Gail Force: The 7 Ugliest NHL All-Star Game Jerseys

Monday, January 23, 2012

The 7 Ugliest NHL All-Star Game Jerseys

The Seven is an arbitrary list of randomly connected hockey subjects that will run every Thursday on Puck Daddy. Agree to disagree.

Last year's NHL All-Star Game jerseys will be this year's NHL All-Star Game jerseys, as Zdeno Chara revealed on Thursday.

Did you dig the 2011 models? Those numbers over the logos were ? and still are ? terrible, but overall the colors and look weren't that bad.

Or at least that bad in context.

Here are The 7 Ugliest NHL All-Star Game Jerseys.

Philadelphia, 1992

This is one of those situations where one sweater in the pair is so awesome that it puts the other to complete shame. In this case, the Campbell Conference's red jerseys in 1992 ? these were heritage jerseys for the NHL's 75th anniversary ? were incredible.

The Wales? They looked like white supremacist candy stripers, with a logo someone forgot to fill-in.

Boston, 1971

These jerseys were actually used from 1968-1972, after which we can only assume they were returned to the men's cheerleading squad from which they there were originally borrowed. From 1960-1981, the NHL All-Star jerseys had pasties-like stars near the nipples. Joel Schumacher would be proud.

Montreal, 2009

While some feel the 2008 sweaters from the Winnipeg Atlanta NHL All-Star Game were the more heinous use of the abbreviated conference names and stars, we're calling it for the road white Western Conference sweaters from Montreal, which flaunt the same sins and look like someone left-justified them.

Minnesota 2004

While the Western Conference sweaters were green and carried the smell of lumberjack musk, the Eastern Conference ones made players look like red-striped milk bags with felt lettering.

Denver, 2001

Used in 2000 and 2001, at first glance these jerseys might not look that bad. But as we said in naming them the fourth-worst jersey of the decade: An unbalanced, unsightly design whiff that looked like the template for a better sweater. The colors are OK, but it's a completely forgettable jersey for a game whose threads are made for collectors. Five-year-old Colorado Avalanche fan Brandon Barban, moments after this photo was taken: "Your jerseys suck. Oh, and nice hair, Sakic ..."

New York, 1994

The first year of the NHL's radical redesign of its All-Star sweaters, with the Western Conference going eggplant and black and the Eastern Conference showing us what the San Jose Sharks would look like if they were being slowly consumed by the Stay Puft marshmallow man. Extra demerits for the mismatched logo/sweater colors.