St. Louis Blues Make Right Choice But With Wrong Jersey

The St. Louis Blues brought back two familiar things from the 1990’s when they unveiled their commemorative jerseys. Unfortunately, only one was a welcome surprise.

Call me a regular Nostradamus. In the article published about Jake Allen‘s new mask, it was pondered whether the trumpets on the mask were a hint as to the team’s commemorative jersey.

In the end, whether the mask was a hint or not, the jersey ended up being just what we thought it would be. However, even more surprising, the Blues went with a blast from the past video to present the jersey and we got a welcome surprise.

With part of their marketing being appealing to fans who came out of the 1990’s, the Blues brought back former play-by-play voice Ken Wilson. At first, I wondered if it could actually be him since the “divorce” between he and the Blues was very contentious after 20 years in the booth. Yet, his voice was unmistakable and the team likely could not use his name if it was simply an impressionist.

It was a really nice touch and a big surprise, even if only for 30 seconds or so. Wilson was the reason I got into broadcasting.

So as great as Chris Kerber is and as good as John Kelly is, Wilson will always be the voice of the Blues for me, the same way so many say Dan Kelly was the voice of the Blues for them. I have no illusions that Wilson will be utilized in any further capacity, but it does my soul good to think the two sides are on good terms again and you can watch it below.

To be honest, the video is just about perfect. It’s got everything from the Reading Rainbow theme song to those awful, yet wonderful Becky’s Carpet and Tile commercials on there. It was the Wilson voiceover that was the real kicker though.

As far as the jersey goes, to paraphrase a line from Tropic Thunder, the Blues went full 90’s. Never go full 90’s.

Don’t get me wrong. I have less wrong with the style of the jersey than most since I was coming into my own as a hockey fan while the team was wearing these.

You had some special names wear this style of jersey too. Curtis Joseph, Brett Hull, Al MacInnis, Chris Pronger, Brendan Shanahan, Wayne Gretzky, Grant Fuhr and more all suited up in this trippy, blast from the past.

However, if you wanted to use red, I would have gone with the style worn just before this one where there is only some red piping used to trim the outlines. If you had to use blue, go with a more classic style.

If you wanted to use this particular 1990’s style they went with, go with the white one. That one had a clean look to it and still had the trumpet logo on the shoulders and the musical staff on the bottom, but the red did not stand out quite so shockingly.

The white one, pictured above, is a sharp looking jersey. The blue one…well, I just don’t know.

As a kid, I kind of liked it. Much of that had to do with being from that time period and the players that were wearing it.

As I grew up, I let some of the hate for those jerseys seep in. Now, I’m kind of in this weird middle ground where the nostalgia is still deep, but there’s just so much red.

But, if we are to believe the players’ words and think they are not part of the marketing, they seem to like it.

“I’ve been wanting to wear this for a long time. That was a fun era,” Alexander Steen told stlouisblues.com. “I love the design, I think it’s awesome. I grew up in this era, so it’s a little more nostalgic for me. I remember Gretzky coming to Winnipeg in this jersey. That team the Blues had in the 90’s, that’s what I see when I see this jersey.”

The funny thing is how different the blue note looks now. My mom still wears my old blue and red jersey to games, but other than the more rounded wingtips, I never noticed how straight the note stem was compared to today’s logo.

Overall, these are fine. Deep down, we knew this was coming.

The Blues are only going to wear them three times during the season too, which makes it interesting whether that will spike sales or keep them low. Regardless of what we think of the sweater itself, I’m still enjoying the video package they put together for it. I’ll go watch it a few more times while the internet decides.