The Letang jersey tuck is no more!
Personal opinion: jersey tucks were cool, they were unique, it made certain players stand out on the ice.
Reported by SportingNews:
PITTSBURGH — Kris Letang’s given rationale for tucking his jersey into his back pad was simple enough — and it had nothing to do with Wayne Gretzky. Or, according to him, aesthetics at all.
“It’s because my jersey’s too big,” the Pittsburgh Penguins All-Star defenseman said on Monday at Consol Energy Center. Forget for a second that he’s listed at 6-0, 201 pounds.
“We have to actually alter all the jerseys now, since we’re not allowed,” Letang said. “You play when you’re comfortable, and obviously when I have my jersey down to my hip, it kind of bugs me, so I always have to put it in my pants.”
Those days are over, though. The NHL plans to enforce equipment rules more stringently this season. The main goal is to prevent exposed skin along the arms and legs, but as noted by the CBC’s Elliotte Friedman, the league’s logic is that if it enforces one uniform-related rule, it has to enforce them all. So, goodbye jersey tucks.
That logic, Friedman wrote, was galvanized at least a bit by the Capitals’ series against the New York Rangers, “when each team was more than happy to point out each other’s uniform faults.”
Of course, another fix would be to explicitly allow jersey tucks, but the league took another route.
“This was a GM’s initiative,” NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Kris King told Friedman. “Some of them (general managers) came to us last year and said they didn’t like where it was going.”
Now, it’s gone in the other direction—and the league’s foremost jersey-tucker doesn’t like it.
“They think it can be dangerous for somebody. I think it’s kind of stupid,” Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin told the Washington Post. “If I’m going to put jersey normally, I’m going to skate and it (flies) back.”
Letang is less concerned.
“I don’t think it’ll change anything,” he said. “It’s just gonna be a pain for the trainers.”
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