2002 France National Team Philippe Bozon Jersey

Born on this date in 1966 in Chamonix, France, the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924, Philippe Bozon became the first French-trained player in the NHL.

Bozon, whose father Alain Bozon was captian of the French National Team, grew up playing hockey in France and moved to Canadian junior hockey in 1984, scoring 82 points in 67 games and he followed with 59 goals and 111 points in 65 games in 1985-86.

The 1986-87 season saw Bozon split time between juniors and Peoria of the IHL before returning to France for the next five seasons, winning championships with HC Mont-Blanc in 1988 and CSG Grenoble in 1991 before making his NHL debut with the St. Louis Blues late in the 1991-92 season and scoring his first NHL goal in the final game of the season against the Minnesota North Stars.

1992-93 saw Bozon skate in 54 games, missing two months of the season with mononucleosis, scoring 6 goals and 12 points. He would establish himself as an NHL regular the following season, playing in 80 games, totaling 9 goals and 25 points and playing on the penalty kill unit.

He would return to France during the NHL lockout in 1994 with CSG Grenoble and make one appearance for St. Louis after play resumed, ending his NHL career with 144 games played, 16 goals and 41 points after finding he did not fit into new Blues coach Mike Keenan's plans.

A move to the Swiss second division with HC La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1995-96 was followed by a half a season with Lausanne HC in 1996-97 before moving to the German DEL with Adler Manheim, including a hat trick in his first game with the club. Bozon would score 15 points in 9 playoff games as Manheim would capture the championship.

Two more seasons with Adler Manheim would result in two more titles, with Bozon contributing 10 points in 10 playoff games in 1998 and 9 points in 12 games in 1999.

1999-00 would see Bozon relocate to the Swiss National League A with HC Lugano, totaling 88 points in 85 games over two seasons. A shift to HC Geneve-Servette of Geneva in the Swiss second division saw Bozon post a stellar 34 goals and 80 points in 43 games and lift the club back into the top level of Swiss hockey.

Three more seasons with the club would see Bozon average nearly a point per game, 116 in 124 games before retiring after the 2005-06 season.

His career combined totals stand at 588 goals and 1270 points in 1136 games, four French championships and three German titles.

In addition to his club hockey career, Bozon was a mainstay for the France National Team, with 12 World Championship appearances and four Olympic Games in 1988, 1992, 1998 and 2002, scoring a total of 96 career goals for France.

Bozon playing for France in 1997

He would appear in the World Championships for France in the B pool in 1990 and then again in 1991, scoring 10 points in 7 games, being named the Best Forward and helping earn France a return to the top level. He would then appear in the World Championships in 1992 and then from 1994 to 2000 at the top level and one final time in 2001 in Division 1, for a total of 1 World Championship appearances.

His record in the Olympics shows 13 points in 21 games, including a hat trick against Italy in 1998 under the coaching of no less than Herb Brooks! His 7 points in just 4 games would rank him fifth in tournament scoring being Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Pavel Bure and Alesksandr Koreshkov.

2002 in Salt Lake City saw Bozon score 6 points in 4 games, tied for fifth overall behind Mats Sundin (9 points), Brett Hull (8) and John LeClair and Joe Sakic (7), despite playing two less games than Hull, LeClair and Sakic.

Bozon was honored by being inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 2008 and recently named as head coach for the France National Junior Team in 2009.

Today's featured jersey is a Nike 2002 France National Team Philippe Bozon jersey as worn in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. The jersey features a subtle black cross pattern running down the length of the arms. It's somewhat easier to see on the white jerseys, as the blue stripe is not lost in the sea of blue as on the road jerseys. One wonders why the blue stripe on the blue jerseys was not changed to either red or white for increased contrast and greater visibility for the black cross design.

This jersey took seven years of searching and patience before we were able to add one to the Third String Goalie Collection. Once obtained, the choice of Bozon for the customizing was an obvious choice. See if you can spot the black design running down the sleeve above and below the "2".

Here is some unexpected footage of Bozon playing in the NHL with St. Louis, unfortunately on the receiving end of a very questionable hit.

Video highlights of the French National Team are few and far between, so the best we can offer today is France vs. Switzerland from the 2008 World Championships, featuring Christobal Huet, the second ever French-trained player in the NHL after Bozon, in goal for France.

These next two games are France and Italy battling in the 2008 relegation round, with France coming out on top two games to none to avoid relegation for 2009.

1935-36 Montreal Maroons Russ Blinco Jersey

Called "The Most Storied Building in Hockey History" by the Sporting News, the Montreal Forum opened on this date back in 1924 as the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Montreal Canadiens took on the Toronto St. Pats, winning by a final score of 7-1 on three goals by Billy Boucher, two by Aurel Joliat and one each from Silvio Mantha and Howie Morenz.

The Forum was originally home to the Montreal Maroons, the team of choice for the city's English speaking fans. The Maroons played there from 1924 until their demise in 1938, winning a pair of Stanley Cup championships in 1926 and 1935. Two years later the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal's French speaking fans favorite club, would begin to call The Forum home in 1926, where they would play for 70 years and win 22 Stanley Cups.

Located at Avenue Atwater and Rue Ste-Catherine, the forum was built in a mere 159 days for a cost of $1.5 million on the location of a prior roller skating rink named The Forum, which was retained as the name for the new ice hockey rink. It originally held only 9,300 fans and was renovated in 1949 to hold 12,500 and again in 1968, after which the capacity had grown to 17,959, of which 1,600 were standing room. By the time the Montreal Forum closed in 1996, 90 million people had passed through it's doors.

In addition to the Maroons and the Canadiens, the Montreal Victorias and Montreal Royals of the Quebec Senior Hockey League, also called the Forum home in addition to the many junior and other amateur teams that kept the ice occupied in hockey mad Montreal.

The longest game in NHL history occurred at the Forum in 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings and the Maroons playoff game went on and on, before being settled in favor of the Red Wings 1-0 in the sixth overtime after 176 minutes and 36 seconds on a goal by Mud Bruneteau at 2:25 AM.

In 1937 Howie Morenz, who had scored a goal during the opening night of the Forum in 1924, would lie in state at center ice following his premature death due to complications from a leg injury suffered during a game in 1937.

The first live broadcast of a game by the CBC was from the Montreal Forum, as "Hockey Night in Canada" made it's debut on October 11, 1952 when the Canadiens defeated the Red Wings 2-1.

The Forum was also the site of the shocking first game of the 1972 Summit Series, where heavily favored Team Canada broke out to a quick 2-0 lead before being steamrolled by the Soviet Union 7-3.

One of the most famous games played at the Forum was the New Year's Eve contest between the Canadiens and the Soviet Red Army Club in 1975, considered by many to be one of the greatest games ever played.

Other events held in the Forum included boxing, tennis and wrestling. During the 1976 Summer Olympics hosted by Montreal, the Forum was the site of handball, basketball, volleyball, boxing and gymnastics, including Nadia Comaneci's famous first perfect 10 in Olympic history. Concerts included The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and The Rolling Stones.

One of the most famous locations in the Montreal Forum was the Canadiens dressing room, a virtual museum in and of itself, with photos of past Canadiens Hall of Famers on the wall and the famous inscription "Nos bras meutris vous tendent le flambeau, à vous toujours de le porter bien haut." which in English is "To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high."

Today's featured jersey is a rare 1935-36 Montreal Maroons Russ Blinco jersey. This is the final style of jersey worn by the Maroons during their 14 year run. It is one of only four known jerseys in private collections outside of the Hockey Hall of Fame and sold at auction back in 2006 for $53,589.80.

Blinco was the first ever recipient of the Calder Memorial Trophy in 1933-34 and won a Stanley Cup with the Maroons in 1935, scoring the game winning goal in Game 2 of a three game sweep of the Toronto Maple Leafs. After five seasons with the Maroons, they folded and Blinco played his final season with the Chicago Blackhawks. He scored 59 goals and 88 assists for 125 career points in 267 games.

Today's video section starts off with a great find, footage from the first ever televised hockey game from the Montreal Forum in 1952.

Here are highlights from Game 1 of the 1972 Summit Series held at the Forum when the relatively unknown Soviet Union shocked all of Canada by defeating Team Canada 7-3 after quickly falling behind 2-0.

Next is the historic New Year's Eve contest between the Montreal Canadiens and the Soviet Red Army which featured a matchup of goalies Ken Dryden and Vladislav Tretiak and is considered one of the greatest hockey games ever played.

Finally, the six minute ovation given to Canadiens legend Maurice Richard during the closing ceremonies at the Forum following the final game on March 11, 1996.

1980-81 New York Islanders Billy Smith Jersey

NHL history was made on this date in 1979, when Rob Ramage of the hapless Colorado Rockies, while on a delayed penalty call, would send the puck back to the point anticipating a Rockies teammate would be stationed there, only to find the point vacated and the puck making the long journey down the length of the ice and right into the Rockies goal and the record books.

Since Islanders goaltender Billy Smith was the last Islander to touch the puck, he was the official scorer of the goal, the first one credited to a goaltender in NHL history.

Ron Hextall became the first goaltender to legitimately aim for the net and score a goal in the NHL on December 8, 1987 when he scored against the Boston Bruins, who had pulled goaltender Rejean Lemelin for a sixth attacker who was apparently not in any way a sixth defender.

Hextall scored a second goal during the playoffs on April 11, 1989 versus the Washington Capitals, entering the record books as the first goalie to score during the playoffs.

Chris Osgood of the Detroit Red Wings added his name to the list of goaltenders who have scored on March 6, 1996 with a shot the length of the ice in Hartford versus the Whalers.

April 17, 1997 would see the first of Martin Brodeur's pair of goals, as he would fire one in against the Montreal Canadiens. Brodeur would be credited with his second goal, despite being about 125 feet from the puck when a mishandled puck by a Philadelphia Flyer at his own blueline found it's way into the unguarded Flyers net on February 15th of 2000.

Jose Theodore, then of the Montreal Canadiens would score with style on January 2, 2001 with a backhand shot, as he launched the puck the length of the ice on Long Island against New York in the process of shutting out the Islanders, the only goalie to shoot the puck into the goal and record a shutout in the same game.

Evgeni Nabokov joined the scoring ranks on March 10, 200o when he fired one in against the Vancouver Canucks in Vancouver for the sixth and most recent goalie to purposely shoot the puck into the opposing goal.

Damian Rhodes of the Ottawa Senators, Mika Noronen of the Buffalo Sabres and Chris Mason of the Nashville Predators would all receive credit for goals of the Billy Smith variety, as the opponents would all misfire in some manner and send pucks down the ice and into their own nets.

Today's featured jersey is a Sandow SK 1980-81 New York Islanders Billy Smith jersey, the same style he was wearing when he "opened the floodgates" of goalies scoring in the NHL.

In addition to going into the history books as the first goalie to score a goal, Smith did manage to accumulate four Stanley Cups during the early 1980's while with the New York Islanders dynasty.

This particular style of jersey with the white and orange sleeve stripes was first introduced for the 1978-79 and used through the 1983-84 season before the Islander changed the specification of the names on the back from two-color to single color white names.

Here is the play on which Billy Smith was credited with the first goal ever scored by an NHL goalie.

Here is a wonderful compilation of all the goals scored by goalkeepers in the NHL, several of which are direct shots by the goalies themselves, and not "own goals" on the part of the other team.

The last video today is a look at the career of Billy Smith from the "Greatest Hockey Legends" series.

1970-71 Detroit Red Wings Gordie Howe Jersey

On this date in 1960, Gordie Howe became the first player in NHL history to score 1,000 career points. Five years to the day later, Howe scored his 600th NHL goal on this day in 1965.

Mr. Hockey® made his NHL debut in 1946, wearing #17 and changed to his iconic #9 at the start of the following season for the purpose of a more preferable sleeping berth on the train while the team was traveling, as the accommodations were more spacious in the lower berths and were allocated based on each players sweater number.

One of the most dominate players in NHL history, Howe would finish in the top five in league scoring for twenty straight seasons.

Teamed with linemates Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay, "The Production Line" would dominate the NHL and lead Detroit to first place in the regular season standings for each of the four seasons they played together from 1948-49 to 1951-52, a span that would include a pair Stanley Cup Championships in 1950 and 1952. So dominant was the line that they finished first, second and third in league scoring in 1949-50, led by Lindsay's 78 points in 69 games.

Howe would not be around to lift the Stanley Cup in 1950, having suffered a fractured skull earlier in the playoffs, which required emergency surgery to relieve the pressure.

Howe would return to form the following season of 1950-51, scoring 86 points to win the scoring title by 20 points over his nearest competition, the first of seven times he would win the Art Ross Trophy.

Howe would continue throughout the 1950's to accumulate championships and awards, winning the Stanley Cup in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955, the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion from 1951-1954 and 1957, and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league MVP in 1952, 1953, 1957, 1958 and 1960.

It was on this date in 1960 that Howe registered an assist in a 2-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs to score his 1,000th NHL point, the first player in the 44 year history of the league to reach that milestone and he did it in his 938th game. It would be another eight years before Jean Beliveau would become the second and another 20 years before Howe would score his final point! Remember, Howe already had 14 years in the league behind him at this point.

1963 would see Howe capture both the Art Ross and Hart Trophies once more and on this date in 1965 Howe would score his 600th NHL goal in a game versus the Montreal Canadiens, becoming the first player in NHL history to record 600 goals. It would be until 1972 until Bobby Hull would become the second to 600.

For comparison, Maurice Richard's final career totals when he retired in 1960 were 544 goals and 965 career points and he surprisingly never led the league in point scoring.

In 1968-69, aided by the recent NHL expansion to 12 teams which created a longer schedule of games against some admittedly weaker opponents, Howe achieved his one and only 100 point NHL season with 44 goals and 58 assists for 103 points.

Today's featured jersey is a 1970-71 Detroit Red Wings Gordie Howe jersey. 1970-71 would be Howe's final season with the Red Wings.

This jersey was auctioned off in March of 2006 for $3,536.34 with the description stating that Gordie "could have worn it."

Today's video is the "Legends of Hockey" profile of Gordie Howe.

Here is an unusual find, Gordie Howe on the TV game show, "What's My Line?" being questioned by Hogan's Heroes' Colonel Klink Werner Klemperer and Soupy Sales. Howe's legendary toughness is apparent, as he is unfazed at being interrogated by a Nazi prison camp commandant.

Gordie tells Keith Olberman how hockey used to be and to respect your elders.

Dasherboard: From the "I Didn't Know That Department", on this date in 1941, the Boston Bruins tied an NHL record by scoring four goals in the 10-minute overtime period to beat the New York Americans 6-2. Overtime was a mandatory full 10 minute period before it was discontinued in November 1942.

We had no idea overtime was ever a set period of time and not "sudden death" like we have only ever known.

The Greatest Shootout Goal Ever

Black Friday Shopping News: As we enter the holiday season please take a moment to visit the Third Sting Goalie Online Store. There you will find a wide variety of shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, caps, kids clothing and a few assorted items such as mugs and mousepads.

It's produced by Cafe Press, whom we have dealt with for some time now, and they produce very nice, quality goods, all featuring our patron saint Georges Vezina. Just simply click on the image below to visit the store.

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

The ads have recently been updated and are worth clicking on for jerseys, apparel, caps, tickets and gear, all things we have chosen to feature because we felt they would be of interest to you, our readers. Please take a moment to check them out and support those who support us.

Dasherboard: Since today is Thanksgiving in America, I'm anticipating traffic on The Internets will be down significantly as hockey fans are forced to travel to Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house, who don't even own a computer, and if they did for some unexpected reason actually have a hand-me-down PC given to them several years ago by Ben's nephew Peter, it would probably sound something like this.

So, since most of you will be forced to watch football, first featuring the horrid Detroit Lions followed by the equally abysmal Oakland Raiders, all while fighting off the effects of tryptophan, we are going to break from the usual format and try to give you something to stay awake for - The Greatest Shootout Goal of All-Time, which occurred on this very date back in 2005.

After a first period goal by Jason Ward, shorthanded and unassisted no less, followed by a goal just 14 seconds in to the second period by Jed Ortmeyer, the New York Rangers found themselves up 2-0 over the Washington Capitals.

At 3:32 of the second, Chris Clark pulled one back for the Capitals and Brian Willsie evened the score at 2-2 halfway through the game at 10:36.

Goaltenders Olaf Kolzig for Washington and Henrik Lundqvist kept the offenses off the board in the third, sending the game to overtime. The Rangers did manage six shots on Kolzig during the extra time and the Captials two, but neither team could get the game winner despite the Capitals starting the extra time on the power play.

As the game moved to the shootout, no one knew just how long it was going to take to decide the contest and certainly no one could have imagined the ending.

The teams matched misses, goals and misses through the standard three rounds which moved the shootout to the sudden death stage.

Rounds 4 and 5 were scoreless before Ville Nieminen and Chris Clark both scored in Round 6. Rounds 7 through 13 resulted in save after save after save. Finally in Round 14, Bryan Muir scored for the Capitals to put the pressure on Jason Strudwick of the Rangers, who beat Kolzig to send the shootout to the 15th Round.

After a miss by Washington, with only two healthy skaters left on the bench, Rangers Coach Tom Renney called on defenseman Marik Malik, who had yet to score a goal all season.

What took place next will go down in hockey history as one of the most unexpected moments ever.

"You have to have guts to do that move," said the Rangers Jaromir Jagr. "In front of 20,000 people watching you, it's not that easy to do."

"I was watching everything before me," said Malik. "Olie was unbelieveable. He stopped everything from shots, moves. I just thought to myself, 'Maybe I'll surprise him.' I tried the move and it worked."

"It was actually kind of fun," Kolzig said. "On this stage, Madison Square Garden, Saturday night. I didn't expect Malik to pull a move off like that."

"I started to think it would never end," said Lundqvist.

But what an ending it turned out to be. Almost as good as the goal itself was Malik's "Piece of cake, I do this all the time" reaction afterwards.

For further viewing, and hopefully keeping you from having to watch any of the Lions game, the Top 15 NHL Shootout Goals of All-Time.

And in the interests of equal time and a reason to hopefully not have to see the Raiders game, something to be really thankful for, the 10 Worst Shootout Moments.

1987-88 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Robb Stauber Jersey

Born on this date in 1967 in Duluth, Minnesota, goaltender Robb Stauber would become the first goaltender to win the Hobey Baker Award as the outstanding player in US College Hockey in the eighth season of the award.

After being named an All-State Goalkeeper at Duluth Denfeld High School, Stauber would attend the University of Minnesota beginning in 1986. He would appear in 20 games and finish with a 13-5 record while splitting time with future Boston Bruins goalie John Blue. The Gophers would finish third in the nation that season after making it to the NCAA Final Four. Stauber would record his first point that season after being credited with an assist. During the season he would also play for the United States in the World Junior Tournament.

Stauber's second season with the Golden Gophers in 1987-88 would see him set a team record with 44 games played, posting a 34-10 record and lowering his goals against average from 3.53 down to 2.72 and help the team capture the WCHA Championship.

The Gophers would make another trip to the Final Four before losing to St. Lawrence 3-2 on a goal in the final minute of the game. Never one to sit back and watch the play develop, Stauber was always on the lookout to fire a long pass to send one of his potent forwards back up the ice in the other direction, and collected five assists as a result. At the end of the season he would be named the winner of the John Mariucci Award as the Gophers's Most Valuable Player, be named WCHA Goaltender of the Year, earn All-WCHA First Team honors, be named to the All-America first team, earning a coveted spot on one of the Mariucci Arena murals, reserved for Gopher First Team All-Americans, and become the first goaltender to win the Hobey Baker Award.

1988-89 would see the Gophers capture back to back WCHA Championships and Stauber would see action in 34 games, post a 26-8 record and lower his goals against average yet again to 2.43. His assist total would climb to seven, despite playing ten fewer games than the previous season. Stauber and the Gophers would make it all the way to the NCAA Championship game only to lose to Harvard 4-3 in overtime in one of the greatest college hockey games of all time. Stauber would be named the WCHA Goaltender of the Year for the second season in a row and be named one of the ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award.

His final college career stats shows a 2.77 goals against average and a 73-23 record and he was recently named one of the Top 50 Players in WCHA History. Without question, Stauber was a supremely talented goaltender which gave him the confidence to often leave his crease to challenge shooters or corral the puck before attempting another of his home run passes to his forwards up the ice. In fact, he would even score a goal while playing in the minors later in his career.

Following his collegiate career, Stauber would make another appearance for the United States, this time at the 1989 World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.

The next season, 1989-90, he would make his NHL debut for the Los Angeles Kings, seeing action in a pair of games as a teammate to Wayne Gretzky. He would spend the next two seasons in the minors and return to the NHL full time in the 1992-93 season, in which the Kings would make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals with Stauber seeing action in four games verus the Calgary Flames in the opening round.

Stauber guarding the Kings net during the 1992-93 season

After one more season in Los Angeles where Stauber would play in 22 regular season games, including wearing the first decorated goalie pads in NHL history.

Stauber during the 1993-94 season (above) wearing

the first decorated goalie pads in NHL history (below)

Stauber was traded to the Buffalo Sabres during the 1994-95 season, seeing six games of action.

He would spend the next three seasons back in the AHL with Rochester, where he once scored a goal, Portland and Hartford.

His final NHL totals are 62 games played with 21 wins, 23 losses and 9 ties, 1 shutout and a 3.80 goals against average along with 4 playoff games and a 3-1 record.

Since retiring as a player, Stauber has opened Stauber's Goalcrease Academy to train goalkeepers, written a book about, what else, goaltending, and has been the goaltenders coach for the University of Minnesota.

Today's featured jersey is a 1987-88 University of Minnesota Robb Stauber jersey as worn during his career at the University of Minnesota, including his Hobey Baker winning season and was lettered by our friends at VintageMinnesotaHockey.com.

This jersey with it's classic hockey styling was first used by Minnesota in 1985-86 and the gold trim was added to the shoulder yoke after just one season. Today's featured jersey can be dated to precisely 1987-88 by the presence of the shoulder trim but the lack of a WCHA patch, which arrived in 1988-89 in gold. The WCHA patch changed to a more contrasting maroon color after one season and this style remained in use through 1992-93, the final season of the old Mariucci Arena. The only other variation of the jersey was in 1990-91 when a USA flag patch was worn (only on the home jerseys) following a wave a patriotism following the outbreak of the first Gulf War in August of 1990.

It's a true disappointment that Stauber's college career took place prior to the age of youtube, since he was simply the most spectacular, dynamic and aggressive goaltender we have ever had the privilege of watching play live. Luckily, we did find these highlights of a vintage Gopher playoff game that contains some classic rare footage showing Stauber playing with reckless abandon early in the video from 1988 in the original Mariucci Arena. Hopefully this will give you some hint of what kind of an amazing video a true compilation of Stauber's best saves and most daring challenges would have looked like.

"SAVE BY STAUBER!!"

1991-92 Chicago Blackhawks Chris Chelios Jersey

On this date in 2006, Chris Chelios passed Phil Housley as the all-time leader in games played by an American born player when he skated in his 1,496th game as his Detroit Red Wings hosted the St. Louis Blues at the Joe Louis Arena.

Chelios' career began in 1983 as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, who drafted him in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft, prior to the debut of MTV and six years before Sidney Crosby was born!

Other players drafted by the pick-rich Canadiens prior to selecting Chelios were Mark Hunter (628 NHL games played) 7th overall in the first round, Gilbert Delorme (541 GP) 18th in the first round, Jan Ingman (zero GP) 19th in the first round, and Lars Eriksson (zero GP) 32nd in the second round before picking Chelios 40th, the 16th defenseman chosen in the draft!

Chelios assault on the record was aided by his obvious durability, with 19 of Chelios 25 NHL seasons seeing him play in 65 games or more. In addition, he was on a number of successful teams, with deep playoff runs being a regular part of Chelios career. Nine times he would play an additional 14-24 postseason games for a total of 268 career playoff games plus 11 appearances for the United States in international competitions, often as team captain.

Chelios current career NHL total stands at 1,644 games played, 475 more than the four players Montreal drafted before him combined. While he is still actively playing, it is with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League and his days in the NHL could be at an end, but his experience could still prove to be valuable and earn him the opportunity to add to his NHL total later in the schedule.

Chelios would play seven seasons in Montreal, including winning the Stanley Cup in 1986, before moving to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Denis Savard. Nine seasons in Chicago would be highlighted by another return to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1992 before being traded to the rival Detroit Red Wings near the end of the 1998-99 season. Ten seasons in Detroit would earn Chelios another pair of Stanley Cups, in 2002 and again in 2008, with 2008 being a bit of a special case. Chelios would play in 14 playoff games that year, although none of them were in the final series versus Pittsburgh, but under league rules, he rightly earned having his named engraved on the cup for the third time.

During his career, Chelios was named the winner of the James Norris Trophy as the NHL's Best Defenseman in 1989, 1993 and 1996.

Other durable American players in the NHL after Housley (1,495 games played) have included;

#3 Mike Modano* (1,408), #4 Jeremy Roenick (1,363), #5 Mathieu Schneider* (1,272), #6 Craig Ludwig (1,256), #7 Bill Guerin* (1,207), #8 Brian Leetch (1,205), #9 Doug Weight* (1,195) and #10 Scott Young (1,181). Other still active players with a chance to move up include #15 Keith Tkachuk (1,152), #23 Brian Rolston (1,060) and #24 Todd Marchant (1,058).

* - active players

Today's featured jersey is a 1991-92 Chicago Blackhawks Chris Chelios jersey. This jersey is from the NHL's 75th Anniversary Season and was worn during the regular season with the NHL 75th Anniversary patch, but with the Blackhawks reaching the Stanley Cup Finals versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 75th Anniversary patch was covered up with the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals patch.

Here is an interview Chelios where he recaps his career and includes footage from the different teams he suited up for.

In this clip, the mentally insane Ron Hextall charges out of his net to attack Chelios for an earlier incident. Any enemy of Hextall is a friend of ours.

Finally, a clip we've been dying to run since the day we started this blog. In honor of our first follower in Twitter, Inglewood Jack, we proudly present Chris Chelios reminiscing about his favorite hockey coach, Jules Winnfield. Watch as Jules teaches his players the "Gourmet Shot" and of course, the "Inglewood Jack."