Kudo’s to Pittsburgh Penguins equipment manager Dana Heinze for getting Cal O’Reilly dressed for his debut in a Penguins uniform.

The Penguins were in between Toronto and Boston in the midst of a four-game road swing in the Northeast when Pittsburgh claimed Cal O’Reilly from the waiver wire.

Heinze had to put the number 16 (reported here, yesterday) on a road jersey for O’Reilly including a nameplate with an apostrophe. That’s pretty rare for Pittsburgh.  Only Tom O’Regan has worn a namplate with punctuation, and his nameplate letters were essentially ironed on the 1983-84 Sandow jersey by then equipment manger John Doolan.

Sunday Gold O’Regan / Courtesy of Erik Barr

An apostrophe is probably something Heinze had already prepared for.  Heinze is a meticulously organized equipment man.  He’s been known to have three sets of extra of everything.  Three apostrophes (home, road and alternate) were likely packed neatly in his arsenal. Sewing three small layers of material together requires nimble fingers and a steady hand under the small presser foot of a Viking sewing machine.

There have been punctuation marks on other Penguins jerseys, but only in the preseason and for training camps.  Players like Jonathan D’Aversa, Casey Pierro-Zabotel and Cedric Lalonde-McNichol (with a half-size capital “C”) all had customized plates.

UPDATED:
ROOT sports gave some love to the Heinze, Paul DeFazio and Danny Kroll .  Here’s the first period intermission feature on the equipment staff: