This year’s IIHF World Championship Tournament is going old school, if only for one game. Fifteen of the sixteen participating teams will play one preliminary round game with retro sweaters. The sweater each country will wear was selected from what they considered to be a significant year for their national team programs. Belarus is the only country not participating as they did not have a national team until its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
CANADA: Commemorating the inaugural Canada Cup, the sons of the Great White North will be sporting the split-leaf jersey from 1976. The retro sweater game is May 6th against the United States.
RUSSIA: This one could not have been an easy decision with the all the success the Russians have enjoyed. Fedorov, Ovechkin, and Semin will be rocking the red in the retro threads from 1956 commomorating Russia’s first Olympic gold. The sweater will be “modern retro” with Rossiya replacing CCCP. Since the 1956 Olympics were held in Italy, the retro sweater game will be on May 2nd versus Italy.
UNITED STATES: Naturally, the US is going back to the miracle on ice. Though it’s the first one in 1960 that occurred in Squaw Valley, California. The US game is on May 2nd with Latvia.
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Just a minor fact correction that I am sure you will get from others - the 1960 US Gold medal was won at Squaw Valley, CA. Other than that, keep up the great work on the blog.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Winter_Olympics
Give Squaw Valley some much needed credit. I was at those games and am certain they were not in New York. I have not stepped a foot in New York since 1942 and will never again!
@ ADR, you are absolutely correct. I got that mixed up with the 1932 winter games that was also held at Lake Placid.
@ Editor - fixed
Thanks for the corrections. (I was never good at history anyway)
So, where can one buy one of these?
@ Sovsport: Nowhere yet. The IIHF’s site is selling last year’s jersey designs in the 2008 IIHF Championship Store. I’ve requested more information regarding the retro-vintage designs but have not yet heard back.
I doubt you’ll hear back from them. The IIHF are not very… can’t find the right word…
Ha! Dmitry, let’s go with a polite word and say that they are not very *organized* — I’m sure you could think of a few other words that might not pass our comment standards.
What a nice, refreshing change from the hideous vertically striped socks at the last Olympics. If only they would just leave well enough alone.
My big question is: are these jerseys now made out of the ultra-futuristic EDGE uniform system so that they can charge more money for jerseys?
MulletMan-
I believe IIHF jerseys are Nike Pro Swift jerseys and not RBK EDGE…similar concept, but a different company.
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