The Canucks inducted former goalie Roberto Luongo into their Ring of Honor last night, and the festivities included some very nice visual elements, including the very nice pregame ice display shown above.
In addition, all Vancouver players wore pregame jerseys with Luongo’s NOB and No. 1 (the players autographed the jerseys, which will be auctioned off):
Those pregame jerseys also had an excellent Luongo patch:
The patch was not worn on the game jerseys, but players wore a rear-helmet decal with that same design during the game:
I really like that patch/decal design — very nice indeed.
It’s worth noting that some observers view Luongo’s Ring of Honor induction as a bit of a snub because they think the team should go the extra mile by retiring Luongo’s number. There’s some additional discussion here. I’m not taking sides in that debate — just noting it because it’s uni-relevant.
Do we know the reason the team couldn’t wear the patch during the game (yes, I realize the warmups all had LUONGO and “1” on the back, so the patch was specific to those)? Did they just choose not to or is this something the NHL forbids now?
Team choice, I’m pretty sure. Since they already have a jersey advertisement, the Luongo patch would look busy/messy with the “C” and “A” patches, which is probably why they went with the decal.
The debate about retiring the number is a tough one for the Canucks. Kirk McLean is already in the Ring of Honour. Both goalies wore no. 1 and had significant importance to the club in different eras. Luongo did have his number retired by the Panthers I believe.
Uniform-related, we picture McLean wearing the black, yellow, and salmon Skate uniform and Luongo wearing the blue and green. Though both goalies for brief periods in their Canucks careers wore the navy, dark red, silver, and light blue.
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Interestingly, Luongo punctuated his speech during the pre-game ceremony by saying “Free the skate logo,” echoing the rally cry of admirers of the emblem currently seen on Vancouver’s alternate sweaters. This despite the fact Luongo played during the Orca C period of the Canucks’ uniform history.
Remember when Luongo was the team captain but rules would not allow him to wear the “C” on ice? Here is Luongo and the Sedins last night posing with a Luongo jersey from the era featuring the “C”.
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I’m pretty sure most of the world – especially Canuckleheads – would really rather forget the navy blue Orca era, and the uniforms.
There were some good seasons during that time but regarding the look it is true. There is a constant struggle right now between Canucks fans that love classic blue and green and others that want the black skate colours back as primary. Nobody is fighting for a return of the navy blue look.
The struggle is the inevitable consequence of a team with such a muddled uniform history. Even ignoring the specialty uniforms and logos (Vancouver Millionaires, Johnny Canuck from the reverse retros), the Canucks have had three distinct colour schemes and four different jersey front treatments (the stick in a rink, the flying Vs, the skate logo and the Orca C)
I’m a big fan of that patch too with how it captures that skating motion, and the uni itself is on the patch, pretty cool.
In a strange coincidence, the Bruins also inducted Luongo into their ring of honor last night.
It is a wonderful logo indeed. Not a Canucks fan but I love all their uniforms and there are only a few NHL teams that fit that description for me: Wild, Kraken, Canucks, Canadiens and Blackhawks.