More jersey talk

As a general rule, I like to keep this blog as strictly a personal opinion piece for anything that I may have something to say. However, there was a piece that I thought was too fascinating to pass up. In keeping with the theme of bizarre looking jerseys that I have written about here, I figure that this piece, originally posted by a gaggle of writers under the Puck Daddy blog on the Yahoo site, fits in with the unusual and sometimes, just plain wrong jersey designs. Except that it isn't about jersey designs, but about rules for jersey customizations. Before I begin writing about the particular part that caught my eye, I'd like to give a quick explanation about customization: it basically is putting a name and number on the back of the jersey. Many of the baseball and football jerseys also do this kind of thing, so it isn't limited to just hockey. That said, there are some people who take that liberty too far, and since the Puck Daddy blog already covered a good part of that, I won't delve into that too much.

The part that grabbed my attention, as described by the blog:

The Mario Lemieux Chicago Blackhawks sweater, provided by Scott A., is even more atrocious. Not only because the Blackhawks have, oh, a few Hall of Fame players in their history worthy of a jersey, but because Mario won the Conn Smythe in the 1992 Stanley Cup finals when the Pittsburgh Penguins owned the Blackhawks in a 4-game sweep.Is this some kind of perverse hockey masochism?

This line is in reference to the Chicago Blackhawks jersey that somehow had Mario Lemieux as a member of the Blackhawks at some point in his career (Picture is in the blog, so go there to see it). The description above is spot on, since the Blackhawks do have quite a few legendary players and as an Original Six team, shouldn't have to stoop that low to boost jersey sales. I'm not here to pile on though, as the thought occurred to me that the 1984 draft had some far-reaching consequences. Everyone knows that the Pittsburgh Penguins had the number one overall pick that year and drafted Lemieux. Everyone also knows what happened to the Penguins for the next, oh, ten years or so. At this point, you're probably asking what this has to do with the Blackhawks. I'm getting there, so be patient. Anyway, the second pick that year was the New Jersey Devils and they picked Kirk Muller, who had a decent career and won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. The third pick that year belonged to the Blackhawks and they picked Ed Olczyk. He ended up being a journeyman, since he was traded many times throughout his career, but had a respectable career, scoring 342 goals. Having said that, his best years were with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets.

Now, imagine if the Blackhawks had somehow gotten the first overall pick and drafted Lemieux. Would he have gotten the Blackhawks a Stanley Cup? We will never know, although given the Blackhawks' history of letting great players go, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was still no.

Original blog post: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Jersey-Fouls-Borrowed-Legends-Olympic-fouls-an?urn=nhl,228253