Gift cards? Socks? Fruit cakes? Lame. Everyone knows the best gift you can give during the holidays is a New York Rangers T-shirt bearing the name and number of beloved defenseman Wade Redden. There's really nothing more appropriate to bury your head into on a shorthanded goal going the other way.
One problem: If you wanted a Wade Redden shirt, you may have waited too long. And clearly underestimated his massive popularity. Or so the NHL claims.
According to the new Shop NHL catalogue, there are eight Rangers players available on T-shirts: Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Scott Gomez (returning for tonight's game, by the way), Henrik Lundqvist, Markus Naslund, Petr Prucha, Marc Staal and Wade Redden. Shop NHL's Web site reveals a few more choices from Rangers history: Brendan Shanahan, Sean Avery, Jaromir Jagr, Brian Leetch, Jeff Beukeboom and Mike Richter.
Missing from the Rangers' Shop NHL site? T-shirts for either Dubinsky or Redden. A search of Shop NHL reveals no items for Dubinsky and two items for Redden, both from his Ottawa Senators days.
Now, logic would dictate that since neither player was listed in the Fall 2008 catalogue, perhaps they've just not been added to the site yet for Winter 2008. Another player added since the fall, Mathieu Schneider of the Atlanta Thrashers, also isn't listed on the site.
Shop NHL, however, told us that T-shirts for Dubinsky and Redden "have been sold out." Even though, you know, they're not even listed on the site.
Let's assume for a moment that Shop NHL is correct and these items have sold out. Dubinsky, with the hot start, we can understand. But the player who inspired the message board thread "Everything Wade Redden Does is a Distinct Sucking Motion" is really that popular? Is MSG literally overrun by Wade Redden T-shirts? Does he had a rather large extended family?
We don't buy it. Well, we wouldn't buy it anyway, but now we really, really don't buy it.
