When you’re the franchise with the most Stanley Cups in NHL history, having a look that remains timeless after decades that instills pride in your fans and burning hatred in your rivals is a wonderful thing. Being able to say that everyone from Maurice “Rocket” Richard to Jean Beliveau to Guy LaFleur to Patrick Roy to Brian Gionta have all worn the same sweater is an impressive and staggering thing.
Love them or hate them, the Montreal Canadiens legendary sweater is one for the ages.
Best: If you think I’m going to go off the rails and be funny and pick something other than the classic red Habs sweater, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. It’s the most classic, most iconic, most outstanding sweater in all of hockey. The iconic logo set atop a band of blue and white striping on top of a red sweater. It’s elegant perfection and it’s been virtually unchanged since 1917. When you get it right immediately, there’s no reason to ever change. It’s perfection in a sweater.
Worst: Of course, sometimes you can make major mistakes at times and that’s something the Habs did as was highlighted by their 100th anniversary celebration when they broke out a bleu, blanc, et rouge striped barber pole sweater from the Habs days in 1912-1913. Such horrors cannot be unseen and for a team that ended up with such a legendary and perfect look, thing started off so very badly for the Canadiens. Most of the Canadiens anniversary special sweaters weren’t much to write home about, but the barber pole one ranks out as one of the worst of all time.
Honoring the past: That said, I give the Canadiens a ton of credit for breaking out modern versions of ancient sweaters. Since most fans have only seen such things in photos or not at all, it was a great touch to honor those old teams by dressing up the way they did. Sure, seeing the Habs take the ice in an all-blue get up or a sweater that looked like something more fit for a Christmas game is jarring, but doing it for a good (albeit self-congratulatory) reason is a good thing.
Assessment: The Canadiens are still rolling with the perfect, traditional look they’ve had for seemingly eons now and if that’s an issue to anyone other than Bruins or Maple Leafs fans, then there’s something wrong with your hockey fashion sensibilities. The Habs don’t need to have third jerseys or alternate looks at all because when you mess with greatness, you get mocked for it. Heavily. There’s no need to do anything more with the Canadiens sweaters other than just appreciate the hell out of them.
