Stastny's Taped Captain "C"


Above is the cover for the NHL Goal Magazine from February 1983. Quebec Nordique, Peter Stastny is shown proudly displaying the captain "C" , but the problem is Stastny did not take over the Quebec captaincy until 20 games into the 1985/86 campaign when captain Mario Marois was traded to Winnipeg.

                                   
Here is a Hockey Digest from around the exact same time showing Statsny with a C. This one as well as the Goal Magazine photo show what appears to be a letter C applied to his jersey using only white hockey tape. The closeup of the first picture below clearly shows it as a rather poorly looking tape-job. Why would an NHL player have a taped-on C as is done in mens beer-leagues or kids minor hockey?


There is an obvious explanation for the temporary feel to Stastny captaincy in February 1983. Just a month before during a game against the touring Soviet National team, captain Mario Marois suffered a broken leg. He would be out for the rest of the 1982/83 season, but remained as official team captain. Hockey-reference.com lists only Marois as captain for this season. Statsny was presumably merely the acting captain for on-ice purposes from January 1983 through the end of the season.

The Stastny hockey cards that us kids were collecting during this 1982/83 season propose a slightly different problem. These also show Stastny with an improvised taped-on C but these photos would have to have been taken during the 1981/82 campaign. What gives here?


Once again I turn to hockey-reference.com. For 81/82, they have the Nordiques captains listed as Andre Dupont for 60 games and Robbie Ftorek for 19 games. Was Stastny given the temporary captaincy for one game after Ftorek was dealt to the Rangers before Dupont was chosen? If so, the hockey card company caught a photo of this one game. I have no other explanation.

The next two seasons saw Stastny pictured properly without a captain C, and only in 1986/87 (picturing the 85/86 season) does Stastny finally have an official C on his jersey after the Marois trade.



Below is a Stastny game-used jersey from 1986 with the real C sewn to it, not taped on.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Denman Arena, Vancouver - "The Pile"

Image
Situated at the corner of Denman and Georgia Streets in Vancouver, sitting on the shore of Coal Harbour, the Denman Arena was once the largest in the world. Built in 1911 by Frank and Lester Patrick at a cost of $300,000 it was the main venue for their newly formed Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Until the Montreal Forum was built in 1926, it was the largest artificial ice arena in the world seating 10,500. Constructed of wood and brick, the large brick facing led Vancouverites to refer to it as The Pile. The Patrick brothers simultaneously built the 3,500 seat Patrick Arena in Victoria to help house their three team league which also included New Westminster. They would proceed to raid the established National Hockey Association of much of it’s top talent to stock their teams. The Pile would host the Vancouver Millionaires Stanley Cup championship in March, 1915, boxing matches featuring Max Baer and “Cinderella Man” James Braddock, movie star Rudolph Valentino as well as bicycle r
Read more