Zero Imagination

The 2023 Heritage Classic between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers could have been one of those games everyone looked back on as an opportunity to really bring the hockey history forward. Both cities have rich hockey histories as they've been home to WHL, WHA, NHL, NWHL, U SPORTS, and a pile of other teams from various leagues over the ages. There's no shortage of opportunities to have an old-fashioned rivalry between the two major cities in Alberta, but, as seen above, we're seeing two different teams from two different eras being thrown together in one game.

I have zero issue with the teams selected by the Flames and Oilers in terms of the city's hockey histories as the Flames will wear a jersey based on the Calgary Stampeders who played in the city from 1938 to 1972 in various leagues while the Oilers will wear jerseys based on the 1952 Edmonton Mercurys who won the gold medal at the 1952 Oslo Olympics. Both are great selections in those cities' histories, and they probably should be honoured. But for a game that's about hockey history, I'd rather see the these two teams play in jerseys representing teams that actually faced one another historically!

Because the Oilers chose the 1952 Mercurys team, they've determined that's the year and era on which this heritage should be based. Being the home team in this Heritgae Classic, we'll give them that courtesy since they're playing host to the game, both teams, fans, and the NHL's corporate army. As you can see to the right, the Edmonton Mercurys sweaters have some rather unique features. The squared shoulder yoke, the number on the left sleeve only, the details on the logo - this could be a fun jersey to replicate with an Oilers twist to it if one got creative. After all, the Oilers have history too!

Instead, we're given this which, at first glance, seems like a fair recreation in the mould of the Oilers, but there are so many little details missing that it starts to look like a cheap knock-off jersey. The little folds that the Mercurys had in their ribbon below the logo? Gone. Not there on the Oilers' jersey. The chain-stitching that made the logo come alive? Missing. The Mercurys' logo with the '52 Olympics in it? Replaced with a dumb oil drop that will have the players' numbers in them. Why bother trying to represent a glorious sweater if you're going to simply mail in the effort, especially when the blank jerseys have a white drop on the front? Is this a "Got Milk" ad?

Kudos to the Oilers for putting the squared corners of th shoulder yoke on their jerseys and for only putting the TV numbers on the left arm which replicates those exact details from the Mercurys' sweaters. If the Oilers are skating left-to-right twice in the Heritage Classic, the announcers may quietly curse them for not having the right arm with a TV number, but accuracy counts in these jerseys. I like that they got this part correct, but there are still problems.

Compare the backs of the jerseys. It shouldn't be hard to determine which one looks better simply due to accoutrements.

If you're trying to tell me that Adidas and the NHL couldn't come up with a way to make the namebars similar to what the Mercurys wore, I'm not sure what to say. It's 2023 and we can't figure this stuff out? Yes, the maple leafs on each side of the name might be a little much, but literally any symbol of Edmonton could be added there - the city's coat of arms, the Oilers' everyday logo, or something else that would draw upon Edmonton's history. Again, the lack of imagination and creativity is baffling for a game of this magnitude.

The Flames, meanwhile, decided to honour the Calgary Stampeders who called the city home from 1938-72 and played in various leagues, but they decided to focus on the Stampeders from the 1950s and 1960s... which is confusing because they played in the amateur Western Canada Senior Hockey League in 1950-51, the minor-professional Pacific Coast Hockey League in 1951-52 (the season the Mercurys played in the amateur Western Intermediate League), the minor-professional Western Hockey League from 1952-63, and the amateur Alberta Senior Hockey League from 1963-71. In other words, at no time did the Stampeders and Mercurys ever play in the same league, so there's absolutely zero history between the two teams. There's never been a rule that NHL teams had to wear jerseys from the same era and/or league, but wouldn't the Battle of Alberta be better if they did?

Based on the uniform worn by the Stampeders while they played in the minor-pro Western Hockey League from 1952-63 as shown by Bill Burega to the left, the Flames changed these sweaters by altering the logo and hem striping, removing the forearm colouring, and adding the shoulder yoke. Basically, the Flames decided to honour the Stampeders by wearing uniforms that hardly resemble what Burega wore as a member of the Stampeders, so why are we talking about honouring a city's hockey heritage when no one seems interested in preserving that heritage? For a team that existed for 34 years in the southern Alberta city, the lack of respect shown to the sweater worn by the Stampeders during their minor-professional hockey days by the current professional hockey team is rather unbelievable to me.

What might be even more surprising is that the Stampeders had a link to Edmonton at this time. In 1952, the Stampeders and the Edmonton Flyers joined the Pacific Coast Hockey League which had been renamed as the Western Hockey League, and became the top professional league in Western Canada and the United States. At that point, the Stampeders agreed to become a minor-league affiliate of the Chicago Black Hawks in the NHL. The irony of this is that other teams in the WHL at that point included the Vancouver Canucks, the San Francisco/California Seals, the Phoenix Roadrunners, and the Denver Spurs - teams that would eventually land in the NHL or WHA.

If you wanted to double-down on the Stampeders-Flyers rivalry at this point, you could easily do that as well. The Edmonton Flyers won the WHL's championship in 1953, the Stampeders beat the Flyers in 1954 for the title, and the Flyers returned the favour by downing the Stampeders in the championship game in 1955. Edmonton would also add a championship in 1961-62 while the Stampeders would lose the championship final in both 1958 and 1959, but it seems pretty clear that both the Stampeders and Flyers were excellent teams throughout the first decade of play in the WHL. And yet the Flames and Oilers decided to leave this rivalry in the past.

I made this point above, but there's never been a rule that NHL teams had to wear jerseys from the same era and/or league. If we're honouring hockey history through the Heritage Classic games, though, there should be a much better effort given to the teams chosen and how the jerseys created to honour those teams look. It's hard for someone like me who loves the history of the game to look at this year's Heritage Classic and think "that's a good-looking hockey game" when neither team did a lot to convince me that they're honouring anyone but themselves.

Maybe that's today's NHL, though. The refusal by the NHL to recognize the WHA ever existed means that we were denied a Calgary Cowboys-Alberta Oilers game. The fact that the NHL still has yet to show any belief that women's hockey could be profitable means that we were denied a Calgary Oval X-treme-Edmonton Chimos game. And the fact that we're seeing no other teams being allowed to play on the Heritage Classic ice means we're denied a number of historical games from the two WHL teams and the four Canada West teams that call Calgary and Edmonton home.

For a billion-dollar league that loves the sound of people buying merchandise, it's going to be hard to convince someone like me who has a closet of jerseys to buy one of these Heritage Classic jerseys because every time I'll look at it, it will be a reminder that the NHL has zero imagination to enhance an already-exciting rivalry. Perhaps if they do sell a few jerseys, the NHL may want to start buying a clue on how to make outdoor games a little better through history and smart design.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!