St. Louis Blues' 3rd jersey features Arch, leaves out trumpets

Yahoo! Sports

Fri Sep 19 11:02am EDT

St. Louis Blues' 3rd jersey features Arch, leaves out trumpets

There may not be a team in the NHL with the feast-or-famine third jersey history that the St. Louis Blues have. Consider that this franchise once had a third jersey so popular that it became the team's home sweater in the following season; yet it also had the infamous alternate sweater (below left), which was so loathed by then-coach Mike Keenan that he banned the team from wearing it.

Fortunately, it sounds like the Blues have come a long way from their horny fashion disaster. Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch took a sneak peek at the new duds, and relays the details of the new St. Louis sweaters that will be unveiled this weekend at the team's FANFest:

The jersey is Navy blue with a circular logo on front. In the logo is a silver-stitched Arch with the Blue Note positioned inside the legs of the famous St. Louis monument. Above the circle, it reads "ST. LOUIS" and below it "BLUES."
... Upon further exploration, I noticed that the Blues' new jersey (which will be worn at least 15 times this season) has the old-school draw-strings near the neck with white numbers, trimmed in Navy blue and gold. There is also a Blue Note crest on the shoulder of the jersey.

Rutherford reports that Blues owner Dave Checketts insisted on the Arch being a part of the sweater, which is a complete insult to the real iconic landmark in St. Louis: The International Bowling Hall of Fame, where I had the chance to put my hands on Earl Anthony's balls.

He also writes that the Blues "toyed with the idea of powder blue." Chris from Icethetics reminds us that the Atlanta Thrashers and the Pittsburgh Penguins are also wearing powder blue this season. It's like half the NHL wants to dress like the Oakland Raiders and the other half wants to look like a fabric softener commercial.

Only point of concern: The words on the Blues' jersey. Hopefully "St. Louis" and "Blues" are incorporated well into the logo, and not stamped on the sweater like the word "Vancouver" on those regrettable Canucks jerseys.

This Blues jersey was correctly described in the initial leak of details earlier this summer. So far, these new NHL third jerseys have ranged from unnecessary to slightly above average. But we've yet to have one that reaches the heights of absurdity like the Blues' trumpets or the Ducks' infamous "Wild Wing" sweater. We're counting on you yet again, LA Kings.