Boy, those toques are ugly

 Etimology:

The word Toque is Arabic "طوق" for "Round" and "طاقية" "Taqia" for "Hat" originally for something "Round" that has an opening. The word has been known in English since 1505. It came through the Medieval French toque (15th century), presumably by the way of the Spanish toca "woman's headdress", from Arabic *taqa'طاقة' 'Opening'.

DC Sports Bog:

Apparently many of you have noticed these fairly distinctive winter hats several members of the Caps have been wearing this season. They're from Sweden. Nicklas Backstrom's friend makes them specially for the Caps.

"She has a hat company," Backstrom explained. "I think it's pretty cool thing."

Backstrom has ordered and paid for hats for a bunch of teammates, including several of the Russians and Donald Brashear, pictured here.



"They're hot," Brashear said.

"Sexy," Sergei Fedorov added. "Fans want them. Nicklas...is the king of those hats."

I asked Fedorov whether he couldn't get a similar lid in Russia; "in Russia, they wear fur hats," Brashear noted.

And I asked Fedorov why he wears a striped Swedish winter hat.

"Just to keep warm, you know?" he said. "It's warm and it's good. Most of the heat, you lose from your head, so to keep it warm, because it's so cold in here. Why you wear 'em, man?" he asked Brashear.

"To keep my head warm," Brashear answered.

"That's what I thought so," Fedorov said. "87, represent."