Boston Bruins 2006-07 Petr Tenkrát Jersey

Today's story is one of globe-trekking international travel and collecting as many stamps in one's passport as humanly possible, for on this date in 1977, Petr Tenkrát was born in Kladno, Czechoslovakia.

His career began innocently enough, giving no clue as to what was to follow, as Tenkrát began playing for his hometown HC Kladno in 1994-95 with a single game. The right winger increased his games played to 20 in 1995-96 and 43 in 1996-97, which included his first goals as a professional. By the time Tenkrát began his professional career, Czechoslovakia had split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with Tenkrát making his international debut with the Czech Republic in the 1997 World Junior Championship, collecting his first passport stamp as the tournament was held in Switzerland.

He would play two additional seasons with Kladno, with his final one in 1998-99 seeing his offensive production leap up from 9 goals and 19 points to 21 goals and 35 points in 50 games. His potential was recognized by being selected by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft.

While he remained in Europe for the 1999-00 season, the first steps of his trek began in earnest as he moved from the Czech Extraliga to the Finnish SM-Liiga, joining HPK Hämeenlinna, scoring 20 goals and 29 points in 32 games. He remained in Finland for the 1999-00 season, only this time with Ilves Tampere.

He crossed the Atlantic for the first time in 2000-01, splitting time between the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the AL and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the NHL. He had an unsettled 2001-02 season, playing for both Anaheim and Cincinnati before being traded to the Nashville Predators, with whom he would play 58 games, as well as an additional 4 with their top AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.

It was back across the Atlantic for the 2002-03 season, joining Kärpät Oulu in Finland, where he fit right in, setting a career high with 40 points in 51 games. Kärpät would make it to the SM-Liiga finals, coming away with a silver medal.

His passport gained another stamp, as Tenkrát would begin the season with Khimik Voskresensk of the Russian Super League, where he would play 19 games before returning to Kärpät for the remainder of the 2003-04 season, impressively setting a career high with 22 goals in just 35 games. Kärpät would go on to win the league championship later that season and go back-to-back with a second title in 2005.

He would play one additional season in Oulu, averaging 37 points over his four seasons with Kärpät. Following the Finnish playoffs, he would return to the Czech Republic National Team for the 2006 World Championships in Latvia, where he earned a silver medal.

He next returned to the United States to join the Boston Bruins, who had acquired his NHL rights while he was in Finland. Typical of his NHL career, Tenkrát spent some time in the AHL, 7 games with the Providence Bruins, but the vast majority of 54 games was with Boston. It was back across the Atlantic once again to play in the 2007 World Championships in Moscow.

For the start of the 2007-08 season it was back to Kladno for 13 games before signing with Timrå IK in Sweden. 2008-09 was a repeat, playing for both Kladno and Timrå.

The pattern continued in 2009-10 with Kladno again, but his Swedish destination was Skellefteå AIK.

For the fourth season in a row, he played in two different countries, this time with Skellefteå in Sweden (9 games) and Kärpät in Finland for 45 games. For 2011-12, his nomadic career returned back to the Czech Republic in fine style, as he set career highs with 23 goals and 48 points with HC Sparta Prague in his 18th season of play.

He capped off his season with a bronze medal at the 2012 World Championships, held on familiar ground in both Sweden and Finland.

For the 2012-13 season, Tenkrat remained with Sparta Praha, scoring 18 goals and 31 points and once more competed in the World Championships for the Czech Republic in Finland and Sweden, as they co-hosted the tournament for the second year in a row, only with the finals changed from Stockholm to now Helsinki.

Tenkrat redjoined HC Kladno for the first time in four seasons for the 2013-14 season, only to see the club relegated to the second division for 2014-15. He remained with the club for the 2014-15 season and served as the team captain.

He played four games for HC Kometa Brno in 2015-16 and was loaned to HC Slovan Ustecti Lvi in the Czech second division for the majority of the year, seeing action in 35 games which included scoring 26 points.

Despite turning 40 today, Tenkrat is not done playing just yet, and is scheduled to return to HC Kladno for the 2016-17 season. We calculate to date he as made 22 border crossings among 7 countries while generating a litany of game worn jerseys in his wake.

Today's featured jersey is a Boston Bruins 2006-07 Petr Tenkrát jersey as worn during his second stint in the NHL after having played previously with Anaheim and Nashville in 2000-01 and 2001-02 before returning to Europe for four seasons before joining the Bruins for the 2006-07 season.

The Bruins introduced this modernized jersey for the 1995-96 season, replacing a style that dated all the way back to 1974-75. This style was worn 11 seasons through the 2006-07 season when Tenkrat was with Boston before being replaced  2007-08 by a Reebok Edge version of their 2006-07 throwback alternate jersey that was based on the style they wore for their 1970 and 1972 Stanley Cup championships.

 

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a Providence Bruins 2006-07 Petr Tenkrát jersey as worn during a seven game stint in the AHL with the Bruin's top minor league affiliate during his second stint in the NHL when he returned from Europe to join the Bruins for the 2006-07 season.

Providence traditionally has identical or similar jerseys to their parent club in Boston, but with a spoked P logo, rather than the Bruins spoked B. Other than the change in logo, note the sponsorship patch worn on the upper right chest, a common sight in the AHL.

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 2003-04 Kärpät Oulu Petr Tenkrát jersey as worn during Tenkrát's return to Kärpät, which translates to a stoat or an ermine, following his tenure with Khimik in Russia.

This jersey is typical of a Scandinavian jersey with it's many sponsorship logos, 14 in all not counting the Tackla branding, with the addition of the unique to Scandinavia collar on the jersey, which conveniently affords more surface are for yet more ads!

Extra, extra bonus jersey: Today's extra, extra bonus jersey is a  is a 2005 Czech Republic National Team Petr Tenkrát jersey as worn in the annual Karjala Cup Tournament held in Finland. The tournament is part of a larger competition known as the Euro Hockey Tour, a series of small tournaments held in each of the participating nations, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden, and is an opportunity to prepare for the World Championship and Olympics, while often giving younger players a chance at gaining experience at the international level. The game results of the four tournaments are complied into a standings in order to declare a winner of the tour.

While the various national teams compete in the Olympics with jerseys which are sponsor-free, and the World Championships, with their distinctive single ads on the top of the arms, the national team jerseys in the Euro Hockey Tour are covered with many sponsorship logos seldom seen by North Americans.

Today's video segment is Tenkrát scoring on a beautiful one-timer for Kärpät followed by an impressive goal celebration.

This next video is Tenkrát scoring against Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres while a member of the Bruins.

2001-02 Providence Bruins Chris Kelleher Jersey

July by the Numbers finds it's way to Rhode Island today for jersey #4, a fitting style for Independence Day in the United States.

After the Providence Reds left town after 51 years of play, the city would have to wait 15 years for the arrival of it's next club, the Providence Bruins, who were previously known as the Maine Mariners from 1987 to 1992.

The Bruins won their division in 1992-93, their first season in Providence, with a 46-32-2 record and were led in scoring by future Boston Bruin Tim Sweeney, whose 41 goals and 96 points placed him 8th in the AHL scoring race.

It would take until 1998-99 for Providence to win another division championship, which they did in style with a league best 56-16-4 mark, this after winning just 19 games the previous season! The Bruins were led in scoring by Randy Robitaille's 102 points, only two shy of the league leader. John Grahame (37-9-1) and Jim Carey (17-8-3) split the goaltending duties and the Bruins cruised through the playoffs with a 15-4 record to win the Calder Cup as AHL champions.

The fans rejoice the P-Bruins Calder Cup championship

While Providence has had four deep playoff runs to the third round since then, they have yet to repeat as league champions. By far their second best season was in 2007-08 when the Bruins again finished with the best regular season record, earning 117 points with a 55-18-3-4 mark and were led in goal by future Boston Bruins goaltender Tukka Rask with 27 wins.

Tukka Rask

Throughout the history of the franchise, Sweeney's 41 goals and Robitaille's 74 assists and 102 points still stand as team records. In goal, Tim Thomas holds the marks for both Goals Against Average of 1.84 and Save Percentage at .941 set in 2003-04.

Andy Hilbert's three strong seasons, which included leading the team in scoring twice, place him first overall in career scoring with the Bruins in goals (101), assists (109) and points (210) while Grahame holds the career mark for wins by a goaltender with 67.

Notable players over the history of the club include goaltenders Grahame, Rask and Thomas and skaters Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Glen Murray, Josef Stumpel and the late Sergei Zholtok, who ranks second in Providence career scoring with83 goals and 186 points.

Today's featured jersey is a 2001-02 Providence Bruins Chris Kelleher jersey. This jersey is a great example of the special one-off promotional styles often worn by minor league clubs on special occasions and holidays, which are made possible thanks to the dye-sublimation process, which allows for all manner of patterns to be employed not previously feasible with jerseys made entirely of sewn fabric panels.

Also note the Providence Bruins tradition of duplicating their parent club's "spoked B" logo, only replaced with a "spoked P".

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Today's video segment is highlights of the Providence Bruins winning the Calder Cup in 1999.

2001-02 Providence Bruins Andrew Raycroft Jersey

With the lack of significant historical events in hockey history in the month of July it's time to reprise a different approach to the heart of summer. For the third year in a row, every day in July we are going to feature a jersey with a number on the back matches the current date, from 1 to 31.

It's a chance for us to showcase some jerseys that frankly aren't related to a Stanley Cup victory, milestone goal or even a player's birthday. We call it "July by the Numbers".

So, for July 1st, we kick things off with a jersey that carries the #1, and you just knew it was going to be a goaltender, didn't you?

After the Providence Reds left town after 51 years of play, the city would have to wait 15 years for the arrival of it's next club, the Providence Bruins, who were previously known as the Maine Mariners from 1987 to 1992.

The Bruins won their division during their first season in Providence in 1992-93 with a 46-32-2 record and were led in scoring by future Boston Bruin Tim Sweeney, whose 41 goals and 96 points placed him 8th in the AHL scoring race.

It would take until 1998-99 for Providence to win another division championship, which they did in style with a league best 56-16-4 mark (after winning only 19 games the previous season!) and were led in scoring by Randy Robitaille's 102 points, only two shy of the league leader. John Grahame (37-9-1) and Jim Carey (17-8-3) split the goaltending duties and the Bruins cruised through the playoffs with a 15-4 record to win the Calder Cup as AHL champions.

While Providence has had four deep playoff runs to the third round since then, they have yet to repeat as league champions. By far their second best season was in 2007-08 when the Bruins again finished with the best regular season record, earning 117 points with a 55-18-3-4 mark and were led in goal by future Boston Bruin Tukka Rask with 27 wins.

Throughout the history of the franchise, Sweeney's 41 goals and Robitaille's 74 assists and 102 points still stand as team records. In goal, Tim Thomas holds the marks for both Goals Against Average of 1.84 and Save Percentage at .941 set in 2003-04.

Andy Hilbert's three strong seasons, which included leading the team in scoring twice, place him first overall in career scoring with the Bruins in goals (101), assists (109) and points (210) while Grahame hold the career mark for wins by a goaltender with 67.

Notable players over the history of the club include goaltenders Grahame, Rask and Thomas and skaters Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Glen Murray, Josef Stumpel and the late Sergei Zholtok, who ranks second in Providence career scoring with83 goals and 186 points.

Today's featured jersey is a 2001-02 Providence Bruins Andrew Raycroft jersey. This jersey is emblematic of the Providence Bruins tradition of duplicating their parent club's jerseys with the "spoked B" replaced by a "spoked P" logo. With the change to the Reebok Edge jerseys, Providence no longer matches the style of Boston jerseys as closely, but there is no mistaking the connection between the clubs.

Today's video segment is highlights of the Providence Bruins winning the Calder Cup in 1999.