hockey practice jerseys

[DGivens87]

I went to an open practice for the Providence Bruins (AHL) today, and noticed that they all wear 4 different colored practice jerseys: red, blue, black and gold. What's up with the different colors in practice? Are they for the different lines?

another question while I'm at it: anyone know where I can find a Providence College Friars hockey jersey?

Thanks guys

[slapshot]

The players wear different colors for the different lines/positions. Sort of like a certain players in a football practice wearing a contrasting jersey from the other players; it's like a target but saying, "Don't hit me".

For a PC Friars jersey, check out Hockey East Online or River City Sports

[Puddy]

They're also for intrasquad scrimmages.

[ColeJ]

the way the dallas stars did it back when they had hitchcock as a coach, was 1st line wore red (sorta like in the NFL, red means think twice before you touch me, because i'm too important to get hurt).. the second line wore blue, the third line wore green, the 4th line wore yellow, the scratches wore white, and the defensemen/goalies wore black.

they did it this way, because each line would spend part of practice working on a different thing, cutting the rink into about 4 different mini-rinks, horizontally. this helped keep everything seperated.

the defensemen and goalies wore black, because they weren't really on a line, and are considered interchangable parts, even during the course of the game, moreso than forwards.

i used to go to a lot of stars practices, but under the gainey/hitchcock era, because they were open to the public... but now they've got armstrong/tippett, and usually closed practices, and they moved them north to frisco, so i never make my way up there anymore.

also, injured players who aren't on the first line, but aren't ready to be in full-contact practices, would wear white sweaters, with a red + on the front... brian skrudland called them his team switzerland jersey, when he spent a long time with a bruised sternum, and could practice lightly with the team, but one slight jar would reinjured it...

and incase i'm not giving ENOUGH pointless information about this topic, it just reminded me of some of the different reactions that happened at stars practices that i've either seen first hand, or read about... donald audette was signed to dallas the day after they signed turgeon in 2001. basically, they signed turgeon, because they couldn't sign leclair or roenick, who they had their sights set on... turgeon was the best available player on the market, and they signed him to help make up for the loss of brett hull, who they let go because of a silly argument with management (yet now we're under new management, and still stuck with turgeon, and missing hull's clutch scoring)... anyway, they signed audette to help turgeon fit into the stars lineup, because they are very close friends... hitchcock was coaching the team, and as you all know, he's a VERY strict defensive coach, while audette is a very soft, lazy, cherrypicking player. he only cares about scoring goals. well, only about 5 games into the season, audette was playing TERRIBLE defense, and costing the team more than he was helping on offense. so hitchcock decided to bench him... how'd audette find out? he showed up to practice one day and was given a white jersey... the only other player with a white jersey was a rookie... so he blew up, left practice, and was traded relatively shortly after.

so there's a long boring post about hockey practice jerseys... there's a lot of politics involved, that could probably be avoided by going with a less colorful combo... but hey, hockey is hockey.

[spyboy1]

Here's a picture I took at a Wild practice. The forward lines all wear a different color. Grey, Green, Blue, White and Gold. The defense is wearing Burgundy on this day. I've also seen them wear white, so it changes from day to day, but the goalies always wear black.

They only wear numbers during training camp by the way.

I've also seen other teams practice a time or two and once they just seem to be divided into two teams, with everyone wearing either red or white that day, so I'm sure it varies by team, coach and what they are trying to accomplish that day.

JeffB

[-kj]

Ahh, good ol' Parade Ice Gardens.

I once watched a Wild practice at the Xcel, pretty much the same thing. (I have nothing new to add, I just wanted to post so I could point out that I recognized where they were in that picture. )