Stastny's Taped Captain "C"


Above is the cover for the NHL Goal Magazine from February 1983. Quebec Nordique, Peter Stastny is shown proudly displaying the captain "C" , but the problem is Stastny did not take over the Quebec captaincy until 20 games into the 1985/86 campaign when captain Mario Marois was traded to Winnipeg.

                                   
Here is a Hockey Digest from around the exact same time showing Statsny with a C. This one as well as the Goal Magazine photo show what appears to be a letter C applied to his jersey using only white hockey tape. The closeup of the first picture below clearly shows it as a rather poorly looking tape-job. Why would an NHL player have a taped-on C as is done in mens beer-leagues or kids minor hockey?


There is an obvious explanation for the temporary feel to Stastny captaincy in February 1983. Just a month before during a game against the touring Soviet National team, captain Mario Marois suffered a broken leg. He would be out for the rest of the 1982/83 season, but remained as official team captain. Hockey-reference.com lists only Marois as captain for this season. Statsny was presumably merely the acting captain for on-ice purposes from January 1983 through the end of the season.

The Stastny hockey cards that us kids were collecting during this 1982/83 season propose a slightly different problem. These also show Stastny with an improvised taped-on C but these photos would have to have been taken during the 1981/82 campaign. What gives here?


Once again I turn to hockey-reference.com. For 81/82, they have the Nordiques captains listed as Andre Dupont for 60 games and Robbie Ftorek for 19 games. Was Stastny given the temporary captaincy for one game after Ftorek was dealt to the Rangers before Dupont was chosen? If so, the hockey card company caught a photo of this one game. I have no other explanation.

The next two seasons saw Stastny pictured properly without a captain C, and only in 1986/87 (picturing the 85/86 season) does Stastny finally have an official C on his jersey after the Marois trade.



Below is a Stastny game-used jersey from 1986 with the real C sewn to it, not taped on.

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