Pucks and Pitchforks
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Fanatics Accidentally Make Perfect New Jersey Devils Mickey Mouse Shirt

By David Lebovitz

Fans of the New Jersey Devils professional hockey team hold up signs which mock Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky and his fellow Edmonton Oilers in response to Gretzky once calling the Devils a 'Mickey Mouse' operation, Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey, 1983-84 Season. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images)
Fans of the New Jersey Devils professional hockey team hold up signs which mock Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky and his fellow Edmonton Oilers in response to Gretzky once calling the Devils a 'Mickey Mouse' operation, Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey, 1983-84 Season. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images) /
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Fanatics, the NHL’s official replica jersey seller, has a number of New Jersey Devils items for sale. They accidentally stumbled into a perfect one by sheer luck.

Fanatics appears to have a licensing deal with Disney. Several of their shirts – clearly designed by computers – feature Star Wars characters and logos.

They also have shirts with Mickey Mouse on them.

Which led to this piece of Accidentally Perfect Merchandise:

Image courtesy of Fanatics.
Image courtesy of Fanatics. /

The description reads as follows:

"As a big Disney fan, your heart will always belong to Mickey Mouse. You’re also an avid New Jersey Devils fan, so make sure you acknowledge both by picking up this Disney Mickey’s True Original Arch T-shirt from Fanatics Branded. Eye-catching graphics make this an exciting tee that’ll have you ready for every New Jersey Devils game!"

This emphasizes two things:

  1. This is a copy-paste and/or autogenerated text
  2. Fanatics may not know the history behind Mickey Mouse and the New Jersey Devils

It was admittedly disappointing to see this the same design used for every other team, but Mickey Mouse moves merch. They didn’t know they may have just stumbled into a goldmine with this one fanbase.

(Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images) /

A quick history lesson

The history of the Mickey Mouse comments – and the Mickey Mouse game itself – deserves a closer look, and hopefully we’ll get around to it next month on its anniversary. In the meantime, here’s the cliffnotes version for those out of the loop:

Devils fans have a convenient way of forgetting it, but team history does not start with the 1994 Conference Finals. In the early 80s, the Devils were awful. The 1983-84 Devils in particular were historically awful. On November 19th, the Devils visited Edmonton and the Oilers won 13-4. Wayne Gretzky had eight points that night, and thus the Devils opened the season with a record of 2-18-0.

After the game, Gretzky dropped the now infamous quote:

"Well, it’s time they got their act together. They’re ruining the whole league. They had better stop running a Mickey Mouse organization and put somebody on the ice. Next: Devils Place Jesper Bratt On IR"

Fans did not take kindly to this, even though he later apologized. When the Oilers visited New Jersey next January, fans packed the

Izod Center

Continental Airlines Arena

Brendan Byrne Arena wearing Mickey Mouse garb to taunt The Great One. The Oilers won that game 5-4.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images) /

To this day, a small number of Devils fans remain resentful towards Gretzky. A larger number embrace the Mickey Mouse label, given the juggernaut New Jersey would become.

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