It’s time for a new jersey post: 2004 World Cup of Hockey

As you can see, the sleeves feature the logos of all the countries participating. Notice the glare on the main chest logo? That’s because it’s not a patch, but more like an iron-on. It’s a high quality iron-on, but I don’t know how durable it’s going to be.
After I bought it, the arena (Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn) sold out. I got one of the last ones there. Of course, you could buy them from most places like River City Sports, but I still got pretty lucky.

What’s that scribbling on the sleeve:

That’s from Buzz Schneider, member of the Miracle on Ice 1980 Olympic team. Stupid of me not to have him sign it around the USA logo. I didn’t know enough about him at the time, because I am an idiot. Really nice guy.
This is from a less nice guy:

Yep, that’s from Brett Hull. I got that outside the hotel, just passing by, and there he was. We had stayed at the same hotel as the players for the first few games, then moved somewhere cheaper for the rest. Leaving town, after USA had be eliminated, after Hull had been benched, after he said he didn’t give a f**k about the fans, I nailed him. I went up to him, started to ask for the sig, and he took the jersey, signed it, and gave it back, not even acknowledging my presence. I told him it was too bad the way things worked out, and left. You can see what washings have done to his signature, but Buzz’s is left untouched. That is not just a perfect analogy, but a reminder: Bring a Rub-A-Dub Sharpie to the game.

The World Cup of Hockey was one of the most fun trips I ever took. My girlfriend and I bought our first hockey cards, ate sushi with Gary Thorne (nicest guy in the world), drank around Robert Esche, and had a great vacation. Next came the lockout, so it was the last hockey played at that level for a while. I’m lucky to have gone.

To me, it’s sad they are discontinuing the World Cup of Hockey (or Canada Cup, if you prefer). It’s the perfect world stage, the NHL gets some needed money, it’s off season, so the teams get to practice together, and recover from injury, and doesn’t scrunch up the regular season. How cool was it to have games in Europe and North America? All your favorite players, with a chance to play as a team, with time to become a team, what more could you want?

Bring back the World Cup. We need it.

For photos from my WCH trip, look at the rest of the post.  Click below…

First thing we saw. I love this picture, so it gets the large treatment:

Game 1 warm ups from our seats:

 

 A little fuzzy, but look at the puck:

 

Who’s that?

 

Who you pulling for?

From sushi after the game:

Watching Team Canada at the bar:

Hey, Robert, the pucks the other way:

 

That’s all for now.