Canadian black tie

The boys in black are back.

Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team debuted the new black Team Canada jersey Monday night, scoring a tournament-opening 10-0 win over Switzerland at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

Outside of a one-off Livestrong-themed jersey at the 2013 IIHF Women’s World Championship (and the annual Canada Black entry at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge), black jerseys have been exclusive to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games over the last decade, with Canadian teams fashioning a 5-0-1 record in Sochi and PyeongChang.

Before that, national teams wore it at various Olympics and world championships between 2002 and 2008, beginning with an 8-2 Boxing Day win over Sweden at the 2003 IIHF World Junior Championship (Ian White scored the first goal in black).

A few fun facts about Team Canada in black:

-- Including the Monday win over the Swiss, Canada is 14-1-1-3-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T) in black, outscoring its opponents 107-33 over that stretch.

-- Canada has worn black against 12 different opponents; its most frequent foe has been the United States, against whom it has split four all-time meetings.

-- The 10 goals Canada scored against the Swiss were the third-most in one game in black; Canada’s National Women’s Team shut out Italy 16-0 at the 2006 Olympics, and blanked China 11-0 at the 2008 women’s worlds.

-- Five national teams have worn the black jersey – National Men’s Team (5-0-1-1-1), National Women’s Team (4-1-0-1-0), National Junior Team (2-0-0-1-1), National Para Hockey Team (2-0-0-0-0) and National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team (1-0-0-0-0).

-- The black jersey has been worn at eight events in nine countries – Olympic Winter Games (6-0-1-0-0), IIHF World Junior Championship (2-0-0-1-0), IIHF Women’s World Championship (1-1-0-1-0), Paralympic Winter Games (2-0-0-0-0), IIHF World Championship (2-0-0-0-0), World Cup of Hockey (0-0-0-1-1), Hlinka Gretzky Cup (1-0-0-0-0) and Canada/Russia Super Series (0-0-0-0-1).

Want your black Team Canada jersey? Check out shop.hockeycanada.ca or your local Sport Chek!