1997-98 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Teemu Selanne Jersey

With the kickoff of the NHL season in Europe now an annual event, this year with games in Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden and the NHL's first trip to Berlin, Germany, it seems appropriate to feature a jersey worn during the first ever regular season games played outside of North America.

While there is a history of teams playing exhibition or pre-season games, primarily in Europe with one previous instance of games in Japan, for the games to actually count in the regular season standings was something entirely new.

Dubbed NHL Game ONe '97, the NHL season opened on October 3rd and 4th, 1997 with a pair of games held in Tokyo, Japan between the Vancouver Canucks and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

The sold out games were held in the Yoyogi Arena and were part of nearly a week's worth of events which led up to the games, designed to raise the Japanese public's awareness of hockey and increase their interest in the upcoming Winter Olympics, to be held just four months later in Nagano, Japan, which would feature the first wholesale participation of NHL players who were normally unavailable to compete in the Olympics which are held during the middle of the NHL season.

The first game took place on October 3rd, and was won by the Vancouver Canucks and their new captain Mark Messier by a score of 3-2. On a jersey related note, this was the first regular season game for the Canucks new jerseys which featured the Orca logo and their new color scheme featuring blue, which replaced their familiar black and yellow colors.

Scott Walker had the distinction of scoring the first regular season goal outside of North America to open the scoring in the first period, beating the Mighty Ducks goaltender Guy Herbert.

Anaheim evened the score on a goal by Scott Young before Vancouver tied the game on scores from Mark Messier and Pavel Bure. Shawn Antoski got the game winner at 17:22 of the second and the teams played a scoreless third. Kirk McLean got the win and made 32 saves in front of a crowed of 10,500.

Anaheim, designated the home team for the second contest, took the opportunity to debut today's featured jersey, their new white alternates.

Teemu Selanne opened the scoring at 7:42 of the first, only to be equalled by Bure at 15:37.

Tomas Sandstrom would put the Mighty Ducks back in front at 5:19 on the power play but Trevor Linden would respond with a power play goal of his own at 18:01 to tie the score at 2-2 heading into the third.

J. J. Daigneault of the Mighty Ducks would get the game winning goal at 13:38 of the third from Sandstrom and Selanne, which was Selanne's second assist of the game to give him points on all three Anaheim goals. Mikhail Shtalenkov got the win for the Mighty Ducks with 25 saves, including holding off a late Vancouver 6-on-4 advantage, as the Canucks were given a power play and then pulled their goaltender McLean for an extra skater.

The NHL would again return to Japan to open the season with a pair of games in 1998 between the Calgary Flames (who also debuted their new black alternates) and San Jose Sharks and 2000 when the Nashville Predators took on the Pittsburgh Penguins. The league would not venture overseas to open the season again until 2007 for a pair of games in London. Dubbed "NHL Premiere 2007", which were the first regular season games ever held in Europe and featured the renamed Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings.

2008-09 began with two games in Prague in the Czech Republic, where the New York Rangers swept two from the Tampa Bay Lightning, and another pair in Stockholm which were split by the Ottawa Senators and the Penguins.

The NHL returned to Europe in 2009-10 to again play four games, two in Helsinki split by the Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers and again for a pair in Stockholm where the St. Louis Blues swept the Detroit Red Wings.

The NHL Premiere concept was expanded in 2010-11 to three cities for the first time. The Carolina Hurricanes took a pair from the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, The Columbus Blue Jackets split their two games in Stockholm while future Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins spilt their series with the Phoenix Coyotes in Prague.

While three cities will once again host games to start the 2011-12 season, the format has been altered. October 7th sees the Ducks playing the Buffalo Sabres in Helsinki as the Kings and Rangers face off in Stockholm. The next day, the Kings and Sabres both travel to Berlin while the Ducks will face the awaiting Rangers in Stockholm's second game. With the addition of the Sabres this season, 19 teams will have now taken part in games outside of North America.

Today's featured jersey is a Starter 1997-98 Mighty Ducks of Anahiem alternate Teemu Selanne jersey as worn on October 4, 1997. This jersey features the NHL Game ONe '97 patch, worn by both the Mighty Ducks and Canucks for their two-game series in Tokyo, Japan to open the 1997-98 NHL season.

This was the debut for the Mighty Ducks new white home alternate, which would also be joined by a jade green version of this jersey used as a road alternate, giving them four jerseys to pick from throughout the 1997-98 season.

No chance to ever find any video of the games in Japan I'm afraid, so let's go off the board with these two commercials featuring Teemu from his native Finland for a change of pace.

Teemu says: "This is my thing. This is what I'm good at."

1992-93 Winnipeg Jets Teemu Selanne Jersey

During the fledgling Buffalo Sabres inaugural season of 1970-71, their first ever draft pick Gilbert Perreault scored a goal during the Sabres first ever game on October 10, 1970. He went on to lead the club in scoring that season with 38 goals and 34 assists for 72 points. Perreault's 38 goals established a new NHL rookie scoring record and earned him the 1971 Calder Trophy.

Gilbert Perreault

Perreault would not hold the record long, as it would be broken the very next season by the Sabres next first round draft pick, Rick Martin. Teamed with Perreault and Rene Robert, the trio formed the explosive "French Connection" line. While Robert would not arrive until later in the season via a trade, Martin and Perreault found instant chemistry which carried throughout the entire season. With Perreault's playmaking abilities paired with a good finisher in Martin, their sats for the season were a virtual mirror image of each other, as Perreault scored 26 goals and 48 assists while Martin had an identical 74 points, but with 44 goals and 30 assists. Martin's 39th goal on February 19, 1972 broke Perreault's rookie scoring record and during the remaining 19 games, Martin raised the record to 44.

Rick Martin

Martin's record fell on February 25, 1978 when the New York Islanders first round pick in the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft, Mike Bossy, scored the 45th goal of his rookie campaign. Playing on a line with center Bryan Trottier and rugged left winger Clark Gilles, the trio finished 1-3-4 in team scoring. While Trottier led the team with 123 points, it was Bossy who benefited from Trottier's playmaking to break the rookie goal scoring record. Similar to Martin, Bossy still had 20 games remaining after breaking the record and proceeded to elevate the record up to 53, which was second in the NHL that season. Like, Perreault, Bossy was also the winner of the Calder Trophy.

Mike Bossy

Bossy's record would endure for 15 seasons, including surviving Joe Neiuwendyk's rookie total of 51 in 1987-88, until it was broken on this date in 1993 by Finnish sensation Teemu Selanne, who scored a hat trick for his his 52nd, record tying 53rd and record breaking 54th goal of the year at home against the Quebec Nordiques.

Teemu Selanne

Like those before him, Selanne was not content to simply eclipse the record, as he simply destroyed Bossy's mark of 53 as he pushed the mark into the stratosphere with a final total of 76, which tied for the league lead in goals with fourth year player Alexander Mogilny, earning Selanne a Calder Trophy like Perreault and Bossy before him.

In addition to his 76 goals, Selanne totaled 132 points to set a rookie point scoring record as well. He and Mogilny became only the second and third European players to lead the league in goals as the became members of an exclusive club of only eight men to have ever scored 70 or more goals.

Today's featured jersey is a 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets Teemu Selanne jersey. While Selanne had hoped to wear #8, it was already in use by Randy Carlyle, who would later coach Selanne in Anaheim, necessitating Selanne to wear his second choice of #13 during his rookie season. Following Carlyle's departure from Winnipeg, Selanne would switch to #8.

During the 1992-93 season, all players would wear the Stanley Cup Centennial patch on the right chest of their jerseys. Exceptions were the New York Rangers, who wore the patch on their right shoulders, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, who did not wear the patch on their new black road jerseys, both due to their diagonal cresting.

The only other oddity was that of the Winnipeg Jets. While they did wear the patch all season in the expected location, during the latter half of the season the patches worn by the Jets did not have the same bold white outline as all the other clubs.

This determination of the borderless patch being worn in the latter half of the season is corroborated by all pictures of Selanne with the assistant captain's "A", earned later in the season, being paired with the borderless patch.

The Jets would adopt a new jersey style upon entering the NHL in 1979 and wear it through 1989-90 until changing to today's featured style, which was worn through the remainder of their time in Winnipeg.

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Today's video section recalls the night Selanne broke Mike Bossy's 15 year old record in front of the rabid Jets fans in Winnipeg, including his memorable celebration following the record setting goal.

For further viewing, we recommend Teemu Selanne - The New Boss Parts 1, 2 & 3 about his arrival on the NHL scene, essentially the long version of the first entry in today's video section.

1998-99 Mighty Ducks of Anahiem Teemu Selanne Jersey

On this date in 1998, the NHL Board of Governors announced the creation of the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy to be awarded to the NHL's leading goal scorer every season.

While Richard never won the Art Ross Trophy as the leading point scorer during his career, he did lead the league in goal scoring on five occasions, was the first player in NHL history to score 500 goals and captured the attention of the hockey world when he became the first player to ever score 50 goals in 50 games.

Maurice Richard with the trophy named in his honor

The trophy, donated by his former club the Montreal Canadiens, was first awarded to Teemu Selanne of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, whose 47 goals were three more than his closest pursuers. 1998-99 would actually be the third time Selanne would lead the league in goal scoring, having scored an amazing 76 goals as a rookie in 1992-93 and topped the league the year before with 52. Selanne had also previously won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year following his record-shattering rookie campaign and later added the Masterton Trophy in 2006.

Pavel Bure, then of the Florida Panthers, took home the award the following two seasons with first a dominating 58 goals, 14 more than anyone else, in 1999-2000 and retained the award with 59 goals the following season.

The Calgary Flames Jarome Iginla won his first Richard Trophy after scoring 52 goals to win the goal scoring title by 11. He was followed by the Colorado Avlanche's Milan Hejduk's 50 goals in 2002-03.

The league-wide emphasis on defensive play, the tolerance of obstruction combined with the increasing size of goaltender equipment reached it's peak in 2003-04 when the league leaders in goals were limited to 41 goals, the lowest winning total in the 12 year history of the award.

Three players shared the award that season, Iginla for the second time, Russian Ilya Kovalchuk of the Atlanta Thrashers as well as the 19 year old Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Rick Nash and Jarome Iginla accept their award in 2004

Following the NHL lockout of 2004-05, rule changes were instituted to eliminate obstruction and limit the size of goalie gear and the resulting increase in goal scoring was immediate, with Jonathan Cheechoo of the San Jose Sharks benefitting from not only the new rules package, but the mid-season acquisition of playmaker Joe Thornton from the Boston Bruins, won the award with 56 goals, double his total of 28 in 2003-04.

Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning set a career high with 52 goals on his way to the goal scoring title in 2006-07 the year prior to the third Russian to win the award, the dynamic Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, who won back to back titles, first with 65 goals in 2007-08, the highest total since the inception of the Richard Trophy, and backed that up with 56 in 2008-09.

Most recently, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby broke through with his first title with 51, which he shared with the impressive second year player Steve Stamkos of the Lightning, who equalled Crosby's goal total of 51.

Today's featured jersey is a 1998-99 Mighty Ducks of Anahiem Teemu Selanne fourth jersey, as worn during the season Selanne's 47 goals won the inaugural Richard Trophy.

Third, or "alternate", jerseys were first introduced to the NHL in 1995-96, with the Mighty Ducks first alternate jersey being the disastrous "Wild Wing" jersey, abandoned after only six wearings. The Mighty Ducks reentered the alternate jersey program in 1997-98 with a white jersey (first worn during one of their opening pair of games in Japan) and for good measure produced today's featured jersey, a jade version of the white jersey. It was the first time in NHL history that a team had a fourth different jersey to pick from.

This jade fourth jersey was worn for just two seasons before being retired. Selanne was the NHL's leading goal scorer both of the two seasons this jersey was used, including winning the inaugural Rocket Richard Trophy in 1999.

Our video section today begins with a look at the legendary Rocket Richard.

Our next video is Alexander Ovechkin accepting his Richard Trophy in 2009.

Here is an interview with 2010 Richard Trophy winners Stamkos and Crosby.