The New Jerseys: Detailed Info, False Leaks, & Mock-Ups

Friday night, Chris from Icethetics posted an entry to his venerable hockey jersey blog that discussed the mysterious new Rangers alternate jersey. Toward the end of the entry was this:

I intend to have updated descriptions of the Rangers, Sabres and Ducks alternate uniforms in the September edition of JerseyWatch 2010. That will go up Saturday.

And lastly, to put your minds at ease, the Sabres’ new road sweater — a white version of the former third jersey — looks very sharp. Rest assured, the Buffaslug is surely dead.

Since that posting, things have gotten pretty wacky for Sabres fans hunting down any scraps or sneak peeks at the new jerseys. Hit the jump for the breakdown.

The Icethetics Infodump

Making good on his word in the Friday night post on the Rangers, Chris posted a bevy of information about the new road and alternate jerseys. We’re not talking leaked details or speculation – the man saw the jerseys for himself. Barred from posting pictures of them, he went the text route and described them to us in detail. I’ll go paragraph by paragraph and post mock-ups from my Sabres, Not Slugs! comrade Carpandean along the way.

The Sabres will be undergoing big changes to celebrate their 40th anniversary season. Their current third jersey — a throwback with some modern updates — will take over as the home jersey, as has long been rumored.

OK, so we’ve known this all along that the former 3rd jersey would become the new home jersey. In fact, the change happened during the horrible loss to the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.

Since the last edition of JerseyWatch 2010, Icethetics has learned that the Sabres will wear a new road sweater — a white version of the new home jersey. It features a navy blue shoulder yoke piped in gold and a lace-up collar. To my knowledge, there is no shoulder patch on either sweater.

Now, we were all pretty sure this would be happening, but it’s nice to get concrete confirmation. This mock-up is the design I’ve had for it in my head since carpandean first published it on Sabres, Not Slugs! so long ago. Here’s hoping the information and this mock-up are on the same page.

We also have new details on the Sabres’ new third jersey. It’s royal blue and celebrates the history of Buffalo hockey with a vintage white script across the chest inspired by the old Buffalo Bisons club. Beneath the script and set to the right side is the Sabres’ 40th anniversary mark — the retro logo with 19 and 70 inside the blue circle.

The striping is somewhat unusual. Both the sleeves and bottom of the sweater feature two sets of yellow double-stripes — for a total of four stripes each around the sleeves an waist, perhaps symbolic of each decade the team has existed. The collar is yellow with vintage white laces.

Not sure at the moment whether the front of the jersey will feature the sweater number. However, the numbers will be vintage white with blue cross-stitching inside, as seen in graphics displayed on the Sabres’ website. The nameplate on the back will be gold with royal blue lettering.

Oh, hell yes. This mock-up, created using Chris’ inside info, is the best looking possibility we’ve seen yet. And it’s not based on wild speculation either – Chris saw the actual physical jersey and disclosed every detail to us. Turns out I might like those funky cross-stitched numbers, even. It feels strange not having a shoulder crest on any jersey, but whatever. I’d like something on the shoulders of the alternate jersey and maybe some gold accents on the chest wordmark for distinction, but it’s no big thing.

The Leak That Should Not Be

I was out with friends last night when I saw Chris from The Goose’s Roost re-tweet something verrry interesting – a supposed leak of the new white away jersey from NHL11.

It made my night, not going to lie. So after texting it to a ton of friends and posting it online, imagine my surprise when Chris (Icethetics, not The Goose’s Roost) tweets that it’s a false leak. Turns out you can’t even see the new away and alternate jerseys yet, as they’re still locked up until you input the as-yet-unreleased jersey code.

Upon further inspection, it’s pretty obvious it’s not legit. The crest is the wrong hue, the silver accents are missing from the stripes and crest, and the vertical piping is way too thick. Myth busted – major bummer, man.

Looking Forward To Puck Drop

And now, we wait. The Puck Drop at HSBC Arena is only 13 days away, wherein we’ll get to see the new away and alternate jerseys for ourselves in person (or Twitpic’d or Yfrog’d or whatever). It’s safe to say the Icethetics information is rock solid, but the question is will they look anything like carpandean’s excellent mock-ups. Only time will tell – see you guys in 13 days.