The Avs Hockey Podcast

Two Fan's Perspectives on Colorado Avalanche Hockey...and jerseys too.

Internationally Known: Mark Barberio, Game Worn Global Series Jersey

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On November 10, 2017 the Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club made history by playing their first regular season National Hockey League game outside of the United States and Canada.  It was a 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators at Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.  This jersey saw plenty of action in that contest.

Avalanche defenseman Mark Barberio played 29 shifts during the game and logged 21 minutes and 10 seconds of ice time.  He recorded two shots on net and two hits wearing this jersey as well.  There are virtually no signs of game use on the jersey so a photo match is not when it concerns damage or repairs, but the beauty of patched one game wonders is that all that’s needed is the patch for a match.

As with the Blake Comeau 2017 white set one jersey I recently posted, the features on this jersey are obviously the same.

The liquid plastic NHL shield on the front of the neck:

The Adidas logo and word mark on the back of the neck:

The NHL 100th anniversary patch just below the number on the right sleeve:

And the patch added by the team on the inside of the back left tail after the jerseys are worn.  This makes things official:

Both the Avalanche and Senators wore this patch on the upper right part of the chest during both Global Series games in Sweden:

The Avalanche were the home team on November 10th and, accordingly, wore their home dark jerseys.  On Saturday, November 11th, the Senators were the designated home team so the Avalanche wore their (Global Series patched) away white jerseys.

My goal for this season, knowing that the supply of Adidas jerseys was low from the beginning, was to add one Avalanche jersey of each color worn to my collection.  Two auctions in and I have reached my goal.  That feels good.  There are still, if my calculations are correct, three or four jersey auctions left to go.  There may be another jersey (or two) added to my collection or there may not.  As always, stay tuned.

Either way though, Go Avs Go.

A New Jersey Era: Blake Comeau, 2017 Game Worn Jersey

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Hello, again.  It has been a while.  Our favorite NHL team was struggling and motivation to add to the collection was definitely low.  Knowing a new jersey brand was on the way was a factor as well.  I was ready for the old style Reeboks (as well as how the team had been playing in them) to go and was more than ready for the new style Adidas jerseys to arrive.

I’m very happy to say that the wait is over.

This is Blake Comeau’s set one jersey worn from the 2017 preseason through the December 12, 2017 game in Washington D.C. against the Capitals.  This jersey was not worn in the Global Series game against the Senators in Sweden on November 11, 2017.  The Avalanche had one game only sets, both home burgundy and away white, made for each of the Global Series games.

First, the jersey itself.  Adidas is the new provider of jerseys for the entire league.  These jerseys feature new fabrics and new pretty much everything.  Besides the fabric itself, one of the most noticeable changes is on the Avalanche crest.  One of the goals of the new jerseys is to be lighter and supposedly faster.  The burgundy part of the logo has always been solid twill and must have been slowing players like Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg WAY down.  Now the logo looks like this:

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of The National Hockey League all teams wore this patch just below the number on the right sleeve of their jerseys.

The brand logo is once again located on the back of the neck.

The league has also switched to what I believe is something called liquid plastic with their shield located on the front of the neck just below the player’s chin.  It’s shiny and catches your eye.  I’m positive that’s by design and it most definitely worked on me.  (I’m easily distracted by sparkly things to begin with though.)

The new materials and layers are evident in this shot of the nameplate.

And it’s not an official Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club game worn jersey without this, located on the lower left of the inside of the jersey.

Concerning the number written on the tag, which has been consistent with all the game worn jerseys the Avalanche have offered the past few seasons, there’s a pattern here.  The first four numbers are the month and year the auction closed or when the jersey was last worn.  In this case it was January of 2018, thus: 0118.  The last two numbers are simply the player’s jersey number.

There wasn’t a lot of damage or repairs to the jersey itself which was able to be photo matched, but those of you who have followed my collection know that all it takes for me is one prominent thing.  Here’s that thing on this jersey located on the front of the left forearm above where Comeau’s glove would be.

I have been able to match that repair to multiple pictures.  It’s ALWAYS good to have photo matches.

Comeau, up to December 12th, had scored four goals away from Pepsi Center.  One of those goals was scored in Minnesota on November 24, 2017.  This was a game when the teams decided to switch jersey colors prior to this game so he scored that goal wearing his burgundy set one jersey.  That’s a rude thing to do when someone is trying to research the action a jersey has seen.  Let’s move on.  He scored another in Sweden on November 11 wearing a jersey which was worn for one game only.  That leaves two goals left.  One of those two was scored in Pittsburgh during the second to last game for this jersey on December 11, 2017.  This goal gave the Avalanche a 2-0 lead late in the third period.  Phil Kessel then scored with 11.8 seconds left on the clock.  It’s not often we get to see empty-net game-winning goals.  Check one out below and note the SWEET feed off of Erik Johnson’s foot.  (Fast forward to seven minutes and 30 seconds.)

The other goal Comeau scored while wearing this jersey was his third goal of the season and the 111th goal of his career.  It was a shorthanded goal scored in Philadelphia on November 4, 2017.  (Fast Forward to four minutes and 20 seconds.)

The puck from that goal is also something I recently added to my Avs game used collection.

It is exciting to have the jersey and puck involved in a goal as well as a photo match to the celebration following the goal.  Good collecting stuff.

So the game worn journey continues with a new era in Avalanche and NHL jerseys.  There are a lot of new features and details to note.  This is something I love to track and compare over time.

It’s also preferable to watch the team play much improved hockey so far this season.  Mentioning this is a good young team with a bright future ahead is much easier to say when it’s actually happening rather than hoping it may happen someday.  Here’s to continued development and improvement as the team and organization moves forward.

Let’s Go Avs.

Erik Johnson, 2015-2016 Game Worn White Jersey

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With the Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club changing jersey acquisition operations a few seasons ago and moving more toward charity-based auctions getting game worn jerseys has been a little more of a challenge as of late.  I was fortunate enough to get this jersey (post-auction) from a buddy of mine not long ago.

This set two white jersey was worn during all of the road games between November 30, 2015 and January 27, 2016.  No goals were scored by Erik Johnson while he wore this jersey, but that definitely doesn’t mean that it lacks a story.  If there’s history behind a jersey I am always more than happy to track it down.

EJ doesn’t fight very often, but he got into a scrap wearing this jersey.  New Jersey Devils pest forward Jordin Tootoo excels at getting under the skin of opponents.  December 1, 2015 in New Jersey was no exception.

I’m far from an expert when it comes to fighting in the National Hockey League, but I’m pretty sure that taking someone’s helmet off and then punching that person on top of their head is generally frowned upon.  Not only was the neck worn out (and then repaired) as a result of this fight:

…EJ had to go get repairs to his scalp.  Here’s the celebration following the final horn showing the aftermath (a 2-1 Avalanche victory):

That’s yucky.

And just when you think EJ’s face and head hadn’t suffered enough, here’s what happened two nights later at Madison Square Garden.  Kick him in the grill, Rick.

EJ was extremely lucky here.  That could have been so much worse.

I own several game worn Erik Johnson jerseys.  The elbows on this jersey are pretty trashed which is consistent with the other game worn EJ jerseys I’ve seen.  The dark mark above the right elbow as well as the multiple repairs make for an easy photo match.

Here is the damage and paint transfer on the left elbow.

Who doesn’t love patches?

And this patch inside the lower left side of the jersey makes everything official.

A big thank you to Vince Talavera for giving me the chance to add this jersey to my collection.  I’m obviously going take great care of it.  Vince is a friend and a true asset to the jersey collecting community.

Until the next AHP jersey post, take care and Let’s Go Avs.

Outdoor History: Blake Comeau, Stadium Series Game Worn Jersey

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On February 27, 2016, in front of a crowd of 50,095 fans, the Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club became the 22nd team to play in a regular season outdoor NHL game.  The Avs lost to the Detroit Red Wings 5-3, but it was still a lot of fun to be a part of some hockey history.  At no point in my hockey fan experience did I ever think that I would ever, at any time, watch a hockey at Coors Field.  It was an experience I will always remember.

Along with all if the obvious fanfare was, of course, the jerseys.  They were a special set of jerseys worn just for the game which included the traditional outdoor game extra large arm numbers (because the fans are seated so much further away from the action), a nice 5280 touch on the collars (a nod to Denver’s elevation, 5,280 feet, one mile above sea level (hence “The Mile High City”), and very cool patches.

The Red Wings and Avalanche wore three sets of jerseys during the game.  The set worn during the third period was kept by the players.  The second period set was eventually given to each team to do what they wanted to with them.  And the set worn during the first period was auctioned off, not long after the game, by our friends at The MeiGray Group.  At that moment though, no one was sure, including the Avalanche organization itself, whether the set from the second period was going to be auctioned off at any point.  (They eventually were auctioned off after the season ended.)  Due to the fact that this may have been the only set (at the time) that was going to be made available to the public, I had to go hard after a jersey.  So that’s exactly what I did.

Rewind to when the jerseys were listed for auction.  It was time to look for wear.  Those of you who know me and my collection well, that’s what I do.  I watched the first period of action in the game a handful of times looking for big collisions with the boards, rubs on the glass, slashes, and whatever else may lead to recognizable damage (also known as a photomatch.)  The best photomatch happened on the right arm number of Jarome Iginla’s jersey after he rubbed against the boards on the near side of the ice.  Unfortunately, his jersey was one of the five first period Avs jerseys which weren’t made available in the first auction.  The other unavailable jerseys included Erik Johnson, Francois Beauchemin, Nick Holden, and Nathan MacKinnon.  (Those five jerseys went to Upper Deck to make game used sports cards.  Don’t yell at me.  I don’t make the rules here.)

In a related note, Blake Comeau had the primary assist on Tyson Barrie’s first period goal.  It was a good hockey goal.

I didn’t originally notice anything too interesting about the goal until I saw a slow motion replay NBC played on the way to the first period intermission well after the goal.  Keep a close eye on the back of Comeau’s left shoulder just above the “C” on the name plate as he joins his teammates for hockey hugs.  (I needed to slow it down to frame-by-frame but you can see a mark for sure.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vf4lcInNRA&feature=youtu.be

It didn’t take me too long to figure out where that mark came from either.  It was left from the tape on the blade of Detroit defenseman Mike Green’s stick.  He clipped Comeau just prior to Comeau’s pass to Barrie.  Watch the original video of the goal (above) to see that.

Now I had a video match to a mark on a jersey I didn’t own yet.  Those are dangerous (for me) in auctions.  Safe to say things turned out just fine.

Here’s a closer look at the mark on the jersey near the nameplate (just above the “C”.)

And an even closer look.

I love this stuff.

So on top of being extremely fortunate enough to be at Coors Field for the historic Stadium Series game, I now have a piece of  history from the game in my collection.  I wouldn’t say I have one particular favorite jersey in my collection, but this one is definitely part of a handful of jerseys which I will not consider parting with anytime soon.