2018 Adidas Hockey Fights Cancer Authentic
#59 Jake Guentzel with Hockey Fights Cancer Patch
Manufacturer: Adidas
Size: 56
Purchased From: T.J. Maxx
Lettered by: Lettering Kit from Customize Sports, assembly by The House o' Hockey
The Story: I've always appreciated the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. Dating back to the days where the Tampa Bay Lightning started an awareness campaign honoring John Cullen that grew into a league-wide effort, I've always believed it was a great community gesture to raise money for Hockey Fights Cancer. Unfortunately, I've never been able to score one of the HFC jerseys the Penguins would wear once a year in warm-ups on Hockey Fights Cancer night.
My wife and I were luck enough to get tickets to the Penguins game against the New Jersey Devils on November 5, 2018, when these warmup jerseys were worn. Unless you're a Devils or, specifically, a Brian Boyle fan (he scored a natural hat trick in a 5-1 Devils win), the game was uneventful. And while I've always appreciated the fact that the warm-up jerseys were auctioned off for charity, I was never a fan of them. That is, until 2018. The lettering on the back of the jerseys were the same cut as the Pens usual uniforms, but it featured white verso numbers decorated with the various colored ribbons worn to raise awareness for all the specific types of cancer. I always thought that was a really neat idea. You could imagine my surprise when my local T.J. Maxx store had retail authentic HFC jerseys that had apparently gone unsold by the Penguins team store at an insanely low price. I snatched one up and tried to find a way to get it customized. I called Pro Knitwear, the Penguins customizer for their game jerseys, only to find out that they were contractually prohibited from customizing specialty jerseys for the public, as doing so could erode the charitable contributions made when the Pens auctioned their warm-up worn jerseys off. These sold in the $1000-5000 range, so that's understandable. That's also more than I care to spend on a jersey. Months went by until I was turned onto a manufacturer of lettiering kits in Canada called Customize Sports. I was able to order a team-spec kit from them and the House o' Hockey did their usual fine job of putting everything together. The end result was a really unique-looking jersey that is as close as you're going to find to what was worn on the ice that night without being game-worn or -issued. On top of that, I was able to get for about about four percent of what Jake Guentzel's warmup-worn jersey sold for at auction. Not a bad deal!
Making things better, however, is the fact that I could get it customized as a Jake Guentzel jersey. Jake's a budding star for the Penguins, as he brings a combination of scoring ability and clutch performances to his game. His two-goal performance in his NHL debut made him an instant fan favorite and began a rookie regular season run of 16 goals and 33 points in only 40 games. But he didn't stop there, netting 13 goals and 21 points in 25 playoff games in 2017, playing a big role in the Pens winning their fifth Stanley Cup. While his scoring numbers have increased every year since, he's not afraid to get dirty in front of the net, and he never takes a shift off. Needless to say, for a number of reasons, I'm happy to add this one to the collection!
Size: 56
Purchased From: T.J. Maxx
Lettered by: Lettering Kit from Customize Sports, assembly by The House o' Hockey
The Story: I've always appreciated the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. Dating back to the days where the Tampa Bay Lightning started an awareness campaign honoring John Cullen that grew into a league-wide effort, I've always believed it was a great community gesture to raise money for Hockey Fights Cancer. Unfortunately, I've never been able to score one of the HFC jerseys the Penguins would wear once a year in warm-ups on Hockey Fights Cancer night.
My wife and I were luck enough to get tickets to the Penguins game against the New Jersey Devils on November 5, 2018, when these warmup jerseys were worn. Unless you're a Devils or, specifically, a Brian Boyle fan (he scored a natural hat trick in a 5-1 Devils win), the game was uneventful. And while I've always appreciated the fact that the warm-up jerseys were auctioned off for charity, I was never a fan of them. That is, until 2018. The lettering on the back of the jerseys were the same cut as the Pens usual uniforms, but it featured white verso numbers decorated with the various colored ribbons worn to raise awareness for all the specific types of cancer. I always thought that was a really neat idea. You could imagine my surprise when my local T.J. Maxx store had retail authentic HFC jerseys that had apparently gone unsold by the Penguins team store at an insanely low price. I snatched one up and tried to find a way to get it customized. I called Pro Knitwear, the Penguins customizer for their game jerseys, only to find out that they were contractually prohibited from customizing specialty jerseys for the public, as doing so could erode the charitable contributions made when the Pens auctioned their warm-up worn jerseys off. These sold in the $1000-5000 range, so that's understandable. That's also more than I care to spend on a jersey. Months went by until I was turned onto a manufacturer of lettiering kits in Canada called Customize Sports. I was able to order a team-spec kit from them and the House o' Hockey did their usual fine job of putting everything together. The end result was a really unique-looking jersey that is as close as you're going to find to what was worn on the ice that night without being game-worn or -issued. On top of that, I was able to get for about about four percent of what Jake Guentzel's warmup-worn jersey sold for at auction. Not a bad deal!
Making things better, however, is the fact that I could get it customized as a Jake Guentzel jersey. Jake's a budding star for the Penguins, as he brings a combination of scoring ability and clutch performances to his game. His two-goal performance in his NHL debut made him an instant fan favorite and began a rookie regular season run of 16 goals and 33 points in only 40 games. But he didn't stop there, netting 13 goals and 21 points in 25 playoff games in 2017, playing a big role in the Pens winning their fifth Stanley Cup. While his scoring numbers have increased every year since, he's not afraid to get dirty in front of the net, and he never takes a shift off. Needless to say, for a number of reasons, I'm happy to add this one to the collection!