Senators Jersey News 1991

	OTTAWA (AP) - The Ottawa Senators, who have yet to play a hockey game, are involved in their second sweater dispute.

The fledgling NHL franchise was criticized in May when it dropped its stylized Parliament Hill logo, complete with Peace Tower, in favor of a helmeted Roman centurion.

Now the Senators' decision to sell their own game sweater has caused another ruckus and upset the official NHL supplier.

The Senators bypassed the official NHL merchandising system to produce a sweater for the Christmas rush. It went on the racks at several store chains in recent days priced at $75 to $80.

Sports Maska, which makes the official NHL sweater through its CCM subsidiary, also plans to start delivering a new Senators sweater to local stores next month.

''We're afraid if there are two different products on the market, it will only confuse the consumer,'' Sports Maska spokesman Mike Jacques said Monday. ''We also don't want anybody infringing on the exclusive right that we paid the NHL dearly for.''

Senators marketing spokesman Jim Steel said the team found its own producer when CCM couldn't guarantee Christmas delivery because it was swamped with demand from other teams.

The Senators were criticized a year ago for bypassing the official NHL merchandising system in order to exploit the big demand for their products after winning the conditional franchise. As members of the NHL, they have to share profits equally with other teams. On their own, they made an estimated $350,000 on sales of $1.2 million during last year's Christmas rush.