2000-01 Nashville Predators Tomas Vokoun Jersey

With the 2010-11 NHL season kicking off today in Finland when the Carolina Hurricanes meet the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, we take a look back at the opening game of the 2000-01 season when the Nashville Predators played against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Tokyo, Japan.

This would be the third and final time that the NHL would open it's season in Japan. 1997 saw the Vancouver Canucks split a pair of games against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the first ever regular season games to count in the standing played outside of North America, while 1998 saw the Calgary Flames take on the San Jose Sharks.

On this day in 2000, the Penguins and the Predators took to the ice in front of 13,849 fans at the Saitama Super Arena.

Jan Hrdina got Pittsburgh's lone goal while Cliff Ronning, Vitali Yachmenev and Scott Walker scored for Nashville with Yachmenev getting the second goal and credit for the game winner. Predators goaltender Mike Dunham got the win for Nashville by stopping 25 of the 26 Penguins shots. Jean-Sebastian Aubin took the loss in the nets for Pittsburgh even though he made 30 saves on 32 shots, with the third Nashville goal into an empty net.

The NHL would continue to play some exhibition games in Europe following the final game in Japan the next day, when the Penguins turned the tables and won by the same 3-1 score. The Colorado Avalanche played a game in Sweden against Brynas in 2001 and the Toronto Maple Leafs went to both Sweden and Finland in 2003 for games against Djurgardens IF, Farjestads BK and Jokerit of Helsinki.

The games would not count in the standings again until the current NHL Premiere series began when the Anaheim Ducks would play the Los Angeles Kings in London, England's 02 Arena to kick off the 2007-08 season with a pair of games.

In 2008-09 with the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins played in Stockholm, Sweden while the New York Rangers squared off against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Prauge, Czech Republic.

The NHL Premiere series returned to Europe in 2009-10 as the Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers faced off in Helsinki and the Detroit Red Wings took on the St. Louis Blues in Stockholm.

Of note, both the Penguins in 2009 and the Blackhawks in 2010 would go on to win that season's Stanley Cup after starting their seasons in Europe.

This year the schedule of games has expanded, with six clubs making the trip over, beginning with today's game between the Wild and Hurricanes in Helsinki at 12 noon on TSN in Canada and Versus in the United States. On Friday, October 9th the Wild and Hurricanes will play their second of two games at noon prior to the Columbus Blue Jackets meeting the San Jose Sharks in Stockholm at 3 PM, with both games again on TSN and Versus. The Blue Jackets and Sharks meet again on the 9th at 3 PM (on the CBC in Canada and the NHL Network in the US) following the Phoenix Coyotes first game against the Boston Bruins in Prague on TSN and Versus. Boston and Phoenix wrap up the European schedule with a second game in Prague on Sunday, October 10th at 10 AM on the NHL Network in both Canada and the US. (all times Eastern).

Today's featured jersey is a 2000-01 Nashville Predators Tomas Vokoun jersey as worn in Tokyo, Japan for the Game ONe Japan series in 2000.

Aside from the games played in London, all the remaining regular season games played overseas since the first ones in 1997 have featured a special patch worn on the participating teams jerseys.

Our video section today features two clips of the Mighty Ducks and Kings beginning the current NHL Premiere series of games in Europe to start the 2007-08 season.

2002-03 Nashville Predators Tomas Vokoun Jersey

Today the Curious, Weird and Ugly™ Collection features yet another alternate jersey, which raised the question, "Is "alternate" Latin for hideous?"

First unveiled for the 2001-02 season, this Nashville Predators alternate jersey generated swift, outspoken reaction to just about every feature of the jersey, from the unusual squared neckline, the "untucked dress shirt" rear tail, both the borderline cartoonish new main crest and the secondary fossilized skull logo, neither of which appeared on the home and away jerseys at the time, and the unique double layered fabric of the body of the jersey.

But drawing the most reaction, of course, was the unexplainable choice of the strange and repulsive mustard color of the jersey, which has been compared to, among other things, puss, vomit, urine and baby poop!

Most of the successful alternate jerseys simply promoted a teams third color to the main color for it's alternate, such as the Chicago Blackhawks did with their black jerseys, but Nashville instead tried to reinvent the wheel, coming up with a new jersey cut, carried over no logos from the primary jerseys and made the new alternate not only a color not found in their existing color palette, but picked perhaps the most horrid color ever used on a professional sports team's jersey to compound the problem.

Not only was the color of the jersey unique in the NHL, the jersey fabric was as well. It used a mustard colored top mesh layer over a solid dark blue layer, which shows through the holes in the mesh of the mustard layer, making an already muted color appear even darker and muddier.

The jersey was used through the 2006-07 season and did influence the home and away jerseys, to some degree, as it's secondary fossilized skull logos were transferred to the shoulders of primary jerseys for the 2005-06 season, replacing the original design used since the team's inception.

The only patch worn on this jersey was the Nashville Predators 5th Anniversary patch in 2002-03 as shown below.

We classify this jersey as "Ugly" due to the awkward neckline, overly detailed primary logo, strange fabric construction and horrendous color choice. If your jersey is conjures up repeated comparisons to various unpleasant bodily fluids, you have an ugly jersey on your hands.

Here are a pair of videos that seem to suggest that the Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars hate the Predators alternate jerseys as much as we do.