in case you didn't know: the new jerseys suck

in addition to being hideous looking, for the most part, (though, personally, i think the new oilers shirts are among the nicest in the league), the new super-high-tech-scientifically-crafted-outerwear-for-professional-hockey-players totally blows.

i won't regurgitate the ideas or comments, but you can read about 'em here and here.

it does take me back to the episode of hockey night in canada, where ron mclean and don cherry were yappin' about the new duds, and had a sample of the jerseys to show the viewers. cherry spills some water onto the fabric to demonstrate how well it 'wicks'. the unpredictable liquid doesn't get absorbed into the material, but instead runs quickly down the surface and (we're told later) pretty much ruins a laptop computer that was unfortunately in the water's path...

what i didn't think about then, but what seems so obvious now is that the water (standing in for hockey player sweat) would not be wicked, absorbed or otherwise removed from the hockey player but, instead, trapped between the miraculous fibre of the jersey and the hockey player himself. when they said the material absorbed 76% less water, uhhh.... where did they imagine that water would GO ???? like, duh. this would create very hot, uncomfortable, wet, tired, and presumeably unhappy dudes, where the insides of their skates and gloves (the 'pooling areas', if you will) would feel like they just went for a dip in the sea...

so what will the NHL do about it ? well, nothing of course. reebok is offering to make the jerseys in the old (perfectly good) fabric on a "player by player" basis. so, speak up boys. that sounds to me like approximately 600+ jerseys with personalized touches.

flames play the avs tonight. could go either way, so let's call it a draw after regulation at about 4 goals apiece. look for both lombardi and ryan smith to be held off the scoreboard, for no reason other than i have them in my pool.