him the first Stanley Cup of his career as he contributed a point per game over the Penguins 23 playoff games.

In his first full season in Pittsburgh, Murphy scored 77 points in 77 games, thanks in part to the fourth 20 goal season of his career. He would add another 16 points in 21 playoff games as the Penguins would capture their second consecutive Stanley Cup.

The following season Murphy had his career best offensive season with 85 points and another 20 goal season with 22. After two more seasons with the Penguins, Murphy was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 1995-96 season. His stay was not a long one however, as he was shipped to the Detroit Red Wings at the trading deadline during his second season with Toronto, but not before scoring his 250th career goal on this date in 1997, becoming only the 6th defenseman in league history to score 250 goals.

Murphy ended up playing more playoff games with Detroit than regular season games as the Red Wings charged through the playoffs that season and defeated the Philadelphia Flyers for the 1997 Stanley Cup, the third of Murphy's career.

Motivated by the injuries suffered by Vladimir Konstantinov while still celebrating their Stanley Cup victory in 1997, the Red Wings followed up that success with another championship in 1998, giving Murphy four Stanley Cup championships, and making Murphy the only player to win four Stanley Cups in the decade of the 1990's.

He would close out his career with three additional seasons with the Red Wings which included playing 57 games in his final season of 2000-01, one of which was the 1,600th game of his 21-year career, only the second player to reach that mark after Gordie Howe. His final total of 1,615 games was an NHL record for defensemen at the time and still currently ranks 8th in career games played despite having retired over 10 years ago.

Murphy would complete his career with 287 goals and 929 assists for 1,216 points, third all time for defensemen at the time of his retirement, behind only Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey and still in the top five after being passed by only Al MacInnis and Phil Housley. His 287 career goals rank sixth all-time for defensemen after Bourque, Coffeym MacInnis, Housley and Denis Potvin.

Internationally, Murphy played for Canada in the 1980 World Junior Tournament and the 1985, 1987 and 2000 World Championships, earning a silver medal in 1985.

Murphy scored a goal and two assists in the final game of the 1987 Canada Cup as Canada won the championship. He later won a second Canada Cup, this time in 1991.

Today's featured jersey is a 1996-97 Toronto Maple Leafs Larry Murphy jersey. The basis for this jersey dates back to 1934, when the Maple Leafs introduced a new sweater featuring twin stripes around the arms and waist, a much simpler style than it replaced. That style evolved, but remained in use through 1967, but was revived in 1991-92 when the Maple Leafs chose their 1940 sweaters as their Turn Back the Clock style for the NHL's 75th anniversary season.

It proved so popular that a modified version of it became the home and away jerseys the very next season, only using their modern maple leaf logo as the main crest, but using the retro style leaf as a secondary shoulder patch.

This style would remain unchanged through the 1996-97 season, but would be adorned with the Stanley Cup Centennial patch in 1992-93 and the Maple Leaf Gardens 65th Anniversary patch in 1996-97.

The jersey would remain the same for 1997-98, but it would be paired with a dreadful modern name and number font for three regrettable seasons.

Today's video is Murphy teaching you how to properly kill a penalty in a session of "Lessons with Larry".

1977-78 CHZ Litvinov Ivan Hlinka Jersey

2012-01-26T05:00:00.009-06:00

One of the most important figures in Czech hockey history, Ivan Hlinka was born in this date n 1950. He began to play in the CHZ Litvinov youth program and eventually graduated to the senior team in the Czechoslovak league at the age of just 16 in the 1966-67 season, where he became a mainstay for the club for the next 15 seasons. A center, he was an offensive force in front of the opponent's net, using his 6' 2", 220 lbs frame to his advantage. By his second full season he was now averaging more than a point per game, with 17 goals and 34 points in 33 games in the shorter Czech regular season.

Hlinka as a member of CHZ Litvinov

At the age of 20, he was named captain of Litvinov and also made the first of many appearances for the Czechoslovakia National Team when he participated in the 1970 World Championships.

His standout seasons for CHZ Litvinov included 1974-75, with 36 goals and 78 points in 44 games, and 1977-78, with 32 goals and 71 points in 43 games when he won the Golden Hockey Stick as the best player in Czechoslovakia. In all, Hlinka had two 70 point seasons, six seasons of 50 or more points and 11 seasons out of 15 with more than a point per game and 10 with 20 goals or more with a high of 39, all while never even playing as many as 45 games in a single season.

In all, he would play 544 games in the Czechoslovak league, scoring 347 goals.

Wearing the black and yellow of Litvinov

On the international stage, Hlinka participated in the World Championships 11 times from 1970 to 1979 and again in 1981, including winning gold as world champion in 1972, 1976 and 1977, silver in 1971, 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979 and bronze in 1973.

He also participated in two Olympic Games, coming away with a bronze in 1972 in Japan and silver in 1976 in Austria. Additionally, he played for Czechoslovakia in the inaugural 1976 Canada Cup tournament where Czechoslovakia advanced to the tournament finals against Canada. From 1977 to 1980, he also served as captain of the national team, which included winning the world championship in 1977 and two silver medals in 1978 and 1979.

Change came in 1981, when Hlinka and Jiri Bubla were the first two players given permission to leave for North America, where they joined the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL. There, Hlinka, admittedly a veteran player at the age of 31, set a Vancouver record for most points by a rookie when he notched 23 goals and 60 points in 72 games. During the playoffs, he would add another 8 points in 12 games as the Canucks would advance to the Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Islanders, who were in the second year of their four year dynasty, making he and Bubla the first Czechs to compete for the Stanley Cup. His second season with the Canucks was equally as successful, scoring 19 goals and 44 assists for 63 points in 65 games played, good for fourth in team scoring. While in the NHL, he would play in 137 games, scoring 42 goals and 81 assists for 123 points.

He would return to Europe for the 1983-84 season, joining EV Zug of the second division in Switzerland, where he set career highs with 46 goals and 89 points in 41 games. One more season with Zug saw him score 30 goals and 73 points before retiring as a player to enter the world of coaching.

He began with a return to Litvinov in 1985-86 and briefly came out of retirement to help Litvinov escape the cellar in 1986-87 when he skated in 19 games, scoring 23 points as Litvinov responded with an eight game undefeated streak.

Aside from coaching Litvinov, he also worked for Freiburg in Germany before becoming the head coach of first the Czechoslovakia National Team and then the Czech Republic National Team. His teams would win bronze at the 1992 Olympics and 1992 and 1993 World Championships. After the 1994 World Championships, he would leave the position, only to return again in 1997, winning bronze yet again. Finally in 1998, a gold medal arrived at the 1998 Olympics in Japan, the first Olympic hockey tournament open to the best NHL professionals. After a bronze at that spring's World Championships, the Czechs returned home from the 1999 World Championships with gold in hand.

Hlinka celebrates the Olympic gold medal with Martin Rucinsky

Hlinka then became only the second European to coach an NHL team when he took over as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the 2000-01 season, guiding the club to the conference finals following a 42-28-9-3 record, knocking off two higher seeds in the process. Unfortunately, all was not well in Pittsburgh, and the club traded superstar Jaromir Jagr before the start of the following season, which began with the club losing it's first four games. That combined with not seeing eye to eye with team owner and star player Mario Lemieux, led to his being relieved of his duties.

Hlinka coaching the Penguins

He once more returned to the Czech Republic National Team, first as General Manager for the 2002 Olympics and World Championships before becoming head coach of Avangard Omsk of the KHL for the 2002-03 season.

He then became the head coach of the Czech Republic National team once again in 2004, but sadly, just six weeks prior to the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, Hlinka was killed in a car accident on August 16, 2004 at the age of 54.

As a tribute to Hlinka, the Czech Republic National Team wore a #21 Memorial patch during the tournament, and team captain Robert Reichel changed from his customary #21 to #22 in Hlinka's honor.

The #21 Memorial patch worn on the Czech Republic jerseys during the 2004 World Cup of Hockey

Hlinka was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2002. Beginning in 2007, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament is held in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for under-18 national teams every August in his memory. Also, Litvinov's home arena was renamed in his honor and is now known as Ivan Hlinka Stadion where his retired sweater #14 hangs from the rafters.

Today's featured jersey is a 1977-78 CHZ Litvinov Ivan Hlinka jersey. Done in the classic Czech style of the 1970's this jersey features a lace-up collar and drop shadowed names and numbers with a typically "European" font for the numbers.

Bonus Jersey: Today's first bonus jersey is a 1976 Czechosovakia Ivan Hlinka jersey as worn in the 1976 Canada Cup tournament. The Czechs alternated between read and blue road jerseys throughout their history of international hockey, dating back to 1921. They wore blue from 1964 to 1972 before reintroducing red in 1973. They also had a history of switching between their heraldic lion crest and the initials CSSR, changing to the combination of the lion crest and red sweaters in 1975 in time for the 1976 Canada Cup tournament. They maintained that combination until 1990, when they changed to a vertical Czechoslovakia flag for their crest.

This jersey also demonstrates the Czech style of the era, with it's lace-up collar flanked by vertical striping and drop shadowed numbers, now in three colors with the name given a radially arched treatment.

Extra Bonus Jersey: Today's additional bonus jersey is a 1981-92 Vancouver Canucks Ivan Hlinka jersey. What must have the foreign Hlinka and Bubla thought when they first laid eyes on the Canucks controversial "flying V" jerseys after years of wearing the prototypical Czech signature style? First introduced in 1978-79, this jersey was a radical departure from anything previously seen and still one of the strangest and unforgettable jerseys to ever see the ice in an NHL contest.

Designed by a professional psychologist, the "V" striping, suggesting "victory" according to the designer, was executed in bright orange to "evoke passion and aggression" while the use of black would instill fear in the opposition.

The sleeves also featured smaller "V" shapes midway down the arm with a new "Flying Skate" logo for the shoulders and the very unusual placement of the sleeve numbers at the very bottom of the arms on the wrists!

The basic jersey produced in 1978 remained in use until the 1984-85 season, but with a few adjustments along the way, such as a change in color for the names on the back and outlining the original one color numbers, both of which occurred for the 1981-82 season as seen here.

In our video section today, we begin with the Czech Republic defeating Russia for the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics, coached by Hlinka. Note Reichel wearing #21, which he would later relinquish after Hlinka's passing in 2004. While rather low on energy rather long, it shows some great game footage and the post-championship celebrations.

Now this next video is shorter and packed with energy, showing key moments from every Czech Repbulic game of the Olympics.

Finally, the raucous press conference the Czech team held upon their return from Japan after winning the gold medal. While it's in Czech, you can tell that Hlinka had the press eating out of his hand at the event.

2003-04 Chicago Wolves Steve Maltais Jersey

2012-01-25T05:00:00.006-06:00

Proving once again that not every successful career in hockey revolves around time spent in the NHL, Steve Maltais, born in this date in 1969, began his career in hockey with the Cornwall Royals of the Ontario Hockey League in 1986-87. Showing his offensive talent right off the bat, the 17-year-old scored 32 goals as a rookie in junior hockey. Following the season he was drafted by the Washington Capitals 57th overall in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. Still with the Royals, he raised his goal total to 39 the following season, and combined with his 46 assists, registered 85 points in 59 games.

Cornwall Royal Maltais

His final season with Cornwall saw another quantum leap forward for Maltais, as he led the Royals in scoring with 53 goals and 70 assists for a 123 point campaign, good for fourth overall in OHL scoring. He then led the club in playoff scoring with a dominant 14 goals and 16 assists for 30 points in 18 games. Following the conclusion of the Royals season, Maltais began is professional career with 4 playoff games with the Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League.

For the 1989-90 season, he was assigned to the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American Hockey League, where the AHL rookie was third in team scoring with 66 points in 67 games as well as 16 more in 12 playoff games. During the season he also made his NHL debut with the Capitals, appearing in 8 regular season games and 1 playoff game, yet failing to register a point.

Back with Baltimore for the 1990-91 season, he proved he had not forgotten how to score, 36 goals and 79 points came in 73 games, yet when called up by the Capitals for 7 games, he once again was snake-bit, failing to score even a point once again.

During the offseason, his rights were dealt to the Minnesota North Stars and as a result he spent 48 games with the North Stars IHL affiliate, the Kalamazoo Wings, where in 48 games he scored 25 goals and 56 assists. He was also called up to play with Minnesota in the NHL, where the thankfully scored not only his first NHL point, but goals as well with a pair of goals and an assist in 12 games. However, he was traded in early March of 1992 to the Quebec Nordiques organization, who assigned him to the Halifax Citadels in the AHL for 10 games to finish out the season.

During the offseason his rights were claimed by the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning, with whom he played 63 games, more than half his eventual NHL total, scoring 20 points. He exceeded that mark with 24 points in 16 games with the Atlanta Knights of the IHL that same season.

On the move once again, Maltais was then traded by Tampa Bay to the Detroit Red Wings for the 1993-94 season. Detroit called him up for 4 games that season, but the vast majority of his time was spent playing for the Adirondack Red Wings in the AHL, netting 35 goals and 84 points in 73 games. He also led the club in playoff scoring with 16 points in 12 games.

Now without a contract, his life and career changed in September of 1994 when he signed a free agent contract with the brand-new Chicago Wolves to be their team captain for their first season of play in the IHL. He immediately led the team (and all of Chicago for that matter) in scoring with 57 goals and 41 assists for 98 points as well as a 145 penalty minutes, his first career season over 100 penalty minutes. His 57 goals also led the IHL in that category for the season.

Back with the Wolves for the 1995-96 season, he nearly equalled his goal total with 56, but raised his assist total to 66, giving him a career high 122 points, which only placed him second on the club! He also found the time to spend 161 minutes in the penalty box.

Maltais next set a career high with 60 goals in 1996-97 during a 114 point season, reclaiming the IHL goal scoring title in the process. The following season he reached 46 goals and 103 points, to lead the Wolves in scoring for the second time in their four years to date. His 46 goals also tied him for the league lead in that category. The Wolves then went onto the postseason, defeating the Manitoba Moose in 3 straight, ousting the Milwaukee Admirals and then the Long Beach Ice Dogs in 6 games each to advance to the finals against the Detroit Vipers in what would turn out to be a hard fought 7 game series, where the Wolves came back from a 3-2 to win Games 6 and 7 to earn their first Turner Cup championship.

Maltais' fourth consecutive 100 point season came in 1998-99 as part of a 56 goal performance, his fourth season of 55 goals or more in his five seasons with the Wolves. His 56 goals were 10 more than his next closest pursuer, and his fourth time leading the league.

He once again repeated as the leading goal scorer in the IHL, with 44 in 1999-00 on his way to a 90 point season, ending his 100 point streak at four, but oddly, despite seeing his streak of 100 point seasons ending and putting up his lowest point total in six seasons, Maltais actually led the entire IHL in scoring for the only time, earning the Lamoureux Trophy in the process!

During the playoffs, Maltais was second in team scoring with 13 points in 16 games as Chicago swept Long Beach in 4, outlasted Houston in 5 and defeated Grand Rapids 4 games to 2 to won their second Turner Cup.

2000-01 was a season of change, and with the NHL expanding yet again, the upstart Columbus Blue Jackets came calling, signing Maltais as a free agent for their inaugural 2000-01 season, but in 26 games, his NHL scoring jinx was still in effect and he was released after registering just 3 assists and no goals.

Change was also the order of the day in the minors, as the IHL had ceased operations at the end of the previous season, but the Chicago Wolves were one of six teams admitted to the AHL, and Maltais returned home to the Wolves, scoring 31 goals and 63 points in 67 games. Chicago again went on a postseason run, defeating the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks 2 games to 1 in a close fought three game series, with each game ending with the same 3-2 score, one in overtime. They then won Game 5 of a five game series on the road against Grand Rapids before winning Game 7 of a seven game series on the road against Syracuse. Fellow IHL refugees the Houston Aeros fell in five games after Houston had won Game 1 followed by four straight by the Wolves. Chicago then split the opening two games on the road before returning home to win three straight to defeat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 4 games to 1 to capture the Calder Cup in their first season as members of the AHL despite entering the playoffs with the 16th best record in the league!

The 2002-03 season saw another 30 goals and 86 points, which earned him the Sollenberger Trophy as the AHL's leading scorer. That was followed by 31 goals and 64 points in 2003-04 to lead the Wolves in scoring for the sixth time in the Wolves ten seasons.

In his final season, Maltais scored 60 points in 80 games, plust 12 more in 18 games as the Wolves made it all the way to the Calder Cup finals to close out his career. In his 11 seasons as a member of the Wolves, captaining the team for nine of them, the club never had a losing record.

While is NHL career totals are an unremarkable 9 goals and 27 points in 120 games, his combined IHL and AHL totals are an impressive 596 goals and 669 assists for 1,265 points in 1,126 games, two scoring championships (one in each league) as well as two Turner Cups and a Calder Cup championship. He still holds the record as the franchise's all-time leading scorer and his 596 goals ranks 8th in minor league history. His #11 was retired by the Wolves on April 15, 2006, one of only two numbers ever retired by the club.

Today's featured jersey is a 2003-04 Chicago Wolves Steve Maltais jersey. The Wolves wore this style for every one of their seasons in the IHL with only minor patching variations to report, including the IHL 50th Anniversary patch during their inaugural 1994-95 season, Turner Cup Finals patches in 1998, 2000 and 2001, as well as several sponsor patches throughout their history. Today's featured jersey is decorated with the Wolves 10th Anniversary patch.

While the top minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers, the Wolves did adopt a striking alternate jersey heavily influenced by the Thrashers original template, only with enough unique additions, especially on the torso of the jersey to make it their own.

Even with the change to the new Reebok template and it's curved lower hem, the Wolves have remained true to their original home and away jerseys, worn now for 18 seasons.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1995-96 IHL All-Star Game Steve Maltais jersey. Eerily similar to the "waving flag" style Nike jerseys used in the 1996 World Cup of hockey, this IHL All-Star jersey frankly isn't the most attractive jersey we've ever seen, but it does speak to the unquestioned success Maltais had in the IHL and later the AHL, with his multiple championships, scoring titles and all-star game appearances.

In today's video section, take a look at the goal scoring prowess of Maltais.

1985-86 New York Islanders Mike Bossy Jersey

2012-01-24T05:00:00.006-06:00

Mike Bossy had a prolific junior hockey career for the Laval National, with whom he played for five seasons, beginning with 4 appearances in 1972-73. Playing a full season in 1973-74, he reeled off a 70 goal, 118 point season in 68 games.

He kept his foot on the gas the following year, topping that with an impressive 84 goals and 149 points in 67 games, 2.22 points per games. In the post season, his torrid pace continued with 38 more points in 16 games. Over the next two seasons he would add 79 goals and 136 points followed by another 75 goals and 126 points to set the all-time QMJHL record with 309 career goals, a mark which still stands today and ranks 28 goals higher that the next closest pursuer.

Bossy with Laval

Thought of as being too timid by NHL scouts, Bossy was not chosen until 15th overall in the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft, which included being passed over by the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs not once, but twice.

Playing on a line with Bryan Trottier and Clark Gilles, Bossy would set the hockey world on fire when he scored 53 goals in his rookie season of 1977-78, the first rookie to ever reach 50, while winning the Calder Trophy in the process.

Gilles, Trottier and Bossy

The following season he would better that by becoming only the second player after Maurice Richard, and first in 36 years, to score 50 goals in 50 games. Bossy did it in dramatic style with two goals in the last five minutes of game number 50. He would finish the season with 69 goals to lead the league and 57 assists for 126 points, good for fourth overall.

Bossy poses with Maurice Richard to commemorate their 50 goals in 50 games

1979-80 would see Bossy once more top the 50 mark with 51 goals in 75 games and the Islanders would capture their first of four consecutive Stanley Cup Championships as Bossy contributed 23 points in just 16 games.

While topping 50 goals the previous season, he did fail to reach 100 points during the regular season. Over the course of the next six seasons, he would blow past the 100 point level, never scoring less than 117, with a high of 147 in 1981-82.

During the 1980-81 season he would set a career high in goals with 68 to once again lead the NHL and pour in a remarkable 17 goals and 35 points in 18 playoff games as the Islanders would capture their second straight Stanley Cup.

Their third Stanley Cup Championship would see Bossy be recognized with the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP following 17 goals and 27 points in 19 games. This came on the heels of his 147 point regular season and his second consecutive 60 goal season when he tallied 64.

The Islanders dynasty was now in full force and Bossy once more reached 60 goals, this time on the nose with an even 60. His 118 point regular season continued his 100 point season streak and the playoffs would again see him get his now customary 17 goals (for the third year in a row and the only player to ever do so) and 26 points in 19 games. He would also be recognized for his style of play with the first of three Lady Byng Trophies following the season.

Bossy with the Lady Byng Trophy

1983-84 was another 118 point season with 51 goals scored. The Islanders would make it once more to the finals, but the dynasty would end as they were defeated by the up and coming Edmonton Oilers 4 games to 1. The Islanders 21 playoff games would see Bossy contribute 18 points. He was the recipient of his second Lady Byng Trophy after being whistled for just 8 penalty minutes for the entire season, the second lowest total of his career following just 6 during his rookie campaign.

His remarkable goal scoring consistency continued unabated, as 58 more would be added to his career total during a 117 point campaign in 1984-85. 10 more playoff games allowed Bossy to add another 11 points for the Islanders.

Showing no signs of slowing down, he would reach 61 goals, paired with 62 assists, giving him his highest point total in four seasons with 123, which included becoming just the 20th player in league history to score 1,000th career points, accomplished on this date in 1986 in grand style, registering a goal and four assists in a 7-5 win over the Washington Capitals. He would also capture this third Lady Byng Trophy in the space of four seasons as well.

Now slowed by back injuries, his final season of 1986-87, Bossy appeared in 63 games and scored 38 goals and 75 points, still over a point per game, before retiring at the age of just 30.

His final career totals of 573 goals and 553 assists for 1,126 points in 752 games would give him a final career average of 1.50 points per game over his ten NHL seasons and his 160 career playoff points in 129 games were a 1.24 points per game clip. At the time of his retirement, he held the record for most goals by a rookie and most assists and points by a right wing in a single season. He still ranks third all time in hat tricks with 39. He also reached 100 goals faster than any player in history, doing so in just 129 games. He was also the quickest at one point to 300 and 500 career goals scored.

His goals per game average of .762 in the regular season is the highest in NHL history and his playoff goals per game average of .659 is second only to Mario Lemieux.

He also still holds the NHL record for the most consecutive 50 goal seasons with nine, and shares the record with Wayne Gretzky for the most 60 goal seasons with five, despite playing 10 years less than Gretzky.

Internationally, he was a member of Team Canada in the 1981 and 1984 Canada Cup tournaments, earning a gold medal in in 1984. Due to the Islanders consistent playoff history, he was never available for World Championships duty.

Bossy celebrates with Islanders teammate John Tonelli during the Canada Cup in 1984

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991 and his jersey #22 was retired by the Islanders in 1992.

Today's featured jersey is a 1985-86 New York Islanders Mike Bossy jersey as worn during the season he scored his 1,000th point.

When Bossy joined the Islanders in 1977, they had just changed from a lace-up collar to a v-neck while wearing two color names and a bolder font for the numbers. In 1978 the stripes on the blue jerseys would be unified, now with a white stripe directly above a thicker orange stripe. This would be the jersey worn for their four stanley Cup championships, lasting through 1983-84.

In 1984-85, the names would change to one color and the font for the numbers would become narrower. This style would remain unchanged through 1995 when a change in ownership would result in the debacle that was the Islanders Fishsticks jerseys being born.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1981 Team Canada Mike Bossy jersey. The minimalist style used by Canada for the Canada Cup tournaments is remarkable in it's stark simplicity, with it's single color crest and customization.

It features a bold half maple leaf on the front, which was based on the Canada Cup trophy awarded to the tournament champions. Canada would not use this style for any other international tournament, such as the World Championships, as those jerseys were subject to supplier contracts with jersey manufacturers like as Adidas, Tackla, Reebok and Nike, who supplied all the teams participating in IIHF tournaments beginning in the mid-1980's.

Here is a career retrospective of Mike Bossy, which includes his dramatic 50th goal in his 50th game in 1980.

Up next is a nice interview with Bossy as he looks back on his career and a variety of topics.

A recap of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals is next up, showing the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics patch on the Islanders jerseys. The passion and excitement of the Islander and their fans is infectious and recommended viewing. A reminder of what it's all about.

We don't know about you, but all this writing has left us hungry. Ça, c'est du bon poulet!

1949-50 Boston Bruins Gord Henry Jersey

2012-01-23T05:00:00.007-06:00

Starting his career with his hometown Owen Sound Orphans in 1940, Gord Henry signed to play goal for the Philadelphia Falcons of the Eastern Amateur Hockey League for two seasons, beginning in 1943-44. He also appeared in three games for the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League during the 1944-45 season.

The following season you never knew where Henry would surface next, as he played 16 games for Hershey in the AHL and 4 for the Baltimore Clippers and one each for the Falcons as well as the New York Rovers, all in the EAHL and four different clubs in all before ending his season with 3 playoff games for the Bears.

He spent the majority of his 1946-47 season with the Boston Olympics of the EAHL, seeing action in 43 games, winning 21. He again returned to Hershey at the end of the season, playing in 5 games before going 8-3 in the postseason with 5 shutouts and a 1.45 goals against average as the Bears won the Calder Cup as AHL champions for the first of eight times in team history.

The 1946-47 Hershey Bears

The Hershey Bears receiving the 1947 Calder Cup with Henry on the far right

With the championship on his resume, he became the dominant goaltender for Hershey for the next eight seasons, beginning with 68 appearances in 1947-48, winning 25. The following season he would again appear in 66 games for the Bears, winning 28 times. The Bears would return to the Calder Cup Finals that season after sweeping Indianapolis and Cleveland before taking the Providence Reds to a seventh game. Henry finished the postseason with a 7-4 record.

He would also make his NHL debut with with the Boston Bruins for a single, memorable game on this date in 1949 as he became only the 6th goaltender in league history to record a shutout in his first ever game, blanking the Montreal Canadiens 3-0.

Henry under attack by Maurice Richard of Montreal

He continued to be the mainstay in goal for Hershey in 1949-50 as well as making two more starts for the Bruins, dropping both contests despite a 2.50 goals against average.

Henry would set a career highs in 1950-51 as he appeared in 70 games, winning 38. Despite not playing any regular season games for Boston that season, he was called upon to make two starts in the playoffs for the Bruins.

Nearly equalling his stats from the previous season, he won 35 games from 68 starts in 1951-52. In 1952-53, the reliable Henry was again in goal for 64 games, winning 31 while leading the AHL in appearances for the third straight season and fourth time in his career, with the first being in 1949. Once again, the Bruins came calling during the postseason, as Henry saw action in 3 playoff games for Boston.

Milt Schmidt and Henry while with the Bruins

For the seventh consecutive season, Henry appeared in over 60 games with 63 and won 30 or more for the fourth consecutive season, totaling 33.

In 1954-55, he once more led the Bears in games played, but was limited to just 23 after being forced to miss the remainder of the season following a car accident in mid January, which ended his career with Hershey.

For the 1955-56 season he returned home to Owen Sound, playing 20 games with the Mercurys in senior hockey. His final game would come in 1956-57 with the Philadelphia Ramblers of the Eastern Hockey League before he retired from play.

Unusually, Henry would play in more NHL playoff games, five, than he would NHL regular season games, having appeared in just three, but memorably winning the first by shutout, only the 6th goaltender to do so.

Today's featured jersey is a 1949-50 Boston Bruins Gord Henry Jersey. In honor of the Bruins 25th anniversary in 1948-49, they would adopt a new logo, the spoked "B". The "B" was flanked by the numbers 24 and 49. For 1949-50, the "B" would change from a yellow curved font to a black block font, creating a new version of the logo which would remain unchanged for 45 years until a the logo would be updated with black outlines around the yellow spokes as part of a new set of jerseys adopted for their move from their long time home Boston Garden to the new Fleet Center.

Today's featured jersey would remain in use for just two seasons until the sleeves gained an extra yellow stripe and black sleeve ends.

Today's video segment in on the Hershey Bears and their long time home, Hershey Park Arena.

The 2012 U. S. Pond Hockey Championships

2012-01-22T05:00:00.010-06:00

Today is the third and final day of the 2012 U. S. Pond Hockey Championships held on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The U. S. Pond Hockey Championships began six years ago with a tournament on Lake Calhoun. The romantic nature of the back to basics tournament clearly struck a chord and gathered all kinds of the right attention, such as a write up in none other than Sports Illustrated.

The next season the tournament relocated across town to it's new home at Lake Nokomis where it has remained ever since.

View Larger Map

Friday began with 160 Open Division teams divided into 28 groups of five teams each hitting the ice at 8:30 AM for the first of two days of pool play spread out over 25 rinks on the frozen lake, which lasted until 4:30 PM. Games continued in pool play Saturday, again from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. At the conclusion of Saturday's schedule, the 28 group winners with the best record from the four games against the other teams in their group, plus four additional wild card teams, were seeded into a 32 team bracket of single elimination games to be played on Sunday.

An aerial view of the tournament on Lake Nokomis

Last year the temperature was in the single digits with windchills of -10º, making for near ideal playing conditions but a bit brisk for the spectators. Today will easily be the warmest of the three days, with the forecast calling for temperatures starting at 15º in the morning with highs expected to reach 38º and winds light at 10 mph with a 30% chance of snow. By the time of the championship game in the Open Division it should be the warmest it's been all weekend, so bundle up, bring some handwarmers and buy some hot chocolate in the warming house and come on out and experience the fun for yourself in what should be ideal viewing conditions.

Play begins today at 8:30 with the Round of 32. The winners of those first 16 games advance to the next round just two hours later at 11:30 AM. The eight surviving teams meet in the quarterfinals at 1:30 in the afternoon. The next round of semifinal games comes up fast, just an hour later at 2:30. The two survivors will square off for the championship trophy, The Golden Shovel, another short hour later for their fifth game of the day in the space of just seven hours!

With that many teams involved, there are always some great names chosen, with some of our favorites this year being:

Blame Canada
Do it for Dunlop
Frozen Pond Scum
Great White Buffalo
Healthy Scratch
Here for Beer
Money Shot
No Stars
Pinching D
Power Play: Unit 3
Puck in a Box
Puck-U
Pulled Hammies
Screaming Dolphins
Shut Your 5 Hole
Smell the Glove
The Mild
The Super Best Friends
The Swelling
Toothless Wonders
Twine Ticklers
Zuba Nation

Bonus points for those of you who got all the pop culture references contained above!

Other than the Open Division, other groups with championships on the line today are the 40 and over, 50 and over, Women's and Rink Rat divisions, as well as the Timberland Boot Hockey competition. If you want to be inspired to keep in shape as you grow older, don't miss the finals in the 50+ division!

The first championship of the day will be settled at 11:30 AM for the 50+ group, followed by the Boot Hockey final at 12:30, the 40+ final at 1:30 and the Rink Rat and Women's finals coming at 2:30 with the Open Division championship game for the Golden Shovel closing out the competition at 3:30.

On Friday and Saturday, your intrepid reporter trekked out onto the frozen lake with camera in hand to document some of the noteworthy jerseys which caught our eye. While some teams can barely round up six matching jerseys, others with an eye for a good looking sweater and either a sense of history or sense of fun, can produce some good looking sweaters, some of which we have gathered here for you today.

The Blazing Bandits from Chicago sporting Blackhawks throwback barberpoles

The St. Louis Dodes with a very professional looking effort

HelloBillWhitney.com had very sharp red and black jerseys with a penguin crest

The Great White Buffalo with not only plaid jackets, but matching pants as well

The sponsored Silver Bullets all wore #78 in honor of the first year of production for Coors Light

The sharp dressed men of Maxwell's Demons

The Mammoth Lakers out of California, combining the Los Angeles Kings vintage jerseys with the name of the former Minneapolis basketball club relaxing with the brew that motivates many of the teams - beer!

Branding Interactive had New York Rangers white jerseys complete with drop shadowed numbers as their inspiration

The Pylons wore road construction vests with numbers on the back

and one with a captain's C on the front

From Wichita, Kansas, the Flatlanders had Homer Simpson as Chief Black Hawk for what they said was their alternate jerseys

Even Quinn the Pit Bull got into the spirit of the event, sporting a (signed!) Minnesota Wild jersey

If you are coming out to take photos, be aware that cold weather is horrible for batteries and we recommend bringing plenty of spares kept close to your body to keep them warm!

Here is a look at last year's U. S. Pond Hockey Championships, held annually on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.

To get an understanding of the romance of pond hockey, we present the full length documentary film Pond Hockey, filmed on location at the first U. S. Pond Hockey Championships in 2006, which features interviews with many former NHLer's, including none other than Wayne Gretzky.

To purchase your copy of Pond Hockey, please visit pondhockeymovie.com.

Hockey Day Minnesota 2012

2012-01-21T05:00:00.002-06:00

Today is the sixth annual Hockey Day Minnesota, a celebration of the game in the state of Minnesota during which Fox Sports North runs non-stop hockey programming for an entire day.

The first Hockey Day Minnesota was held back in 2007, which featured two high school games played outdoors on Baudette Bay.

At the conclusion of the broadcast of the first game, FSN ran feature programming on various hockey related topics, such as backyard rinks and pond hockey. Later in the day the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hosted the Denver Pioneers at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis followed by the Minnesota Wild hosting the Dallas Stars in an NHL contest over in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center.

Xcel Energy Center

So successful was the event that it became an instant tradition and led to an expanded schedule of games for 2008. The day began with a return to Baudette in temperatures which plunged to -25º F. Two high school games were held, with storied Eveleth (home of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame) taking on Lake of the Woods High School followed by Blaine from the Twin Cities suburbs battling Roseau. Meanwhile, down in St. Paul, hockey powers Hill-Murray and St. Thomas Academy played at the Xcel Energy Center followed by the New York Islanders taking on the Wild. Later that night, the Gophers game from Denver was broadcast.

Since then, outdoor games for the high schoolers have been held in Phalen Park in St. Paul in 2009, Hermantown (just west of Duluth) in 2010 and Moorhead (across the river from Fargo, North Dakota) in 2011, featuring not only the boys, but now with girls added to the schedule.

Action from Phalen Park

photo courtesy of VintageHockeyMinnesota

St. Cloud was included in the event when they hosted the Gophers in the day's college portion of the event in 2009 before they travelled to Minneapolis to face the Gophers the following year. Denver returned as the Gophers opponent for 2011. (At this point we must ask why the defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs have yet to be included in Hockey Day Minnesota, especially as hosts for the Gophers in their brand new Amsoil Arena?)

While the high school games move from location to location, and the college games have as well, one constant has been the Wild, without whose support and cooperation the event would not be possible, hosting a game in St. Paul. The remainder of their opponents have been the Anaheim Ducks in 2009, the Columbus Blue Jackets on 2010 and the St. Louis Blues in 2011.

The Wild hosted the Blues on Hockey Day Minnesota in 2011

This year's schedule begins with White Bear Lake taking on Grand Rapids followed by the #1 and 2 rated teams in the state, as Minnetonka faces off against Duluth East in boys high school hockey followed by the Minnetonka girls playing against Hopkins' girls. The games were originally scheduled to be held outdoors on Lake Minnetonka, but due to the unseasonably warm temperatures a safe and playable surface would not be ready in time, forcing the high school games indoors for the first time in the history of the event.

The Gophers will host the Colorado College Tigers at 5 PM followed by the Wild taking on the Dallas Stars at 8 PM. Additionally, the Golden Gophers women's team's game against Bemidji State will be shown on the Big Ten Network at 4 PM.

With the high school games being held in the Twin Cities metro area for only the second time, those with a hearty appetite for the game can take in as many as four live games at three different locations in one day. For those of you craving your outdoor hockey, there is always the option of a trip to Lake Nokomis in south Minneapolis for the 2012 U. S. Pond Hockey Championships, which would fit nicely in between the early high school games in the west metro area and the early evening college game just 10 miles up the freeway to the north.

Mariucci Arena

Including a stop at the pond hockey championships, all four venues are located within 35 miles of each other, easily doable for the devoted hockey faithful, rather nicely laid out with no backtracking!

View Larger Map

A - Pagel Activity Center, Minnetonka

B - Lake Nokomis, Minneapolis

C - Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis

D - Xcel Engery Center, St. Paul

Special for this year is that the over 16 hours of programming on FSN will feature a telethon to raise money for the Jack Jablonkski Trust Fund for the player recently paralyzed from a broken neck resulting from a check from behind in a recent junior varsity high school game. If you would like to make a donation to the fund, please click on the logo below.

Please click on the logo to donate to the Jack Jablonski Fund

1975-76 St. Louis Blues Chuck Lefley Jersey

2012-01-20T05:00:00.001-06:00

Born on this date in 1950 in Winnipeg, Chuck Lefley began his career with his hometown Winnipeg Rangers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 1965. There, the center racked up 39 points in 46 games to earn league rookie of the year honors as the Rangers would go on to win the Turnbull Cup as league champions. He would follow that up with a 25 goal, 46 point season in 1966-67.

Rather than join a team higher up the junior ranks for the following season, Lefley instead chose to become a member of the Canadian National Team, whom he played for over the course of the next three seasons, which included his participation in the 1969 World Championships, Canada's final participation in the World Championships until 1977 due to a dispute over the amateur status of players from Soviet Bloc countries.

After three seasons with the national team, Lefley played in seven games for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL, impressively scoring 6 goals and 12 points. That spring he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens 6th overall in the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft.

He would spend the vast majority of the 1970-71 season in the American Hockey League with the Montreal Voyageurs, scoring 35 points in 48 games. He would also make his NHL debut with a single game with the Canadiens as well as one playoff game later that year, which was enough to earn Lefley his name on the Stanley Cup despite only two games of NHL experience as the Canadiens would claim the title following a seven game series against the Chicago Black Hawks!

Lefley would play 16 games with the Canadiens, scoring his first NHL points with a pair of assists, but once again spent most of his time with the Voyaguers in the AHL, who had now been relocated to Nova Scotia. During the post season, the Voyageurs would defeat Springfield, Boston and Baltimore while Lefley came in third in team scoring with 14 points in 15 games as Nova Scotia captured the Calder Cup as league champions.

Lefley would become a full-time member of the Canadiens in 1972-73, registering his first 20 goals season with 21 on his way to 46 points as part of the powerhouse Montreal roster. During the playoffs, Buffalo fell first, followed by Philadelphia before Chicago fell victim once again, giving Lefley the second Stanley Cup of his career, only this one slightly more earned with

8 points in 17 games.

The 1973-74 season saw Lefley raise his career highs to 23 goals and 54 points. He played in 18 games with Montreal in 1974-75, but his scoring touch had gone away, with just 1 goal and 3 points at the time of his trade to the St. Louis Blues.

While the Montreal lineup was stacked with future hall of famers on the verge of their latest Stanley Cup dynasty, the Blues welcomed Lefley's offensive skills to their roster. Given ample playing time and responsibility, he equalled his 23 goals from the previous season while playing 17 less games than the year before.

The 1975-76 season would prove to be the best of Lefley's career, as he would register 43 goals, 20 more than any other season of his career. The 43 goals would place him in the top ten in the NHL and his 85 points would lead St. Louis in scoring as well as setting club records in both categories in the process.

He would play one more season, but lack the drive and excitement he had brought to his game the previous season. He point totals would drop precipitously, finishing with just 11 goals and 41 points. He would surprise everyone by walking away from his contract and retiring at the end of the season with plans to return to his farm in Manitoba.

If that were not surprising enough, he really caught everyone off guard at the following season when he played for Jokerti Helsinki in Finland, a very uncommon move in the 1970's for a North American player. Of their 36 games, Lefley appeared in 24, scoring 11 goals and 12 points, equalling his NHL goal total from the year before.

He travelled even further east for the 1978-79 season, joining his older brother and defenseman Bryan Lefley as members of Dusseldorfer EG (now better known as the DEG Metro Stars) in West Germany, where in 26 games he scored 17 goals and 22 points, clearly a shoot first mentality as evidenced by just 5 assists! Bryan, who had been with the Colorado Rockies the previous season, would remain in with Dusseldorf for another season before finishing his career with SC Bern in Switzerland.

He returned to St. Louis for the 1979-80 season to resurrect his NHL career, but a hard hit in training camp separated his shoulder, which limited him to 28 games for the season. He returned to the Blues for the 1980-81 season, but decided his career was over after just two games, retiring for good this time.

His final NHL totals were 407 games played, 128 goals and 164 assists for 292 points as well as 13 points in 29 playoff games and his name on the Stanley Cup twice.

Today's featured jersey is a 1975-76 St. Louis Blues Chuck Lefley jersey. This was the second version of the Blues dark jerseys, as their original ones had the colors on the stripes reversed. Names were added permanently in 1977-78 and colored shoulders, matching the style of their white jerseys, came in 1979 and remained in use through 1984.

1988-89 Harvard Crimson Peter Ciavaglia Jersey

2012-01-19T05:00:00.009-06:00

The first collegiate hockey game in the oldest active rivalry in the United States was played on this date in 1898 when Brown University defeated Harvard University by a score of 6-0 in a game played outdoors at Franklin Field in Boston, Massachusetts.

The 1898 Brown University hockey team, winners of the first collegiate game in the United States

The Boston Herald's account of the game

Brown would win again the following year by a score of 2-1, but Harvard would even the score in 1900 with a pair of wins over Brown in back to back games.

Brown, based in Providence, Rhode Island, originally played men's hockey from 1898 until 1906. They resumed play in 1926-27 through 1939 before taking an extended break during World War II.

The 1929-30 Brown Bears

Play resumed in 1947 as an independent club until joining the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1961-62, where they have retained membership ever since. Notable seasons for Brown have included 1964-65, going 21-9, and the 1975-76 season which saw Brown finish with a record of 23-7.

The 1975-76 Brown Bears

Their last NCAA appearance came in 1993, when they were defeated by Minnesota-Duluth in the first round. They came in third in 1976 following a 7-6 loss to Michigan Tech in two overtimes followed by an 8-7 win over Boston University. They took fourth in the nation in 1965 and were runners-up to Michigan back in 1951 following an 18-6 regular season.

Notable NHLers to have played for Brown include Curt Bennett, Tim Bothwell and Todd Simpson among the dozen Bears to have appeared in the NHL.

Curt Bennett while with Brown and later the Atlanta Flames

Harvard, meanwhile, played just the one game in 1898, but fielded a team continuously through 1916-17, taking a break of one year due to World War I.

Hockey at Harvard Stadium, circa 1910

Starting up again in 1918-19, played through 1942-43 before they too, suspended play during World War II, resuming again in 1945-46 after a two year hiatus.

The 1931 Harvard Crimson hockey team

Harvard played as an independent until 1960-61 when the ECAC was formed due to the NCAA selection committee overlooking any Boston area schools, which prompted the formation of the ECAC, with the conference tournament champion earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Crimson has won the regular season conference title ten times, with a period of dominance from 1985-86 to 1993-94 seeing them win 7 times in 9 seasons, the first four of those won consecutively under long time coach and 1960 United States gold medalist Bill Cleary, who ran the program from 1971 to 1990.

Longtime Crimson head coach Bill Cleary

Additionally, Harvard has won the ECAC post season tournament 8 times in 1963, 1971, 1983, 1987, 1994, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Harvard has made the NCAA tournament 21 times, winning the national championship in overtime in 1989 and posting runner-up finishes in 1983 and 1986. Most recently, the qualified five years running, from 2002 until 2006.

Ed Krayer scores the overtime goal to win the national championship in 1989

Team Captain Lane MacDonald with the 1989 NCAA championship trophy

Harvard has had three players win the Hobey Baker Award, Mark Fusco in 1983, Scott Fusco in 1986 and Lane McDonald in 1989. 23 Crimson players have appeared in the NHL, with some of the better known ones being Craig Adams, current Crimson head coach Ted Donato, Dominic Moore and Don Sweeney.

Current NHLer Dominic Moore while captain of the Harvard Crimson

Since that first meeting back in 1898, the Harvard Crimson holds a 102-41-12 all-time lead in American college hockey's oldest rivalry, a rivalry which will be renewed on January 28th when Brown travels to meet Harvard, with the rematch coming on February 17th.

Today's featured jersey is a 1988-89 Harvard Crimson Peter Ciavaglia jersey as worn during Harvard's championship victory in 1989. Normally overlooked in the world of college hockey as being too soft, the Crimson began the season with 15 straight wins to earn the #1 overall ranking in the country. They went on to win their first Beanpot Tournament in 8 years to further demonstrate they were a club not to be overlooked that season.

Their number one line, the "Line of Fire" consisted of Hobey Baker winner MacDonald, and runner up Allen Bourbeau as well as C. J. Young, both of whom had played for the United States at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. Additionally, Peter Ciavaglia and Donato would both play in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. The Crimson won the ECAC regular season title and entered the playoffs with a stellar 24-2 record.

They learned from being beaten in overtime during the ECAC playoffs, and went on to defeat defending champions Lake Superior State in the NCAA playoffs 4-2 and 5-2 in their best-of-three series. They defeated Michigan State 6-3 to advance to the finals against the University of Minnesota, a game held in the Golden Gophers backyard in St. Paul.

In one of the greatest games ever played, the two teams traded goals back and forth, ending regulation of the exhilarating contest tied at 3-3. In overtime, Ciavaglia won a faceoff in the Minnesota zone back to Ed Krayer, who passed it to Brian McCormack who fired a shot which rebounded off Minnesota goaltender Robb Stauber's pad to Krayer, who moved to his right, forcing Stauber to move, which allowed Krayer the opening he needed to slide the puck between Stauber's legs for the championship winning goal, giving Harvard it's first championship in any NCAA sport.

Harvard's classic jerseys, rivaling those of teams like the Chicago Blackhawks for unchanging longevity, are true hockey classics, with their simple waist and arm stripes, colored shoulder yoke and "Harvard" vertically arched above each players number on the front. They jerseys are topped off with the school crest, which contains the university motto Veritas, Latin for "truth".

Here is footage from Harvard's championship victory over Minnesota, when the Gophers Randy Skarda hits the pipe, keeping Harvard alive in a game they would go on to win, a moment still talked about in Minnesota to this day. We were unable to find any footage of the game winning goal, however.

1938-39 Toronto Maple Leafs Syl Apps Jersey

2012-01-18T05:00:00.006-06:00

Born on this date in 1915, Syl Apps Sr. was not only a hockey player, but an accomplished pole vaulter as well, winning the gold medal in the 1934 British Empire Games in London and later represented Canada at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, placing sixth.

A big player for his era, standing 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds, the center first played junior hockey for in his hometown of Paris, Ontario in 1930. From there he played for McMaster University, where he was recognized for his athletic ability while playing football by the Toronto Maple Leafs Conn Smythe, who signed him to play for the Maple Leafs despite never having seen him play hockey! He declined at the time in order to retain his amateur status in order to compete in the 1936 Olympics.

Syl Apps while a football player at McMaster

Apps joined the Hamilton Tigers of the Ontario Hockey Association in 1935-36 to play senior hockey, scoring 22 goals and 38 points in just 19 games and adding another 9 points in 4 playoff games.

Even though some wondered if the non-smoking, non-drinking, non-swearing Apps was too nice to play in the NHL, he joined the Maple Leafs for the 1936-37 season, winning the Calder Trophy as the league's rookie of the year following an impressive 45 points in 48 games to lead the club in scoring and place second in the league by just a single point, putting to rest any questions about his ability to compete in the NHL!

Syl Apps 1936 rookie card

While Apps raised his point total to 50 the following season, he again placed second in NHL scoring by two points to teammate Gordie Drillon. Apps did lead the league in assists with 29 and added 5 more points as the Maple Leafs made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1938.

Apps led the Maple Leafs in scoring in 1938-39 despite a reduction in his total to 40, accumulated in 44 games played. He had a fine playoff campaign, as Toronto again made it to the finals, thanks in part to Apps' 8 points in 10 games.

Note the texture of Apps' wool sweater

Despite being limited to just 27 games by a broken collarbone, he averaged more than a point per game with 30, good for second on the Maple Leafs. For the third consecutive season, the Maple Leafs would make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but come up short once more. Prior to the season, Apps would be selected to play in the Babe Siebert Memorial Game as a member of the NHL All-Stars, who took on the Montreal Canadiens.

The popular Apps was regularly featured on the cover of the Maple Leafs program

For the 1940-41 season, Apps was named the 5th captain of the Maple Leafs. He responded with the second 20 goal season of his career and added 24 assists for 44 points to equal Drillon's team leading total.

Maple Leafs captain Syl Apps

For the 1941-42 season, Apps was yet again second to Drillon for the club lead in points with 41 and was named the winner of the Lady Byng Trophy for the Most Gentlemanly Player thanks to completing the entire season without a single penalty! In the postseason, Apps led the Maple Leafs in playoff scoring with 14 points in 13 games as Toronto would eliminate the New York Rangers in six games before defeating the Detroit Red Wings in seven games to capture the 1942 Stanley Cup in remarkable fashion, having lost the first three games of the finals and leaving no further margin for error.

The 1941-42 Maple Leafs Stanley Cup engraving, listing Apps as team captain

Apps would be limited to 29 games due to a broken leg in 1942-43, his final season with the Maple Leafs for the time being, as he enlisted in the Canadian Army during World War II. After two years away from the NHL, Apps would return for the 1945-46 season, resuming his captaincy in the process. He did not skip a beat, scoring his fourth consecutive 40 point season, thanks to a then career best 24 goals.

Apps while in the military

He would raise his goal scoring total to 25 the following season and come second on the team with 49 points in 54 games. He would equal his career best with 5 playoff goals as the Maple Leafs ousted the Red Wings in 5 games and then captured the second Stanley Cup of Apps career by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 2.

A happy Apps with coach Hap Day and goaltender Turk Broda

Going out in style, Apps set career bests in goals, with 26 (which included a hat trick on the final day of the season), and points, with 53, to lead the Maple Leafs in scoring before they marched to the championship, defeating the Boston Bruins in five and sweeping the Red Wings in four straight for the second consecutive and third Stanley Cup of Apps career.

Apps with his third Stanley Cup, going out on top

And with that, Apps retired from the NHL at the age of 33, taking a marketing job with a department store as well as serving as Ontario Athletic Commissioner. Later in the 1960's, he became active in politics and was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1963 to 1975.

His career totals were 423 games played, 201 goals and 231 assists for 432 points and a mere 56 penalty minutes in 10 seasons, 15 of which came from the only 3 fights of his career.

In 1961 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and later became a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1975 and a Member of the Order of Canada in 1977. The Maple Leafs made Apps' #10 one of the club's "honored numbers" in 1993. Another tribute arrived in 2001, when Apps was featured on a postage stamp in Canada.

His son, Syl Apps, Jr. would also have a career in the NHL, playing ten seasons after breaking in with the Rangers. He would spend the majority of his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins before finishing with three seasons as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.

Syl Apps, Jr. with his father, Syl, Sr.

Today's featured jersey is a 1938-39 Toronto Maple Leafs Syl Apps jersey. This was the first season for this style sweater with this new version of the Maple Leafs crest. The striping template for this sweater was first adopted in the 1937-38 season, carrying over the original crest, which dated back to 1927 when Smythe purchased the Toronto St. Patricks franchise and changed the club's name to the Maple Leafs.

After one season with the new striping pattern, the new style crest made it's debut and lasted well beyond the conclusion of Apps' career in 1948, remaining unchanged through the 1957-58 season when a blue shoulder yoke was added.

Today's video selection is a cool old documentary on hockey in Canada featuring footage of Apps and the Maple Leafs taking on the New York Rangers in November 1939.

1992-93 NHL Referee Andy Van Hellemond Jersey

2012-01-17T05:00:00.005-06:00

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1948, Andy Van Hellemond began his hockey career like most others as a player, competing for the St. James Canadians of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, which included winning a league championship in 1968 and being named to the league's First All-Star Team as a center.

With his playing career at an end, Van Hellemond began to officiate in various leagues in Manitoba before moving up to first the Western Hockey League for two years and eventually in the NHL, making his debut as a 23-year-old on November 22, 1972 as a replacement for Bruce Hood, who had suffered a knee injury.

How times have changed - a seated Van Hellemond is taller than the glass in 1975

In 1984 he became the first NHL on-ice official to wear a helmet, leading the way to others doing the same before they eventually became mandatory beginning with the 2006-07 season.

A helmeted Van Hellemond

After the era of NHL referees wearing their names on their backs ended in 1993-94, Van Hellemond wore #25 for the remainder of his career, which included setting the NHL record for the most games when he appeared in his 1,173rd regular season game when the St. Louis Blues hosted the Montreal Canadiens, breaking the record held by Dave Newell.

Van Hellemond was immortalized as part of the 1990 Pro Set hockey card set

Upon his retirement after 24 years as an official in 1996, Van Hellemond held the records for most regular season games, with 1,475, most playoff games at 227, and most Stanley Cup finals with 19.

For fourteen years he was the NHL's top rated referee and had the honor of working two NHL All-Star Games, the 1979 Challenge Cup and Rendez-Vous '87 between the NHL All-Stars and the Soviet Union.

Following his retirement as a NHL referee, he became Senior Vice-President and Director of Operations for the ECHL until 2000, when he became Director of Officiating for the NHL until July of 2004.

Although his NHL career came to an end in 1996, Van Hellemond was back on the ice in 2003 for the MegaStars Game, an alumni game with alumni referees between past greats of the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens prior to the Heritage Classic outdoor game in Edmonton.

Van Hellemond in a throwback NHL referee's sweater

Van Hellemond with Wayne Gretzky at 2003's MegaStars Game

He was later selected as Manitoba's Referee of the Century, became an Honored Member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999.

Today's featured jersey is a 1992-93 NHL Referee Andy Van Hellemond jersey. This sweater was worn during the era of referees wearing their names on the backs of their sweaters. This jersey also features the Stanley Cup Centennial patch as worn on not only all the players jerseys in 1992-93, but also the referees' sweaters.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1994-95 NHL Referee Andy Van Hellemond jersey. This jersey, with Van Hellemond's #25 on the back was worn during the first season NHL officials returned to the use of numbers rather than names on their backs for the final two seasons of Van Hellemond's career.

Life as a referee is never an easy one, but getting deliberately punched by a player should not be one of the things they are forced to put up with. Here, Van Hellemond is on the receiving end of a blow by the Boston Bruins Terry O'Reilly. He would be suspended for 10 games for hitting Van Hellemond.

Once again, Van Hellemond earns his paycheck when things boil over between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs engage in a sucker punching line brawl cage match, including Chicago's Dave Manson jumping off the top rope for a disqualification. Even Santa Claus seems upset by their behavior.

1905 Ottawa Silver Seven Frank McGee Jersey

2012-01-16T05:00:00.003-06:00

Born in 1882, Frank McGee excelled at sports, rowing, playing lacrosse and rugby, which included winning a Canadian championship in 1898. But what McGee is best remembered for was his goal scoring prowess at hockey.

In 1900, at the age of 17, while playing in a charity exhibition game with a local Canadian Pacific Railway team, McGee permanently lost the sight in one eye when hit with a high stick. He quit playing to become a referee, but quickly returned to playing despite the risk of losing the vision in his remaining good eye.

After playing junior and intermediate level hockey in his native Ottawa, he joined the Ottawa Hockey Club for the 1903 season. He appeared in six of the club's eight games and immediately showed his offensive skills with 14 goals to place second overall in the Canadian Amateur Hockey League.

In the CAHL playoffs, McGee and Ottawa faced off against the Montreal Victorias in a two-game total-goal series for the rights to the Stanley Cup. Game 1 finished tied at 1-1, with McGee held scoreless. Ottawa roared to life in Game 2, however, as McGee led the Ottawa onslaught with a hat trick as they overpowered the Victorias 8-0. As a result of their 9-1 triumph, Ottawa became league champions were declared holders of the cup for the first time in club history.

Two days later the new champions were challenged for their new trophy by the Rat Portage Thistles in a best-of-three series. Game 1 went to Ottawa 6-2, with McGee scoring twice. Two days later, Ottawa successfully defended their trophy with a 4-2 win, with McGee scoring twice more, including the cup winning goal at 8:20 of the first half, as the game had yet to be divided into three periods. As a reward for their victory, each member of the squad would receive a silver nugget, which gave birth to the team's new nickname, The Silver Seven.

The Stanley Cup champion 1903 Ottawa Hockey Club

Before the 1904 CAHL season began, Ottawa faced another challenge for the Stanley Cup, this from the Winnipeg Rowing Club. A best-of-three series, play began on December 30th, 1903. When the series concluded on January 4, 1904, the Silver Seven prevailed after a 9-1 win, a 6-2 loss and a 2-0 shutout in Game 3.

Ottawa had a tumultuous 1904 season, as they withdrew from the CAHL after only four games and joined the new Federal Amateur Hockey League, but did not participate in any of the FAHL regular season games. In the four CAHL games Ottawa did compete in, McGee scored 12 times, which was still good enough to place him fifth in the final scoring totals.

After leaving the CAHL, the Silver Seven would face a cup challenge from the Toronto Marlboros, whom they would turn away 2 games to none in their best-of-three challenge in late February of 1904.

Once the FAHL regular season was concluded, it's regular season champions, the Montreal Wanderers met the Silver Seven to compete in a two-game, total-goal series for the FAHL championship and the rights to the Stanley Cup that went with it. At least that was the plan. The first game ended in a 5-5 tie when the Wanderers refused to play overtime with the same referee in charge and then had the temerity to demand the series begin anew as a best-of-three! When the trustees of the cup ordered the series to continue as planned, the Wanderers abandoned their challenge, leaving the Silver Seven as FAHL champions despite their having played but a single tie game in league competition! During the tie game, McGee added another goal to his career total.

A final challenge to Ottawa was arranged for one week later, this from Brandon Wheat Cities in another best-of-three format, which the Silver Seven turned away with a pair of victories. While McGee had only played in four regular season games during the 1904 season, he skated in eight cup challenge games, scoring 21 times as the Silver Seven turned away no less than four separate challengers.

In their first full season of FAHL competition in 1905, Ottawa came first with a 7-1 record as McGee would tie for the league lead with 17 goals, but he would score his while playing in two less games than Jack Marshall. The highlight of McGee's regular season would be a five goal performance on February 4th.

During the season, the Dawson City Nuggets would travel 4,000 miles from the Yukon to challenge Ottawa. Their trip would take a month to complete and include traveling on foot, by sled dog, automobile, ship and train. Game 1 of the best-of-three would go to Ottawa by a score of 9-2, with McGee scoring once. Game 2 on this date in 1905 would be one for the ages, as Ottawa continued to pile up goals at a furious pace, eventually winning by an unfathomable 23-2 final score with McGee setting a record which still stands today, as he scored an incredible 14 times! Eight of McGee's goals were consecutive and came in under nine minutes of playing time.

As league champions, Ottawa retained the cup and was challenged once again by the Rat Portage Thistles. McGee did not play in Game 1, which was won by the Thistles 9-3. McGee returned for Games 2 and 3, which were won by Ottawa 4-2 and 5-4 with McGee scoring three times.

The Stanley Cup champion 1905 Ottawa Silver Seven

For the 1906 season, the Silver Seven moved to the new Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. They tied for the best record at 9-1. McGee was third in league scoring with 28 goals in seven games, which included an eight goal performance on March 3rd.

Ottawa would face two challenges during the regular season, first from Queen's University in a best-of-three. After Game 1 went the way of the Silver Seven 16-7, there was little doubt that the cup would change hands, which was confirmed by a 12-7 score in Game 2. McGee scored four times in Game 1.

Just prior to the end of the regular season, Ottawa again had to face a cup challenge, this from Smiths Falls in another best-of-three series. Ottawa had little trouble defending it's now three year grip on the Stanley Cup, as they won two straight by scores of 6-5 and 8-2. In all, McGee scored 15 times in the four cup challenge games that season.

The final two games of McGee's career came in the ECAHA playoffs on March 14th and 17th, 1906. The series was a two-game, total-goal affair. The Montreal Wanderers put in an early claim on the cup with a resounding 9-1 win in the first game.

Ottawa was down, but not out, as they entered Game 2, but 12 minutes in, Montreal scored again to increase their lead to nine goals. McGee got Ottawa on the board in the first half and again before the half ended to help cut the margin to 10-4. The Silver Seven would come out flying in the second half, and score six consecutive goals to even the series at 10-10! In the final seven minutes of the contest, Lester Patrick would score to put Montreal in front and then end the three year reign of the Silver Seven with an empty net goal in the final seconds.

It would be McGee's final game as a hockey player in a career which spanned four seasons, divided between 23 regular season games in which he scored 71 goals, an average of more than three per game. Mc Gee would also participate in 22 playoff and Stanley Cup challenge games during which he would score 63 times, including his record 14 in one game in 1905, all while only having vision in one eye.

Frank Patrick was quoted as saying about McGee, "He was even better than they say he was. He had everything - speed, stick handling, scoring ability and was a punishing checker. He was strongly built but beautifully proportioned and he had an almost animal rhythm."

Following his retirement as a player at just 23 years of age, said to be because his government job would not allow him to travel. Despite having vision in only one eye, he somehow was accepted into the military at age 32. His certificate of examination noted that McGee could "see the required distance with either eye" after he apparently tricked the doctor by covering his bad eye with first one hand and then the other during his exam.

He began to serve in May of 1915 before suffering a knee injury when his vehicle was hit by a shell. While out of action he was given the opportunity to take a non-combat posting in the northwest of France far from the battle, but chose instead to return to the front in August only to be killed in action on September 16, 1916. His body was never recovered.

Lieutenant Frank McGee

McGee was later elected to the first class to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945.

Today's featured jersey is a 1905 Ottawa Silver Seven Frank McGee jersey as worn during his record setting 14 goal game against Dawson City. The Senators trademark red, black and white horizontal "barberpole" stripes were first adopted in 1903, and except for one season with vertical stripes in 1910-11, remained in use through the original Senators final season in Ottawa of 1933-34, with the addition of the letter "O" crest from 1929-30 on.

2011-12 Washington Capitals Troy Brouwer Jersey

2012-01-15T05:00:00.009-06:00

Our latest reader submitted jersey comes from Steve Beck, and it's truly a special jersey we are very pleased he chose to share with the rest of us.

Here is Steve's story about his wonderful jersey:

This jersey was worn on October 13, 2011, against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh. Commemorative patches were worn in honor of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team of the KHL, who died in a plane crash on September 7, 2011.
I purchased this jersey off of NHL Auctions after the game. I am from Chicago and my family has had season tickets for around 25 years. I moved to Washington five years ago and the Capitals are my adopted team, I have season tickets and the only team I would root for against them is the Hawks.

I really wanted the Brouwer jersey as he was on the Hawks when they won the Stanley Cup in 2010. Each player signed their jersey in the locker room immediately after the game. Unlike the Winter Classic, in which a jersey is worn for each period, for these one jersey was worn the entire game. Since they signed it right after MeiGray did not wash them and it stunk like hell when I got it.

Thanks to Steve for taking the time to shoot the photos and send in his story about his jersey. Having traded for some Soviet and Russian jerseys during our time, we can certainly relate to the unmistakable funk of an unwashed game worn jersey.

This jersey certainly has got special meaning for Steve, especially with Brouwer's connection to his hometown Blackhawks and their recent Stanley Cup championship. We also admire the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl patch worn for just the one game. The Washington Capitals and Penguins wore the patched jerseys in an effort to raise funds for the families left behind by the disaster, an idea which began with Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh.

Russian stars Alexander Ovechkin and Malkin, who both personally knew many of those who died, took part in a ceremonial opening face-off conducted by Penguins owner Mario Lemieux.

"I think it's America showing respect, respecting the memories of the guys who were in the plane crash and for the Russians." Ovechkin said. "It means a lot. It's nice of both organizations and the NHL to do that."

If you have a jersey in your collection that you'd like to share with us and your fellow readers, please submit your pictures and a story to go with it, no matter how brief or detailed, to spyboy1@gmail.com and we look forward to seeing your favorites.

1923-24 Montreal Canadiens Sprague Cleghorn Jersey

2012-01-14T05:00:00.008-06:00

Brothers Odie Cleghorn and Sprague Cleghorn got their start in hockey playing in the Montreal City Hockey League in the 1908-09 season and then the pair joined the New York Wanderers of the United States Amateur Hockey Association the following season. Their performances, particularly that of Odie, who scored 15 goals in 8 games while Sprague had 7, drew the attention of a certain J. Ambrose O'Brien, who was bound and determined to win himself a Stanley Cup, and did so by hiring the very best that money could buy, dramatically overpaying a roster of players which became known as the Renfrew Millionaires.

The Cleghorn's were members of Renfrew for their second and final season of 1910-11, with Odie leading the way with 20 goals in 18 games while the rugged Sprague contributed 5 while anchoring the club's defense.

Sprague and Odie Cleghorn of the Renfrew Millionaires

With the Millionaires disbanded due to the realities of their untenable financial situation, the brothers returned home to Montreal to join the powerful Wanderers hockey club. The pair skated for the Wanderers for six seasons, from 1911-12 to 1916-17. Odie would score 115 goals in 103 games, with a high of 28 in just 18 games of the 1916-17 season, while Sprague was able to play enough at forward during his time with the Wanderers to score 79 goals, including a best of 21 in 1914-15, tying Odie for the year.

After missing the 1917-18 season due to World War I, a season which saw the Wanderers disband following the fire which burned their arena to the ground, the pair went their separate ways for 1918-19, with right winger Odie staying in Montreal, only now with the Canadiens, while his bodyguard Sprague joined the Ottawa Senators.

Sprague in the Senators barberpole sweater

Sprague played two seasons in Ottawa, racking up 16 goals in 21 games in 1919-20, as well as 85 penalty minutes in 21 games, a testament to his rough, if not downright dirty play. The Senators won the 1920 Stanley Cup by defeating the Seattle Metropolitans for the first championship for either brother. Sprague played the 1920-21 season with the Toronto St. Patricks, but After the St. Pats were eliminated from the playoffs, Sprague rejoined the Senators as a ringer for their five game series against the Vancouver Millionaires for the Stanley Cup, won by the Senators three games to two before he finally rejoined Odie with the Canadiens for the 1921-22 season.

Sprague while with the Toronto St. Patricks

Meanwhile, Odie had an excellent season in 1918-19 with 29 points (second in the NHL) and avoided tragedy while in Seattle for the 1919 Stanley Cup playoff against the Metropolitans when the series was permanently suspended due to an outbreak of the Influenza Epidemic, which claimed the life of teammate Bad Joe Hall.

Sprague rejoined his brother for the 1921-22 season when he returned to Montreal, now as a member of the Canadiens as well. Energized by his brother's return, Odie saw his goal total rise to 21, after being limited to just 5 the prior year. Sprague was also returned to playing forward after being a defenseman with the St. Pats, which saw his goal scoring rise to 17 from just 3 the previous season. As his brother's protector, Sprague saw his penalty minute total rise from 31 to 80 to lead the NHL for the season, far ahead of Corbett Denneny of Toronto's mere 28!

As part of their return to goal scoring prominence, history was made on this date in 1922 when the Canadiens met the Hamilton Tigers in Montreal. Sprague opened the scoring with a goal at 4 minutes of the first period, with Odie adding a second Montreal goal, with an assist from Sprague, at the 5:20 mark. The clubs then traded goals to close out the first period 3-1 for Montreal.

In the second period, Sprague took just 40 seconds to get his second of the game and completed his hat trick less than five minutes later to make the score 5-2 for Montreal. Odie's second arrived at the 13 minute mark and the teams again traded goals to finish out the period, with the Canadiens holding a commanding 7-3 lead.

The third period was more of the same, as Sprague once again came out flying, netting his fourth of the night at just 30 seconds. At 7 minutes, Odie's hat trick was now complete with a an assist from Sprauge once again. Joe Malone got his second of the game for the Tigers before Odie put the brothers into the record books with his fourth to match Sprague's total at 9:05, the first time two brothers had scored four goals each while members of the same team. Hamilton added two quick goals to make the final score 10-6 in favor of the Montreal and the Cleghorn's, led by Sprague's 4 goals and 6 points and Odie's 4 goals.

Two seasons later, Montreal would defeat the Senators for the NHL championship, then dispatched the Vancouver Maroons in two straight before sweeping the Calgary Tigers for the 1924 Stanley Cup championship, the only time the brothers would win one together. It was Sprague's third and Odie's first.

The 1924 World Champion Montreal Canadiens

They would play one more season together with Montreal before Oide finished his career by becoming coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates, which included occasionally playing in parts of three more seasons, while Sprague took his defensive abilities and rough play to the Boston Bruins for three seasons to end his NHL career.

Odie and Sprague during their final season in Montreal wearing their 1924-25 World's Champions sweaters

Odie played 17 NHA & NHL seasons, scoring 230 goals and 282 points in 300 games, winning one Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, Sprague, who also played 17 NHA & NHL seasons, scored 167 goals and 255 points in 374 games.

Sadly, Sprague was hit by a car in 1956 and died of his injuries on July 12th at the age of 66. Just hours before Sprague's funeral two days later on the 14th, Odie was found dead in his bed from heart failure at the age of 64.

Sprague was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958.

Today's featured jersey is a 1923-24 Montreal Canadiens Sprague Cleghorn jersey. This sweater with the white "C" and red "H" was a short-lived variation, used only two seasons in 1922-23 and their Stanley Cup winning season of 1923-24. It was replaced by their commemorative World's Champions sweaters with the globe logo pictured above, while retaining the white "C" logo on the left arm for one season. In 1925-26 the "C" became red with a white outline and white "H", and with the addition of a second outline in blue in 1935, has remained unchanged ever since.

Today's video is a tribute to the 24 Stanley Cups won by le Club de hockey Canadien, the second of which included the brothers Cleghorn.

1998-99 Daniel Meier EV Zug Jersey

2012-01-13T05:00:00.004-06:00

Born on this date in 1972 in Hundwil, Switzerland, forward Daniel Meier joined EV Zug of the Swiss Nationalliga A for the 1990-91 season at the age of 18. During the season he also participated in the World Junior Tournament held in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The following season he continued to play for EV Zug as well as making his second trip to the World Juniors, this time in Germany. He continued to play for Zug for three additional seasons, with a best of 14 goals in 1993-94.

He moved to championship finalists HC Fribourg-Gotteron for the 1995-96 season, which led to a career best 20 goals and 36 points in 45 games in 1996-97.

He returned to Zug for the 1997-98 season, scoring 9 goals and 20 points, as Zug not only finished first overall in the league with a 24-10-6 record, but went on to win the only championship in club history as Meier contributed 6 goals and 9 points in 18 playoff games while teamed with NHL veteran Wes Walz.

After three additional seasons with Zug, Meier became a member of SC Rapperswil-Jona for the 2001-02 season during which he scored 14 goals and 29 points, placing third in team scoring behind a pair of Canadian-born players.

Geneve Servette was his next stop, where he played for three seasons, including his 13 goal, 30 point season in 2003-04, only the second 30 point season of his career.

Meier was once more on the move, this time with the highly popular Swiss club SC Bern, whose 17,000 seat PostFinance Arena is more than double the capacity of every other arena in the country save the 10,700 seater which is home to the ZSC Lions.

PostFinance Arena

While with Bern, Meier's role was more focused on his defensive, checking abilities and his point production, never really among the team leaders during his career, averaged 9 per season after averaging 18 for his career up to that point. Eventually, Meier would play five seasons for Bern before moving to SC Langenthal of the National League B to finish out the 2009-10 season with career totals of 803 games played, 163 goals and 181 assists for 344 points, all in the Swiss National League A, save the 9 games 2 goals and 4 points with Langenthal in the National League B late in the 2009-10 season.

#19 Meier with SC Bern

Today's featured jersey is a 1998-99 EV Zug Daniel Meier jersey. Perhaps the worst hockey jersey ever on planet Earth, EV Zug apparently purchased their jerseys on clearance from the circus clown supply store. It looks like a minor league New Year's Eve special occasion jersey or some sort of European version of Mardi Gras done in a very 1990's style when torn paper edges and paintbrush strokes were all the rage in graphic design.

We're not certain how the jersey's four sponsors must have felt about having their logos lost in the clutter of the busiest jerseys we've ever seen. It would be interesting to hear the players perspective on what it was like to play in these jerseys, as they could either make their teammates highly visible on the ice, or have the opposite effect of making them blend into the multicolored background of the spectators.

Today's featured jersey shows EV Zug and their crazy jerseys in action from their 1998 Swiss championship. And there was much rejoicing.

1989-90 Boston Bruins Cam Neely Jersey

2012-01-12T05:00:00.003-06:00

Cam Neely played his junior hockey for the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League. He gained recognition for his 56 goal, 120 point season in 1982-83 when he led the Winter Hawks to the Memorial Cup championship with 20 points in 14 playoff games, which earned him a 9th overall selection by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft.

1983 Memorial Cup champion Cam Neely

He began the next season with Portland, but after 19 games he made the jump to the NHL with the Canucks, scoring 31 points in 56 games, as well as gaining his first NHL playoff experience with four games in which he scored a pair of goals.

Cam Neely in the Canucks "Flying V" jersey

The next two seasons with Vancouver saw Neely play over 70 games and score 39 and 34 points, Additionally, he showed his rugged side with 137 and 126 penalty minutes. He was however, playing behind veterans Stan Smyl and Tony Tanti and Canucks coach Tom Watt was not a fan of Neely's defensive game, which combined to make Neely expendable in the eyes of the Canucks, who dealt him to the Boston Bruins along with their first pick in the 1987 draft, for former 100 point scorer Barry Pederson.

The change in scenery saw an immediate rise in Neely's production and he scored more goals in his first season with Boston than he did points the previous season in Vancouver, more than doubling his point total from 34 to 72, as the Bruins coaching staff gave him more playing time which led to more confidence.

The 1987-88 season saw a rise in goals to 42 and the first deep playoff run of Neely's career as the Bruins made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, a run that saw Neely contribute 17 points in 23 games. After a then career best 75 points in 1988-89 before exploding with 55 goals and 92 points in 1989-90 prior to the Bruins making a return to the Stanley Cup Finals later that season. Neely had an excellent playoff season, with 28 points in 21 games.

Proving his 55 goal season was no fluke, Neely lit the lamp 51 times in 1990-91 and registered a second consecutive 90 point season with 91. A knee injury suffered during the conference finals that year would change the course of Neely's career and limit him to just 22 games over the next two seasons combined.

Cam Neely in the 1991-92 Bruins throwback jersey

He rebounded in 1993-94 with 50 goals in his 44th game of the season, a mark only Wayne Gretzky has surpassed. Still suffering from injury problems, Neely was limited to just 49 games that year, leaving many to wonder what his goal total could have reached had he played a full season that year. His ability to return to such a high level of play after essentially missing the previous two seasons earned Neely the Masteron Trophy for 1994.

After two more seasons limited to 42 and 49 games, along with a drop in production to point levels in the 40's, led Neely to call it a career due to a degenerative hip condition.

Neely's #8 was retired by the Bruins on this date in 2004 and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005.

Today's featured jersey is a 1989-90 Boston Bruins Cam Neely jersey as worn during Neely's finest season in which he set personal highs with 55 goals and 92 points.

This particular jersey was worn during the finals and features the 1990 Stanley Cup patch, only the second season that the cup final patch was worn and the first that it was worn on the chest, having been worn on the left arm the previous season when it was introduced.

This long-serving Bruins jersey style was first used back in 1974 and quickly gained secondary shoulder logos and names on the back by 1977 and then remain essentially unchanged through it's retirement at the end of the 1994-95 season.

Our first video is a very well done look at highlights of the career of Cam Neely.

Here is a unique look at Cam Neely's 50 goals in 44 games - all 50! - in the 1993-94 season.

Finally, Cam Neely shares his favorite work out routine and then expresses his feelings in no uncertain terms regarding the debut of ESPNews.

1977-78 Roseau Rams Bryan "Butsy" Erickson Jersey

2012-01-11T05:00:00.002-06:00

Raised ten miles for the Canadian border in Roseau, Minnesota, where hockey is a way of life, Bryan "Butsy" Erickson played his high school hockey for the Roseau Rams on a line with his neighbors and future NHLers, Neal and Aaron Broten. So successful were the trio, with an undefeated 23-0 regular season record, that they were featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" section.

Erickson with Roseau teammate Neal Broten

"It was really surreal," said Erickson. "I didn't really know we were doing anything special. We just played because it was fun."

So good was the high schooler, that he was selected to play for the United States at the 1979 World Junior Tournament along with the Broten brothers, where Erickson would score 2 goals and 3 points in 5 games on his international debut.

The fun continued as the trio took their show on the road down to the Twin Cities where they joined the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey program, Neal in 1978-79 and Bryan and Aaron in 1979-80 while Neal was away with the United States Olympic Team. Bryan's freshman season saw him play in 23 games, scoring 10 goals and 15 assists for 25 points. Byran also was selected for his second World Junior Tournament in 1980, where he scored 4 points in 4 games for the United States.

With the line now reunited for 1980-81 with the return of Neal, the trio lit up scoreboards wherever they played, as Neal scored 17 goals and 71 points, Erickson 39 goals and 86 points, while Aaron led the league in goals (47), assists (59) and points, with 106, as Aaron, Steve Ulseth (93 points) and Erickson (86) led a Gophers 1-2-3 finish in the scoring race, with Neal 5th.

Erickson left his opponents in his wake during his time with the Golden Gophers

While Neal and Aaron moved on to the NHL following the Gophers season, Erickson returned to Minnesota for his junior season in 1981-82, with the assistant captain scoring 25 goals and 45 points. While his totals were down considerably from the previous year, they were enough to lead the Gophers in scoring and earn a nomination as a Hobey Baker Award finalist as the best college hockey player in the United States.

Following the season, he would make his World Championships debut, scoring a goal and an assist for the Americans in 1982.

Back with Minnesota for his senior season, Erickson, now team captain, regained his scoring touch from two seasons earlier, netting 35 goals and 47 assists for 82 points, which earned him All-WCHA honors and a second Hobey Baker nomination. He would finish his college career as the second all-time leading scorer in Minnesota history with 238 points, which 28 years later still ranks fourth.

Minnesota Senior captain Erickson

Undrafted, Erickson signed with the Washington Capitals organization and then played one regular season game with the Hershey Bears of the AHL and three playoff games, where he scored three goals.

in 1983-84, he played 31 games with the Bears and then made his NHL debut with the Capitals, where he saw action in 45 games, scoring 12 times and adding 17 assists, which included scoring his first NHL goal on this date in 1984 in a 4-2 Capitals win over the Los Angeles Kings. He also added a pair of goals and 3 assists in 8 playoff games.

His international career reached a high point when he was named to the US team for the 1984 Canada Cup tournament, which took place prior to the start of the NHL regular season and featured the best players from each of the participating countries. In 6 games, Erickson scored 2 goals and 2 assists, including a goal against Sweden assisted by Neal Broten and a goal in a 4-4 tie against Canada assisted by Aaron Broten, while his two assists were both on goals by Neal.

"Playing in the Canada Cup was a huge thrill for me. Five years earlier I didn't even know if I was going to play hockey after high school. I ended up going to Minnesota, and I graduated in '83 and the next year I'm playing with the best players in the world," he recalled.

Erickson's 1984-85 season was split between the Capitals, where he played 57 games, scoring 15 goals, and the Binghamton Whalers, where he played 13 games. After starting the following season with Binghamton, Erickson was traded late in October to Los Angeles.

Now with the Kings organization, Erickson spent 14 games with the New Haven Nighthawks and the majority of his season with Los Angeles, where in 55 games he had his first 20 goal season on his way to 43 points. With the Kings not qualifying for the playoffs, Erickson was free to join the United States for the 1986 World Championships, where he had a fine tournament with 8 goals in 10 games.

He hit exactly 20 goals again in 1986-87 for the Kings and completed his season with 30 assists for a career best 50 points. Following Los Angeles early playoff exit, Erickson was back to Europe for the 1987 World Championships, scoring 8 points in 10 games.

Erickson's 1987-88 season saw him play 42 games with the Kings and 3 with New Haven prior to a trade which sent him to the Pittsburgh Penguins in early February. He would play 11 games in Pittsburgh, which brought to a close the first phase of his NHL career.

The following season saw Erickson take his game to Italy with HC Merano where he showed his NHL caliber talent with 38 goals and 94 points in just 38 games.

His 1989-90 season was an abbreviated one, with just 13 games with the Moncton Hawks of the AHL. 1990-91 saw Erickson back with Moncton, playing in 36 games, scoring 32 points which included 18 goals. He would also make his return to the NHL with 6 games with the Winnipeg Jets.

Abdominal surgery would shorten his 1991-92 season, which was limited to just 10 games with the Jets. He would return for the 1992-93 season, seeing the ice 41 times for Winnipeg. Injuries once again spoiled his final season, as groin problems limited Erickson to 3 games with Moncton and just 16 games with the Jets, brining to an end his 11 year career, with 351 games, 80 goals and 205 points to his credit.

Today's featured jersey is a 1977-78 Roseau Rams Bryan "Butsy" Erickson jersey. This classic jersey with it's diagonal team name and simple dual white stripes was worn by not only Erickson, but also linemates and future NHLers Neal and Aaron Broten.

The Rams hockey tradition dates back to 1908 and has won seven Minnesota state hockey championships in 33 state appearances since 1945. Originally known as the Green Wave, they won their first championship in 1946 before they changed their name to the Rams in the 1950's, winning three titles in four years in 1958, 1959 and 1961.

In addition to Erickson and the two older Broten brothers, Neal and Aaron, their younger brother Paul Broten also played for the Rams and went onto a career in the NHL.

Additional state titles arrived in 1990, 1999 and 2007.

During their long and storied history, Roseau, the tiny community near the Canadian border has sent nine players onto the NHL, including current Winnipeg Jet Dustin Byfuglien, and seven Rams players have competed for the United States in the Olympics. In addition to Neal and Aaron Broten, longtime coach Oscar Almquist all have been inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

Despite it's enrollment of just 393 students, Roseau has opted to play in Class AA for the larger schools in a continuing effort to be the giant killers and overall state champions, going up against competition from large Twin Cities metro area powerhouses, who have enrollments between 1,300 to 3,100 students to draw players from. The next smallest AA schools are private schools with enrollments of 800 and the next largest public AA school has an enrollment of 978, making Roseau by far the smallest school in the "large" class.

To purchase a Roseau Rams jersey for yourself, please see our friends at VintageMinnesotaHockey.com.

As usual, if you go looking for video of an older hockey player, goals and nearly impossible to find, but the fights are plentiful.

Here is a look at hockey in tiny Roseau, which includes an appearance by Erickson.

1980-81 Chicoutimi Sagueneens Normand Leveille Jersey

2012-01-10T05:00:00.010-06:00

Born on this date in 1963 in Montreal, Quebec, Normand Leveille played his junior hockey for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens beginning with the 1979-80 season. There, the left winger scored 24 goals and 12 assists for 36 points during his rookie Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season.

During his second season, armed with more confidence and experience, Leveille made a big step forward with 55 goals and 46 assists for 101 points, good for third on the club while his 55 goals were 7th in the league. Once in the postseason, Leveille led the "Sags" in scoring with 11 goals as well as 15 assists in 12 games for 26 total points.

This performance led to his being drafted in the first round, 14th overall in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins, ahead of future NHL talents as Al MacInnis and Chris Chelios.

The 5' 10", 175 lbs winger made the Bruins roster out of his first training camp and made his NHL debut on October 8, 1981 as the Bruins hosted the Quebec Nordiques.

Leveille scored his first NHL goal, as well as his first point, during his fourth game on October 14th just 36 seconds into the Bruins game at Chicago against the Black Hawks, igniting a 8-5 Bruins victory.

He would miss several games after straining his MCL in his left knee on November 1st, but return in time to play in 66 of the Bruins 60 games, during which he scored 14 goals and 19 assists for 33 points. He also racked up 49 penalty minutes and finished the season at a +16.

His second season started out promising, as Leveille scored 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 points in his first 9 games, but tragedy struck on October 23, 1982 when he suffered an aneurysm between the first and second periods of the Bruins game in Vancouver against the Canucks.

The 19-year-old Leveille was taken immediately to Vancouver General Hospital, where neurosurgeons performed surgery for seven hours to save his life. Doctors determined that his hemorrhage was a congenital issue caused by a defective blood vessel in his brain rather than being due to any hockey related injury.

Although he had complained of shoulder pain and a headache prior to the game, Leveille had scored twice during the first period and had been checked once, but showed no ill effects following the hit.

It was during the first intermission that Leveille told assistant Bruins coach Jean Ratelle that he felt dizzy. Fearing Leveille had suffered a concussion, Ratelle escorted Leveille to the Bruins trainer Jimmy Kausek. There, he began to lose consciousness. The Vancouver team doctor Ross Davidson came in to see Leveille and ordered that he be rushed to the hospital immediately.

Following the operation, Leveille was in coma for three weeks and remained hospitalized for several weeks after regaining consciousness. Having lost a degree of motor skills and control over his speech, his hockey career was over just as it was about to begin.

He returned to Boston Garden for the first time 16 months later on February 11, 1984, where he, able to walk on his own but with difficulty, stepped onto the ice wearing his #19 jersey to a standing ovation from the Bruins fans.

Leveille returned to the Boston Garden one final time 11 years later on September 28, 1995 for the Garden's closing ceremonies. Aided by former teammate Ray Bourque and his Bruins coach Terry O'Reilly, Leveille skated on the Boston Garden ice for one final time in a moving moment that no one in attendance will soon forget.

He has since become an advocate and fund raiser for the disabled and founded the Centre Normand Leveille, a 200-acre recreational camp for the disabled in Quebec.

Today's featured jersey is a 1980-81 Chicoutimi Sagueneens Normand Leveille jersey from happier times, when Leveille, full of youth and promise, scored 101 points in 72 games prior to leading the Sagueneens in playoff scoring.

The franchise was founded in 1973 and has won the President's Cup as QMJHL champions in 1991 and 1994. The most notable Sags to have gone onto the NHL are Guy Carbonneau, Alain Cote, Felix Potvin, Stephane Richer and current Minnesota Wild forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard.

Chicoutimi has since retired Leveille's #16.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1982-83 Boston Bruins Normand Leveille jersey worn during his abbreviated second season with Boston and once again in February 1984 when he made his emotional return to the Boston Garden following his recovery from his aneurysm.

Our video selection today is the One Last Skate around the rink at Boston Garden, with such icons as Bobby Orr, Milt Schmidt, Phil Esposito, Cam Neely and Johnny Bucyk, as well as Leveille being helped around the ice by Bourque and O'Reilly.

1982-83 Verdun Juniors Pat Lafontaine Jersey

2012-01-09T05:00:00.001-06:00

John Lafontaine was a Canadian from Tecumseh, Ontario who worked for Chrysler, who transferred him to St. Louis, Missouri where his son Pat Lafontaine was born in 1965. It was in St. Louis that Pat first learned to skate. His father was transferred once again, this time to Waterford, Michigan, just 33 miles from Detroit when Pat was seven. Pat got in plenty of skating as the Lafontaine's lived on Williams Lake. Pat also played on his older brother's team, with kids that were a year or two older than Pat, which pushed him to improve his game to keep up with the older boys.

With the end goal of American kids being to play college hockey in those days, the thought of turing pro hadn't even occurred to Pat until he was fifteen, following the success of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" United States Olympic team's gold medal performance, as well as that of American Bobby Carpenter of Massachusetts, who turned pro with the Washington Capitals in 1981.

Lafontaine was clearly no ordinary talent, as while Carpenter was just turning pro in 1981-82, Lafontaine scored an Earth-shattering 175 goals and 149 assists for a stunning 324 points in a 79 game season with Detroit Compuware of the midget AAA Michigan National Hockey League. Yes, three hundred and twenty-four points, an average of over four points per game!

No doubt influenced by his father's Canadian roots, the decision was made that the best place for Pat to continue to progress was Canadian junior hockey rather than an American college. With that, Lafontaine left home at age 17 and moved to the Montreal suburb of Verdun to play for the Verdun Juniors of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for the 1982-83 season.

"Our coach, Pierre Cramer, put me together with Jean-Maurice Cool and we traded for Gerard Gallant. We gelled together," Lafontaine recalled.

Lafontaine began the season with a goal and two assists at Chicoutimi. He duplicated that in his second game at home to Saint Jean. His first hat trick came four games later to extend his point scoring streak to six. Eight games later Lafontaine had his second hat trick as well as four assists for a seven point night.

November 1st saw the streak reach 20 games at Laval with a pair of assists. Four games later Hull was victimized by Lafontaine's fourth hat trick and second seven point game.

He reached the 30 game mark November 26th with a goal and three assists against Drummondville. He surpassed 100 points on December 3rd in his 32nd game of the season and Game 35 of the consecutive point streak on December 10th was an impressive showing, as Lafontaine raised his season high with an eight point night courtesy of a two goal, six assist performance.

Game 40 was achieved December 21st with a goal. After a two week break for the World Junior Tournament, Verdun returned to the ice on January 5th and Lafontaine picked up where he left off with back to back hat tricks (numbers 6 and 7 of the season) on the 5th and the 7th. The point scoring streak now reached 43 games, as well as a total of 142 points, on this date in 1983 when Lafontaine had a pair of goals and an assist versus Chicoutimi.

For the first time all season, Lafontaine was held scoreless at Shawinigan on January 12th, but began another scoring streak of 26 games that would carry through to the end of the season.

He set a season high with four goals on the 18th, only to raise that to five on the 28th of January. Lafontaine reached the 200 point barrier on the 23rd and equalled a season high with eight points on February 25th, which included his 11 hat trick. Lafontaine finished the regular season strongly with a hat trick and three assists for six points on March 11th and then repeated those totals the very next game on March 13th.

He then put an exclamation point on his amazing season when he pumped in five goals as well as three assists for his third eight point night of the season to score 20 points in his final three games, giving Lafontaine points in 69 of the Juniors 70 games that season as well as 15 hat tricks.

In addition to his three eight point games, he had three seven point games, four with six and five games of five points apiece. His final totals were 104 goals and 130 assists for 234 points to lead the league in scoring and earn the Jean Beliveau Trophy with the second highest total in league history at the time. He had 15 more assists than his next closest competitor, Claude Verret, whom he beat by 46 points in the scoring race. Lafontaine also won the goal scoring crown by a full 20 goals over future NHL superstar Mario Lemeiux, who came third in the points race a full 50 points back of Lafontaine.

Lafontaine's remarkable season sees him still third on the single season goal scoring list as well as third on the single season point scoring record more than 25 years later.

Once the playoffs began, Lafontaine kicked off the postseason with four assists as Verdun swept Trois-Rivieres on the strength of Lafontaine's ten points. Shawingan fell in six after shutting out Lafontaine in Game 1 although he came back to score 12 points in the final five games. Verdun then won the President's Cup and qualified for the Memorial Cup by defeating Longueuil four games to one thanks to 13 points from Lafontaine, which earned him the Michel Briere Memorial Trophy as QMJHL playoff MVP after leading the playoffs in scoring with 35 points in 15 games, which added the Guy Lafleur Trophy to his ever growing hardware collection.

Additionally, Lafontaine collected the Mike Bossy Trophy as Best Pro Prospect of the Year, the Michel Bergeron Trophy as Offensive Rookie of the Year and the Frank J. Selke Memorial Trophy as Most Sportsmanlike Player thanks to his total of just 10 penalty minutes for the entire regular season.

One more award came Lafontaine's way, as he was named the Canadian Hockey League's Player of the Year for 1983.

Despite being named the Best Pro Prospect in the QMJHL, Lafontaine was drafted third overall that season behind the Minnesota North Stars first overall selection of Brian Lawton and the Hartford Whalers choice of Sylvain Turgeon second before the New York Islanders grabbed Lafontaine.

Lafontaine would only play for Verdun for a single season, one in which he dominated and proved he was ready to move up to play against a higher level of competition, which he did by spending a season with the United States National Team in preparation for the 1984 Olympic Games.

Once the Olympics were concluded, Lafontaine then joined the Islanders for the final 15 games of the 1983-84 season, which included scoring a hat trick and two assists in only his second game. He also gained valuable experience in 16 playoff games as the Islanders made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, only to see their dynasty end as the Edmonton Oilers began theirs.

He would go on to prove the North Stars and Whalers wrong by having an NHL career which would eventually see Lafontaine inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.

Today's featured jersey is a 1982-83 Verdun Juniors Pat Lafontaine jersey. The Verdun Juniors franchise can be traced back to 1933 when they began life as the Montreal Junior Canadiens, a name they retained until 1972. Name changes then ensued, going from the Montreal Bleu Blanc Rouge to the Montreal Juniors, the Verdun Juniors, and the Verdun Junior Canadiens, all of which explains why their jerseys copied the Montreal Canadiens template so directly.

Eventually the club relocated 35 miles east to Saint-Hyacinthe where they became knows as the Saint-Hyacinthe Laser in 1989 where the Canadiens look was continued. They remained there until 1996 when they moved once more, this time 421 miles northwest to Rouyn-Noranda where they became known as the Huskies and continue to play there to this day but finally broke their ties to the Canadiens jersey template.

While today's post focused on Lafontaine's junior hockey dominance, video of that era was impossible to find, so we present to you Pat Lafontaine's top ten goals.

The Top 20 NHL Player Jersey Sales For November 2011

2012-01-08T05:00:00.011-06:00

Despite having played in only 10 games in 2011 after suffering a concussion in the Penguins game on January 5th, Sidney Crosby led all players in NHL jersey sales in November 2011.

Shop.NHL.com's 2011-12 Sidney Crosby offerings

The popular Alexander Ovechkin predictably came in second despite his recent scoring issues which see him 35th overall. Claude Giroux of Philadelphia came in third, likely boosted by the departure of popular former Flyers Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, the long term injury issues of team captain Chris Pronger, his second place in the scoring race and most likely by the release of the Flyers new Winter Classic jerseys in time for Black Friday sales for the outdoor game which will be hosted by Philadelphia - all of which adds up to the perfect storm of jersey sales.

Grioux's Flyers teammates Daniel Briere and James van Riemsdyk also cracked the Top 20 at #16 and #18, also likely benefitting from a boost due to Winter Classic jersey sales.

Reigning Stanley Cup champion, Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins ranks fourth, along with fellow Bruins Tyler Seguin (7th), Milan Lucic (10th), Zdeno Chara (12th) and Patrice Bergeron (20th). Clearly on ice success translates into retail sales, as the Bruins continue to benefit from having won their first Stanley Cup in 39 years.

Popular Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane come in at 5th and 6th, which will no doubt result in some friendly competitive needling in the Blackhawks dressing room.

New York Rangers captain Ryan Callahan checks in at #8, while teammate goaltender Henrik Lundqvist is at #14. Look for both of these players to rank higher in December sales due to selling quite a few of the Rangers throwback style Winter Classic jerseys, which were not unveiled until November 28th, a week after the Flyers Winter Classic jersey.

Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos comes in 9th, lower than his talent should dictate. Once can only imagine what his sale numbers would look like if he were a Bruin, Red Wing or Ranger.

The remainder of the list comprises the Detroit Red Wings star duo of Pavel Datsyuk at #11 and teammate Henrik Zetterberg at #19, the Capitals Nicklas Backstrom at #13, Penguins star Evgeni Malkin at #15 and the San Jose Sharks Joe Thornton at #17.

Frankly, we're shocked and confused that no single Canadian team has even one player in the Top 20. Where's the Sedin twins? Not one Winnipeg Jet? We also never would have expected only two goaltenders either. It would be interesting to compare this list to one from back in the mid 1990's when the likes of Brodeur, Roy, Hasek, Belfour, Joseph, Richter and Hextall ruled the ice.

The Top 20 NHL Player Jersey Sales For November 2011
1. Sidney Crosby – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Alex Ovechkin – Washington Capitals
3. Claude Giroux – Philadelphia Flyers
4. Tim Thomas – Boston Bruins
5. Jonathan Toews – Chicago Blackhawks
6. Patrick Kane – Chicago Blackhawks
7. Tyler Seguin – Boston Bruins
8. Ryan Callahan – New York Rangers
9. Steven Stamkos – Tampa Bay Lightning
10. Milan Lucic – Boston Bruins
11. Pavel Datsyuk – Detroit Red Wings
12. Zdeno Chara – Boston Bruins
13. Nicklas Backstrom – Washington Capitals
14. Henrik Lundqvist – New York Rangers
15. Evgeni Malkin – Pittsburgh Penguins
16. Danny Briere – Philadelphia Flyers
17. Joe Thornton – San Jose Sharks
18. James van Riemsdyk – Philadelphia Flyers
19. Henrik Zetterberg – Detroit Red Wings
20. Patrice Bergeron – Boston Bruins
Source: Shop.NHL.com

2006-07 Toronto Maple Leafs Mats Sundin Jersey

2012-01-06T05:00:00.005-06:00

On this date in 2007, the Toronto Maple Leafs participated in the Teammates for Kids patch program, during which every player in the NHL wore a Teammates for Kids patch on their jersey for one home game between January 4th and January 13th.

All of the approximately 650 jerseys were then auctioned off for charity, with the patched Pittsburgh Penguins jersey worn by Sidney Crosby on January 7, 2007 selling for $12,131. In all, the auctions raised $385,730 with Sundin's jersey receiving the highest bids among the Maple Leafs at $1,608.

The Teammates for Kids Foundation was founded by country music star Garth Brooks in 1999 to contribute to nonprofit organizations that serve and benefit children. The concept has pro athletes contribute based on performances in games, such as $500 for each goal scored, which the foundation then triples. To date over $80 million has been distributed.

"This league-wide jersey auction highlights the level of commitment that the players, the NHLPA, the NHL and its Member Clubs have towards improving the lives of children," Garth Brooks said. "I'm very grateful to the fans who have supported this auction and children's charities."

This was the third such program where NHL jerseys carried an additional patch for the purpose of being auctioned later on to raise funds for charity, following the Hockey Fights Cancer patches worn by only the team captains in January of 2001 and the NHL Cares patch worn at the start of the 2005-06 season to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans, Louisiana two months earlier.

Today's featured jersey is a 2006-07 Toronto Maple Leafs Mats Sundin jersey with the addition of the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation patch as worn on January 6, 2007 in a 4-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.

The Maple Leafs changed to this jersey template of twin white stripes on the arms and waist back in 1992-93 following the positive reception of their Turn Back the Clock jersey worn during the NHL's 75th Anniversary season in 1991-92.

The 1992-93 jersey incorporated a vintage, multi-pointed maple leaf as the secondary shoulder patches. A new modern font for the name and numbers was first employed in 1997-98 and in 2000-01, the shoulder patches changed to a "TML" monogram became the secondary logo, as well as a change to a three color block font for the numbers, while the modern font for the names was retained.

The three color monogram and numbers saw the introduction of a third color to the Maple Leafs jerseys, a subtle silver outline. This was the first time since 1948 that a Maple Leafs jersey was anything other than blue and white, as the name "Toronto Maple Leafs" was executed in red on the main crest for three seasons in the late 1940's.

Today's first video is a look at the Teammates for Kids Foundation.

Apparently not everyone is a fan of Sundin.

1982-83 Winnipeg Jets Serge Savard Jersey

2012-01-05T05:00:00.004-06:00

Born to be a Montreal Canadien, Serge Savard was born in Montreal in 1946 and played his junior hockey for the Montreal Junior Canadiens from 1963-64 to 1965-66, where the defenseman's best season was a 47 point effort from 56 games in 1964-65.

The following season must have been a culture shock of the highest degree, as the French Canadian found himself in the Central Hockey League as a member of the Houston Apollos. Savard was named CHL Rookie of the Year when he scored 32 points in 68 games, but also stood his ground while being tested during his first season of professional hockey with 155 penalty minutes. He would never get half that many minutes again in his 17 year career. He would also make his NHL debut with Montreal with a pair of games that season as well as appearing in a single playoff game with the Quebec Aces of the AHL.

Savard would crack the Montreal lineup the following season and never return to the minors again. As a rookie in 1967-68, the season of the great NHL expansion, he registered 15 points in 67 games, including his first NHL goal. He would also get his first taste of playoff action, which was to become a regular part of his career going forward. Savard played in 6 of Montreal's 13 playoff games, as the Canadiens swept the expansion St. Louis Blues to win the Stanley Cup, earning the rookie his name on the cup for the first time.

With the confidence of a full season behind him now, Savard doubled his point total in 1968-69 with 8 goals and 23 assists for 31 points, but really shone in the playoffs, as he racked up 4 goals and 10 points in 14 games as Montreal rolled to a second consecutive Stanley Cup and Savard became the first defenseman to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.

Savard raised his goal total to 12 and matched his point total with 31 in 1969-70, but the Canadiens missed out on the postseason due to losing a tiebreaker in the standings. Savard did however, play in his first NHL All-Star game that season.

He was limited to just 60 games over the next two seasons in part due to a severely broken leg which he later broke again, quite nearly the only blemish on his otherwise durable nature, as 12 times in 16 seasons he would play upwards of 64 games, with 9 of those being 71 or more.

Back healthy once again, Savard played first in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union, playing in 5 of the series 8 games, during which Canada won 4 and tied 1 as Savard likes to point out!

Savard then saw action in 74 games with the Canadiens, setting a new career high with 39 points but he really came alive in the playoffs with 11 points in 17 games as Montreal won the fourth Stanley Cup of Savard's career, as they also won the title in 1971 when Savard missed the majority of the season due to injury.

After a down year offensively, with just 18 points, Savard rebounded in 1974-75 with a career best 60 points coming from 20 goals and 40 assists, both also career highs.

The 1975-76 season saw Savard score 47 points and help Montreal earn another Stanley Cup. Before the next NHL season could get underway, Savard suited up for Team Canada again during the 1976 Canada Cup, which the Canadians would win.

Montreal was now in the midst of a dynasty, as they would win their second of four consecutive Stanley Cups in 1976-77, followed by their third and fourth in 1978 and 1979. Following the 1978-79 season, Savard was named the recipient of the Masterton Trophy for perseverance, dedication and sportsmanship. That season would also see Savard compete in the 1979 Challenge Cup, a series of games against the Soviet Union which was held in lieu of the customary all-star game.

Savard would play two more seasons with Montreal while serving as the team captain before briefly retiring until being convinced to return to the ice with the Winnipeg Jets, who desired his veteran leadership on their young squad.

Savard played 47 games on his return to the NHL in 1981-82, which saw a 48 point improvement in the standings for the Jets, and a 76 games in 1982-83, which included his 1,000th NHL game on this date in 1983, making him just the 45th player in league history to reach that milestone.

Savard was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1986 and had his #18 retired by Montreal in 2006. He stayed active in the Canadiens organization, later spending 12 seasons as the Canadiens general manager, a time period which included two Stanley Cup championships.

Today's featured jersey is a 1982-83 Winnipeg Jets Serge Savard jersey. The Jets adopted a new jersey style upon their entry into the NHL in 1979-80 and continued to wear it for 11 seasons throughout the 1980's.

One unique element of this jersey is the extra thin font used for the names on the back.

The template for this jersey was actually originally used by the New York Rangers for two seasons under the management of John Ferguson. 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.

Bonus jersey: Due to the length of time Savard spent with the Canadiens and the eight championships clubs on which he played, it is only fitting to include a 1974-75 Montreal Canadiens Serge Savard jersey. from the year Savard set career highs in goals, assists and points, with 60. This jersey features a lace up collar and has the sleeve numbers contained within the blue arm stripe, which Montreal did from 1966 to 1978.

This particular style with the lace up collar and sleeve number placement was used from 1966-67 to 1974-75 until the Canadiens changed to a v-neck collar.

Notice the back numbers are not centered on the blue chest stripe, a common misconception with Canadiens jerseys.

Today's first video segment is the Legends of Hockey biography of Savard.

Next, is a tribute to Savard on the occasion of having his #18 retired by the Canadiens.

Here, Savard's #18 raises to the rafters later in the ceremony. Notice the current Canadiens players all wearing #18 Savard captain's jerseys with a special commemorative patch for the occasion.

1983-84 Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky Jersey

2012-01-04T05:00:00.010-06:00

17,498 fans filed into the Northlands Coliseum on this date in 1984 as the Edmonton Oilers were set to host the Minnesota North Stars. Grant Fuhr got the start for the Oilers, opposed by Minnesota's Don Beaupre.

At 2:07 into the game, Glenn Anderson got the scoring started with his 25th goal of the season on an assist from Mark Messier, with the goal coming at even strength. Wayne Gretzky extended the Oilers lead to 2-0 at 7:41 with his even strength goal from Charlie Huddy. It was Gretzky's 44th goal of the season, coming just two seconds after a North Stars penalty had expired.

With Dave Hunter in the penalty box for the Oilers, Minnesota got on the board when Dennis Maruk got his 10th of the season from Neal Broten and Dino Ciccarelli at 9:11.

With the feisty Gordie Roberts off for Minnesota, Edmonton restored their two goal lead when Jari Kurri scored a power play goal from Gretzky and Huddy at 15:20. Gretzky's assist extended his NHL record to 17 consecutive games with an assist, his 38th assist during the streak.

Two and a half minutes later, the North Stars struck back when Ciccarelli scored his 23rd goal from Maruk and Brad Maxwell at even strength at 17:55, still in the first period.

25 seconds later, Kurri would score his second of the period from Gretzky at even strength matched by Gretzky's second of the game 38 seconds later to make the score after just one period 5-2 in favor of the Oilers.

When the teams returned to the ice for the second period, Gilles Meloche had replaced Beaupre in the North Stars goal. Minnesota came out flying, determined to get back into the game, and in the blink of an eye, Ciccarelli has his second goal of the night from Maruk and Mark Napier at just 25 seconds. The North Stars then cut the Oilers lead to 5-4 when defenseman Maxwell netted his 12th of the season on a power play with Anderson in the box for the Oilers at 1:22.

Kurri completed his 7th career hat trick with his 38th of the year from Gretzky at 3:54, stemming the tide of the North Stars comeback - at least temporarily, as Steve Payne's 11th of the season from Broten and Willi Plett just 40 seconds later kept Minnesota within one at 6-5.

Just over three minutes later, Edmonton converted on the power play with Coffey's 20th from Gretzky and Messier at 7:31 with Brian Lawton off for Minnesota. The scoring binge subsided temporarily until the plucky North Stars got their fourth of the period from Brian Bellows, his 21st of the season at 11:27 from Napier and George Ferguson.

Taking a break from the scoring, Ken Linseman of Edmonton fought Napier at 11:50, followed by Randy Gregg's fight with Bellows less than a minute later at 12:30. Bellows received an extra minor, which put Edmonton on the power play, which they converted 16 seconds later as Gretzky completed his hat trick with his 46th goal from Anderson and Messier. The hat trick was the 24th of Gretzky's career.

Swede Willy Lindstrom joined the offensive fireworks at 14:59 from Messier and Kevin Lowe at 14:59 and Gretzky scored his 47th goal of the season, his fourth goal of the night and eighth point of the game with his goal from Messier and Kurri even strength at 17:23. Messier's fourth assist was his fifth of the game and he set an Oilers record with four coming in the span of the last 9:52.

The second period ended with the Oilers leading 10-6, thanks to their three consecutive goals to in the latter half of the period which gave them their largest lead of the night.

Despite giving up six goals, Fuhr stayed in the Oilers net for the third period thanks to the healthy Oilers lead, while the North Stars elected to stay with Meloche, as Beaupre likely wanted nothing more of the Oilers on this night.

Minnesota still had some fight left in them, as they struck back at 2:20 of the third with Keith Acton's 11th from Maxwell and Roberts, followed by Craig Hartsburg's 7th from Plett on the power play at 3:35 with Anderson back in the box.

Coffey got one back for the Oilers from Messier and Anderson at 7:10. It was Messier's sixth assist of the game. It would take over eight minutes for the next goal to arrive, the longest gap in scoring for the entire game. Gregg's 10th of the season came at 15:22 from Kevin McCelland and Pat Hughes to make the score 12-8 and send the media scrambling for their record books, as the goal was the 20th of the game, the most in the NHL since a a 21 goal game between the Toronto St. Patricks and Montreal Canadiens back on January 10, 1920 won by Montreal 14-7 nearly 64 years earlier.

With just over four and half minutes remaining, fans were hoping to witness history, but the record-tying goal never arrived, as the final stood at 12-8 despite a Minnesota power play at 17:01.

Of note, both teams had identical 12 shots on goal for each and every period, giving them 36 each for the game. Fuhr got credit for the win after making 28 saves on 36 shots, while Meloche took the loss after making 17 saves on 24 shots, while Beaupre made 7 saves on 12 shots.

This would prove to be the greatest night of Gretzky's career, with 8 points from 4 goals and 4 assists. He had one previous 8 point night earlier the same season back on November 19, 1983, which came on 3 goals and 5 assists.

Today's featured jersey is a 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky jersey. The Oilers would go on to win the Stanley Cup at the conclusion of the season, and interestingly, each of the four times the Oilers would win the cup with Gretzky as captain, it would be at home in their white jerseys.

When Edmonton first entered the NHL in 1979 following the demise of the WHA, they changed the colors of crest of their jerseys but, aside from minor detail changes to fonts for names and numbers and some tweaking of shades of color, kept the same style for 17 seasons, which included their Stanley Cup dynasty of the 1980's.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1983-84 Minnesota North Stars Craig Hartsburg jersey. With the North Stars being 40% responsible for the 20 goals scored in their game with Edmonton on this date in 1984, it only seems fair to include them in today's entry.

This jersey was first worn in 1978, but this was the only season the Pedersons brand appeared on the rear hem of the North Stars jerseys, being replaced by a different local customizer the following season.

Oddly, in 1981-82, the North Stars added black to their home white jerseys in the form of a third black stripe to the waist, black cuffs on the sleeves and black outlines on their main crest and number in an effort to look tougher, but surprisingly chose to leave the green road jerseys as is, not adding the black to them until 1988, sticking with today's featured style some seven additional seasons.

Today's video selection are highlights from the offensive explosion which resulted in the most goals scored in over 60 years in the NHL.

1928-29 Boston Bruins Eddie Shore Jersey

2012-01-03T05:00:00.012-06:00

From the Sports Illustrated Vault, the story "A Rough Time on the Road" by the great Stan Fischler originally published back on February 10th, 1964.

On January 2, 1929, the Boston Bruins boarded a night train to Montreal for a National Hockey League game there the following evening against the Montreal Maroons. As the train was pulling out of North Station, Art Ross, the Bruins' manager, walked through the Pullman sleeping car, counting the players. When Ross reached the last berth, he realized that one of them, Eddie Shore, was missing.
Eddie Shore
"Ross didn't know it," Shore said recently, "but I was then running down the platform trying to jump on the last car of the train. I didn't make it. I just missed the train because my taxi got tied up in a traffic accident coming across town."

Shore was determined to get to Montreal in time for the game. The Bruins were already shorthanded because of injuries, and Shore was well aware that Ross levied a $500 fine on any player who missed a road trip. Shore checked the train schedule and found that the next express to Montreal in the morning would not reach there until after the game had started. He learned that all the airline planes were grounded because of stormy weather. He was about to rent an automobile when a wealthy Boston friend offered to lend him a limousine with a chauffeur.

At 11:30 that night Shore and the chauffeur started the 350 mile drive over iced and snow-blocked New England mountain roads. It was sleeting, and in those days there were no paved express highways, no sanding trucks and no road patrols. The chauffeur drove very slowly through the storm. "I was not happy with the way he was driving," Shore said, "and I told him so. He apologized and said he didn't have chains and didn't like driving in the winter. The poor fellow urged me to turn back to Boston."

At that point the car skidded to the lip of a ditch. Shore took over at the wheel and drove to an all-night service station where he had tire chains put on. By then the sleet storm had thickened into a blizzard. Snow caked either side of the lone windshield wiper, and within minutes the wiper blade froze solid to the glass. "I couldn't see out of the window," says Shore, "so I removed the top half of the windshield."

His face was exposed to the blasts of the icy wind and snow but he managed to see the road. At about 5 A.M., in the mountains of New Hampshire, "We began losing traction. The tire chains had worn out."

Slowly, Shore eased the car around a bend in the road where he could see the lights of a construction camp flickering. He awakened a gas station attendant there, installed a new set of chains and weaved on. "We skidded off the road four times," he says, "but each time we managed to get the car back on the highway again."

The second pair of chains fell off at three the next afternoon. This time Shore stopped the car and ordered the chauffeur to take over the wheel. "I felt that a short nap would put me in good shape," he says. "All I asked of the driver was that he go at least twelve miles an hour and stay in the middle of the road."

But the moment Shore dozed off, the chauffeur lost control of the big car and it crashed into a deep ditch. Neither Shore nor the chauffeur nor the car suffered any damage so Shore hiked a mile to a farmhouse for help. "I paid $8 for a team of horses," says Shore, "harnessed the horses and pulled the car out of the ditch. We weren't too far from Montreal and I thought we'd make it in time if I could keep the car on the road."

He did and at 5:30 P.M. Shore drove up to the Windsor Hotel, the Bruins headquarters. He staggered into the lobby and nearly collapsed. "He was in no condition for hockey," says Ross. "His eyes were bloodshot, his face frostbitten and windburned, his fingers bent and set like claws after gripping the steering wheel so long. And he couldn't walk straight. I figured his legs were almost paralyzed from hitting the break and clutch."

Montreal's Windsor Hotel

Nevertheless, Shore ate a steak dinner, his first real meal in twenty-four hours, and refused the coach's orders to go to sleep. "I was tired all right," Shore says, "but I thought a twenty or thirty minute nap would be enough, then I'd be set to play."

An hour later Dit Clapper and Cooney Weiland of the Bruins entered Shore's room and shook him gently. Nothing happened. The rolled him over the bed and onto the floor. Still nothing happened. Weiland filled several glasses with water and poured them over Shore's face. This time he woke up and immediately insisted on playing.

Ross didn't want him to play. "I knew how durable he was," the coach says, "but there's a limit to human endurance. I finally decided to let him get on the ice, but at the first sign of weakness or sleepwalking I'd send him to the dressing room. I had to worry about him being groggy. What if he got hit hard and wound up badly hurt?"

The game was rough and fast. The powerful Maroons penetrated Boston's defense often, but Shore always helped repulse them. He smashed Hooley Smith to the ice with a vicious body check and drew the game's first penalty. Ross considered benching him at this point, but changed his mind. When the penalty had elapsed, Shore jumped on the ice and appeared stronger than ever. Shortly before the halfway point in the second period he skated behind his net to retrieve the puck. He faked one Montreal player, picked up speed at center ice and swerved to the left when he reached the Maroons' blue line. He sped around the last defenseman and shot. "I would say I was about fifteen feet out to the left," he says. "I can remember exactly how my shot went. It was low, about six inches off the ice, and went hard into the right corner of the net." The time of the goal was 8:20 of the second period. The Bruins led 1-0.

Shore still showed no signs of his ordeal during the third period (he had another two-minute penalty), and almost twenty-four hours after he chased the train down the North Station platform in Boston the final buzzer sounded. Apart from the two penalties, Shore had played the entire game without relief and, what's more, had scored the only goal of the game. Coach Ross never fined him for missing the train.

Shore would have an eventful 1928-29 season, as in addition to his heroic overnight drive through a raging blizzard, the Bruins would go on to win the first Stanley Cup of Shore's career after the Bruins won the American Division with a 26-13-5 record and go on to sweep the Montreal Canadiens 3 games to none before defeating the New York Rangers 2 games to none in what was oddly just a best-of-three final following the best-of-five semifinal!

The Stanley Cup Champion 1928-29 Boston Bruins

Shore would eventually survive his all-out style of play long enough to have a 14 year NHL career, during which he would receive 978 stitches, break his nose foureen times and his jaw five times as well as a hip, collar bone and his back. He would also win the Hart Trophy as the NHL MVP four times, the most of any defenseman, and win a pair of Stanley Cups, one in 1929 and the other coming in 1939. He would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947.

Shore from the 1933 Sport Kings trading card set,

one of only three hockey players in the 48 card set

Today's featured jersey is a 1928-29 Boston Bruins Eddie Shore jersey. The Bruins were still using their original colors of brown and yellow, which came from the club's original owner Charles Adams' grocery store chain, First National Stores.

The Bruins wore a different style in each of their first two seasons before adopting this style in 1926. They would continue to wear this sweater for six seasons, including a Stanley Cup championship in 1929.

Today's video is a fifteen minute film on the career of Shore, a rich topic worthy of much more than we can provide here in this format.

2009-10 Philadelphia Flyers Mike Richards Jersey

2012-01-02T05:00:00.012-06:00

Today is the sixth annual NHL Winter Classic, being held at Citizen's Bank Park in Philadephia, Pennsylvania, home of the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball.

The first Winter Classic was hosted in 2008 by the Buffalo Sabres, who were defeated in a shootout by the Pittsburgh Penguins in front of 71,217 fans who rejoiced in the cold weather and picturesque snowfall. The Penguins would wear baby blue throwbacks from 1968 while the Sabres would don jerseys based on their original 1970 jerseys.

The second annual Winter Classic in 2009 saw the Chicago Blackhawks host the Detroit Red Wings at historic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball club. Detroit would win the game by a score of 6-4 in front of 40,818. The Red Wings would go all the way back to the 1926 Detroit Cougars for the inspiration for their jerseys, worn during the first season of the franchise, while the Blackhawks would select the highly attractive jerseys worn in 1935 as their inspiration.

The 2010 Winter Classic was held at the Boston Red Sox Fenway Park with the Boston Bruins hosting the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers scored first but the Bruins tied the game late in the third period to send the game into overtime where it was won by the Bruins' Marco Sturm to send the chilly home fans away happy.

The Bruins sweaters combined different elements from their past, including their original brown and gold colors worn from 1924-1934, the original style "spoked B" logo first worn in 1949 and a lace up collar which first appeared on a Bruins jersey in 1967. Overall, the package most closely resembles a 1957 Bruins jersey.

The 2011 Winter Classic was held at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins made their second appearance on New Year's Day, hosting the Washington Capitals and their star Alexander Ovechkin.

The game was memorable for several reasons, the least of which was the play on the ice. First, due to unseasonably warm and inclement weather, the starting time of the game was moved from 1 PM back to 8 PM. The rain was unavoidable however, and periodically fell during the game, creating puddles on the ice at times. The second thing the game, won by the Capitals 3-1, will be remembered for is the collision between an unsuspecting Sidney Crosby and the Capitals David Steckel late in the second period, which concussed Crosby. A second hit four nights later against Tampa Bay would end Crosby's season and continues to affect him to this day.

For the 2011 Winter Classic, the host Penguins would wear jerseys inspired by their original sweaters worn for their inaugural 1967-68 season, only with the colors reversed. Additionally, the crest used was taken from their 1968-69 sweaters, rather than the diagonal "Pittsburgh" worn in 1967. Washington wisely chose their original flash, star-spangled jerseys worn from 1974 to 1995, a welcome return for the classic Capitals style.

For this year's edition, the Flyers once again return to the Winter Classic, only this time as hosts. With a very limited back catalog of jerseys to select from, and having already been in the game once before, Philadelphia has chosen to create a retro inspired design not based on any actual previously worn jersey.

The orange jerseys have traditional black shoulders and vintage white striping trimmed in black. One element we would change is simply making the waist stripe match the arm stripes with black trim above and below the center white stripe.

The Rangers also created a brand new design, again using vintage white. Their arm and waist stripes also do not match, with the arms getting the "Northwestern" stripe treatment, while the waist has a pair of equal width red and blue stripes. The shoulders nicely suggest the unique and traditional Rangers shoulder striping, without being a direct copy.

The signature element of the jersey is the revival of a logo used by the club back in the 1920's, which has never actually appeared on a Rangers sweater previously, as New York has always had "Rangers" diagonally across their sweaters from 1926 to today, with few exceptions, those being an arched lettering in 1946-47, a modern version of the shield from 1976 to 1978 and "New York" diagonally down the blue road jerseys from 1978 to 1987.

Today's featured jersey is a 2009-10 Philadelphia Flyers Mike Richards jersey from the Flyers first appearance in the Winter Classic. At the time, the Flyers were suffering under the new Reebok Edge jerseys, wearing a hideous pair of home and road jerseys which had little to do with their classic look.

For the previous season the club, the club had introduced a new orange third jersey based on their 1973-74 jerseys from their Stanley Cup winning season, complete with the Flyers unique contrasting white nameplates. Back in the early 1970's, teams did not customarily wear names on the backs of their sweaters, but added them for nationally televised games, thinking that putting names on the back would harm the sales of programs in the arena. Uniquely, the Flyers had only a single set of names made for this purpose, and used them on both their home white and road orange jerseys.

With the need for a special jersey for the 2010 Winter Classic, the club opted for a white version of their orange third jersey, and kept the concept of the contrasting nameplate, opting for a black plate with white letters.

These jerseys were so well received that they became the full-time road jerseys and the orange third jersey was promoted to being the new home jersey, as the original Edge jerseys were dropped after only three seasons, a blink of an eye in the long and seldom changing history of Flyers jerseys.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 2012 Philadelphia Flyers Winter Classic concept jersey. This fan designed jersey, created by DC Visual Arts, was based on the first NHL club to play in Philadelphia, the 1930-31 Philadelphia Quakers, a dreadful club whose 4-36-4 record and dire financial condition due to the Great Depression, led to the team suspending operations after just one season following their relocation from Pittsburgh.

DC Visual Art concepts for the 2012 Winter Classic

The good news was that the design ideas were very well received, but the bad news was that the counterfitters in Asia sized upon the Flyers concept and rushed it into production in an attempt to get the jump on not only Reebok's ability to produce the new jersey, but the Flyers opportunity to officially announce their heavily anticipated Winter Classic design.

DC Visual Arts design was a terrific blend of history and style and would have been an excellent choice, but it was a victim of it's own success, as the fact the bootleggers had made the design so widely known and distributed, spoiled it's chances of ever being chosen by Philadelphia, as it would have validated the bootlegger's inventory and given it a tremendous headstart in the marketplace over the legitimately produced Reebok inventory.

Regardless of the fact it won't be worn by the Flyers anytime soon, more than a few of these bootlegs have been sold, and you can bet on seeing more than one in the stands during the game at Citizen's Bank Park.

In today's video section up first is the shootout from the first Winter Classic in 2008 between the Sabres and Penguins.

Next, highlights from the 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Here is Sturm's winner in overtime of the 2010 Winter Classic in Boston.

Finally, highlights from last year's 2011 Winter Classic between the host Penguins and Capitals.

2012 World Junior Championships Update

2012-01-01T05:00:00.005-06:00

The Preliminary Round of the 2012 World Junior Championships has now concluded and the bracket for the Playoff Round has been set, as have the teams in the Relegation Round.

With Sweden having won Group A, thanks to their dramatic 4-3 win over Russia last night with a tying goal in the final minute forcing overtime, they will face the winner of the Finland vs. Slovakia game on Monday.

Meanwhile, Canada delighted the home fans by going undefeated in Group B, challenged only by the United States, who were trying to save some pride after a disastrous first round which sees them place in the relegation round with Switzerland, Latvia and Denmark.

Canada thus earns the customary bye into the semifinals, where they will face the winner of the Russia versus Czech Republic game.

Sweden won Group A with 2 dominant wins over first Latvia and then Slovakia, their overtime win over Russia and a shootout win over Switzerland. The Swedish program has come a long way since not winning a medal between 1997 and 2007, including playing in the Relegation Round in 2003 and 2004. Since 2008, Sweden has won a pair of silvers and a bronze and will be disappointed to not come home with a medal after assuring themselves of playing for one regardless. Max Friberg, a 2011 Anaheim Ducks draft pick, has garnered the headlines for Sweden with his 7 goals in four games, tied for the tournament lead after the Preliminary Round.

Russia has looked strong to date, with three wins with only yesterday's overtime loss to Sweden as a blemish on their record. Both Nikita Gusev and Yevgeni Kuznetsov are tied with Stone for the tournament lead with 9 points, both with 3 goals and 6 assists. Kuznetsov belongs to the Washington Capitals, while Gusev is currently undrafted.

Slovakia made it to the Playoff Round thanks to wins over Latvia and their deciding 6-4 win over Switzerland, which allowed them to leapfrog over the Swiss in the standings.

Switzerland will be disappointed to find themselves in the Relegation Round, but should remain safe thanks to the 3 points they carry over thanks to their 5-3 win over Latvia.

As expected, Latvia finds themselves in the Relegation Round, carrying over no points, which points to our predicted meeting with Denmark to determine their fate, which has hope this year thanks to new rules which see only one team relegated, rather than the previous two.

In Group B, hosts Canada have simply steamrolled their way through everything in it's path, kicking off the tournament with a 8-1 thrashing of Finland, followed by a 5-0 shutout of the Czech Republic, and a 10-2 defeat of Denmark before jumping out to a 3-0 lead over the United States after one period before the Americans scored two in the third to make things interesting. Canada has not won gold since 2009, their fifth consecutive gold. Mark Stone has led the tournament with 7 goals and 9 points. He is a 2010 draft pick by the Ottawa Senators.

Finland moves on thanks to wins over the United States, Denmark and a dominant 4-0 win over the Czech Republic, and look good for medal contention thanks to a quarterfinal matchup with Slovakia. Teemu Pulkkinen, a Detroit Red Wings draft pick, leads the Finns with 5 goals and 3 assists for 8 points.

The Czech Republic advances thanks to their taking care of business against Denmark in addition to their strong performance against the USA, who they outlasted 5-2. They have drawn a tough Russian club, and will be elated to be competing for a medal on January 5th. While the Czech have no players in the top 28 in scoring, their goaltender Petr Mrazek , another Red Wings draft pick, has grabbed the spotlight with his flamboyant celebrations.

Without a doubt, the biggest disappointment of the tournament has been the United States, expected to contend for a medal, if not gold, the US started off well, defeating Denmark, but it flattered to deceive, as they then dropped games to Finland and the Czechs, crushing their hopes to advance. The US will be safe from relegation, aided by carrying over 3 points, but mere safety was not in anyone's minds for the Americans when the tournament started. The Minnesota Wild's Charlie Coyle leads the United States with 4 goals and 5 points.

Simply put, Denmark has been over matched, losing all four of their games by an average of 8 goals while being outscored 38-6. Still, their whole tournament comes down to one game. Perhaps they can steal a point against Switzerland, but they are looking at a winner-take-all game against Lativa on January 4th for survival, with the loser sure to be relegated for 2012, to be replaced by Germany, who won Division 1 Group A back in December 2011 at home in Germany.

The schedule takes it's traditional New Year's Day off today and resumes on Monday with the quarterfinals between Finland and Slovakia and Russia and the Czech Republic, as well as the first two games of the Relegation Round, which should ensure the safety of the Swiss and the Americans.

We expect Russia to advance to face Canada and the Finns to face their traditional rivals Sweden in the semifinals, which if it comes to pass, should make for a terrific doubleheader on Tuesday, free from competition for exposure from Monday's NHL Winter Classic.

The bronze medal game and gold medal final will both take place on Thursday the 5th in Calgary, where all the games will take place going forward.