North Star Jerseys
133 Chaparral Court SE T2X 3L6 Calgary, AB, Canada

FULLRETRO// As many expected, the @nhlflames made the move of introducing their incredibly popular retro jerseys as their primary home/road for the upcoming NHL season. I’ve mentioned before how much I love these jerseys, but I’ve also talked about how I think black is a great colour for the Flames, so it’s worth mentioning they’re retaining the former home jersey as the alternate. 2004 was the best the team ever looked, it’s a shame we only had 3 seasons of that look before... Reebok took over and introduced us to vertical striping, piping, and flag patches. A friend of NSJ, @miketgould with @nation_fn recently did an interview with Flames marketing director Ryan Popowich (@downwithpopo), where they discussed the retro move, the process, and the future of Flames jerseys. Some interesting Blasty info! Check it out here: https://flamesnation.ca//ryan-popowich-jersey-interview-a/ I also found it appropriate that I post a Flames jersey after a Canucks jersey, since all the cool kids are going from Vancouver to Calgary nowadays, too.

RUSSIANROCKET// I was a big hockey card collector as a kid. I’m talking thousands and thousands of cards. Full sets, organized in boxes and binders. I have my mother to thank for that one, I probably would’ve kept them in something stupid like a plastic bag. But some of my favourite cards came from Upper Deck’s bizarre 1991-92 edition where they snapped a variety of pictures of players at the beach, doing normal 90’s beach things, like Pavel Bure having a quick rail sit duri...ng some beach rollerblading. During his blade sesh, he ran into his brother Valeri and they posed for the kind of picture you and your brother did when you played minor hockey. Although nothing was quite as ridiculous as the Rangers’ Tony Amonte, Doug Weight and Steven Rice (whooom?) frolicking in the waves. This was all a pretty long-winded and random story just to show you the jersey of one of the guys, which he didn’t even wear for another 5 years. But when I think of Bure, I think of that hockey card. So deal with it. And also deal with that dazzle twill used for the name and numbers. And I guess deal with the Steven Rice disrespect, I’m sorry I just don’t remember the guy!

CHAMPABAY// The Lightning capped off the most bizarre NHL season in history, capturing the Stanley Cup with what seemed like a dominant victory, despite the 6 game series. They remind me a lot of the 90’s @detroitredwings, being dominant for years but constantly suffering playoff disappointments, until finally breaking through. A team so loaded with talent, I often forgot they were consistently missing Steven Stamkos. Even when they were without Point for a few games, it still felt like they’d be okay. Similarly in 2004 (boooo!), lead by top-end talent like Lecavalier, St. Louis, Stillman and Richards, and with a strong supporting cast with guys like Fedotenko, Andreychuk and Freddy Modin. Congrats to @tblightning on an unbelievable season!

RATTRICK// Imagine being in the Stanley Cup Final, Ray Sheppard scores a power play goal to tie the game for the @flapanthers. Less than a second later, 20,000 plastic rats are hurled onto the ice. Patrick Roy refuses to take cover in his net, instead standing tall and absorbing every rat a Panthers fan accurately threw at him. It sounds insane. It really was. Back at the beginning of the 1995-96 season, Scott Mellanby infamously killed a rat with his hockey stick in the Pan...thers dressing room. He then went out that night and scored two goals with the murder weapon. Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck called it the Rat-trick. Panthers fans established the tradition of throwing plastic rats on the ice, something that was amplified in the 1996 playoffs the more success the team had. The NHL had to put a stop to it, due to the delays it caused and the danger to fans and players. The Panthers haven’t won a playoff series since. Rat curse? Rat curse. See more

STARTER// There was a time in the mid/late-90’s when jersey branding was handled by the individual teams, not this league-wide multi-million dollar exclusive contract. While CCM handled most of the league, Starter was making jerseys for teams such as the Avalanche, Bruins, Rangers, Panthers, Whalers, Blues and Penguins. Nike handled the Red Wings, Blackhawks, Flyers, Mighty Ducks, and Maple Leafs. Even Bauer got in the mix, doing the inaugural Predators jerseys. Pro Player wo...uld take over from Starter in the 1999-2000 season. The different materials used in the 90’s always makes it tricky to track down matching stuff for name plates, but luckily I was able to find some Starter mesh for this Super Mario! All this Starter talk reminded me of the old Starter team jackets. You know the ones... 1/2 zip pullover, team logo on the back, wordmark on the pouch flap, a pouch that you can dump an entire 2lb bag of Sour Kids into. Big enough to fit that Panasonic Shockwave CD player. I wonder if I still have my Red Wings jacket... @ Calgary, Alberta

RUSSIANROCKET// I was a big hockey card collector as a kid. I’m talking thousands and thousands of cards. Full sets, organized in boxes and binders. I have my mother to thank for that one, I probably would’ve kept them in something stupid like a plastic bag. But some of my favourite cards came from Upper Deck’s bizarre 1991-92 edition where they snapped a variety of pictures of players at the beach, doing normal 90’s beach things, like Pavel Bure having a quick rail sit duri...ng some beach rollerblading. During his blade sesh, he ran into his brother Valeri and they posed for the kind of picture you and your brother did when you played minor hockey. Although nothing was quite as ridiculous as the Rangers’ Tony Amonte, Doug Weight and Steven Rice (whooom?) frolicking in the waves. This was all a pretty long-winded and random story just to show you the jersey of one of the guys, which he didn’t even wear for another 5 years. But when I think of Bure, I think of that hockey card. So deal with it. And also deal with that dazzle twill used for the name and numbers. And I guess deal with the Steven Rice disrespect, I’m sorry I just don’t remember the guy!

CHAMPABAY// The Lightning capped off the most bizarre NHL season in history, capturing the Stanley Cup with what seemed like a dominant victory, despite the 6 game series. They remind me a lot of the 90’s @detroitredwings, being dominant for years but constantly suffering playoff disappointments, until finally breaking through. A team so loaded with talent, I often forgot they were consistently missing Steven Stamkos. Even when they were without Point for a few games, it still felt like they’d be okay. Similarly in 2004 (boooo!), lead by top-end talent like Lecavalier, St. Louis, Stillman and Richards, and with a strong supporting cast with guys like Fedotenko, Andreychuk and Freddy Modin. Congrats to @tblightning on an unbelievable season!

RATTRICK// Imagine being in the Stanley Cup Final, Ray Sheppard scores a power play goal to tie the game for the @flapanthers. Less than a second later, 20,000 plastic rats are hurled onto the ice. Patrick Roy refuses to take cover in his net, instead standing tall and absorbing every rat a Panthers fan accurately threw at him. It sounds insane. It really was. Back at the beginning of the 1995-96 season, Scott Mellanby infamously killed a rat with his hockey stick in the Pan...thers dressing room. He then went out that night and scored two goals with the murder weapon. Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck called it the Rat-trick. Panthers fans established the tradition of throwing plastic rats on the ice, something that was amplified in the 1996 playoffs the more success the team had. The NHL had to put a stop to it, due to the delays it caused and the danger to fans and players. The Panthers haven’t won a playoff series since. Rat curse? Rat curse. See more

STARTER// There was a time in the mid/late-90’s when jersey branding was handled by the individual teams, not this league-wide multi-million dollar exclusive contract. While CCM handled most of the league, Starter was making jerseys for teams such as the Avalanche, Bruins, Rangers, Panthers, Whalers, Blues and Penguins. Nike handled the Red Wings, Blackhawks, Flyers, Mighty Ducks, and Maple Leafs. Even Bauer got in the mix, doing the inaugural Predators jerseys. Pro Player wo...uld take over from Starter in the 1999-2000 season. The different materials used in the 90’s always makes it tricky to track down matching stuff for name plates, but luckily I was able to find some Starter mesh for this Super Mario! All this Starter talk reminded me of the old Starter team jackets. You know the ones... 1/2 zip pullover, team logo on the back, wordmark on the pouch flap, a pouch that you can dump an entire 2lb bag of Sour Kids into. Big enough to fit that Panasonic Shockwave CD player. I wonder if I still have my Red Wings jacket... @ Calgary, Alberta

THROWBACK// One of the many teams that suffered from the Reebok Edge takeover in 2007 was the Ottawa Senators. They were saddled with a generic, and very bland template, shared with Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. In the 10 years with Reebok, the Sens maintained their primary home and road jerseys, and introduced two beautiful vintage jerseys with the ‘O’ as the primary logo. I don’t pretend to know what the process entails when it comes to the design and ultimate approval of a tea...m’s jerseys, but I’ll never understand why they couldn’t have just made those vintage jerseys their primary home and away. Fast forward to the Adidas takeover in 2017, and the Senators were a prime candidate for a re-brand. And they changed the font. Really, the only redeeming quality of their Reebok jerseys was the font they’d used since they introduced their third jersey in 1997. But now the rumour is, they’ll be throwing it back to 1993 for the 2020-21 season. Although apparently not with the red numbers, like this lovely piece of material. Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, this franchise seems to make a lot of bad decisions. You couldn’t be more correct. And that’s a deep rabbit hole filled with all kinds of jackassery. Including, but not limited to, Alexandre Daigle. I can’t imagine what kind of pressure comes with being a 1st overall pick, but from a team perspective, you certainly expect to have that pick be a cornerstone of your franchise for several years. Daigle never lived up to the hype, and is part of a small but infamous group of players that you never want your first overall pick to be compared to. @ Calgary, Alberta