Gearing Up Musically

We're into September, and that means training camps open in just a few weeks! With autumn approaching and soon turning to winter, the colder weather will drive more people indoors for hockey and, undoubtedly, concerts as arenas prepare for another busy season. With musicians rolling through arenas, you know there will be a lot of artists going home with hockey jerseys in their respective wardrobes, so HBIC is back with another collection of musicians in hockey jerseys! Let's get right into this because there have been a pile of new additions from this summer and beyond!

If you haven't see the full list yet, click this link to be taken to the full list I have compiled thus far. There are a ton of names on there, and currently Taylor Swift seems to have collected the most hockey jerseys for simply playing a concert in various cities. However, one country star is making a serious push in today's look at musicians in hockey jerseys!

We've seen Drake on this list before as he's worn some throwback NHL All-Star jerseys, but he's been pretty focused on basketball and the Toronto Raptors as of late. He's drawn a pile of attention to himself with this Meek Mill feud and the rumours of him dating Serena Williams, but Drake has shown allegiance to an NHL team. Would you believe it wasn't the Toronto Maple Leafs? In fact, Drake has worn the colours of the San Jose Sharks!

The Sex Pistols aren't interested in the mainstream. They haven't won any major awards, they certainly aren't interested in producing cookie-cutter music, and they definitely don't care about what society thinks of them. Hey, they're the Sex Pistols, right? Consider me shocked to see a picture of the Sex Pistols' lead singer Johnny Rotten in a Dallas Stars jersey!

Shania Twain is currently embarking on a tour across North America, and we know she's a hockey fan from her many hockey looks that she's worn before. The Canadian songstress has also represented teams south of the border, and Twain was representing the Florida Panthers while in south Florida on her last world tour!

You probably know Ariel Winter better as Alex Dunphy from the TV show Modern Family, but she's also an accomplished singer! Ariel has been in TV in some form since the age of six, and the 17 year-old has put together quite the resumé at her young age. One of the cooler things she can say she's done? How about anthem singer for the New Jersey Devils? Yeah, she's good.

The St. Louis Blues have been stepping up their jersey-donations-to-musicians lately. They've brought in Eric Church, Garth Brooks, and recently snagged another high-profile artist. Hes still very British and loves his football, but Ed Sheeran has been adapting to North American fans and concerts on his last tour. Included in that tour was a stop in St. Louis where he received a Blues jersey!

The Replacements are considered to be one of the pioneers in punk rock. The Minneapolis-formed band has pretty much shrugged off labels and the mainstream to garner one of the largest followings since their founding in 1979. They have broken up and gotten back together a couple of times, most recently in 2012 for a reunion concert that took them through Toronto, Ontario. So what did lead singer Paul Westerberg show up in for the concert? A Montreal Canadiens jersey! Nice trolling, Paul!

It's always nice to find a band who is from a successful hockey market who supports a different successful hockey market just because they're playing a show in the latter city. Weezer, who hails from Los Angeles, was playing a show in Chicago and decided to don the colours of the Chicago Blackhawks. I'm not sure how the Kings feel about Weezer showing support for their Western Conference rivals, but that's show biz, right?

For every up, there's a down, though. Justin Bieber touching the Stanley Cup while standing on the carpet logo in the Blackhawks' dressing room with his jersey hanging in the background. Oi vay. Carrying on....

Pina coladas, margueritas, beaches, and tropical life isn't where you'd normally find hockey or hockey jerseys, but Jimmy Buffett played Chicago on a recent tour, and he was joined by a certain Blackhawk on-stage with the Stanley Cup! So what did any guest at the United Center do? He donned Chicago colours! Yes it's not a jersey, but where are we going to see Jimmy Buffett in a hockey jersey?

Wait, he has a jersey? Damn. Not to be outdone by their Central Divsion rivals from the Windy City, the Minnesota Wild took it upon themselves to one-up what the Blackhawks did. Jimmy Buffett played the Xcel Energy Center, and he was given his own Minnesota Wild jersey complete with a Hawaiian theme! Why haven't the Wild used these in a game yet? They look good!

Edmonton has a few artists that have represented the Oilers on-stage, but they've been stepping up their game recently in handing out more jerseys. I guess Daryl Katz can afford to give a few jerseys away with all that public funding going to his new rink. In any case, Brett Kissel rolled through Rexall Centre recently, and he got on the Oilers bandwagon by donning the orange-and-blue!

While I know it was done for an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Taylor Swift and her pal Jimmy donned Islanders colours for a sketch. Jimmy, as we know, loves impersonating various singers, but he's definitely a comedian. Taylor, on the other hand, is a musicians first before anything else despite her comedic chops, so while she didn't don the jersey like Fallon did, she certainly wore enough Islanders gear to qualify as supporting the team.

Carrie Underwood, as you may know, is married to Mike Fisher. Mike plays for the Nashville Predators, has played for the Ottawa Senators, and he's a Canadian, so Carrie has been seen in a Predators jersey, a Senators jersey, and a Team Canada jersey. So it was a little random to find Miss Underwood in a Tri-City Storm jersey! The Tri-City Storm play out of Kearney, Nebraska in the Western Conference of the USHL, and they boast former alumni Jaden Schwartz as their best player. So how is Carrie Underwood involved? No idea, to be honest, but she's wearing the jersey! Huge thanks to Jennifer for grabbing that picture with Miss Underwood, and for asking her to wear the jersey!

Avril Lavigne has never officially tossed her support behind any team by wearing their clothes, and it would probably hurt her punk credibility if she did. Born in Napanee, Ontario, she had her choice of the Senators or the Maple Leafs for local NHL teams to support, but she's held her cards to her chest. However, Lavigne's older brother played hockey, and that led he to wanting to play hockey as well! She played until she was 16 in the area, and she's played in a few charity hockey games! Here is Miss Lavigne in her Napanee minor hockey uniform as a youngster!

Ed Sheeran makes a second appearance today as he's starting to get into this hockey craze around the globe? Case in point? We saw him above with his own St. Louis Blues jersey, and here he is wearing the jersey of the Hull Stingrays of the Elite Ice Hockey League in England! Asof June 24, 2015, the website for the Stingrays stated that the team was in liquidation as they had been taken over by their Elite League rivals in the Coventry Blaze who took Hull's place in the EIHL. As of right now, the Stingrays website is offline. Looks like the Stingrays are no more.

Eric Church's The Outsiders World Tour has taken him many places. We saw him in St. Louis accepting a jersey, and now we have him in Chicago accepting one. The only catch? It's not the Blackhawks who offered him a jersey in their arena. It was the AHL's Chicago Wolves who gave him his own jersey as his tour took him through Allstate Arena! Looks like the Blackhawks missed out on a celebrity fan!

I'll be honest when I say I know nothing about Domo. Not the gas station chain in Canada, the rapper. Dominique Marquis Cole is better known by his stage name, Domo Genesis, and he got his start in Los Angeles, California. He's released a couple of albums and done some collaborative work with other rappers, but his name hasn't popped up on my radar ever. In saying that, though, he might be someone I need to keep an eye on as he's worn an IHL Detroit Vipers jersey on occasion! Wow!

Finally, we're going to look at a guy who may have half the NHL covered at this point and is seriously giving Taylor Swift a run for most hockey jerseys by a musician. Ok, he's actually not that close to Miss Swift, but he's slowly creeping up as he tours across North America. Keith Urban has appeared four times on the list already - Nashville, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg - as he collects jerseys, and we're going to add two more jerseys to his collection this time out. First, we'll toss in a Boston Bruins jersey for the country singer, and we'll add a brand-new Edmonton Oilers alternate jersey as the first musician to officially wear the new orange Oilers jersey! Looking good, Mr. Urban!

So there are a pile more musicians in hockey jerseys and gear. As always, feel free to send me any pictures you may find of artists in hockey jerseys to this email address! Just make sure you check the list first!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!