Fabric of the Game by Chris Creamer

Author:Chris Creamer [Creamer, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683583851
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2020-10-21T23:00:00+00:00

On January 20, 1913, the Montreal Gazette reported that Ottawa would be asking the NHA to “force the Canadiens to discard their new sweaters of red, white and blue. The Ottawas have worn ‘barber poled’ uniforms for many years and until this season the Canadians wore loud red sweaters with blue and white trimmings. There was so much confusion when the teams first played at Montreal that the Canadiens went back to their old jerseys. Last night the Ottawas wore all white uniforms and Canadiens their ‘barber poles.’” Montréal adopted a new, alternate red sweater for games against Ottawa for the balance of the season.

Finally, in 1913–14, the Canadiens began to take on their now familiar form. A new crest was introduced, consisting of a large elongated “C,” with an “A” centred inside of it—again symbolizing the Club Athlétique Canadien designation. The sweater was red, and the crest was centred on a tall blue horizontal band, flanked by narrow white bands on top and bottom.

On March 10, 1916, the team was reincorporated as the Club de Hockey Canadien, a change that caused the “A” for “Athlétique” to be replaced by an “H” for “Hockey.” Though it’s been slightly revised over the ensuing century, this is the logo that the club still wears today.

There have been a couple of outlier sweaters along the way since, but examples are few and far between. On January 5, 1918, the team took the ice against Ottawa, clad in uniforms borrowed from the City League’s Hochelaga team, the result of a fire at the Westmount Arena. In 1924–25, Montréal deviated from their usual look for the entire season, sporting sweaters with a crest of a globe with “CHAMPIONS” arched across the bottom, a salute to the team’s Stanley Cup title of the previous season. The primary crest was relegated to the sleeves.

The most recent significant change to Montréal’s livery took place in 1935, when they adopted a white sweater, which was worn on the road at first, then used at home for games against the similarly red clad Detroit Red Wings.

When the Canadiens celebrated their centennial season in 2009– 10, they brought several of their NHA uniforms back for select games. These throwbacks returned the Habs to the very roots of the franchise, born in the lobby of Montréal’s Windsor Hotel in the waning days of the first decade of the twentieth century.

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