The Hockey Sweater - Animated Short

If you are unfamiliar with Roch Carrier's childrens book The Sweater then you are missing a bit of cult hockey nostalgia. It was originally published in French (Le Chandail) in 1979 and tells the story of a small boy growing up in rural Quebec during the great days of Maurice Richard and what happens when he is sent a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater by mistake.

The story became such an ingrained part of Canadian literature that a portion of it appears in both English and French on the back of the country's 5 dollar bill. (Note the number 9 jersey)



The book was made into an animated short in in 1980. For some reason I've always looked at the book as somehow Christmas related, in fact it always reminds me of when I got my first hockey jersey in the mail at Christmas as a kid. If you haven't seen the animated version it is included below in it's entirety (approx. 10 minutes).