New Third Jersey Image Leaks

Apparently, there's a guy or some illegitimate company selling bogus Rbk EDGE third jerseys on ebay. How do we know they're fake? Well for one thing, Reebok hasn't started shipping them yet. But that doesn't mean there weren't legitimate pictures of them.

The listings included six teams in all: the Atlanta Thrashers, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Tampa Bay Lightning. That's three teams that have officially unveiled them and three that haven't. Let's start with those.

There's nothing that we haven't already seen, but there are pics from different angles than what we've already seen. This is most helpful with the Coyotes in seeing what those sleeve stripes look like. But what makes me think these pictures show us what the actual jerseys will look like? Because of three others we've seen officially that were right.

Among the plethora of pictures were some close ups of the crests. First, the new ones...

...and then Atlanta's just because I thought it was a cool shot.

Thanks to Charlie for the tip on these pictures.

Hope that satisfies your itch for third jersey news tonight. I'll have more tomorrow, plus an announcement regarding the new banner some you have already noticed at the top of the page.

Icethetics Season Preview, Part IV

NEW NHL LOGOS

The Icethetics Season Preview is winding down. All week I've been getting you caught up with what's new in the world of hockey as it pertains to the right side of your brain.

Unlike last season, no NHL clubs are introducing new primary logos this season. However with the re-introduction of third jerseys this fall — and I'll go deeper into this tomorrow — a handful of teams will have new marks for their new duds.

There's no better team to start with for this topic than the Buffalo Sabres. I know a number of tradition-loving fans are thrilled at the prospect of the team's original logo making its' return — even if it is on a part-time basis.

The updated classic logo with a darker blue and silver lining will be worn on the Sabres' third jersey this season. Some are even hoping this logo will eventually be promoted to full-time status. It's not unprecedented for a third jersey logo to eventually become a team's primary. The Blue Jackets and Blues both did it.

Speaking of the St. Louis Blues, they've also unveiled a new logo to go on their new third jersey. The main feature is the use of the Gateway Arch imagery but it's also got the classic circle style — similar to what the Wild did when they introduced their first and only third jersey in 2003.

It's a beautiful design and use of color and stays true to the original Blue Note. You have to hand it to the Blues for really getting this one right.

Technically, the Carolina Hurricanes also have something new on their new third jersey. This dark version of their primary logo can be found on the shoulders. It's nothing spectacular, but it sure is a nice touch. And I assure you it looks much better in context, on the black jersey.

But that's all for new NHL logos — officially. But leaks happen and there's no group in the world that can really keep a secret — except the ones that kill people. So over the course of the summer, a few logos have make their way to those of us interested enough in finding them.

We'll begin with the Los Angeles Kings, who will be unveiling a new third jersey next month. The logo seen here fits the description for what we've heard about this particular sweater. It was discovered on a governmental trademark web site. And while those web sites generally tend to use only black and white images, it's believed this logo as well as the jersey will be black and white — and maybe silver.

So I trust this image and fully expect to see it on the front of the Kings' new third jersey in November.

Another team with leaking logos is the Phoenix Coyotes. Two brand new logos turned up over the summer.

The logo on the left is expected to be on the front of the Coyotes' new third jersey — also expected for release next month. The one on the right, if I were to guess, will probably be on the shoulder of this jersey — if they use it on a uniform at all. It could just be one of those alternate logos that only gets used on a handful of merchandise. The Canucks, Senators and Sharks all have logos like that.

Along with these other leaked logos were a couple of new scripts that turned up for the Coyotes and the Boston Bruins.

This new script logo for the Bruins matches much better with the new logo they unveiled last year.

The New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers are expected to go retro with their new third jerseys this season.

Technically, these aren't "new" logos but they are new additions for this season.

And that's that. We're expecting to see something new when the Thrashers, Lightning, Stars and Senators unveil their new third jerseys, but rumor has it they'll simply be text logos across the chest.

If you think I missed anything, shoot me an email and I'll be sure to add it. Otherwise, that does it for the this edition of the Icethetics Season Preview. Tomorrow is the last day of the Icethetics Season Preview (or is it?) and it's all about third jerseys. It's all the intelligence we've gathered this summer wrapped up in one big post.

Icethetics Season Preview, Part II

NEW CENTER ICE DESIGNS

The Icethetics Season Preview continues. All week, I'm doing my best to get you caught up with what's new in the world of hockey as it pertains to the right side of your brain.

Every year, every NHL team repaints its ice rink. In fact, this happens several times a year. But usually, they paint the same logo down on center ice each time. For the 2008-09 season, a half-dozen clubs are giving their manmade ponds a makeover.

In this post I'll be using concept images to show you what the center ice logos will look like. They are not entirely accurate representations of what's painted on the ice, however the logo dimensions are correct. The arena names have been left off along with the center line design which can vary from team to team.

A couple of teams are just enlarging their primary logo under the main faceoff circle.

The Dallas Stars increased the size of their logo and also added small stars to dot their red line. The Toronto Maple Leafs actually removed one. Previously, the Leafs center ice featured two logos, one facing the television cameras and the other facing opposite.

Two other teams are using their center ice circle to celebrate their anniversaries.

The Montreal Canadiens' 100th anniversary logo replaces the classic CH logo this season while the Edmonton Oilers are going with a simplified version of their 30th anniversary mark, which includes the vintage logo.

Finally, two other teams are going with their third jersey logos at center ice.

The Buffalo Sabres will use their updated vintage logo while the Carolina Hurricanes are going with the storm flag and small square storm flags along their red line.

There are unsubstantiated rumors circulating that these designs are temporary for the Hurricanes and Sabres, meant only as a marketing tool for the preseason in creating awareness of the teams' new third jerseys. I'll keep an eye out when the regular season starts to see if the primary logos find their way back to the ice for these two teams.

I'm only covering the NHL with this part of the preview, but if you think I missed anything, shoot me an email and I'll be sure to add it. Otherwise, that does it for the second day of the Icethetics Season Preview. Tomorrow, we're looking at minor league teams introducing new logos this fall.

Face Time With Sabres' Artist

Charlie from Sabres Not Slugs pointed me to a cool new video from the Buffalo-based Artvoice. Buffalo Sabres creative services director Frank Cravotta is interviewed and talks about designing the third jersey and a new line of Sabres clothing that will be available soon.

You can watch the video right here on Icethetics.

He's done some awesome work there. I look forward to seeing what else that team comes up with. Any thoughts?

Sabres Repaint Center Ice

According to our friends over at Sabres Not Slugs, the Buffalo Sabres are going retro with the paint job on center ice at HSBC Arena.

Charlie has pictures posted of the rink.

credit: Charlie @ Sabres Not Slugs

This news isn't too surprising. A lot of you noticed that the center ice circle was empty at Puck Drop 2008. Obviously, having this logo painted there at that point would've given away the secret that the team was going with the vintage look this year with their third jersey.

Monday Afternoon Notes

I've got a few things to talk about this morning. I'll start with the IceHL. I had to disqualify a bunch of team names that were up for rating in the Central Division. It was pointed out that several of them have already been used by obscure or defunct pro teams.

I asked that you guys not submit ineligible names since I don't have the time to search everything submitted. Anyway, some of you may want to go back and adjust your ratings based on the names that were disqualified. There are links to those pages in the pollbar.

In other Icethetics related news, we surpassed the million-hit mark. Did it in under three months too. Thanks for continuing to check in, everyone. According to my stats, we've had over 400,000 unique visitors following Icethetics in the last three months. You guys are the reason I do this every day. Thanks again!

...
SANFORD'S MASK GETS PAINTED
Vancouver Canucks goalie Curtis Sanford decided to wear a fan-designed goalie mask this season. And after choosing his favorite last week, it's now been painted. The team's official web site had photos of the new mask.

It doesn't quite look how I thought it would, but I think it's still a great looking mask. I like the green eyes at the top.

...
REBRANDING THE NHL & PROJECT: IHA
Been getting a lot of questions about both of these. First, I can tell you I've talked with Matt and since school and work — designing logos — have him very busy and without much free time, it may be about six weeks before we see his Blues rebrand. Hope you don't mind waiting a little longer. If you do, too bad.

Nicolas, creator of the IHA, will have a statement for everyone later in the week regarding the future of the league we designed logos for here at Icethetics. At that point we'll also begin accepting logo submissions for the league itself. The IHA will need its own logo as well.

...
NO THIRD JERSEY NEWS
Over the weekend, the Sabres and Blues unveiled their new third jerseys but I was keeping an eye on the rest of the league to see if anyone else would have theirs on display at various fan events. The Senators, Coyotes, Blackhawks and Lightning all held festivities over the weekend but none showed a third jersey. We'll probably have to wait until November for most of them....
FAKE THIRD JERSEY NEWS
I've been getting a lot of emails from people saying they've found pictures of all the new third jerseys on various message boards. Well, what they're seeing are the concepts created by JerseyDatabase.com based off Howard Berger's descriptions. I'm writing this hoping to get those emails to stop.

Let's take a look at the concepts JB.com did versus the actual jersey — all of which they have on their site. We'll start with the Hurricanes.

Berger wrote about stars across the bottom but we know the images he had were really bad quality so it was probably difficult to make out. Though I think seeing dots around the sweater, it would've been a better guess to stick with the storm flag design. Next, the Bruins.

It seems this concept wasn't based entirely off Berger but maybe a little wishful thinking. The main differences are the drawstring collar, the gold stripe at the bottom and the word BRUINS in the logo. Berger never said it would be the BOSTON logo and the earlier images we saw kind of confirmed that. Now the Sabres.

Berger did say it would be a throwback but the low quality images probably precluded him from noticing the slight modifications. And finally, the Blues.

For this, I'm betting Berger was looking at something similar to the image I posted on Saturday. Because of the terrible quality of the image, the jersey appears to have black stripes on it and the gold's been washed out entirely. It's also hard to tell that the ends of the sleeves are white.

So there it is. JerseyDatabase.com appears to be basing their concepts off of good descriptions but these are by no means the actual jersey designs. For that, we'll have to keep an eye out the next few months. I'll be here keeping track of all of it.

Sabres Unveil Third Jersey!

After weeks of speculation, the Buffalo Sabres have officially unveiled their new third jersey. The team broadcast the unveiling ceremony live on their web site.

They also made the official announcement of the new sweaters with this graphic.

The ceremony, which began after a team scrimmage, featured each member of the team stepping out onto the ice in the new sweater. Ryan Miller got things started, giving fans their very first look at the new duds.

It's a great redesign of their classic look — with an update of the logo and blue uniform.

We got a decent look at the full uniform when Maxim Afinogenov and Drew Stafford stepped out. You can see the Sabres will keep the sweater number on the front shoulder and add new socks to match the jersey.

You'll also notice a silver area under the arms in this picture of Teppo Numminen. They're very sharp jerseys.

Once everyone was out there, the players skated a few laps around the ice and waved goodbye to fans.

The Sabres had the following statement regarding the new sweaters on their web site.

Utilizing the original crest from the 1970s, the logo has undergone minor modifications for an overall vintage appearance.

“The first thing we wanted to do is go to our new color scheme, which is the deeper blue and gold,” said Director of Creative Services, Frank Cravotta. “After that we added the striping pattern, introduced some silver accents in it and put some silver vertical piping along the front… It makes for a new and unique look.”

The jersey also encompasses a tie at the collar to “reinforce the retro style,” according to Cravotta.

I couldn't agree more with Cravotta's statement. And to every person saying the vertical piping is "unnecessary"... can you please define what is necessary outside of a uniform that identifies a group of players as teammates? Stuff like that has me in stitches.

I've set up a photo gallery for the Sabres' third jersey. Right now, it's made up primarily of screenshots from the live broadcast of the event on Sabres TV. I'll add more images when they're available.

If I hear anything else or see any better photos of these sweaters, I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Sabres To Stream Unveiling

Just like the Hurricanes did, the Buffalo Sabres will be streaming live video of their third jersey unveiling today at 10:30 from their official web site.

That means we'll all get to watch the unveiling ceremony as it happens this morning. So just like last time, I recommend having two browser windows open — one with the live video and the other with today's Icethetics Live Chat which starts at 10.

Another Sabres Third Jersey Leak

Yeah, if the Buffalo Sabres are trying at all to keep their new third jersey under wraps prior to its official unveiling — they're bad at it. Really bad.

The first leaked picture cropped up last week and was followed up on by The Buffalo News a few days later. Now another picture has surfaced.

The image on the left is the original leak. The new one on the right shows the detail of the sweater a bit better. I'm sure this picture was taken with a camera phone and the bad color can be attributed to that. Otherwise, it looks good and I have no reason to question its legitimacy.

Again, the Sabres are set to officially unveil their new third jersey on Saturday, September 20. Yeah, we've seen it now, but I'm sure we'll get a better look when comes out for real.

Sabres' Jersey Leak The Real Deal?

It would appear that leaked photo of a Buffalo Sabres jersey that's been floating around the web is the real thing.

Just to be clear, I don't consider anything "official" until it comes directly from a team, but I do trust journalists and John Vogl of The Buffalo News wrote in his blog Sabres Edge that it has been confirmed — I'm assuming he means by the team. He also had a couple more tidbits we didn't previously know about.

This jersey photo that has been leaked is, in fact, the actual third jersey, The News has learned. Two other things have been cleared up:
1) The logo is the same color as the jersey, the darker blue. It only looks different because the different fabrics aren't reflecting the same.
2) It will have numbers on the front shoulder.

In case you forgot what it looks like, here's the jersey we're talking about.

The Sabres are scheduled to officially unveil their new third jersey next Saturday, September 20 at Puck Drop 2008. I'll have complete coverage at that point right here on Icethetics.

Thanks to Mike for the heads-up on this!