The Hockey News Greatest Jerseys of All Time issue

[spyboy1]

Now that the Greatest Jerseys of All Time has (finally) come out, it's time for me to invite you to check out page 58 where my article on the "Curious, Weird and Ugly Collection" begins. It runs five pages long and is essentially a "Top Ten Worst Jerseys" list, although there are some I actually like for various reasons. There's also a sidebar giving some background on me, which mentions my blog, Third String Goalie, which will hopefully drive some serious traffic my way.

When I heard they were looking for submissions from rec league teams who had made their own jerseys, I took the opportunity to email them and point them toward my blog, perhaps hoping for a mention on their website in some way to gain a few hits. To my shock, they wrote me back later the same day, saying they wanted to interview me for the issue and then had the idea for me to write and article for it. ME! I was blown away that the bible of hockey wanted me to write for them!

Aside from my contribution, it's an awesome magazine with a wide variety of articles and highly recommended reading for everyone on this board.

[Shane Does Art]

That's really awesome! Congrats!

[charger77]

That is freaking amazing!

Not only do I have to be jealous about your jersey collection... but now this?

Congrats Jeff, I can't imagine how thrilled you must be.

Your hard work and quality paid off.

-Dan

[Korbyn]

I read that article when I bought the magazine.

Very well written, Congrats!

We are all jealous!

[spyboy1]

Thanks guys.

They originally asked me for 3000-4000 words and I cranked out 5500. Then they came back and said it had to be shortened to 2000!

A lot of that was the second ten (dis)honorable mentions, but I still had to cut out a LOT of background information and a ton of my flippant sarcasm, which I thought made for a pretty good and funnier read. Even then I could only get it down to 2200 words. It was harder to edit it than it was to write it!

I really hope to see a noticeable increase in blog traffic once people read it.

[spyboy1]

I gave that issue my (completely biased) review on my blog today.

http://thirdstringgoalie.blogspot.com/2009...eys-of-all.html

[SenatorJake]

Do you think you could hook us up with the 5500 word version? I, for one, would love to read the long winded version of this article.

[spyboy1]

As long as you asked, here's the full, unedited version, complete with the honorable mentions #11-20. There's more background given on the jerseys, more verbosity and some extra sarcasm from what I recall.

*************************

Throughout the history of the NHL there have been many classic sweaters worn, some of which have become icons of the sport, such as those worn by the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. Then there is the flip side of that coin, the list of sweaters that have provoked strong, if not severe, reactions of dislike, distain and even disgust. While many consider them to be ?ugly?, there are a number of them that I am actually quite fond of. In order to not lump them all together as ?Worst Jerseys?, I prefer to call them the ?Curious, Weird and Ugly Collection?.

Here is my countdown of my Top Ten Curious, Weird and Ugly jerseys in NHL history, followed by the ten (dis)honorable mentions.

#10 ? When the Atlanta Thrashers first joined the NHL in 1999, they so desperately wanted an alternate jersey that they abandoned the usual practice of having a traditional road jersey and went straight to creating an alternate jersey. By using the club?s secondary logo as the primary logo on the new ?road jersey?, this allowed them to circumvent the NHL?s policy of the club being in the league for three seasons before being allowed to introduce an alternate jersey.

When the 2003-04 Atlanta Thrashers alternate jersey was released, it was a clear departure from anything that had come before and the reaction to it was as polarized as any jersey in league history. Many loved it but many others thought it was among the worst they had ever seen.

It?s powder blue (?Thrasher Ice Blue?) color and white numbers with yellow trim are just about the least intimidating color combination I can think of and seem more at home in a child?s nursery than on an NHL sweater.

But what really had opinion on this jersey mixed was the large stripe that ran down just the left sleeve which contained the name ?ATLANTA? running vertically, which I find visually jarring and something more at home on a roller hockey jersey.

I classify this jersey as both ?Weird? and ?Ugly?.

#9 ? While many of the well known controversial jerseys can be traced back to the original group of alternate jerseys from the 1995-96 season, the most recent newcomer to the ?Curious, Weird and Ugly Collection? is the 2008-09 Montreal Canadiens 1912-13 Centennial Jersey. Worn on February 1st, 2009 vs. Boston, the narrow, multiple stripes on the jersey drew swift commentary, even as the game was still in progress, most often comparing them to prison uniforms.

While they lack the grace of the wider striped Ottawa Senators ?Barberpole? jerseys of the 1920?s, I can appreciate the historical basis of these jerseys and found them to be a nice nod to the early history of the Canadiens franchise.

The six different jerseys in the Centennial Jersey program were all scheduled to be worn twice, but on the occasion of the second scheduled game for the 1912-13 jerseys, the Canadiens instead took to the ice wearing their 1915-16 jerseys, which look like their current home jerseys except for the ?CA? logo and darker shade of red, for a third time at the request of then Canadiens coach Bob Gainey. Perhaps the red, white and blue barberpole jerseys were considered unlucky, as both Robert Lang, who was lost for the season, and Guillaume Latendresse were injured while wearing them in a 3-1 loss although it?s more likely they were just too much of a distraction.

While I wouldn?t want Montreal to wear them all season long, I found them to be a fun change of pace and an opportunity to educate fans around the league to an era of hockey history many are not aware of. I classify them as ?Curious? and would hope that they would inspire a curiosity in others to look into the early days of hockey as the sport was still finding it?s feet prior to even the formation of the National Hockey League, which would not arrive on the scene until four years after the striped jerseys were originally worn.

#8 - Some feel that the Sabres have been wandering the hockey jersey wilderness since the team re-branded itself in the 1996-97 season, moving away from their original blue and yellow colors and circular logo jerseys worn since their inception in 1970, changing to a new red and black color scheme with a much more modernized Buffalo head logo and innovative new jersey template, which gave the impression of Buffalo horns running up the side of the jersey. Remember, this was back in 1996 when prior to that every jersey had horizontal waist stripes except the St. Louis Blues and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim diagonal stripes.

Designers started to take risks and start thinking outside the traditional box, and the Sabres new black and red look was, to me, a nicely done modernization of the Sabres look and it's frankly somewhat amateurish original logo. Unfortunately the new look, instead of being introduced for an expansion team with no previous history to compare to, was saddled with the responsibility of having to compete with Buffalo's entire past and the fanbase's passion for their classic look. They derisively called the new logo for the black and red jerseys "The Goat Head" and longed for a return to the Sabres original colors and logo.

And in a classic case of "Be Careful What You Ask For, You Just Might Get It", the Sabres went back to the old familiar blue and yellow colors - only this time with a new logo.

The reaction to the 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres home and road jerseys were swift and severe, with the logo becoming the most ridiculed logo in the history of professional sports and was given the nickname of "The Buffaslug", so named so for it's legless form, bright yellow color and undeniable resemblance to the lowly Banana Slug. There was even an online petition against the new logo that topped 30,000 signatures.

On September 16th, 2006, the complete jersey was unveiled at an open practice and quickly became a top seller, as the team was on a high from nearly making the Stanley Cup Finals the previous season, led by stars Daniel Briere and Chris Drury plus the emergence of goaltender Ryan Miller. Sales were also no doubt aided in the return of the blue and yellow colors, as the previous seasons black and red jerseys were now out of date.

Aside from the logo, the jerseys were controversial in their own way, as they had wild, curving stripes along with other colored blobs, which suggested neither horns nor sabre blades. Just what exactly is the silver striping that runs from the waist up to and over the shoulders and down the back, curving this way and that as it goes, supposed to suggest or represent? And the white armpit flares? They don't resemble the horns of the buffalo in the logo, which curve upwards. Are they there for a reason?

The appearance of these sweaters in action was even worse, as the mishmash of colors all bunched up under the arm pits while the jerseys were being worn created a distracting traffic jam of color that served no purpose other than confusing the viewer as to what the designer meant for these shapes to convey.

I rate this jersey as "Ugly" with a big dose of "Weird". I find the logo to be ugly and weird due to its giant head coupled with it's legless body, arcing in a path too short and too tight. Also factor in the downward angle of the head of the Buffalo. He appears to be milliseconds away from a colossal face-plant, rather than charging forward to victory. He also seems very detached and oblivious to everything around him. There's no connection to the viewer, unlike the previous logo that stared right at you, daring you to challenge him. The Buffaslug is not looking at you as he speeds by to a rendezvous with a first round playoff exit. He's just a big mute head in a big hurry that wants nothing to do with anyone or anything, especially you.

The jerseys on their own, separate from the logo, are also ugly and weird. I'm just not a fan of the seemingly random color blobs and meandering striping that seems utterly without reason.

#7 - The 2001-02 Nashville Predators alternate jersey generated outspoken reaction to just about every feature of the jersey, from the unusual squared neckline to the cartoonish new main crest and the secondary logo of a fossilized skull, neither of which appeared on the home and away jerseys at the time, and the unique double layered fabric of the body of the jersey.

But drawing the most reaction, of course, was the unexplainable choice of the strange and repulsive mustard color of the jersey, which has been compared to, among other things, puss, vomit, urine and baby poop!

Most of the successful alternate jerseys in my mind simply promoted a teams third color to become the main color of it's alternate, such as the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers originally did with their black jerseys, but Nashville instead tried to reinvent the wheel, coming up with a new jersey cut, carried over no logos from the primary home and road jerseys and then made the jersey a color not even in their palette, picking perhaps the most horrid color ever used on a professional sports team's jersey to compound the problem.

Not only was the color of the jersey unique in the NHL, but the jersey?s fabric was as well. It is made of a mustard colored mesh top layer over a solid dark blue layer, which shows through the holes in the mesh of the mustard layer, making an already muted color appear even darker and muddier.

I classify this jersey as "Ugly" due to the awkward neckline, overly detailed primary logo, strange fabric construction and horrendous color choice. If your jersey is conjures up repeated comparisons to various unpleasant bodily fluids, you have an ugly jersey on your hands.

#6 - The Curious, Weird and Ugly? Collection now recalls a jersey so despised that opposing fans used it as a chant to taunt the team wearing it.

We give you the one, the only, the 1996-97 New York Islanders home and road jerseys, dubbed the "Fish Sticks" jersey.

First used in the 1995-96 season, the new Islanders home and away jerseys would immediately receive scorn and ridicule from both the media and fans alike before it was even worn on the ice. The comparison of the new logo to the Gorton's fisherman logo, from the well-known brand of frozen fish sticks, would spawn chants by Rangers fans of "We want fish sticks! We want fish sticks!"

Aside from the logo, the jerseys were such a radical departure from the classic look of those worn during the Islanders' Stanley Cup dynasty that they were doomed from the start. The basic Islanders color scheme of blue and orange was retained but with the addition of generous amounts of the trendy color teal. The wavy waist stripes and shoulder area, plus the addition of the rising and falling font for the names and numbers on the back, gave the whole look of the jersey a seasickness generating permanent state of motion.

After just one season, the Islanders began to phase out the fisherman logo, returning the classic "Long Island/NY" logo to the wavy jerseys as an alternate for the 1996-97 season and as the exclusive jersey for the 1997-98 season. 1998-99 would see a wholesale return to an updated version of the classic four time Stanley Cup winning jersey, this time with three-color numbers and four stripes on the shoulders to symbolize the team's four championships.

I classify this jersey as "Curious". I can see the new Islanders owner's desire to re-brand their failing franchise at the time and actually find the blue road jerseys to be quite striking, in a mid-90?s kind of way, and far from "ugly" in my book. I particularly like the secondary lighthouse logos and the attempt to break out of the mold of block numbers so commonly used at the time by creating a unique font for the numbers.

If the Islanders had actually won a few playoff rounds while wearing these, perhaps the public would have given the jersey a fair chance on it's own merits, rather than making it the lightning rod for all of the team's misfortunes at the time of it?s introduction, including having dealt away the popular Pierre Turgeon.

The resemblance of the logo to the Gorton's fisherman was unfortunate, as having the rival New York Rangers fans mocking the Islanders because of the jerseys they were wearing meant the ?fish sticks? sweaters were never going to receive a fair shot at acceptability on Long Island.

#5 - The dye-sublimation printing process, which allowed for the use of gradients and curved lines not previously possible, rears it's ugly head with the 1995-96 Los Angeles Kings Alternate jersey. The jersey features swooping stripes that cross the jersey from the upper right to the lower left, fading from dark grey (never quite black) to light as they go. The basic striping pattern of the jersey is odd enough, but then the Kings got busy customizing it, first adding a stylized angry king?s head logo, offset to the upper left chest, something no other jersey of the era dared to do. But that was not all. While the Kings home and road jerseys were exclusively black, white and silver, the King's head logo was done in a garish purple and with a metallic gold crown.

Once the basic jersey was completed, the individual player's identity needed to be addressed. The font chosen for the back and sleeve numbers was a flamboyant, italicized font done in purple, trimmed in metallic gold and outlined in black. The same treatment was given to the names on the back, with the letters also italicized in the same three-color combination.

While purple and gold might be associated with royalty, the net effect of the strange swooping stripes, grimacing king's head logo and flashy font executed in the royal purple and metallic gold was much more ?ridiculous? than ?regal?.

Fans dubbed the jersey "The Burger King Jersey", adding it to the list of jerseys so heinous it earned a coveted nickname. The resemblance between the Los Angeles Kings logo and the Burger King fast food chain's somewhat creepy monarch is undeniable.

The Kings began wearing this jersey midway through the 1995-96 season when the first NHL alternate jerseys debuted, and only wore them for a mere six games before the negative reaction of the players and fans caused them to be retired permanently.

It's not known if being forced to wear this jersey caused Wayne Gretzky to ask for a trade out of Los Angeles so he wouldn't have to wear it any longer, but he was dealt to the St. Louis Blues for the last 18 games of the 1995-96 season.

I classify this jersey as "Weird", due to the curving, radiating grey stripes that fade from dark to light, the newly introduced angry king head logo, the name and number font that would look more at home at Mardi Gras than on an NHL jersey, the addition of the color purple to a Kings jersey during the black and silver era, and finally the use of metallic gold for the number trim and King's crown. Also weird is the fact Wayne Gretzky agreed to wear it at all.

#4 ? The next Curious, Weird and Ugly jersey is one of the strangest to ever see the ice in an NHL contest.

With hockey fans already thinking the basic Coyotes home and away jerseys of the day were odd enough, this eerie "Midnight in the Desert", or as I prefer "Peyote Ugly", look really has to make one wonder what the designers were smoking at the time they created it.

It's dark hunter green, black and sienna colors, accented with purple (!) were unconventional enough, but the jersey?s depiction of a landscape of cacti against the mountains of the desert southwest under a crescent moon create a dark, spooky feeling, only added to by the unyielding stare of the main crest, a coyote head wearing just half a goalie mask and an unblinking eyeball staring at the viewer.

The package is completed by using an unconventional font for the name and numbers that I feel safe in predicting won't be seeing the back of any new NHL jerseys anytime in the near future.

Not only do I classify this jersey as "Weird", I think it's the single weirdest jersey ever as far as the NHL goes. There's really never been anything like it in terms of having a landscape depicted on an NHL jersey before or since, especially one in the dark of night with a creepy floating animal head staring out at you in such a dark and unusual colors.

#3 ? Next is one of the strangest, yet most unforgettable jerseys to ever see the ice in an NHL contest.

From the Canucks inception in 1970-71 to 1977-78 the Canucks wore blue and green jerseys, another one of those lame "blue for water, green for trees" occurrences where a professional sports team feels they must be the leading voice for the local board of tourism. Well, in 1978, all that came to an abrupt end.

Before the 1978-79 season the Canucks set out to redesign the uniforms. The old colors were determined to be "too bland, too tranquil and did not inspire emotion." The result was the 1978-79 Vancouver Canucks home and road "V" design, suggesting "victory" according to the designer. The bright orange was said to "evoke passion and aggression" while the black road jersey would instill fear in the opposition.

The jerseys featured no main team logo on the front, but instead a giant "V" shape done in bright orange and yellow on a black jersey. The sleeves also featured smaller "V" shapes midway down the arm with a new "Flying Skate" logo for the shoulders and the very unusual placement of the sleeve numbers at the very bottom of the arms on the wrists!

The "V" shape was not limited to just the jerseys either, as the breezers had giant multi-colored "V's" as well. During he first year these jerseys were worn, they even had "V" shaped stripes on the socks.

The Canucks introduced the jerseys, which none of the players had seen prior to the game, at the season opener in Minnesota. As Stan Smyl said, "I've never been ashamed to wear the Canuck's uniform, but that night none of us wanted to leave the dressing room."

They were met with much derision around the NHL and were often referred to as "those Halloween suits". Vancouver nearly got the last laugh however, as they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1982 before running into the New York Islanders dynasty which was in full stride. Time has settled on the nickname of "The Flying V" for these jerseys.

Some feel that the Canucks have never gotten it right, as the original Stick in Rink logo was too simplistic, the Flying V was too hideous, the Flying Skate was too busy and the Orca logo too corporate, as the Canucks were owned by Orca Bay Entertainment when the Orca/Killer Whale logo was adopted.

I classify this jersey as "Curious" and "Weird". Many consider it ugly, but I'm actually quite a fan of the whole idea of trying to design a jersey in an effort to aid your team in victory. It took some bold thinking and a lot of guts for the designer to create it and then even more for the club to support the concept and stick with it for seven seasons. I can't see anyone in the NHL being bold enough to risk the large amounts of income clubs rely on from the marketing of jerseys by trying something so far outside the norm these days.

Yes, they are weird, when compared to the jerseys of the day, quite weird. One almost wonders why they even bothered to include the tiny sleeve numbers on the cuffs since they are so small and out of the way. The "Flying V" jerseys are also certainly a curiosity, as no other team followed them down the same path, leaving the "Flying V" as a truly unique chapter in NHL history.

#2 ? The 2003-04 Dallas Stars alternate jersey is one of the most unexpected designs in the history of NHL jerseys.

The Stars had been using the same two home and away jerseys since 1998 when the previous alternate jersey had been promoted to the primary road jersey. While many teams rotate the importance of the colors in their set, making a trim color the primary color of their alternate jersey, it's unusual for a team to add an entirely new color not used anywhere else in their identity package, which is exactly what the Stars did by adding red to their new alternate jersey.

While the addition of red trim to their jersey may have raised eyebrows, what really got people talking was the new logo created just for the alternate made up of a constellation of stars that map out a bull's head with the addition of a shooting star with its red tail sweeping around the head from the side. It was assumed that the constellation pictured was Taurus the Bull, but the constellation of Taurus has it's own unique shape that bears no relation to the Dallas Stars alternate logo.

The logo used on the jersey was described at the time this way:

"The new logo depicts a constellation of individual stars aligning to form an unstoppable force of nature, a charging bull. Get it? A constellation of stars aligning to form an unstoppable force? "

Only that's not how the critics saw it. Oh no. The bull's head immediately reminded many of a diagram of a woman's uterus, and was derisively nicknamed "The Mooterus" - a combination of a cow's "moo" and a woman's "uterus" for those of you who haven't heard the nickname before, elevating it to the lofty status of the "named jersey", a sure sign of infamy.

The jersey, which was not very well received, was worn for two seasons, 2003-04 and 2005-06. Teams are required by the NHL to market their new alternate sweaters for a minimum of 15 games for their first season of use. The Stars reduced that number to eight games for 2005-06 and refused to commit to the same amount for 2006-07, which would have been the final season for The Mooterus anyway because of the league-wide redesign coming in 2007-08.

Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks was quoted as saying on the occasion of The Mooterus' final game on April 3rd, 2006, "Good riddance. The funny thing is that you can't find anyone around here who will take credit for designing it. Nobody's left."

Jill Moore, the Stars Senior Director of Merchandising, said one of the problems with the bull?s head logo was that it was designed undercover by an outside service during the days of the Southwest Sports Group. The conglomerate had a plan - trying to mix the thought of a constellation, stars, with a Texas icon, a bull's head.

The team did make $400,000 from sales of the jersey and went 13-7-3 while wearing it, but the mixture of too many ideas combined with a lack of testing led to the backlash against it.

I classify this jersey as clearly "Ugly" due to the unexplained inclusion of red, which was not only not a Dallas Stars color, but the way the red looked combined with the predominately black jersey and the dark shade of green used by the Stars. Overall it was a dark and depressing jersey even before the logo was applied to it.

As for the logo itself, as stated above, there was just too many ideas combined for it to ever work. Perhaps a simplified bull's head logo using a single star (which worked up the road for the Houston Texans of the NFL quite nicely) rather than the constellation overlay might have been more effective, in the way that the Calgary Flames horse head logo paid homage to the Calgary Stampede and the city's western heritage, with just enough flames to tie it to the team's name.

As it was, the logo just didn't look enough like a bull's head, overshadowed by the busyness of not only the stars placed on it, but the lines connecting them as well. The unnecessary shooting star on the logo only added to the visual confusion since there were already stars pictured inside the bull's head. The streak of red behind it only served to grab the viewer's eye away from the more muted tones of the black and green bull's head.

Then there was the unfortunate resemblance of the logo to the female reproductive system, which reduced the entire thing to a laughingstock. In hindsight, they should have at least curved the bull's horns upwards to diminish the comparison to the medical diagrams since they were not being faithful to the actual constellation of Taurus in the first place.

Also odd was the decision to not use any red in the customization specifications. The colors used for the names and numbers, taken straight from the green home jerseys look out of place on the alternate jersey. Changing the black trim of the names and numbers to red would have made them look like they were meant to be on the jersey from the beginning and would have helped tie the entire package together, justifying the appearance of the red on the jersey in the first place. As it was done, the jersey and the customizing don't look like they were meant to be together on the same sweater.

#1 - The single most embarrassing jersey to ever see the ice in an NHL game.

The 1995-96 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim alternate jersey was one of the original five alternate jerseys in the NHL. Doing away with the traditional main logo crest, the Mighty Ducks used the dye-sublimation process to create a unique design picturing not the team's logo, but an embarrassing cartoon of it's mascot, Wild Wing, bursting through the ice in a superhero pose. The team only made matters worse with its choice for the name and numbers, the cartoonish, unattractive and difficult to read font, Mistral.

The jersey, dubbed "The Wild Wing", almost always ranks first or second in "worst jersey" lists due to it's embarrassing cartoon "logo" design, horrible font and trendy non-hockey color for the jerseys. The players hated being seen wearing them and, as a result, the jersey only had a life span of six games before being shelved for good. The game dates were 1/27/96 vs. Los Angeles (who wore their Burger King jerseys, making for the single most visually appalling game in league history), 2/2/96 vs. the Hartford Whalers, 3/3/96 vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3/8/96 vs. the Buffalo Sabres, 4/3/96 vs. the Edmonton Oilers and one final time on 4/12/96 vs. the Dallas Stars, going 3-2-1 in those games.

I've even read an account that the players said they did not want any pictures of them wearing the jersey in the next year's Mighty Ducks media guide or to have to wear them for a second season.

Little is known about who was involved in the development of the ?Wild Wing? jersey and what their thought process was. Apparently no one wants to take credit for being responsible for the worst jersey in NHL history, but you can safely bet that non-hockey people at Disney had a large part in such an unconventional approach to hockey sweater design.

This jersey must be classified as "Weird" and "Ugly". If it weren't for then owner Disney's involvement with the jersey, I'd include "curious", but with Disney involved, there's no curiosity as to where this concept must have come from.

In all honesty, if you strip away the cartoon logo and font used for the name and numbers, the jersey pattern of the pointed shoulder area, similar to the Penguins home jerseys of the day, and sleeve striping is a good base from which to work from. But the accolades stop there.

The primary jade color of the jersey was just too trendy and not ?hockey? enough to embrace. The font was thin and reedy and much too busy for it's own good. The secondary logos were hard enough to live with on the home and road jerseys for traditionalists, but the front of the jersey?

It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen on an NHL jersey, bar none. This jersey is so horrible and lacks any dignity to the point that it actually makes me angry just thinking about it.

It?s difficult to reduce the number of odd and controversial jerseys in NHL history to just ten, so here are numbers 11-20, the honorable mentions.

#11 ? 1998-99 Boston Bruins alternate jersey. A bright gold jersey with a docile bear head logo lived a long life, but never won over the fans. If your logo is compared to Winnie the Pooh, you?ve got issues.

#12 ? 1974-75 California Golden Seals home and road jerseys. Pastel colors and striping more at home on a football jersey makes for an unintimidating, out of place look.

#13 ? 1997-98 Tampa Bay Lightning alternate jersey. I really love this jersey. Derisively called ?The Seasickness Jersey?, it?s dark tones, churning waves and driving rain create a darkened mood interrupted by powerful lightning bolts shooting down the sleeves and a visually arresting electric font for the numbers. The blue color of the jersey is what they should have been wearing all along. Sheer genius.

#14 ? 2002-03 New York Islanders alternate jersey. This bright orange ?Safety Vest? jersey looks more at home on a freeway construction site than an NHL rink. It?s bright color and modern design elements paired with an old-school tie-neck collar is real head-scratcher.

#15 ? 1995-96 St. Louis Blues home and road jerseys. Many don?t care for these jerseys, but I found them to be fine for their era of experimentation. I can understand what the designers were trying to accomplish with the multiple stripes representing a ?musical staff?, and the back numbers that grew in size from left to right were at least innovative, if they weren't necessarily attractive.

#16 ? 2001-02 Vancouver Canucks alternate jersey. Their dark and moody colors, fading from navy blue to burgundy with silver trim were unconventional and unattractive.

#17 ? 2001-02 Edmonton Oilers alternate jersey. Designed by Oilers owner Todd McFarlane, the ?Robo-Drip? jerseys went with a stark, monochromatic look, leaving out the red and copper trim colors for the hone and road jerseys. The mechanical looking logo and choice of a ?Star Trek? font for the names and numbers give the jersey a silly, juvenile appearance. Again, another very modern jersey that uses an out-of-place old school lace up collar.

#18 ? 1996-97 Phoenix Coyotes home and road jerseys. The Coyotes went heavy on the Southwestern theme when they arrived in Arizona. Their original logo and striping pattern on their jerseys were both very busy visually, and when combined really added to the jerseys being hard on the eyes.

#19 ? 1995-96 Vancouver Canucks alternate jersey. Another jersey to take advantage of the dye sublimation process allowing colors to fade from one shade to another, this jersey is one that I like very much. With no waist stripes and paired with all-black breezers and socks, they really made the players look larger than they were. The decision to feature their red trim color on the upper half of the sweater rather than make another primarily gold jersey was also a welcome choice from the Canucks, a team with a history of risk taking and unconventional jersey choices.

#20 ? 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins alternate jersey. Yet another entry from the original group of alternate jerseys from the Class of 1995, these oddities feature a dark and moody color scheme of grey and black, multiple horizontal pinstripes, colors that fade from light to dark at just about every opportunity and sleeves that are as asymmetrical as possible. Apparently designed in an apocalyptic future and transported back in time for the Penguins to wear.