1996-97 New York Islanders Ziggy Palffy Jersey

Born on this date in Czechoslovakia in 1972, Zigmund "Ziggy" Palffy came of age at the ideal time, just after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

After a season in the Czechoslovakian Extraliga with HK Nitra, scoring 34 goals and 50 points in 50 games and earning a bronze medal in the 1991 World Junior Championships, scoring 7 goals and 13 points in 7 games, Palffy was drafted in the second round of the 1991 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Islanders.

Palffy as a member of the Czechoslovakia National Team

He remained in Czechoslovakia for two more seasons with Dukla Trencin, leading the club in points in 1991-92 with 47 points and adding another 26 points with an amazing 18 goals and 26 points in just 13 playoff games to lead Trencin to the league championship, their first championship since their founding in thirty years of trying. If that were not enough, the following season Palffy not only led Trencin in scoring with 38 goals and 79 points just 43 games, but won the league scoring championship in the process.

Now clearly ready to make the move to North America after dominating his domestic league, Palffy began his path to the NHL with a season with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the IHL in 1993-94, where he averaged exactly a point per game with 57 points in 57 games. He also made his NHL debut with the Islanders, seeing action in five games, but failed to impress by being held pointless. He did have a better showing at the 1994 Olympics, skating for the now independent nation of Slovakia following the breakup of Czechoslovakia at the start of 1993.

Palffy began the 1994-95 season with 33 games as a member of the Denver Grizzlies of the IHL, and after putting up 43 points in 33 games, he was recalled by the Islanders after the season began late due to the labor issues which delayed the start of the season. He would play in 33 games which included his first NHL points, finishing with 10 goals and 17 points.

Palffy hit his stride in 1995-96, which included a change in jersey number from 68 to 16, when he led the Islanders in scoring with 87 points and his first 40 goal season with 43. Following the season, as the lowly Islanders failed to make the playoffs, Palffy competed for Slovakia at the 1996 World Championships.

Palffy in the controversial "fishsticks" jersey. Note the italicized
assistant captain's "A" used in the second half of the 1996-97 season

Prior to the start of the following NHL season, Palffy once again skated for Slovakia in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. The next season saw more of the same as Palffy reached 48 goals and 90 points to once more lead the Islanders in scoring as well as making his first NHL All-Star Game appearance. His final season on Long Island saw him limited to just 50 games, during which he scored 50 points. Following the season, the sixth in a row during which the once great Islanders would miss the playoffs, Palffy was again free to compete at the World Championships for Slovakia.

In a move that was unpopular with the already disgruntled Islanders fans, Palffy was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. His first three seasons with the Kings saw Palffy continue at a point per game average, including nearly equalling his career high, falling just one point short in 2000-01 with 89.

The 2001-02 season was particularly busy for Palffy, as he played in 63 games for the Kings, made a single appearance for Slovakia in the 2002 Olympics, although too little too late to help Slovakia escape the Preliminary Round due to a scheduling flaw that forced Slovakia to compete without the vast majority of it's NHL players for most of the round, and was a contributor to Slovakia's greatest hockey moment when they rebounded a few months later when they captured the gold medal at the 2002 World Championships after the Kings were eliminated in seven games in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Palffy assisted on Peter Bondra's gold medal clinching goal with less than two minutes remaining in the championship final.

Palffy celebrates Slovakia's gold medal in 2002

Another strong season in 2002-03 with the Kings saw him total 85 points as well as having a strong World Championships with 15 points in 9 games.

During the NHL lockout of 2004-05, Palffy split his time between HK 36 Skalica in Slovakia and HC Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic as well as making yet another appearance at the World Championships. For the 2005-06 season, Palffy signed as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but retired unexpectedly halfway through the season due to a shoulder injury.

Palffy while a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins

To the surprise of many, Palffy returned to active play after sitting out the rest of the 2005-06 season and all of the 2006-07 season when he rejoined HK 36 Skalica.

Palffy returned to the ice with HK 36 Skalica

Now once more in top form after his year and a half away from the game, Palffy scored 75 points in 46 games in 2007-08 and added 24 more in 13 playoff games to lead Skalica to an appearance in the championship finals.

Palffy's career found a second life with HK 36 Skalica

He raised his game once more in 2008-09, leading the league in goals with 52, 21 more than his next closest competitor! With his 47 assists added on, his 99 points in 53 games easily gave him the league scoring title.

One supposedly final season with HK Skalica had Palffy in top form with 53 points, although his was limited to 36 games. He also made his first appearance for the Slovakia National Team in five years when he participated in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

After skipping the 2010-11 season, Palffy was once again back on the ice for HK Skalica for the 2011-12 season, where he showed no rust, scoring 26 goals and 83 points in 48 games followed by another 16 goals and 73 points in 39 games of the 2012-13 season, his last at the age of 40.

His final NHL totals were 329 goals and 713 points in 684 games. Internationally, he played in 18 games for Czechoslovakia and later 49 games for Slovakia, scoring a combined 86 points during two World Juniors and a Canada Cup for the Czechs and five World Championships, a World Cup and three Olympics for Slovakia.

Today's featured jersey is a 1996-97 New York Islander Ziggy Palffy jersey. This style jersey was first introduced in 1995-96 with the notorious and much ridiculed "fisherman" logo. The Islanders were in a state of turmoil at the time, having had a steep decline in competitiveness and several controversial personnel moves.

The Islanders reviled "fisherman" logo

The fisherman jersey had the unfortunate double whammy against it, of not only replacing the jersey worn during the team's Stanley Cup dynasty, but arriving during a period of fan discontent with ownership and management, which led to the jersey and logo becoming the lightning rod for all of the fans anger and frustration.

During the 1996-97 season, the wave style jersey was paired with the classic Islanders logo as a hastily created "alternate" jersey in an effort to undo some of the damage done by the "fishsticks" jersey, as New York Ranger fans chanted at the Islanders while wearing the fisherman logo jerseys.

1997-98 saw the fisherman logo dropped completely and the club wear the alternate version with the classic Islanders crest full time for this jersey's final season prior to changing to a somewhat modernized version of their classic jerseys for 1998-99.

The "fisherman" jersey was worn with three distinctive fonts used for the assistant captain's "A", with the version on today's featured jersey being used for the first two seasons with the Fisherman logo of 1995-96 and 1996-97 as well as the first three months of 1997-98 until a change to the second style in January of 1997.

For more on the story of the "Fishsticks" jersey, please see this post about it's creation and the controversial reception it received.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1994-95 Denver Grizzlies Ziggy Palffy jersey. This jersey features the IHL 50th Anniversary patch worn by the Grizzlies during their only season in Denver, which concluded with the team winning the Turner Cup as IHL champions. The club was then forced to move out of Denver due to the arrival of the NHL's Quebec Nordiques who would be renamed as the Colorado Avalanche.

The team would relocate to Salt Lake City where they would become known as the Utah Grizzlies. They would again win the Turner Cup during their first season in Utah, which concluded with setting a minor league attendance record of 17,381. The team would play six seasons in the IHL and be granted entry into the AHL for the 2001-02 season when the IHL folded. They would play another four seasons in the AHL before being sold and relocated. Of note, an ECHL franchise then was formed using the Utah Grizzlies identity the following season who continue to play in Utah to this day.

By far and away the most unique part of this jersey is the bear claw slash marks not only across the front and back of the body, but embroidered into the back numbers as well. The copper trim around the numbers is also executed with a metallic twill that adds a nice detail to the numbers and a needed dash of color to the back of the jersey.

 

Our first video today shows Palffy wearing the original Islanders jersey as well as his original number 68.

Next is a collection of Palffy highlights while a member of the Los Angeles Kings.

Next, Palffy scores his 50th goal of the season to set a new Slovak Extraliga record in 2008-09.

Finally, Palffy scores just 12 seconds into the start of the first game of the 2008-09 Slovakian championship finals, only no one saw it because they were reading all the ads painted on the ice.

Reader Submission - 1994-95 Denver Grizzlies Chris Luongo Jersey

Our latest reader submitted jersey comes from Conor McCue, and it's from the late, great International Hockey League and the short-lived Denver Grizzlies. While it's a really cool jersey, the story of where he found it really makes his submission unlike any other we've had so far.

Here is Conor's story about how he came to find the jersey and the story of the player who wore it;

I was recently over at my friend's house hanging out and watching the Kings-Coyotes game when we stumbled upon a goldmine of sports memorabilia.  His family’s friend had recently fallen into financial trouble and was storing all of his sports memorabilia at their house so that the government couldn’t seize it when they visited him later that week.   

We sifted through garbage bag after garbage bag of memorabilia and found many incredible things like Cal Ripken, Michael Jordan, Ozzie Smith, and Patrick Roy signed jerseys along with signed football helmets, baseballs, bats, and hockey pucks.  I was truly jealous of this man’s collection.  While we were drooling over the numerous pieces of sports history I noticed a hockey jersey that didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the group.  

The jersey was beat to hell and neither of us knew who’s it was.  We both knew it was from the Denver Grizzlies since we live in Colorado, but we had no idea who this Luongo player was.  After I came home and did some research, I found out that this guy who I thought was just some scrub from the IHL, was actually a pretty good hockey player with a respectable career, and is still relevant in the hockey world. 

I won’t give the history lesson behind the Denver Grizzlies because it has already been done on TSG, but all you have to know is that while they were in Denver they were very successful and jumpstarted hockey’s popularity in Colorado, which helped bring in the Avalanche and eventually led to their own demise.  Chris Luongo only played for the Denver Grizzlies in the 1994-1995 season, where they won their first Turner Cup.   

Both Luongo and Ziggy Palffy were the only notable NHLers on the team, but they weren’t missed much the following year when the Grizzlies won their second Turner Cup without them.  Luongo spilt the year between the New York Islanders and the Grizzlies, and ended up playing a total of 41 games for Denver with 15 points and 26 penalty minutes.  After his only season with the Grizzlies, Luongo went on to play close to a full season for the Islanders in 1995-1996 and then spent the remainder of his career playing for the US at the World Championships and jumping around Germany's Deutsche Eishockey Liga.  

After his playing career was over, Luongo became an assistant coach at Wayne State for two years and then moved to become an assistant coach at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.  After two seasons as the Chargers’ assistant coach, Luongo was named the head coach of UAH, a job he still holds today.   

Thanks to Conor for taking the time to photograph the jersey and share the unusual story of his jersey find. We really appreciate the efforts involved when our readers share their jerseys.

The Grizzlies had a really a unique jersey for the time period with the bear claw and slash marks around the waist and we really loved the way they carried the theme over to the numbers on the back, something that must have driven the customizers of their fan's jerseys in Denver, and later Salt Lake City, crazy.

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.

1994-95 Denver Grizzlies Ziggy Paffy Jersey

Born in this date in 1972, Zigmund, "Ziggy" Palffy played 12 seasons in the NHL with first the New York Islanders for six seasons, the Los Angeles Kings for five and then one with the Pittsburgh Penguins before retiring from the NHL in early 2006 due to lingering injuries with 684 games played, 329 goals and 384 assists for 713 points. He announced his comeback from retirement just prior to the 2007-08 season and returned to the ice with HK 36 Skalica in the Slovak Extraliga and recently represented Slovakia in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Prior to establishing himself as an NHL regular, Palffy played for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the International Hockey League in 1993-94 and split time between the Islanders and the Denver Grizzlies of the IHL in 1994-95.

The Denver Grizzlies were an International Hockey League expansion team founded in time for the 1994-95 season and proved to be a smashing success in Denver. The NHL was in the middle of a lockout, the World Series was cancelled due to a player strike, the Denver Broncos of the NFL started the season 0-4 and the NBA's Denver Nuggets were would finish with a 41-41 record and be swept out of the first round of the playoffs.

The time was right for hockey in Denver.

To begin with, 16,215 fans gave the team an opening night sellout victory against the Minnesota Moose. Led by leading scorer and 1990 Hobey Baker Winner, Kip Miller (46 goals and 106 points), Chris Taylor (38 g, 86 pts.), 1990 Hobey Baker Winner Chris Marinucci (29 g, 69 pts.) and 33 games (prior to the NHL lockout ending) from none other than future NHL star Palffy, plus the goaltending of Swedish Olympian and future Islander and Olier Tommy Salo, who would win the James Gatschene Memorial Trophy as league MVP, the James Norris Memorial Trophy for giving up the fewest goals against, and the Garry F. Longman Memorial Trophy for IHL rookie of the year, the Grizzlies took the IHL by storm, finishing with a 57-18 record with 6 overtime losses for 120 points, the Grizzlies finished with the best regular season record by seven points over the Peoria Rivermen and Cincinnati Cyclones.

The playoffs would see them sweep the Minnesota Moose 3-0, oust the Phoenix Roadrunners 4-1, earn the right to play for the title by defeating the Milwaukee Admirals 4-1 and sweep the Kansas City Blades in four straight to capture the the Turner Cup, awarded annually to the IHL champions. Kip Miller was the Bud Poile Trophy winner as playoff MVP.

In the end, the Grizzlies would be victims of their own success, averaging over 12,ooo a game, and drawing attention to Denver as a fitting location for an NHL club, which quickly became a reality, as the Quebec Nordiques would relocate to Denver in time for the following season, forcing the Grizzlies to relocate to Salt Lake City after only one, but very memorable, season in the Mile High City.

Denver hockey fans would witness an unprecedented double, as the relocated Nordiques, now called the Colorado Avalanche, would proceed to capture the Stanley Cup in their first season in Denver, giving the city back to back championship seasons - only in two different leagues.

Today's featured jersey is a Starter 1994-95 Denver Grizzlies Ziggy Palffy jersey. This jersey features the IHL 50th Anniversary patch worn by the Grizzlies in their only season in Denver. By far and away the most unique part of this jersey is the bear claw slash marks not only across the front and back of the body, but embroidered into the back numbers as well. The copper trim around the numbers is also executed with a metallic twill that adds a nice detail to the numbers and a needed dash of color to the back of the jersey.

 

Many times when searching for videos of more obscure teams we often come across only fight videos, which we try not to use given other options, but in this case we felt this one was too good to pass up despite the minimal footage of the Denver Grizzlies jersey.

Here is yet another fight video, this time from the Turner Cup Finals. God forbid there should actually be enough interest for someone to actually post the Grizzlies hoisting the Turner Cup in celebration of them winning the championship, so all we are left with is more brawling.

Here are some highlights of Palffy while with the Los Angeles Kings.

Finally, Palffy scores his 50th goal of the season to set a new Slovak Extraliga record in 2008-09.