PowerPlayGoal.com – Hockey From A Different Angle

The King is angry.

Very angry indeed.

Seriously, though: that is one pissed off looking King. Why is he so annoyed? Is it because someone dyed his beard purple for a laugh? Or is it because he has the old (at the time, also) LA Kings colours? Or is it because he was part of 1995-96’s wave of weird and not so wonderful third jerseys?

Known as ‘The Burger King’ by many, this logo appeared as the crest on LA’s attempt at an alternate jersey, which was white and had a curved silver (read: black-silver gradient) stripe going from the right shoulder to the middle of the left side of the jersey. The logo shown above was not put in its usual place of being in the middle, but instead it was moved to the left, right where the captain’s ‘C’ (or alternate captain’s ‘A’) would normally go, much like a logo/badge/whatever you want to call it on a soccer shirt. The captain’s letter was instead moved to the right.

Right, onto the logo: fine, I understand the yellow/gold coloured crown, and the angry face, but why is his hair purple anyway? As mentioned above, somebody probably dyed it that colour, explaining his angry face. Or perhaps he just refused to have a more ‘normal’ colour, like blonde (because it would’ve been more of a bright yellow), black (would clash with the shading), white (would’ve looked like Father Christmas/Santa Claus/whatever you want to call him), or silver/grey (would’ve made him look old), and so the King had to settle for purple, making him look quite stupid, and explaining why he’s pulling that face.

This third jersey thankfully only lasted for that one season it was introduced, and was retired at the end of the year. Today, however, a game worn Wayne Gretzky one of these jerseys is considered an extremely valuable collector’s item.

Welcome to The Definitive Fan – The new online guide from PowerPlayGoal.com to the types of fans who you’re likely to meet (or not meet) at a game.
Some of these fans clearly have a true passion for the game, others, well, they are just there for something to do.

Fan Type #1 – Mr Team Merchandise

Artists Impression of a “Mr Merchandise” like person

Bio:
Mr Team Merchandise is commonly found in a sports store, or frantically bidding away on eBay to have that latest pennant. When there are no more pennants left to buy, they will switch to buying huge wallposters, card cutouts of players or possibly models of players for their shelf at home. Occasionally, they will look at jerseys, possibly travelling up to 50 miles around their locale and may even consider buying a custom jersey. The reality is however, that this person has no intention of buying a jersey, or will pick up a fake one on ebay, as they clearly have no idea what the differences are.

This type of person has no real clue to the game, and just enjoys the idea of looking like they clearly support the team and enjoy the game, when really the last hockey game they ever saw was “That one between them two big teams, you know, Delaware and Plattsburgh…”

Characteristics:
No distinguishable ones, they seem to blend in.

Favourite Team:
With no allegiances, they are free to roam all 30 teams for fan gear, possibly even spreading to the AHL, and even to other sports such as Football.

Other:
Often found living with their mother well into their 40′s. Let’s face it, they spend all their income on fan gear.
What should you do if you ever meet a “Mr Team Merchandise”?
Don’t panic, simply buy them another pennant, or better still, ask them some questions about hockey, then kick ‘em in the balls for wasting your time.

I’m KevKev, and this is PowerPlayGoal.com