Big news out of DC, where the Capitals have called up winger Ivan Miroshnichenko. He’s expected to make his NHL debut tonight, when the Caps host the Islanders.
Miroshnichenko’s 14-letter surname ties him with John Brackenborough, who played seven games for the Bruins in the 1925-26 season, for the longest single-word last name in NHL history. But Brackenborough played in the NNOB era, so the NOB on Miroshnichenko’s sweater tonight will set a new league record. (The current record of 13 letters is jointly held by Jamie Langenbrunner and John Vanbiesbrouck.)
Miroshnichenko appeared in a few preseason games this year. Here’s how his NOB looked:
And here’s how it’s looked on some of the other uniforms he’s worn:
While Miroshnichenko is poised to set the mark for single-word surnames, there have been longer NOBs with compound surnames. Bruins center Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, for example, had 17 letters plus a space:
There have been NHL players with similarly prodigious compound surnames, but they wore simplified NOBs. For example, Thrashers left wing Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman (18 letters plus a hyphen) just wore “Smotherman” on his jersey. And journeyman left wing Pierre-Luc Létourneau-Leblond (17 letters plus a hyphen) just wore “Leblond.”
(My thanks to John Gagosian for letting me know about Miroshnichenko’s call-up by the Caps.)
Thank God former Celtic footballer Jonathan Vennegoor of Hesselink didn’t choose the skating sport ….
My favourite thing about his name is that “of” means “or” in Dutch!
That is correct. His surname is the only example containing this ‘of’ that I know in the Netherlands. We also have the fantastic surname Harinxma thoe Slooten, where thoe means til or until.
Both NOBs look really great! Smart of the Bruins to go condensed.
But unlike Van Biesbrouck and Reijo Routsalienen, he doesn’t have all of the vowels in his last name.
Pretty incredible how “normal” such long names look on these uniforms!
How come so many baseball teams seem to struggle getting long names to look good? Is it the smaller jerseys?
Hockey jerseys have to fit over pads, so they’re wider — more space for more letters.
Are football jerseys part of the player’s pads in the NFL?
Are they glued together?
When the player gets dressed to play, is it a one shot thing or lace up pads then jersey?
Are NHL jerseys attached to their pads as well?
So many unanswered questions after all these years = still one of life’s most unsolved mysteries.
Love it.
Seasons Greetings everyone.
By the way, I’m old enough to remember this greeting (Seasons Greetings) painted just beyond the blue line in NHL rinks during the 80’s-90’s.
So festive.
It’s the new manufacturers who are to blame. Before Majestic and Nike, most NOB teams had a thinner font for long-named players. Look at the ’86 Mets and you’ll see Darryl Strawberry with it every time. Oakland even got a super-condensed version for Eric Stuckenschneider, though I don’t think he ever got into a ML game. These days athletes with long names like Pete Crow-Armstrong and Dee Strange-Gordon have to go on the field looking like clowns.
I never paid attention before, but the tailoring that makes stripes near the bottom hemline appear curving looks terrible.
An Adidas thing. We’ll see if Fanatics retains it next season.
Condensing the lettering is the way to go, indeed. Also when the NOB is arching.