Blades sport Brier-inspired jersey
Brett Stovin knows this is the closest he’ll get to trading in sticks and pucks for brooms and rocks.
The Saskatoon Blades will don special curling uniforms for their game on Saturday, leaving the team’s rookie fourth-liner to conjure up memories of his days on the ice without skates.
Stovin tried the sport as part of a high-school gym course in Stony Mountain, Man., but could never quite come to grips with it.
“When you’d try to throw a stone, you can’t get too low,” the 17-yearold said. “We’re used to being on the ice on our little blades but, once you get on there with shoes, it’s way different. Guys were falling all over the place.”
Luckily for Stovin, he can now look a little more like a curler but still focus on hockey.
The white Blades sweaters will feature a stylized B in the middle, their current logo on the side, and one shoulder patch with a broom, rock and hockey stick, and the other with the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier emblem.
The Blades take on the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday in what is their final game at the Credit Union Centre before of the Brier begins March 3.
Scott Manners and his Team Saskatchewan rink also will be on hand to drop the puck and sign autographs.
Blades director of sales Michael Scissons designed the sweater and socks.
His original plans called for a more flashy jersey, while having the hockey pants and socks sport a checkered pattern similar to what the Norwegian curlers wore at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
But after the Blades suited up in jean jacket-style sweaters in November 2010 in anticipation of the PBR Canadian Cup National Finals, Scissons decided to tone down the design.
“We had the opportunity to go way out there like we did with the rodeo jerseys,” he said. “We didn’t want to seem like we were doing a jersey just to create attention.”
Much like last November when the Blades wore Saskatoon Quakers retro jerseys, the Brier replicas will be auctioned off to raise money for charity.
The proceeds will go to Curl Saskatoon, which supports the city’s four curling clubs: CN, Granite, Nutana and Sutherland.
“We left that up to the Brier,” Scissons said. “It’s a local project that makes sense.”
The new Blades’ duds will help out the community, but they won’t aid Stovin in any curling capacity though.
The skip-turned-right-winger may have stopped playing Canada’s other ice sport, but at least he’ll get to remember it one more time.
“It’s just memories of the guys back home and having fun and mucking around,” Stovin said. “We learned that it’s actually a hard sport to play.
“It’s my favourite jersey right now. I’m really looking forward to wearing it.”