The 2016 NHL trade deadline is mere days away which means the words, "Garth Snow" and "close to the vest" are going to be inextricably linked like "bacon and eggs," "Ratchet and Clank" and "Raffi Torres" and "suspension." The Islanders GM is known as one of the league's most tight-lipped executives and very rarely tips his hand to even the most inside of insiders.
Which begs a couple of burning questions, specifically: Is it "close to the vest" or "close to the chest" and where the hell does either phrase even come from?
On his blog about early sports and pop culture history, part-time historian Peter Jensen Brown traces the paths of the phrases and finds that "close to the vest" came first.