Welcome to Game 2

Welcome to Game 2, where the Bruins and Blackhawks will try to avoid playing five hours tonight.

Game 1 ended at the stroke of midnight, Central time, so it was quite beneficial for the NHL to have scheduled two games off between Games 1 and 2.

We go to Boston after this one, so another three OTs will certainly not help ... unless you're thinking about game use.

I will be authenticating the Bruins' Set 1 Final jerseys again tonight, and 6 periods in Game 1 certainly helped game use.

From the pregame warmup: Nathan Horton is in the lineup, despite the shoulder injury that knocked him out during OT No. 1 on Wednesday.

As they did before Game 1, defenseman Matt Bartkowski and forward Carl Soderberg took warmup. Neither was in the lineup before Game 1 and neither will be in the lineup for Game 2.

Having spent 16 years in NHL dressing rooms authenticating jerseys, I have learned that the equipment managers can be as superstitious as the players they assist. In virtually every locker room, jerseys must be hung and rehung a certain way: With the jerseys centered on hangers, and the jersey facing crest out.

Hangers are precious, too: Most equipment managers make sure their hangers are thick, plastic, and color-coordinated, as in team colors. Rarely do you see a wire hanger in an NHL locker room.

After the game, different story. I am usually handed a laundry cart to be taken to a quiet, spare room. Surgical gloves on my hands, I sift through every jersey logging authentication numbers while the washing machine awaits. Depending upon how quickly things must move after the game, I have several seconds to one second per jersey to read the tag number, log the tag number, and move on to the next jersey.

Occasionally I can examine a jersey for rips, tears and game use. And when a player uses multiple jerseys in a game, I get time to differentiate the period-by-period use, working with the Bruins' equipment team and watching the between-periods machinations when a few players have their jerseys taken to the dryer.

More later, once Game 2's jerseys take the ice for Game 2.

Stanley Cup Final Game 1 Report ... Enough Game Use for Ya?

The Blackhawks and Bruins played almost two full games ... and the Bruins' Final Set 1 jerseys were soaked with perspiration from nearly six periods of hockey.

Goalie Tuukka Rask's gamer weighed a ton ... and was littered with a few puck marks. That figured, considering he made 59 saves on 63 shots.

After authenticating the jerseys following Chicago's 4-3 victory in Triple Overtime, I can report that five Bruins (Patrice Bergeron, Johnny Boychuk, Zdeno Chara, Nathan Horton and Dennis Deidenberg) wore more than one jersey in the game:

-Chara switched after the third period ... and wore his Set 2 for all three overtimes.

-Seidenberg alternated period by period, wearing Set 1 in the first period, third period, and second overtime. He wore Set 2 in the second period, first OT and third OT.

-Boychuk alternated period by period, wearing Set 1 in the first period, third period, and second overtime. He wore Set 2 in the second period, first OT and third OT.

-Horton switched after the second period ... and wore his Set 2 in the third period and first overtime, before getting injured early in the first OT. He did not play in the second and third OTs.

-Bergeron switched after the second period ... and wore his Set 2 in the third period and all three OTs.

MeiGray will be authenticating the Bruins' Final jerseys throughout the series, and will be issuing reports from each game. Due to the lateness of the hour and the frenzy in the postgame dressing room I was unable to get a good look at game use on many of the jerseys ... but obviously after a game like this one, the jerseys got their money's worth.

The Bruins dressed 22 player for warmup, including defenseman Matt Bartkowski and forward Carl Soderberg, who did not play.

If Horton is unable to play in Saturday's Game 2, another Bruins forward will be in the lineup, and so another game-worn jersey will be available.

See you Saturday from the Madhouse on Madison.

Game 1, after period 2

Noticed a few nice marks on Rask's jersey as he stood for the Anthem, so undoubtedly came from warmup ... Lucic had stick mark on his back after second period, on the lower right of his jersey ... Will know after the game which Bruins wore two different jerseys in game. At least a few did ...

Stanley Cup Final Game 1, Pre-game Warmup and Puck Drop

With nine wins in their last 10 games, the Bruins kept their lineup intact.

Lucic-Krejci-Horton
Marchand-Bergeron-Jagr
Daugavins-Peverley-Seguin
Thornton-Kelly-Paille

Chara-Seidenberg
Ference-Boychuk
Krug-McQuaid

Rask, Khudobin backing up

They did, however, dress 22 players in warmup prior to Game 1. Swedish center Carl Soderberg and defenseman Matt Bartkowski joined the 20 regulars, upgrading two anticipated game-issued jerseys to warmup worn.

Welcome to My Stanley Cup Final Game-Worn Jersey Report Blog

Hello from Chicago. Long time, no blog.

I will be blogging throughout the Stanley Cup Final, beginning tomorrow night from United Center following Game 1, when I begin MGG's annual Stanley Cup Final Game-Worn Jersey Reports.

For those of you unfamiliar with MeiGray's Authentication Procedures, the procedures established in 2002-03 with the NHL-MGG Game-Worn Jersey Authentication Program, MeiGray authenticators are in the dressing rooms checking the jerseys worn by each of the program teams throughout the Stanley Cup Final.

Boston-MGG has prepared two sets of home and two sets of road jerseys for the Final. The first sets of home and road jerseys will be worn until either the Bruins or Chicago Blackhawks reach three victories in the Final.

Those home and road sets have been pre-ordered by many of you.

Once that happens, the Bruins will wear their Set 2 Final jerseys, which remain property of the team.

But like in the 2011 Final, because five or six Bruins wear two jerseys in a game (switching between periods to wear dry jerseys), I will be logging as best as I can the period-by-period use.

I will also be providing whatever game-worn jersey information is relevant throughout the series.

I look forward to your comments, questions, and requests.

For those of you who have pre-ordered jerseys, feel free to correspond with me here or at Barry's Blog.

MeiGray Suffers a Huge Loss in Its Family: Ryan Folger (1989-2013)

I am very sorry to bring you this sad, sad news from MeiGray.

Ryan Folger, who began working here as an intern from Rutgers University in January 2011, and recently joined our sales department to direct our ebay auctions and sales, died early Sunday morning in North Brunswick, New Jersey, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

Ryan was 24.

Ryan, who graduated from Rutgers in June 2011, was a quiet, cheery, wonderful guy. He was a talented high school soccer player and an avid professional soccer fan. In the short time he was a member of the MGG family I know he communicated with a number of you, and I'm confident he enhanced your enjoyment of our hobby.

We are heartbroken here today.

MeiGray will be making a donation in Ryan's name to a charity of his family's choice.

We ask only that all of you remember to drive safely, and follow the automobile laws of our country that might seem annoying, but save lives.

Generalizing about Generalizations

Wow, it's been a month ... sorry about that , but it gets busy here as the hockey season heats up.

I want to talk a little about generalizations in the game-worn jersey world. I was having a conversation with a collector at the Northern Virginia Expo last Saturday, an Expo by the way that just finished its Seventh Year and is wonderfully handled by Francis Rady.

In the game-worn jersey generation that proceeded the MeiGray Generation, with team participation and absolute authenticity and serial-numbered tagging to ensure that collectors know exactly when their jersey was worn, generalizations abound.

Assumptions are made based on the available information, the good work done by credible (and the questionable work by not-so-credible) authenticators, and the astute observations of those who have collected the jerseys over the years.

While we believe that all information available can help, it's important that collectors and dealers not assume because something happened to one jersey, it happened to all. Or because something did not happen to one jersey that happened to another, that one jersey contains a problem. Or because something may have happened once, it could have happened 10 times.

That's the most dangerous generalization of all.

My point? When we authenticate jerseys from yesteryear, ones that lack the tracking, documentation, and information of today, we must tread very carefully. Research and information must be considered carefully, and each jersey needs to be examined individually. Because one generalization never fits all.