Canada’s juniors win gold but need to lose the black jerseys

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/08/2022 (984 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a quirk of fate that one of the most exciting gold medal World Junior finals ever played, was contested in the dog days of summer.

Canada’s overtime win over Finland was an instant classic. Even though the tournament will forever need an asterisk beside it in the record books due to Russia – a perennial contender to win it all – being banned because of its illegal and immoral war in Ukraine, Team Canada’s victory was a joy to behold.

For those of us hockey fans who are old enough to remember a time – not that long ago – when Canada had to rely on intimidation and aggression to be successful at the world juniors, it’s a thing of beauty and national pride to watch Canada win gold due to their speed, finesse, skill and creativity.

Canada didn’t need an unconscious goaltender to stop 60 plus shots and steal a game we had no right winning; nor did it need to throw a more talented opposition team off its game with aggression and violence. No, Team Canada won on pure skill.

Even if Finland had won gold, it’s evident that the days of Canadian junior hockey players having less talent than their international counterparts are mercifully long gone.

Now about those awful black jerseys.

It’s high time Canada stops using black jerseys in international hockey, whether it’s at the world juniors, the Olympics, the women’s worlds or the men’s worlds, for the simple yet profound reason that those black jerseys do not represent Canada.

Simply put, there is no black on our national flag; ergo, there should never be any black on any of our jerseys. Period.

Our crack research staff at As I See It cannot find any other country on earth that wears jerseys with colours that don’t appear on their national flag. Doesn’t matter what the team sport is – volleyball, hockey, basketball, you name it – no other nation adorns jerseys with “foreign” colours. None.

Can you picture the U.S. or Russia or Sweden or Finland wearing jerseys with a colour scheme that did not in any way relate to their national flag?

Maybe it’s a fashion statement. Maybe it’s intended to make us look tough. Hockey fans that are old enough will remember the horrific jerseys that the Vancouver Canucks had when they changed from their trademark blue and green to a super aggressive black jersey with an array of orange V’s on the chest.

At the time it was thought the black would strike fear in the eyes of their opponents and make the Canucks appear tough.

It didn’t work then and it certainly doesn’t work now.

The request – and the solution – is simple. Use only white and red when designing Team Canada jerseys. Be creative, be unique, think outside the box, but do so utilizing the only two colours on our flag.

There was a stretch a few years ago when Hockey Canada had a bit of green and orange on Team Canada’s jerseys. Again, those colours do not appear on our flag.

Colours not on our flag have no business being on our national jerseys. A team representing Canada should wear only the red and white colours on our flag.

So hats off to all the members of Team Canada and their impressive performance in Edmonton. Now ditch the ugly black jerseys.