Jacques Lafontaine's unusual number

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

As you probably know, every single player has a jersey number. A jersey number can be part of your identity. Everybody knows that Bobby Orr wore number 4 and that Sidney Crosby wears 87. The Great One’s number was 99, and now nobody can wear it as they retired it across the National Hockey League in honour of him. For goalies, everybody knows that Patrick Roy wore 33 and it’s debatable whether Martin Brodeur was the best NHLer to ever wear the number 30. Goalies tend to use 1 and 30. Some other popular numbers are any of the “tens” numbers, any of the thirties, and 41. So it’s quite unusual that Jacques Lafontaine wore the number 82 for most of his career. “People tell me how weird it is for a goalie to wear such a number,” he remarked, laughing. When asked about why he wears 82, he replied, “Well, it’s because I wore it as a player. Even though I sucked with it, I still liked it and thought it would be cool if I used 82, so yeah, that’s all.” While the reason is not as crazy as we expected, it will still be confusing to see a goaltender wear 82 this season.

[zepheter 586]

Just reminded me that I need to pick a number...