“Last year’s game was a lifetime memory and I couldn’t wait to call this year’s game at Wrigely,” said Emrick. “I’m extremely disappointed but I know Dave will do a wonderful job.”

To this, I say THANK GOD.

Mike Emrick is easily the worst hockey announcer ever. He’s like hockey’s equivalent of Joe Buck. How these two clowns reached the top of their profession is beyond me, but if I had to rank all of the NHL’s announcers, Emrick would be in the bottom five.

Yes, I think the Bruins’ Jack Edwards is better. Because he IS!

So it was very exciting to here the news about Emrick. Strader’s not exactly one of my favorites either, but he’s a definite improvement — he will make it listenable this year…

That is, until this past Black Friday.

I didn’t actually intend to buy anything — haven’t even really been looking, actually, but this year’s MeiGray Black Friday Sale was too good to pass up.

I added 6 jerseys to my collection last week.

Yeah, six. Four from MeiGray and two from fellow collector Anthony Grasso.

It began as I perused the forum on Friday morning. Right there up top, the very first listing was “Game worn NCAA for sale”…

Having been on the lookout for Quinnipiac University jerseys semi-actively, off and on, for about a year now with very little success (I only have one), I nearly fell out of my chair to see that Anthony had three QU Bobcat home jerseys listed!

THREE! My first instinct was to email him and purchase all three, but I restrained myself and ended up selecting a Dan Lefort and Chris Myers jersey, both of which were thankfully still available.

As is usual — I’ve dealt with Anthony once before in the past — the jerseys are in my possession already. He’s that quick.

Later that day, I couldn’t help but read the details of MeiGray’s Black Friday sale — you know, if he plays, he’s 50% off.

I immediately made out a list of the players that I was interested in.

As luck would have it, my first two choices were healthy scratches. Bummer.

But my list was long… I had more than a few to fall back on…

In the end, the first jersey I settled on was aFedor Tyutin jersey. He played for the Columbus Blue Jackets on Black Friday.

It’s a 2003-04 Hartford Wolf Pack set 1 home jersey, making it the jersey Tyutin wore in his North American pro debut. It’s also a jersey that I believe I’ll be able to photomatch from a photo I took while I worked for the team.

I’m also expecting it to show a nameplate change as at the very start of the season, Tyutin’s name was spelled Tjutin. We’ll see.

The second jersey I selected was a Jamie Lundmark jersey. He dressed for the Quad City Flames on Black Friday.

It’s a 2004-05 Hartford Wolf Pack set 2 road jersey. This one will be photomatched 100% to numerous photos I took during the playoff series against the Lowell Lock Monsters. Looking forward to posting it when it arrives.

The third jersey I purchased was an Andrew Hutchinson jersey. He suited up for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Black Friday and then on Sunday he was traded to the Dallas Stars.

That jersey is a 2007-08 Hartford Wolf Pack set 2 home jersey. I wanted this one because it was the first jersey he wore as captain of the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Many think Hutchinson was the third captain of the Wolf Pack, behind Ken Gernander and Craig Weller (two players of which I also own their first Wolf Pack captain jerseys), but during the John Paddock era, both Derek Armstrong and Terry Virtue wore the ‘C’ in Gernander’s absence.

Casual fans tend to forget stuff like that. Diehards too. Team photographers, well, they remember an awful lot…

This jersey should also be a simple photomatch to photos I took during final home game of the season.

The fourth and final jersey is a Pascal Morency jersey. He played a few shifts for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Black Friday.

This one is a 2007-08 Bridgeport Sound Tigers set 1 road jersey. This one doesn’t really fit my Hartford theme…

I should hate Bridgeport, but have ever seen this guy play?

Wow. I haven’t seen a player bring this much energy into a building since P.J. Stock’s rookie season with the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Unfortunately, Morency doesn’t have the scoring touch that Stock had. Yeah, you might wonder what offensive ability P.J. Stock had, but in the AHL he had some upside in the offensive zone. No, really…

But that aside, while Morency may never make the NHL, he’s easily one of the most entertaining hockey players I’ve seen in the past 20 years. It’s a shame he has a bit of an injury bug…

This is the game worn 1991-92 road Belleville Bulls jersey of center Brent Gretzky.

Gretzky, the younger brother of Wayne Gretzky, was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third round, 49th overall, in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft.

Though he didn’t achieve the NHL success of his older brother, skating in just 13 NHL games, he had a very successful minor league career before retiring after the 2005-06 season.

This jersey is a size 52 Maska ultrafil manufactured by CCM. It shows light wear, with some nice board burns on the shoulders and some stick marks around the hem and cuffs.

All of the logos, numbers, and the assistant captain’s “A” are sewn on. The ultrafil nameplate is all sewn as well. Along the hem, the CHL logo and CCM brand are embroidered.

Inside, along the side seam is the large Maska tag often found in jerseys from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. It’s possible that this is actually a 1990-91 jersey.

I acquired this jersey on January 16, 2006 from Curtis Hall.

This jersey doesn’t really fit into my collection, as Brent Gretzky never played for a team based out of Hartford (he did play one season out of Danbury, CT), but who wouldn’t want a game worn Gretzky in the collection?

This is the game worn 2007-08 home Hartford Wolf Pack jersey of center Artem Anisimov.

Anisimov was selected by the New York Rangers in the second round, 54th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

The skilled 19-year old made his North American professional debut skating for the Hartford Wolf Pack on October 6, 2007 in this jersey.

Due to the bungled Rbk Edge jersey rollout, many teams in the American Hockey League were forced to wear 2006-07 airknits for the first few games of the season.

The Wolf Pack played just one regular season home game in this set before switching to the Rbk Edge style for the duration of 2007-08 season.

Considering it is a one game wonder, Anisimov spent the entire pre-season with the Rangers, it shows considerable wear on the sleeves.

Light stick marks and board burns litter the cuffs and the sleeves. There is also one light mark across the front hem.

The jersey is a size 56 and is an airknit with mesh underarms identical to those used during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 season. The numbers are a Rangers shadow style and do not match any other home jersey the Wolf Pack have ever worn with navy on white on red.

The nameplate is airknit and the name has been screened on. Everything else is sewn.

The jersey has been photo matched to numerous photos taken on opening night.

I originally acquired this jersey on November 29, 2007 in an AHL/Meigray auction.

This is the game worn 2006-07 road Yaroslavl Lokomotiv jersey of center Artem Anisimov.

Anisimov was selected by the New York Rangers in the second round, 54th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

A skilled stickhandler, Anisimov played his first North American season in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack as a 19-year old. After a slow start, though he skated with the NY Rangers for the entire pre-season, Anisimov put together an impressive rookie season scoring 16 goals and 27 assists in 74 games played.

During the season, he also represented Russia at the 2008 World Junior Championships in late December.

It would not be surprising to see him make his NHL debut on Broadway during the 2008-09 season.

This jersey is a size 54 airknit and mesh jersey manufactured by Kait Sport. All logos and numbers are sublimated. The name is also sublimated. The sponsor patches on the shoulders are sewn.

Overall, the jersey shows light wear, most of which is on the sleeves. There is no fight strap.

I acquired this jersey on March 16, 2008 from Galina Bondarenko.

This jersey is in my collection because Artem Anisimov played for the Hartford Wolf Pack during the 2007-08 season.

This is a game worn home Hartford Whalers jersey from the 1980’s of right wing Scott Young.

Scott Young was drafted eleventh overall by the Hartford Whalers in the 1986 NHL Entry Draft behind players Jimmy Carson, Zarley Zalapski, and Jocelyn Lemieux who would also eventually spend time with the Whalers. Of those players, though, Young would have the longest and most successful NHL career.

Many NHL fans tend to forget that Scott YOung began his long NHL career in Hartford. Prior to “sticking” with the St. Louis Blues, Young bounced from Hartford to Pittsburgh (for Rob Brown), then to Quebec, which moved to Colorado where he was dealt to Anaheim. From there, he signed with the St. Louis Blues spending 4 seasons there before heading to Dallas.

For his final season in 2005-06, he returned to the St. Louis Blues.

Based on the lack of the NHL’s 75th Annoversary patch, this jersey is from either the 1988-89 or 1989-90 season.

The jersey is a Maska airknit manufactured by CCM that I originally acquired from another collector in 1997.

There is no size printed or penned in on the tag. Young’s number 27 is written on it in black sharpie.

Name, numbers, and crest are all sewn. There is no nameplate, the letters are individually sewn on directly. The rear CCM hem pattern is white-white-white, with blue lettering, and is embroidered.

Inside, the fightstrap shows some fraying and the velcro is filled with green thread from the green pants the team wore at the time.

The exterior of the jersey shows tons of wear. Board burns, repairs, and thick stick marks litter the entire jersey.

There are some easily identifiable black marks across the front crest as well as the back numbers, but to date, I haven’t found a photo match though I’ve no doubt one will turn up sooner or later. As luck would have it, most of the time the photos on hockey cards were not taken in Hartford, so the Whale are almost always in their road greens in the photos.

This is a game worn yellow Hartford Wolf Pack Practice jersey.

This size 56 knit jersey is manufactured by Bauer. Bauer supplied the Wolf Pack with jerseys from 1997 through 2000. The Wolf Pack have re-used these Bauer jerseys in practice and training camp since that time.

In practice, the Wolf Pack have traditionally worn 6 different color jerseys. There would be four forward lines — one in red, one in royal blue, one in green, and one in yellow. Defenseman always wore navy blue. Goaltenders would wear black. Those coming off of injury, not yet signed, or not expected to play would wear white.

In recent years, the numbers applied to practice jerseys — of late, manufactured by SP and Rbk — have been seemingly random and would be more easily associated with football linebackers.

I’ve also seen the same player wear a different number (or no number at all) numerous times, but back when the Bauer jerseys came in, they all (for the most part) matched up to the player’s game jersey.

During the Wolf Pack’s Bauer era, from 1997-2000, the only player to wear number 20 was P.J. Stock.

Jordan Owens is pictured in this jersey from a practice in October of 2007 — his game jersey was actually number 46 during the 2007-08 season.

The jersey shows numerous board burns but not heavy wear as it was only used in practice and during training camp scrimmages. There is some staining around the collar. The crest is sewn on and is identical to the game jersey crest of that time.

The number is a thick black heat seal — not the type that will ever peel. Bauer’s “B” logo is sewn (not embroidered) to the front and the back hem features a large satin material Bauer patch as well. There is a fight strap.

I acquired this jersey direct from the Hartford Wolf Pack on May 31, 2008.

This is the game worn 2004-06 home Quinnipiac University Bobcats jersey of winger Mark Van Vliet.

Prior to transferring to the NCAA Division III Neumann College Knights for the 2006-07 season, Mark Van Vliet began his college career at Division I Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.

As a freshman in 2004-05, Van Vliet skated in 34 games, scoring 6 goals and adding 13 assists.  For his sophomore season, he skated in 28 games, again scoring 6 goals but only netting 5 assists in a more limited role.

This size 52 home jersey is manufactured by SP, though the back of the neck features an ironed on ITECH logo. The jersey is a knit material except for the maroon striping, which is an airknit material.

The crest and numbers are all sewn on, as is the knit nameplate. There are no holes or repairs on the jersey, but it does show considerable wear — it would never be mistaken for as new.

As pointed out by another collector, this jersey was worn during the 2004-05 season and the 2005-06 season. The evidence of an oval Atlantic Hockey patch having been removed is apparent from the inside. On top of it, the rectangular ECAC patch is sewn on. Quinnipiac University joined the ECAC for the 2005-06 season.

I acquired this jersey on May 31, 2008 from Ryan Johnson. It was originally in the collection of James Hein.

The Atlantic Allstars are an elite AAA youth hockey tournament team based out of Cromwell, Connecticut. Coaches for the team have included NHLers Bob Crawford and Yvon Corriveau.

Ryan Haggerty played forward for the 1993 team during the Spring and Summer of 2007 following the regular season where he played in the Mid-Fairfield Youth Hockey program.

This road jersey shows light wear with some board burns on the sleeves. It is a size large black, white, red, and navy airknit manufactured by AthleticKnit. The lace from the lace-up collar has been removed. The eyelets are metal. There is no fight strap.

The embroidered front crest and tackle twill shoulder stars are sewn on. The remaining sleeve stars, numbers, and name are screened on with a heavy duty material.

I acquired this jersey in April of 2008 from Kevin Nizolek via eBay.

While the jersey may not appear to fit into my collection, I really wanted to add one because I personally designed the team logo with suggestions from the team administrators back in November of 2005.

Paul Brousseau was selected by the Quebec Nordiques in the second round, 28th overall in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft.

Brousseau began his major junior career as a member of the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in 1989-90 as a 16-year-old. IN 57 games during his rookie year he scored 17 goals and 41 points. The following year he played in Trois Rivieres with the Draveurs, scoring 30 goals and 96 points in 67 games. In 1991-92, Brousseau was sent to the Hull Olympiques where he once again scored 96 points, albeit in ten fewer games. During his final year of junior with the Olympiques, he finished the year with 75 points on 27 goals and 48 assists in 59 games.

In 1993-94, Brousseau turned pro and joined the Cornwall Aces of the AHL, the affiliate of the Nordiques. In 69 games he scored 18 goals and 44 points.

This jersey is from the strike shortened 1994-95 season and shows very light wear — perhaps used during the abbreviated pre-season as Brousseau did not play an NHL game that season.

It is a size 56 knit jersey manufactured by CCM. All logos and numbers are sewn. The name is sewn to a knit nameplate.

Brousseau’s chance at the NHL came in the 1995-96 season when he suited up for eight games with the Colorado Avalanche. During that stint he scored his one and only NHL goal. The next season, he joined the Tampa Bay Lightning and played a total of 17 games for the Lightning over two years.

In 2000-01, he led the AHL’s Louisville Panthers in scoring as also played one game for the Florida Panthers before deciding to head to Europe for the remainder of his hockey career.

I acquired this jersey in January of 2007 from Pete Mehdradeh who had originally purchased it from Murf Denny. While this jersey doesn’t fit my “Hartford” theme, I’d always wanted an all-sewn Quebec Nordiques jersey.