Icethetics Season Preview, Part V
17 CommentsNEW THIRD JERSEYS
This might be the greatest undertaking yet of the Icethetics Season Preview. All week it's been about logos. Today, I'm going to get you caught up on every detail of what has come and what is yet to come regarding the re-introduction of the NHL's third jersey program.
Four teams have unveiled third jerseys for this season — the Carolina Hurricanes, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins, albeit under sketchy circumstances but I'll get to that in a minute. Fourteen other teams are expected to release new sweaters from now until the end of November. So we'll do this chronologically.
On September 10, the Carolina Hurricanes became the first team to unveil their new third jersey. They did so before a large crowd both in person and on the web when they streamed the event live on September 10.
As you can see, the new sweater is black with the secondary storm flag logo on the front. This aspect alone has brought criticism. For the record, the National Weather Service describes it as simply a "storm flag." Technically a hurricane signal is two flags together. But that would be impractical for a logo like this, wouldn't it?
A black and grey version of the primary logo is on the shoulders. Thick red and grey stripes wrap around the elbows angled downward. Stylized storm flags, similar to the home and road sweaters, wrap around the waist above a thin red stripe. The collar is red and grey and the numbers are red.
The Buffalo Sabres unveiled their third jersey to fans at Puck Drop 2008 on September 20. The Sabres have gotten the best response so far.
Their new sweater is a modern update to the original sweater they wore upon joining the NHL in 1970, with a darker blue and the addition of silver. The striping is reminiscent of the triple yellow stripes from that original look. Vertical silver piping has been added to the front along with a drawstring collar and the updated crest. Numbers are yellow and the shoulders are blank, leaving the primary logo out of this look completely.
The St. Louis Blues followed a day later with their third jersey unveiling on September 21 at FANfest. Theirs was the most original third jersey yet featuring a completely new design and logo.
The prominent feature of the new logo is the Gateway Arch beneath the classic Blue Note and the team's name within in a blue ring wrapped around it. The primary logo is a patch on the shoulders. White stripes lined with gold wrap around the forearms and waist. The cuffs are white. There's a drawstring collar and the numbers are white.
The Boston Bruins seemed to unveil their third jersey to season ticket holders at the State of the Bruins event on September 10 when Milac Lucic walked out onto the stage wearing it. According to Reebok's official launch schedule, the official date for the Bs is November 24. There's no game on that date so they may be planning some sort of unveiling ceremony.
What Lucic wore that night was a black jersey with three stripes around the elbows, identical to Bruins' home jersey. The collar is yellow and on the front is the secondary logo that reads BRUINS arched above a bear. The primary hub logo is a patch on the shoulders. Overall, it was disappointing compared to the other third jerseys we've now seen.
Next, the Toronto Maple Leafs are scheduled for an unveiling on Monday. It's expected they'll be wearing the same white vintage third jersey they wore prior to last season. It will have two blue stripes around the elbows and waist. I'm assuming it will have the blue shoulder yoke.
The Edmonton Oilers will debut their new third jersey live on the web on Tuesday. Don't be surprised to see the Oil go retro. Their new third jerseys are alleged to come from the Gretzky-Messier era. Hard to go wrong with a look like that. The bright blue and bright orange will finally make their return.
The Atlanta Thrashers will be the last team scheduled to unveil a third jersey in October. They'll do so on Wednesday, giving us three straight days of new third jerseys. The rumors here suggest that the word THRASHERS will be arched above the sweater number on a maroon jersey. There will also likely be a lot of white in the design. I have high hopes for this one.
The New York Islanders will be first to debut their new third jersey in November. The Isles had a countdown to November 1 on their official web site. But two days after I reported it, the countdown suddenly changed to the home opener. Interesting. But this team will also be going retro, looking back to the 1980s for their new sweater. All blue with orange numbers. Great combination!
Two days later the Chicago Blackhawks will unveil a new third jersey. This is expected to be one of the least surprising of the bunch. The Hawks will likely go with their classic black sweater. If they try something new, I might actually lose my mind.
On November 6, the Pittsburgh Penguins plan to make last year's powder blue Winter Classic sweater their new third jersey. Not sure how much different this one will be. But rumors circulated that the Sabres would simply introduce a blue version of their Winter Classic jersey and it ended up being much different.
The Vancouver Canucks will be the next to unveil a third jersey — on November 15. This date was confirmed on local radio by team president Chris Zimmerman yesterday. Another blue jersey is expected with the modernized stick-in-the-rink logo. New rumors suggest the Johnny Canuck V logo introduced last year will appear on the shoulders.
The Dallas Stars are set to unveil their third jersey on November 18. No game is scheduled for this date so perhaps the Stars will have a big unveiling event for this jersey. However, this one has bad rumors — a white version of the current home jersey. The word DALLAS arched above sweater number. Let's at least hope the text is in green. I was hoping for a green jersey.
Three days later the Sharks will unveil their new third jerseys. They'll likely be black with the full-body shark logo on the front (you can currently see it on the shoulders of the home and road sweaters). Maybe the new fin logo will make an appearance on the shoulders. Personally, I think that one's the best of the new set.
November 22 will be a double-header in terms of new third jerseys. The Los Angeles Kings will debut theirs which is said to be black with a new logo on front. Purple will apparently be hard to come by as the Kings, like the Oilers, look to their Gretzky days for inspiration. This is one I'm looking forward to and really hoping they don't screw up.
The other half of that double-header is the Ottawa Senators, also probably introducing a black third. It's said to have the word SENS angled upward across the front of the sweater. When Howard Berger described the jersey, he said it looked sharp. Yet his description sounded nothing like that. This one I'll be interested in seeing.
To finish out that weekend, the Tampa Bay Lightning will, for the first time, unveil a blue jersey. This third will supposedly have the word BOLTS angled downward across the front. As a Lightning fan, this one has me worried. But like I've said, I'll reserve judgment until I see it. I do like the idea of finally have a blue sweater, though.
The Philadelphia Flyers will be one of the last two teams to unveil a third jersey, doing so in the final weekend of November. Images have leaked so we know the Flyers are also going retro, with an orange jersey from the 1970s. The interesting thing about their jerseys will be the white nameplate on the back. It's been a while, since a nameplate wasn't the same color as the rest of the sweater.
Along with the Flyers, the Phoenix Coyotes will unveil a brand new third jersey on November 28. And I do mean "brand new." This black sweater will have a leaping coyote across the front, a logo that recently leaked. I'm also expecting another new logo on the shoulders. It's got a paw print with the team name in a circle around it. This is easily one of the jerseys I'm looking forward to the most. So naturally, it'll come at the end.
And so ends the Icethetics Season Preview — or does it? If you noticed in the sidebar, there's a Part 6 to this series with a question mark next to it. The Preview's big finale comes next week with a surprise I know you'll all enjoy. But it's going to take me some more time and effort to put together. If you're interested in helping out with it and you can keep a secret, email me right away!
Reader Comments (17)
wow ! that sabres jersey without front numbers looks real good.
where is that photo from ?
could we see one without the vertical piping ?
In NHL 09, the Buffalo Sabres have two empty slots for an unreleased jersey. Perhaps this means they also have a white version? But why wouldn't they have released it?
The other slot for the Sabres' third jersey is probably the jersey they wore at the Winter Classic, the white version of the old vintage jersey. The reason why they wouldn't have released it is probably because it's not a "new" jersey, so it doesn't matter.
As for the Hurricanes jersey, something I didn't notice until just now: unlike the current home and road jerseys, this alternate doesn't have that distracting outline around the shoulder trim, since there is no shoulder trim. I really don't understand that at all, and I'm glad they didn't put it on the black alternate.
Yeah, a true hurricane warning flag wouldn't have worked. Riiiiiiggghhht...
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a32/carpandean/sabres/CanesAlt2.jpg
(Insert rolling eyes smiley here)
The second jersey is, as Ksy92003 said, probably just the WC jersey. Penguins third is their WC jersey, so that would make sense why they only have one slot. EA chose to put it in the third set and, because of that, it won't be released until the thirds are. Of course, the Sabres' 40th is next year, so if they wanted to make a switch in primary jerseys ...
Chris -
TB has in fact had a blue jersey before:
http://nhluniforms.com/1990s/Images/Lightning4.gif
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d133/bergmanrocks/ligthningthirdjersey.jpg
Unless you don't consider this a tru blue.
re: Canucks 3rd jerseys
it you go on the Canucks website and take a look at the raise-a-reader gallery...you'll notice that 3 former Canucks are wearing the vintage jerseys with the subtle "V" on the sleeves...Orland Kurtenbach who wore that jersey as the Canucks 1st captain (makes sense) as well as Stan Smyl and Kirk McLean who both never wore that jersey in their time on the Canucks...so this leads me to believe that those are going to be the Canucks 3rd jerseys this year
http://canucks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=MediaGalleryPlayer&galleryId=7271
Chris, the Islanders 3rd jerseys are from the 1970's. We had a different jersey in the 80's.
Tampa Bay's 3rd jersey always make me think of motocross
http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tb3rdho7.jpg
(sorry for the double post)
Chris, I thought I remember you saying you were going to be covering minor league third jersey news as well. What happened to that?
About the Sabres "2nd blank spot" in NHL09: My theory is that it is indeed the white original jersey and that it will be a "4th" design for one game this year. I remember two years ago Vancouver expressed interest in wearing their original blue jerseys when they visited Buffalo and the Sabres wearing their original whites. That seems to make sense as Vancouver comes to Buffalo on Oct. 17th. Only problem is that the Canucks just said they're unveiling on Nov. 15th, which I guess shoots that theory dead.
I cannot wait to see the Canucks' third sweaters. I'd rather have the Johnny Canuck V on the front, however, the updated Stick 'n Rink logo has grown on me. It doesn't look as cartoonish and crooked like it did when I first saw it. I just hope the Canucks do some tweaking with their stripes and I also hope they go with traditional block style numerals with green and silver trimming.
carpandean-
If that logo was on our third jersey, I wouldn't have bought it. It looks great the way it is, and would be completely out of balance with another flag.
Michaela - here's the jersey:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a32/carpandean/sabres/CanesAlt2Jersey.jpg
I agree that it looks a little better with one, but I don't think it makes that much difference and actually means the right thing. I guess it's like poetic license, you sacrifice accuracy for aesthetics ... or Icethetics. Anyway, it's not my team, so I'll let the 'Canes fans decide how important accuracy is.
Complaining about how many flags are on the hurricane flag is like complaining about how many feathers are on the Blackhawks Indian's head.
Part 6??? I bet its gonna be the Blues Rebrand
Ogre: that's only true if there is an exact number of feathers that means "Blackhawk", which to my knowledge there isn't. There is, however, an exact number of flags that means "Hurricane Warning": two. A single flag indicates a "Tropical Storm Warning". A "Hurricane Watch" can be issued with the single flag shown, because all that means is that a Hurricane is near enough that people in the area should listen to the radio to see if a "Hurricane Warning" is issued. So, technically, their third jerseys mean that fans should listen to the radio because their team, the Carolina Hurricanes, may show up. If not, they'll just see the Carolina Tropical Storms. I'm sure that strikes fear into the hearts of their opponents. ;-p
However, as I said, they can chalk it up to taking aesthetic license if they felt that the two flags couldn't have been made to work. I admit it looks a little better and 99% of fans won't know the difference. Doesn't mean that I can't make fun of it.
So im thinkin that the Kings need to fire there logo designer and hire at least an 10 year old, because they can do about the same design.
Im excited for the season good luck to all
Are you going to update this post? The Oilers and Thrashers already unveiled their third jersey.