I guess if I start with the Bruins, it’s only natural to follow with the runners-up from the Stanley Cup finals. Luckily for us, they’ve got enough sweater mayhem throughout their 40 years in the league for someone to write a book on. We’ll keep things a little bit shorter here.
Best: For a team with such a horrific history of sweaters, it can be tough to zero in on one that was great. For me, however, the choice is simple and it’s their current third jersey. It incorporates the original Canucks logo on the chest and adds the “Johnny Canuck” logo in the letter “V” on the shoulders. For a franchise with so many God-awful sweaters in their past, this one is about as good as it gets.
Worst: So I can only pick one? No way. The Canucks sweater history is so bad I have to make a top (bottom?) three list of their biggest mistakes. Third worst: Their third jersey from 2001-2006 that mixed red into a dark blue sweater with the ice-crashing orca. Second? Their third jersey from 1995-1997 that took their “flying skate/spaghetti plate” logo which looked good naturally on black and white and turned it into a red monstrosity. Trevor Linden’s career never recovered from wearing that.
The top spot of the worst, however, belongs to their home yellow jerseys from 1985-1989. It mixed parts of the “Flying V” era (often regarded as the ugliest of all time) and crossed it with the “flying skate/spaghetti plate.” It was a yellow home jersey with pointed shoulder yokes and was a horror show for the eyes. It’s so ugly I’d love to own it to scare friends.
Old-timey Favorite: Since the Canucks have only been around for 40 years and 400 different uniforms, their originals in blue and green are still the best. Sometimes you do get it done the right way off the bat. The Canucks wore the white version of this as a special throwback to commemorate their 40th anniversary last season.
Assessment: After so many different attempts and so many failures, the Canucks seem to have gotten things right. Their current home and road set of sweaters are nice. The “crashing orca” logo is a nice regional tie-in despite being a graphic brainchild of the former ownership group (Orca Bay) and even the arching “VANCOUVER” is all right. Their third is what they should switch to permanently at home though. It’s pretty, it’s so pretty.
