A not-so-Heritage Classic (the uniforms, that is)

“Look Canada, I’m doing something for yous!” – Gary Bettman

Outdoors hockey!

Tomorrow the 2nd octennial Heritage Classic will take place in the frigid outdoor refrigerator most commonly referred to as Calgary, Alberta. They’re calling for a temperature of -22°C tomorrow (-8°F), so that threat of rain they had for the earlier-this-year Winter Classic in Pittsburgh probably won’t be a problem… probably.

My placemat at a local doughnut shop advertising the big game

As is the custom with an outdoor hockey game, both teams will be dressed in retro uniforms and what a perfect matchup to do this.  We have Calgary and Montreal, two cities which have met three times prior in the Stanley Cup Final (1924, 1986, 1989) – a great opportunity for both teams to break out the retro jerseys from one of those finals so we can relive those days by seeing it all-over-again.

Wait, what’s that you say? They’re not totally taking advantage of this??  Awww, NHL!

The Montreal Canadiens are breaking out their 1970s-1990s uniform, which is a classic I’ll admit but does look nearly identical to their current set which isn’t that fun for us uniform fans – what would give them a pass on it would be if the Calgary Flames were playing along by wearing their set from the same era and setting up a jersey re-match of the ’86 and ’89 Stanley Cup Final.

Fun Fact: The 1989 Stanley Cup Final was not-only the last all-Canadian Stanley Cup Championship, but also the first final to feature Stanley Cup patches on both team jerseys, a tradition that has carried on in every Stanley Cup Final since.  Word.

1924 Montreal Canadiens uniform (nhluniforms.com)

What would have been even more awesome would be if the Montreal Canadiens really turned on the retro and went back to 1924, brown pants and all, but sadly this won’t be happening.

The Flames, on the other hand, got into the spirit of things a little more and tried to flash back to the 1924 Calgary/Montreal final (and we here at SportsLogos.Net do appreciate the effort), unfortunately it just doesn’t quite do it for us.  Not only is wearing a uniform from this era kinda wasted with the Habs not joining in it’s not even the uniform they wore back then, it’s “inspired” by it… so in a game traditionally showcasing throwback uniforms we get a fauxback!  Argh.

1924 Calgary Tigers Uniform (source: Western Hockey Legends)

What we had was a perfect opportunity to have the 1924 Calgary Tigers vs the 1924 Montreal Canadiens, would’ve looked pretty pulchritudinous (thank you thesaurus)… instead we get the 1980s Montreal Canadiens vs a 1920s fantasy version of a McDonald’s sponsored Calgary Flames team 

Eh, we’ll still watch the game and everyone will still have a lot of fun with the retro looks and low temperatures… I’ll just have to wait until the 2023-24 season when a 100th anniversary of that final will surely produce this uniform matchup.  Maybe.

This and That – Baseball Edition

• Remember that MLB cap logo mural from the post about my trip to Vegas?  Well, the correct year was 1987 (or 1988).  The Minnesota Twins logo pictured debuted in 1987 while the Baltimore Orioles logo was last seen in 1988.  Everything else was worn during those two seasons.  Props to commenter “ibsouper” for getting it first
• The Los Angeles Dodgers and Nike teamed up to take a not-so-subtle jab at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with this t-shirt which will be available at Dodger Stadium this season.  The Angels responded by showing them a World Series pennant from this century.
• Speaking of the Los Angeles Angels, it’s their 50th anniversary this year and they’ll be having all sorts of fun with it – we already know they’ll be bringing back the golden halos for the year but we didn’t know Friday home games will be throwback uniform games.  Starting with May 20th and their 1960s LA Angels uniforms, yay!
• The Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs will be honouring their fallen former comrades by sporting memorial patches on their jerseys in 2011.  The Tigers and Reds will both be honouring former manager Sparky Anderson (here’s the Tigers patch and here’s the Reds patch), while the Chicago Cubs will be wearing this in memory of Ron Santo.
• The Toronto Blue Jays have 1970s, 1980s and 1990s promotional nights on their calendar this season, while I inquired on what they’ll be wearing for these days they didn’t respond – so we’ll just assume they’ll continue to honour the worst season in franchise history (1979) by wearing the baby blue pyjamas each of those nights… or we can hold out hope that we’ll get to see the late ’90s Roger Clemens era Jays uniforms one last time