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Player Numbers


Topgun19

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With so many good jersey numbers available, I'm hoping management makes some players use traditional hockey numbers like 3-5-6-12-13-14-15-17-18-19-21-22-23-24-25-28-29-30-31. A team with so much tradition should not be using football numbers. Will Montreal retire the numbers 18-19-23-33. :hlogo:

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We do have players occupying some of those numbers but there's too many for me to think of each one. And I don't think there's a problem with using high numbers like 87, 44 or 96.

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I'm sorry, but that is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Management has no right to mandate what number a player wears, outside of retiring legendary numbers. The number on the back of your jersey becomes part of who you are, it's not something that should be assigned to you.

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Wrong.

Management has EVERY right to mandate what number a player wears? What's a player going to do, walk out if he doesn't get his pweshus widdle number? I think we saw where that got players over the last 12 months.

If the Senators can ban football numbers, why can't the Canadiens?

Team before individual, always.

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So maybe they're allowed but who cares? Why would they want to ban "football numbers"?

It's so pointless.:?-

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If it's pointless and nobody cares, then why do some of these players insist on having crazy numbers.

Football leagues in both countries have rules on what numbers you can wear based on position.

Why can't the NHL (grandfather Mario Lemieux in, nobody else, even Crosby) mandate that no skating player can have a number over 35?

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I wouldn't go that far, but in the past, high numbers were reserved for special players. Gretzky, Lemieux, Coffey, Bourque. Since all these guys are wearing them, it takes away the magic they once possessed. It looks like Crosby is special player and he should wear 87, but so does Donald Brashear.

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Why are high numbers crazyIn football, the numbers are categorized by position so it's easier on the refs; certain positions can do different things, obviously so this way the ref can see the number on the players back and determine if a law was broken.

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A league mandate is one thing, individual teams doing it is stupid. It's no different than the Cincinnati Reds owner a few years ago banning players from wearing facial hair. What right does the owner have to mandate such a thing?

Football number mandates at least make sense, so it's easier for the refs to keep track of players and make sure players are in a legal formation. There's no need for such a mandate in the NHL. There aren't 22 men on the ice. And even in the NFL there are excetions. Some LBs wear DL numbers, and some WR wear numbers in the teens.

Why should Andrei Markov be forced to wear a number other than 79? It doesn't make things hard on the ref. It doesn't hurt anybody at all. Who gives a crap if a guy wants to wear a high number?

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Originally posted by High&Inside

I wouldn't go that far, but in the past, high numbers were reserved for special players.  Gretzky, Lemieux, Coffey, Bourque.  Since all these guys are wearing them, it takes away the magic they once possessed.  It looks like Crosby is special player and he should wear 87, but so does Donald Brashear.

So what if Crosby turns out not to be special? Does his number get taken away from him. Or when he gets older and his skills fade, do they take away his number and give him a lower one?

Personally I think Montreal should retire #12 Yvan Cournoyer (10 stanley Cups), #19 Larry Robinson (atleast 6 stanley cups and 2 norris trophies), and #33 Patrick Roy.

Although I'm not sure they will.

Patrick might end up being something like Doug Harvey situation, where they don't end up retiring if for 30 years, because of the situation he left the team in. But I definitley think he deserves it.

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Originally posted by Vermont habs

Wrong.

Management has EVERY right to mandate what number a player wears?  What's a player going to do, walk out if he doesn't get his pweshus widdle number?  I think we saw where that got players over the last 12 months.

If the Senators can ban football numbers, why can't the Canadiens?

Team before individual, always.

They may have every right to mandate numbers, but for what purpose? Does anyone really care if the guy scoring 30+ goals for the team is wearing #87 instead of #12? Players are very superstitious and very attached to their number. If it's not being used and not a retired number, management would be very foolish to deny a player using their number.

Sure, they have the right, I just think it would be asinine to do so.

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Who wore # 18? I forget.

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Ah... thanks.

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The espn link a couple posts earlier had Dandenault using number 11 - is that true?

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Originally posted by Fanpuck33

A league mandate is one thing, individual teams doing it is stupid.  It's no different than the Cincinnati Reds owner a few years ago banning players from wearing facial hair.  What right does the owner have to mandate such a thing?

Don't forget - the yanks still have this rule, see A) Randy Johnson and B) Alan Embree :lol:.

I generally tend to like lower numbers, I also like palindromic numbers, or iterative (like 43 and 44 last year on the habs were kinda like bookends) but cmon... the players just got their asses handed to them on the business side of the game. Let them express themselves in their styles no matter how incorrect they might be... sometimes you get a pleasant surprise.

who would have imagined that it would be a good idea for a carrottop to sports a mega-fro? Now I can't get Commodore outta my head. I swear he looks like Ogie Ogolthorpe.

How about in basketball where you have some guys rocking the '00' I always am amused by that.

The only team that individually mandated numbers that I know of (ready to be corrected by a diligent poster) is the old NY Yankees. When they set the numbers to batting order (ruth #3, gerhig +3).

[Edited on 8/23/2005 by simonus]

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Players should be happy to get any number assigned to them and think about the front of the sweater (not jersey) instead of the back of it.

If it sounds too hockey and old-timeish, too bad.

As for this newer term of "self expression", do your expressing on the ice with your play, for the crest, without regard to a silly individualist endeavour such as a uniform number.

A true professional doesn't give a crap about what's on the side of the sweater he can't see.

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