The Avs Hockey Podcast

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

The Old Switch-er-oo

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Paul Stastny’s rookie year in 2006-2007 provided jersey collectors with a rare opportunity.  When he switched jersey numbers during the first half of the season he gave “jersey heads” like me  twice as many options when it came to making rookie jerseys.

Early in the season his jersey looked like this:

About 25 games into the ’06-’07 season he made a number switch and his jersey ended up looking like this, and it still does:

I covered the story behind the entire number switch with John-Michael Liles in a previous post on my site found here.

These two jerseys are blank authentics that I had lettered into Stastnys.  In this Avalanche jersey era, during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons, fans had three styles of jerseys to get customized: the white, the burgundy, and the alternate.  Since Stastny decided to switch numbers this gave fans six options instead of the normal three options to have jerseys made.  Since this is a rookie jersey it makes things even more fun and interesting.

So when people come up to me and ask, “What’s going on with your Stastny jersey?  He never wore number 62.”  I am more than prepared with an explanation for them.  And if other collectors choose to get a number 62 Stastny rookie jersey in any of the three versions available at the time, they will have a few things too: a pretty cool jersey, the respect of knowledgeable and die-hard Avalanche fans, and an explanation for the people that ask you about your jersey.  How can anyone possibly go wrong with those options?

The Challenge Is On…

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The Moser Golf Challenge Part 2 is scheduled for Friday, August 13, 2010.  It will include yours truly and another Avs fan on Twitter taking on the radio voice of the Avalanche, Marc Moser, and his partner, Kyle Keefe, from Altitude Sports and Entertainment.  We’re not sure of the format, but we are sure of the time and the location.

Moser made part two of his golf challenge official on August 9 at 1:45 PM with this harmless tweet.  (By the way, I’m @AvsHkyPodcast and my partner, Arbon Reimer, is @RhymeswCarbon.)

It’s official. Next Moser golf challenge is officially this Friday as Kyle Keefe and I take on ——> @AvsHkyPodcast @RhymeswCarbon

And then things quickly turned ugly with this tweet posted by Moser, one minute later, on August 9 at 1:46 PM:

Mark it down on your calendars…this will forever be known as the day that —-> @AvsHkyPodcast @RhymeswCarbon quit the game of golf.

I only have one question when it comes to a statement as bold as that, does this look like the face of someone who’s capable of ending someone’s golf career?

Image courtesy of the 2000-2001 Colorado Avalanche Media Guide.  “The Mose” is lookin’ pretty darn serious.

My partner Arbon put it best in his tweet posted on August 9 at 1:54 PM.  Moser is @avalancheradio on Twitter.

@avalancheradio : Marc picked the right business: he has a face for radio.

Enough said.  I’ll let you guys know how things go on Friday afternoon.  I’m looking forward to it and I’m sure we’re going to have a great time.  Talk to you later.

Bates Battaglia and the Mystery Patch

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If any Avalanche fans blinked late in the 2002-2003 season or very early in the 2003-2004 season they might have missed Bates Battaglia’s stay here in the Mile High City.  24 games total isn’t a long time to spend with a franchise, but that was the length of Battaglia’s tenure for the Avalanche.  Battaglia arrived in Denver late in the 2002-2003 season when the Avs sent Radim Vrbata to the Canes in exchange for Battaglia.  In 13 games played during the regular season Battaglia had one goal and five assists.  He also added two assists in the seven playoff games the Avalanche played in that post season.  Then, after one assist in four games played in the 2003-2004 season, Battaglia was traded to the Washington Capitals as part of the deal that brought current assistant coach Steve Konowalchuk to the Avalanche.  This late season arrival and early season departure led to extra Avalanche jerseys that were never used in games, and many of you should know by now where those end up.  (***Small hint—In my closet.)

Here is an old style alternate jersey that was made for Bates Battaglia to wear during the 2003-2004 season.

And here is a dark jersey that was made for Battaglia to wear during the 2002-2003 season.

When I received these jerseys (I bought them from the same seller at the same time on eBay) everything looked fine.  The name or the numbers look a little off center on both of them, but that’s just your eyes playing tricks on you.  Fours tend to do that on jerseys.  They seemingly throw everything off on the back of a jersey, especially when the number on the back is 41 or 44.  It’s just one of those things.  If you look hard enough, you will see that everything is pretty much centered.

The thing that did stick out was on the dark 2002-2003 jersey.  As I checked it out I ran across this on the inside of the neck tag.

It’s a piece of solid black nylon twill and it’s sewn all the way through the Koho tag on the back of the neck.

I had never seen this modification on an Avalanche jersey and decided to ask around and see if anyone had any idea what it was.  The seller told me that the Avalanche did this to all of their game issued jerseys from that season.  I wasn’t sure about that at all.  I’ve seen a ton of Avs jerseys over the years, and, as I said before, I had never seen anything like this.  No one else has really had a good guess that made sense as to what the patch is all about.

So the patch remains and the mystery grows.  It adds to the story behind the jersey, but it’s tough not knowing exactly what’s going on with the black mystery patch.  I guess it makes it easier to write a post about it, but having the real story would be really nice too.  I’ll continue to check around and see what I can come up with.  If I hear anything solid I’ll let you guys know!

Andrew Brunette 2005-2006 Playoff Worn Jersey: Clutch

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Playoff overtime goals are kind of a big deal.  Ask any Avalanche fan about Joe Sakic’s heroics throughout the years.  His eight overtime game winning goals in the playoffs are a record for a career and that’s two more than the next player in NHL history.  That’s why Sakic’s name and the word clutch end up in the same sentence so often.

The Avalanche had another clutch player that played here in Denver for a few seasons and his name was Andrew Brunette.  He has two playoff game winners that I can easily remember off the top of my head.  Here’s one.  (Avalanche fans, I apologize in advance for bringing back memories like the one in the video below.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxQDR1AXRqY[/youtube]

That was April 22, 2003, game seven of the Stanley Cup Quarterfinals against the Minnesota Wild, otherwise known as Patrick Roy’s final game in the NHL.  And as my man Forrest Gump would say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Fast forward through the 2003-2004 season and the 2004-2005 season that didn’t exist because of the strike and Andrew Brunette is now a member of the Colorado Avalanche.  Brunette played in all 82 regular season games for the Avs that season and recorded 24 goals and 39 assists for a strong season of 63 points.  He finished third on the team in points for the regular season behind Joe Sakic (87 points) and Alex Tanguay (78 points.)  The Avs entered the playoffs as a seven seed and played the second seed Dallas Stars in the first round.  The series went five games.  The Avalanche won three of those games in overtime including the fifth and deciding game at 13:55 of the first overtime period.  Andrew Brunette scored the series clinching goal and he was wearing this jersey while he did it.

Just before the shot…

(Photo courtesy of AP/USA Today)

Just after the shot…

(AP Photo/ Donna McWilliam)

This video will show you how to get to the highlights of game five through the Avs’ main site.  The embed functions on the highlight page aren’t working like they should, so we’ll go the long way.  Just open up another window and follow my lead!  Game five was on April 30, 2006, just for reference.

The Avs were swept by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the next round so this was the final time that Avalanche fans were able to celebrate a win that playoff season.

Now let’s get to the jersey specifics.  It has a patch.  That’s always a good thing in my book.  Just adds to the story.

This jersey is what collectors like to call hammered.  In non-jersey collector terms that simply means that it’s very easy to tell that it was used during a game.  Here are a few pics that detail that game use.

Right sleeve:

Left sleeve:

The back left side of the jersey.  Sticks marks all over the place.  I especially like the one just left of the “B” in Brunette.  It continues on to the nameplate.

Here’s the front of the jersey which includes a mark on the Avalanche crest.

And check out the mark/burn/snot just below the “5” on the left sleeve.

That mark looks very similar to the mark that’s on my alternate that Brunette wore during the same season.  I still haven’t figured out how marks like that get on a jersey, but I do know they add some character and that’s a good thing.  The rest of the marks are from sticks and pucks.  Holes are always a nice touch too.  The evidence of game use represents the way Brunette plays the game as well.  He’s never been afraid to enter those high traffic areas on the ice and pay the price to make things happen.  I’ve always respected that about Bruno.  He was a pleasure to watch when he played here for sure.

So overall it’s pretty clear what Andrew Brunette does in the Stanley Cup playoffs, he prefers to score series-ending overtime goals.  I remember one of those goals like it was yesterday.  As far as that other goal, me, along with pretty much any other long-term Avalanche fan, we’re just trying to forget that one.  I’m obviously very happy that I now have the actual jersey from the good memory in my collection.