Leaking now: 2010 Stanley Cup champ gear for Blackhawks, Flyers

Yahoo! Sports

Tue Jun 08 12:23pm EDT

Leaking now: 2010 Stanley Cup champ gear for Blackhawks, Flyers

In our digital age, the designs for Stanley Cup championship merchandise have been leakier than an old faucet. Please recall last year when Shop NHL accidently gave away the shirt and hat designs for the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins after fans simply increased the last digit on site URLs by one to discover the "hidden" gear. (A flaw the NHL corrected after that leak.)

Two years ago, Shop.com goofed by releasing Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup champions gear before the Wings actually won the championship. That same site is the source for the collection of small images of Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers designs you see here, including the official 2010 Stanley Cup champions hats that some collect annually.

(Please note that the designs shown for each team are repeated for the other team.)

Initial thoughts: As usual, a mixed bag, but more good-looking gear than fashion disasters.

The faded retro shirt, shown fourth on the second row for the Flyers, is a really nice idea considering the respective histories of these franchises and their Cup droughts — even if $25.99 for a T-shirt is just criminal.

The champions shirts on the left-hand side ($17.99) are really sharp, with the solid-base color. Would have loved to have seen shirt No. 3 in orange for the Flyers as well. Why anyone would purchase the "giant ring" shirt is beyond us; it's NASCAR-tastic.

The hats are definitely an improvement over last year's too. The "locker room hats" in the middle will cost ye $30.

Check out Shop.com's Blackhawks and Flyers Cup champions merch before the NHL forces them to take it down.